The Yule Ball approached fast at Hogwarts, meaning that Christmas was just as close. Sophia had already bought presents for her Father as well as her friends, using up all the little savings she had. But she didn't mind and knew that everyone would appreciate their gifts. Not only had she bought Christmas presents, but she had also bought a dress for the ball. It was white with long sleeves that were made of a thin mesh as well as a fitted top that flowed into an elegant silk bottom. Hermione and Ginny had helped her decide while in Hogsmeade one weekend, forcing Fred to leave with George for a while so that he wouldn't see. They knew it would knock the socks off of him when it came around to the dance.

Sophia was sat in front of a mirror in her dormitory while Hermione was charming her hair behind her. It wrapped itself into a complex looking bun with some of her curled brown locks framing her face. Crookshanks had been forced to sit next to her on the floor in case of his fur flaking on to Sophia's white dress. This obviously irritated the feline as he continued to mewl with his tail swishing behind him, looking up pleadingly at Sophia for a pet and a cuddle.

"No Crookshanks! Stay there!" Hermione cried as he yet again went to jump up on to Sophia's lap. Sophia laughed as the cat growled at his owner and resulted to staring up at her with narrowed eyes.

"Are you going to tell me who asked you yet?" Sophia asked while looking at Hermione through the mirror.

"You'll find out soon," Hermione couldn't hide the smile that was growing on her face with the collaboration of a noticeable blush. She was dressed in an equally as pretty pink dress that had many ruffles that reached the floor. Her hair had been slicked back by a very impressive spell that Sophia had performed and twirled into a graceful style. The two girls looked beautiful in their minimal make-up and eye-catching dresses, not aware that they would be turning more heads than just the ones that belonged to their dates.

Once the two had finished getting ready and began to descend the stairs towards the common room, Parvati stopped them when she had emerged from her corner of the dormitory. She had dressed in a pretty traditional gown that highlighted her dark skin, no doubt matching her twin sister in Ravenclaw. The girl was holding an old-fashioned Polaroid camera in her hands, looking gleeful at the two other Gryffindors.

"We should take a picture! I want to send one to my parents," Parvati explained.

"That's a good idea", Sophia nodded. "I want to send one to my dad as well".

The three girls figured out where they'd be standing before Parvati set a manual timer on the camera. She placed it on top of one of their trunks and stood together, all smiling brightly in their beautiful dresses. In the last second, Sophia felt a sneeze coming on and couldn't hold it back no matter how much she tried. She let out a loud 'achoo!' and Parvati and Hermione burst out into laughter just as the camera flashed. The Polaroid immediately developed and spurted out from the bottom of the camera, displaying a moving picture of the three.

"I think your sneeze actually made it cuter Soph," Hermione stated as the three looked at the moving picture. It starts with the three smiling before Sophia's nose twitched and her face changed to show her eyes clenching shut with her hand flying up to cover her mouth. Hermione and Parvati broke out into laughs before the picture replayed over and over again of the scene.

Hermione used her wand to duplicate the picture into two more copies, letting each of them have their own. Putting these Polaroids in a safe place for later, the girls finally made their way out of their dormitory and out of the common room. They made their way to the Great Hall where the Yule Ball was taking place and passed many other students from all three schools. They spotted Fleur Delacour walking with the Ravenclaw Roger Davies, the Beauxbatons looking as beautiful as ever. They also spotted Ginny beside Neville, which was partially unexpected.

Fred was standing just outside Great Hall with George and Lee, all three of them waiting for their dates. George had successfully asked Angelina Johnson and Lee had surprisingly scored Alicia Spinnet. Fred was bouncing nervously on his heels while in his rather dashing looking dress robes, thankful that his Mum hadn't sent him ones that were like Ron's. He had considered even tying up his long hair into a ponytail like his brother Bill did, but decided against it as it probably wasn't the right time to. Besides, he wasn't sure if Sophia was in to that look.

Looking nervously up towards the stairs that eventually lead up to the Gryffindor common room, he spotted Parvati Patil peek out from behind the corner with searching eyes. He was confused when Parvati's eyes seemed to spot him in the crowd and turned her head to look at something he couldn't see. She excited said something to someone behind the wall she was peaking out from before walking out completely, now holding a small wrist that lead up to the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

"Do you think she'll like my shoes Fred?" Lee was looking down at his brown dress shoes that he had bought spontaneously at Hogsmeade. When he didn't get an answer, he tried to call to his friend again when George slapped him up the side of the head. Lee whined and went to scowl at George when the boy motioned to where Fred was looking completely transfixed.

"Oh dayum," Lee muttered.

Sophia was looking slightly bashful as she stood up at the top of the stairs next to Parvati and Hermione, seeing Fred staring at her with his mouth wide open. His eyes ran down her beautiful dress that hugged her figure in all the right places before ultimately returning to her face that could of been mistaken for a Veela's. Her freckles, for the first time ever, weren't visible from the make-up that was over the top. Not that this was ever a problem for Fred, but seeing her clear skin just made her bright eyes pop graciously behind her long lashes.

Fred hadn't even noticed that Sophia had descended the stairs to stand directly in front of him, leaving Hermione and Parvati to look down at them with held-in squeals. Sophia kept a close-lipped smile on her face as she stared up at Fred, noticing how handsome he looked in his robes.

"Y-You look-um you look... wowie," Fred stuttered with continuously blinking eyes. Sophia let out the sweetest of giggles at how stumped her Boyfriend looked, praising her past self for being persuaded to buy the dress she wore.

"Do you want to... um, go inside?" Sophia said while jabbing her thumb into the Great Hall that was next to them. Fred shut his gaping mouth and cleared his throat in attempts to appear un-phased.

"Um yeah! Yeah let's go," he nodded and held his arm for her to take. Sophia beamed as she linked arms with him before making their way into the hall, looking over her shoulder just in time to see George winking at her with a identical lop-sided grin that Fred frequently wore.

The hall was beautifully decorated. Round tables were spread out around the room with fine looking glassware and plates on them, snow falling from the enchanted ceiling to create the illusion of a Winter Wonderland. She noticed that Durmstrang students were all wearing the same traditional looking uniform obviously meant for fine occasions like these. Sophia could also see that the teachers were wearing their own elegant gowns and robes, making it really feel like a formal ball. Although, Professor Snape wore his same black robes with the same sneer he always wore.

"You look handsome," Sophia smiled up at Fred next to her. He whipped his round to look down at her, dawning his usual boyish smirk.

"Well I needed to try and live up to my girlfriend's beauty," he motioned towards her dress and appearance in general, suddenly returning back to his confident facade. "But I don't think that's possible at this point".

Sophia blushed at his compliment as he leaned down to meet her halfway in a peck on the lips. Fred felt powerful with the girl on his arm and felt like the most respected man in the room. It hadn't gone unnoticed that many of the girls and boys in the hall stared in wonder at the sight of Sophia Lupin walking to join the crowd with Fred Weasley, regardless of knowing whether they were in a relationship or not. As lame as it sounded, Fred couldn't wait to write a letter to Bill and Charlie about how beautiful Sophia looked tonight. He felt the need to boast about the fact that he was able to snatch such a glowing beauty.

The champions of the tournament danced first and the teachers of Hogwarts soon followed. Soon everyone was invited to join, to which many people did. Sophia was giddy when Fred asked her to dance, leading her on to the dance floor with his hand on the small of her back. They resumed the positions they had learnt in their dance lessons with Fred's hand on Sophia's hip and each of their hands clasped together to perform the waltz.

"This is tedious isn't it?" Sophia finally said after about five minutes of waltzing.

"Thank Merlin you said something," Fred exhaled as if he had been holding his breath the whole time. They dropped their hands to their sides and shuffled through the crowd of dancing couples, finding themselves relieved once they had sat down at one of the round tables.

"I don't think I'm the dancing type," Fred stated as he leaned back in the chair.

"Neither."

"But I'm definitely the twat type! I'm spiking the punch," Fred didn't wait for a response from Sophia and got up from his seat, immediately heading towards the drinks table that was against the wall of the Great Hall. Sophia face palmed when she saw Fred pull a flask out of his dress robes' pocket and looked wearingly around as he poured all the contents into the bowl. He then proceeded to use the serving spoon to fill up two cups with the now alcohol-filled punch, walking back over to her and sitting back in his seat.

"What did you exactly put in there Fred?" she questioned and Fred handed her one of the cups that was in his hand, downing his own in one swig.

"Fire-whiskey of course," he answered and sent her a wink. "I want to see Flitwick get hammered."

"That wouldn't take much," Sophia mumbled, sipping the drink before immediately putting it back down on the table with a pinched face. "Merlin Fred, that's strong! Someone will definitely notice."

The two sat at the table for a majority of the night, finding the Yule Ball to be surprisingly boring if you didn't want to embarrass yourself by dancing to The Weird Sisters. The only entertainment they got was watching some people get exceedingly uncoordinated after having several cups of punch. Even though Sophia adored the way the hall looked it didn't hide the fact that getting ready for the event was far better than actually going to the event itself. Fred looked to his right to see that Sophia had half closed eyelids and a dazed look on her beautiful face. She looked bored as well as now dozy, the cup that was once filled with spiked punch was now empty and discarded on the table.

"You tired?" he asked. She turned her head slightly to meet his eyes and nod her head lazily all while suppressing a yawn. It was fifteen minutes till midnight, which was much later than when she usually went to bed while at Hogwarts.

"Come on then Lupin," he stood to his feet and held out his hand once more, displaying another lop-sided grin. He held his robes in his hand and now only stood in his dress shirt and tie, his vest being a rather striking colour of mustard yellow. "Let's ditch this lame gig."

Sophia smiled as she took his hand and stood up from the chair, following him out the hall and through the now empty tables. She took the liberty to en-lace their fingers on the way up the main set stairs and up the moving staircases. She now wanted nothing more than to lie down in bed and drift off while maybe even using Fred's chest as a pillow. But she suspected that was the minimal amount of alcohol in her system talking. Once they made it through the portrait hole and into the common room, Sophia pulled her hand from Fred's and started heading towards the girls' dormitory.

"Where are you going?" Fred's voice stopped her. She turned to look at him with a confused expression, seeing him with one raised eyebrow and a growing smile.

"To bed?" she said as a question. Fred shook his head and stepped forward to take hold of her bicep, guiding her away from the staircase that lead to the girls' dormitory and towards the boys' one. Sophia followed behind Fred up the staircase and through the door that belonged to the sixth years', being greeted once again by the mother of all messes.

"I'm not sorry about the mess," Fred said with disinterest, throwing his robes over the trunk that was established at the end of his four-poster bed.

Sophia stood there awkwardly near the door as Fred pulled off his vest and tie, startling her when he pulled off his dress shirt without a care in the world. She gulped and turned her gaze to the floor with a red face to focus on a solo sock that had cartoon broomsticks all over it. Hearing the rustle of bed covers, she looked back up to see Fred settled into his bed while looking at her with a look of curiosity.

"You gettin' in or not?" he inquired as if it was the most normal thing in the world.