"Oh my god," whispered Nicolai, as she continued to peer from behind a book, looking like an almighty stalker. She had her brown eyes fixated on Julien Fransson, who was currently in the company of a group of girls. "Is he going to ask one of them to the Ball? Oh god, there goes my dream..."

They were at the courtyard, waiting patiently until their next period rolled by. A lot of sixth year students also hung around, especially during free periods.

"Don't assume," Alexander said simply, knocking down the book she had been hiding behind, "Why don't you just ask him out if you're that desperate."

"I'm not desperate," she retorted, "And I want him to be the one who wants to take me to the Ball."

"Looks like he isn't asking one of them out?" Florence told Nicolai as she watched the Beauxbatons boy stalk away from the group after an exchange of goodbyes. Nicolai let out a relieved breath, before staring at his retreating figure.

The rumors of a Yule Ball had spread around the castle like a wildfire as the first week of December rolled by, after the Head of Houses announced it to their respective houses. It was nearly Christmas time again, and the Hogwarts castle looked majestic with thick coats of snow capping the rooftops, common room fireplaces much toastier. The Christmas decorations were hung up, garland after garland, fairy lights and wreaths all over. The Christmas tree was sporting silver and golden ornaments, looking as marvelous as ever.

There was an all new excitement coursing through the school with the possibility of a Winter Ball. Every student had been taught the traditional dance by their Head of House.

Professor Flitwick, with his creativeness, had taught the dance to the students of Ravenclaw as he stood on wooden stilts, to boost his height. Everyone had giggled at this stunt of his, and was good enough on the stilts that he actually did not fall off.

Cho Chang was given the honor of dancing with the Professor, proceeding to beckon his students to dance along with them to the music.

"May I have this dance?" Jeremy asked Florence, as Nicolai was quick in pulling Xander up to dance. She shrugged, before taking his hand, waltzing along with the other pairs of dancers.

Since that announcement, it had seemed that getting a date was the top priority for most of the people. Alexander had asked out Jillian, obviously, as soon as he found out about the ball. Cho Chang was going with Cedric.

Whether Fred was going to ask Florence was a pending situation. He had not mentioned the ball even once, and avoided the topic as much as possible. Florence assumed that maybe he didn't really want to go to the dance. As much as she would be gutted if it were the case, she would probably understand him.

She was snapped out of her trance at the sound of Nicolai toppling over in her chair, making Florence jump in her seat at the sound of the crash. She looked around to see Julien coming their way, a bright look on his face.

"Hello, Julien." Florence greeted with a smile as he sat down across from Nicolai, the sight of her on the floor making him frown, "Why are you down there?"

"The floor's cold," Nicolai blurted out, eyes wide as she heaved herself up, "It didn't feel cold enough so I—er—decided to hug the floor. Yes, I, I love the cold."

Alexander snorted.

"I see...." he said, not all too convinced, but decided not to linger on it for too long, "Hogwarts decorated the castle nicely, yes? The colors and lights are overwhelming. We never had this much at Beauxbatons. It was always just the tree."

"You should hear the Hogwarts Orchestra play. They're amazing." said Xander, who still sent amused glances at Nicolai's way.

"Oh, yes. Madame Maxime heard them practicing. Something Alanna and I are looking forward to. And the Ball. Can you believe she actually ditched me? We were supposed to go together, to spare us the trouble of looking for dates."

"Who is she going with?" Florence asked, curious. She and Alanna talked often, but there was no mention of any boys. Perhaps it was a Beauxbatons student as well?

"That nice Gryffindor fellow named Lee Jordan." Julien recalled, "He seems very keen with my sister, you know, he's been sending her a single rose for the past few days."

"Jordan..." Florence repeated, amused. Looks like he was very persistent in talking to Alanna.

"Well who are you going with?" Alexander asked for Nicolai, who tensely awaited his answer. Julien simply chuckled, scratching the nape of his neck, "Well, I haven't got a clue yet. I'm probably going with Miss Delacour, Madame Maxime had told me something about that before we arrived at Hogwarts. She wants me to be the escort if ever our Champion was a lady."

Florence and Alexander saw Nicolai's face fall, "Oh, well, I hope you sort out your date then..." she had said.

"Thank you. Who are you lot going with, by the way?" he asked, looking around. Alexander was the only one among the three who had answered quite confidently.

"I'll be going with Jillian Devereaux," he smiled, Nicolai feeling another pang of jealousy hit her in the gut, "What about you, Nicolai?" Julien turned to her.

"Well, ah, I'm, uh, going with....with a friend. Yeah. A friend."

"That's nice. Florence?"

"I..." She said, unsure, "I haven't got anyone to go with yet." she mumbled truthfully, Julien looking at her with a puzzled expression, "What about your boyfriend?"

"Yeah...um, I'm still kind of waiting for him to ask me. He hasn't really said anything about it yet."

"Oh. I see." he pursed his lips, regretting that he asked her that. With a brief glance at the clock, he bid the three goodbye, as he had some work to catch up on with Madame Maxime.

"Man, I thought for sure he came here to ask me out." Nicolai muttered, closing her Astronomy book, "Anyways, if I don't get a date by the week before christmas day, I'm not going to the dance."

"Relax, you have plenty of time until then." said Xander, who had started to put away his stuff as well. "For the mean time, worry about that Potions test we're having during the next period."

"Way to kill my mood, Alexander." she grunted, heaving herself off of the bench, noticing that Florence was still seated, a far off look on her face. "Flo," she nudged the girl, who broke away from her trance at that, "You alright?"

"Yeah," she replied quickly, shoving her things inside her bag at that, "Just thinking about stuff. Are we going to Potions now?"

"If you want. Although we still have a bit of time left to just wander around."

"I'm good. Let's just head up to Potions."

The test was fairly easy, although Florence could not help but zone out for a couple of seconds after every five minutes. She stared at Fred and George, who were sitting up front, the two obviously teaming up to get high marks.

When was he going to ask her? Did he not have any plans on attending the Ball? Was she going to have to go solo?

Why does that even matter? Her conscience scolded her, as if it was trying to beckon her into focusing on the test paper before her. She shifted in her seat, before jotting down an answer into the blank. Only in that moment did she notice that she had a quarter more of the test to fill in.

"Time's up," Professor Snape's voice echoed through the quiet room. Florence's eyes widened, desperately trying to fill in the remaining ten questions, but Snape was adamant when he commanded that the quills were to be held up. He raised his had, and accio'd the rolls of test paper.

"Merlin," Florence whispered, rubbing her temple in distress. They were dismissed, a few minutes later, and Fred came up to her, a huge grin on his face as he pressed a kiss onto her cheek.

"You won't believe it, but George and I actually studied for that test." he said proudly, his twin nodding in agreement.

"We aced that. We know we did."

"That's nice," she told them, forcing a smile, "Keep it up."

"Hang on," said Fred, frowning, the lack of enthusiasm evident in her voice, "Are you alright? You seem sad..."

"No, I, I just didn't get to finish my test, is all." she told the two, who looked confused, "But you always finish a test."

"Well, not today. I guess. I was pretty distracted," she confessed, "I just have a lot on my plate at the moment." she said lowly.

"If it helps, you and I could go study at the library? I have a free period next, and so do you if I recall correctly?"

"I'd like that," she gave him a small smile, and he took her hand into his. They bade George goodbye—as he was headed to his Transfiguration class next.

They walked down the halls, hand in hand in comfortable silence.

Fred had stopped abruptly, much to Florence's surprise. She frowned at him. "What?"

He grinned in response, lower lip caught inbetween his teeth, "Look up," he told her, and she did.

There was a single mistletoe, floating in thin air. She gave Fred a look, as he was still smiling, "Really? A mistletoe?"

"Hey," he said in his defense, "I didn't put that there."

"Sure you didn't," she mused.

"Okay well maybe I did. But it's a mistletoe, Flo, you know what we're supposed to do under mistletoes right?"

"Hug it out?"

He rolled his eyes at her, "No,"

"Fine," she chuckled, standing on her toes to plant a quick kiss on Fred's lips. He smiled, giving her a tight bear hug right after.

"Hey, about the Yule Ball," he said, once they broke apart. Florence stared at him, as if encouraging him to go on, "I, er, I've been meaning to ask you. It's just, I don't really think you're one to bother with stupid balls but...I'd really love it if you went with me ."

She continued to stare at him, "You're kidding, right?"

Fred sighed, "Yeah, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked you, it isn't your thing—"

"No, no! I want to go with you, I would very much want to. I thought maybe you didn't want to go to the Ball too, since you still haven't asked me."

They looked at each other in silence, before they let out nervous chuckles. "We should really work on this communication thing, huh?"

"That we do," Fred agreed, "But don't worry. We have plenty of time."

"Yes we do." Florence smiled.

"So it's settled then? Florence Price," he said, kneeling down dramatically before her, "Will you do me the greatest honor of being my date to the Yule Ball."

"You're so extra."

"Just go with it," he prompted.

"Yes, Fred Weasley. I will be your date to the Yule Ball."

//////
a.n: GUYS! I'm working on a George Weasley fic yay! I'll be publishing it when this book gets to the OOTP portion, since it kinda involves Umbridge and stuff. I'll give you a clue as to who George's love interest would be: she's in this book as well.

Comment down who you think it is!

-Denise