Apologies for the later update, I was completing my Duke of Edinburgh expedition which resulted in me getting a bad back, sore feet and aching shoulders.

My tent ended up flooded and all my stuff was soaked and three people actually dropped out of our group because we had to complete it in torrential rain and hurricane like winds.

Just an explanation as to why I didn't update :/

The Christmas Ball approached rather quickly, the school moving swiftly through the days of December as the students battled icy winds and rain, there was no sign of snow this year - only a horrible and endless hail that seemed to last for days on end.

It hurt very much when it bounced down on you and it absolutely murdered everyone, especially if it hit you in the face - if that happened then woe betide you.

The hail made it especially hard to cross the courtyards and access the classrooms that weren't connected to the main part of the castle and, as Pomona experienced, the greenhouses were nearly impossible to get to without slipping on the grit and hail that had made numerous puddles all over the grounds.

Mia was still making sure to avoid Walburga, Heather and Mary as well as Druella and her cronies (which included Euphemia's other cousin - Dorea).

She was doing a rather good job of it, she thought, and only received dark looks and slightly threatening comments occasionally so she assumed she was pretty safe. Right?

Orion had asked Walburga to the ball, which Mia actually thought was absolutely disgusting - especially as they were cousins but she knew that was how it worked in her family, the Noble House of Black had always had a tendency to date and marry their cousins.

Euphemia knew that she would actually be forced to do so herself, unless she managed to argue with her parents about it.

To Mia, it didn't matter about a persons blood status for them to be a faithful husband, she didn't want to marry her cousins just so that the Black Family line could stay pure and that was that.

She wanted to find someone that she loved completely with all of her heart and someone that loved her back just as much.

Euphemia wanted to feel safe with her future husband, she didn't want to be scared of what he would do next, she wanted a happy life free of blood purity prejudices and she wanted her children to grow up without that dark cloud following them.

The rest of her family didn't seem to think that way, however, and she knew that her cousins would marry more of her cousins so that the Black Family could keep on multiplying and keep on staying as pure as they could manage. Hence why Orion was taking Walburga to the ball.

Orion Black was a funny person, really, and by funny Mia did not mean nor see him as amusing or easy going.

He was the type of guy to dress all in black on weekends, when they didn't have to wear their uniform and always was observing, his leering smile stretching across his face in a suspicious, creepy and mysterious manner - especially when girls were walking past.

He was Euphemia's cousin so, of course, she knew that he was dark minded and often had a lot of deadly or harmful curses up his sleeve, ready to use at any opportunity.

Like Druella, Orion had an influence on the school and many would shiver when he walked down the corridors with his group of dark looking friends.

There were whispers and mutters about the things he'd done to girls and Mia knew they weren't pleasant, leading even her to fear her own cousin despite knowing him since he was a little boy, when he had played Capture the Muggles with the rest of the Black cousins in the garden of the Black Manor.

Capture the Muggles was a game the set of Black cousins played when they were little children, having been taught to play it by their respective parents so that they would stay out of the way of them whilst they had mysterious meetings about Grindelward and how they were going to help him.

The game included choosing one of the gang to be a 'muggle' (usually picked by Druella, who was demanding from the moment she could speak and stamp her foot, who span everyone around whilst deciding).

The chosen 'muggle' had to dress up as dirty as possible with as many resources as they could - for example, by using dirt and leaves from the garden. The 'muggle' was supposed to look like filth.

The idea of the game was to capture whoever was dressed up as the filthy muggle and they had to tie said muggle up or come up with inventive ways to kill the muggle as a team.

As you can probably guess, Mia stopped playing the game around the age of 8/9 when she started seeing that muggles weren't all bad but beforehand she had enjoyed the game as much as anyone, usually pairing up with Orion because he was most likely to win as he thought of the cruelest, darkest but most inventive ways to kill or capture the muggle.

Now, the thought that she had once played such a prejudiced game like that disgusted Euphemia and she felt thoroughly ashamed of ever having taken part, even though she hadn't known any better back then.

Her parents, her aunts and her uncles had always agreed with it and approved of the game so Mia had always assumed it was okay to play such a gruesome and prejudiced game.

It was the 15th of December already and Euphemia was getting ready in the dormitory, trying to ignore Walburga, Heather and Mary in one corner of the room who were all sending her dirty looks and also blanking Eileen completely who was staring at her sadly from the other side of the room, desperately trying to get Mia's attention.

Euphemia was obviously ignoring her because she was just so unbelievably angry, mad and upset at Eileen, feeling completely betrayed by the girl who was now sending her puppy eyed looks.

She fixed a butterfly clip into the up-do that she had twisted her hair into on top of her head and she started to stand up, her white silk gown falling to her ankles as she glided along the dormitory floor, feeling rather like a bride as Walburga looked on jealously from where she was trying to struggle into a hideous dark green dress with ruffles.

There were 'oohs' and 'ahhs' as Euphemia walked through the common room and she swore she saw Orion's eyes gleaming from the corner but didn't pay him any attention.

She simply hurried to make her way out without tripping over her dress as she didn't really like all the attention on her, her face was slowly turning redder and redder as she walked towards the exit.

"Nice dress, Black!" someone yelled and that was the final straw for Mia - her face flushed even more and she practically ran to the corridors outside, managing to make it and she stood there for a short while, clutching at her chest and breathing in and out as her anxiety had surely reached the rafters by now.

She hated being complimented or stared at by a series of different people all in the same place and it usually made her feel rather panicky and anxious.

As she ascended up the dungeon steps, carefully watching where she was putting her feet as she had heels on, Euphemia noticed that Ruby Chandler was simpering by the side of Charlus and Elizabeth Pang was holding onto Alastor's arm in a flirtatious manner.

Eugenia was sending death glares at Ruby's back as her date, a cute Hufflepuff guy, tried to catch her attention.

Pomona was chatting away to Filius - the two had decided to go as friends as no one had wanted to go with Filius, for obvious reasons, so he had asked the bubbly blonde, who readily had said yes.

Minerva had told Mia about her date, Brutus Scrimgeour, who Euphemia had approved and she had told her friend that he was rather handsome, a good choice.

Florean was stood just behind Minnie with a girl on his arm, one that Mia wasn't sure of the name - though she thought it was Hannah or something similar.

Poor Lyall hadn't managed to get a date in time and so was stood with Florean, third wheeling him and his date a little.

Not that Florean seemed to mind but Euphemia was pretty sure that, by the look on Hannah's face, she was bothered by it.

Tearing her eyes away from all her friends' dates, Mia started scanning the Entrance Hall, which was where everyone was meeting or waiting for their dates to arrive so they could go into the hall (whose doors hadn't actually been opened as of yet).

She was obviously looking for Harold, as he was her date and she finally spotted him talking rather heatedly to a red haired girl by the staircase.

The red haired girl was attached to another bloke, who was rolling his eyes at Harold as he spoke rather fiercely to the girl until Mia managed to approach them, laying a hand on his arm to calm him.

"What's all this about?" she asked him and the red haired girl in front of Harold scoffed and walked away haughtily.

Harold shuffled his feet a little and Euphemia couldn't help but notice that he looked rather longingly after the red haired girl, leading her to feel sorry for the guy but also slightly irritated that he wasn't paying her any attention. She hadn't gotten dressed up for nothing.

"Er...doesn't matter. You look beautiful, by the way," he added and Mia smiled at him before offering her hand, "Shall we?" she asked him sweetly and he nodded a little dazedly, taking her hand and leading her into the Great Hall with the utmost gentlemanly manner.

Harold was a decent guy and complimented her one more time on her dress but then didn't say anymore, which made Euphemia a little more comfortable as he wasn't showering her with flattering comments like Jackson did.

Speaking of Jackson, the boy was already dancing away with Jillian from Minnie's dormitory and Mia watched them for a little bit before she turned to Harold, who was already distracted by looking at the red haired girl he had been talking to before.

Euphemia sighed a little in exasperation and tapped her foot impatiently whilst she waited for him to stop ogling the other girl and to actually start dancing with her.

The walls of the hall had all been covered in sparkling silver frost, with hundreds of garlands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the starry black ceiling that was reflecting the sky outside.

The house tables, that usually were placed in their respective places around the room, had vanished and instead, there were about a hundred smaller, lantern lit ones which seated about 10 people per table.

The tables were dotted with immaculate white tablecloths and polished, silver cutlery which all looked very fancy.

The tables surrounded a rather large dance floor space which had been cleared, the usual stone flagged floor of the Great Hall being replaced by sparkling crystals embedded into the newly polished flagstones, so that it almost looked like the marble that decked the Entrance Hall through the double doors behind all the couples.

Students were weaving in and out of the tables, some were sat down looking rather grumpy with their arms crossed and others danced on the floor.

Some were obviously professional dancers and had been trained but Mia could also see many people stepping on other's toes.

She actually had to hold in her laughter as a Ravenclaw girl to the side of her actually tripped over her own feet and tumbled into a table, sending it's contents flying.

"Shall we dance?" Euphemia asked Harold, who was still staring in the distance, more noticeably at the red haired girl that Mia now knew was called Amelia Bones, from one of her friends calling for her.

She had ended up looking in the girl's direction as well because her date was so intent on focusing his attention on her dancing with some other guy instead of actually offering his hand to Euphemia and dancing with her.

Harold jumped and blinked himself to attention as if he was only just noticing that Mia was actually there and he apologised quickly before grabbing her hand and leading her onto the dance floor.

About time Euphemia thought to herself, trying not to roll her eyes and he span her underneath his arm, her skirt flowing out nicely as she spun around.

Harold wasn't the best dancer, his eyes kept drifting to Amelia Bones which slightly irritated Mia as she also tried to steer him in the right direction so that she was actually leading the dance instead of him.

Eventually, Euphemia gave up and gently detached her hands from Harold and gently told him to go and dance with Amelia, upon which he gave her a grateful hug and dashed across the floor to approach the red haired girl, who had actually stopped dancing with her previous partner.

Mia smiled a little, glad she had made sure that he would at least be happy for the remainder of the ball but now she had no one to dance with and so she trailed a little dejectedly back to a table, where she could see Florean sat, being yelled at by Hannah, his date.

"I can't believe you invited me to a ball and you don't even want to dance!" Hannah huffed at him and stalked off with a swish of her elaborate, high ponytail.

"Uh oh, someone's in the doghouse," Euphemia chuckled at him and plonked down in a seat beside him as he grabbed a drink for her from a passing tray, carried by one of the house elves bobbing around the room.

"Woof woof," Florean replied to her, his eyes sparkling with mischief as she took the glass of pumpkin juice off him, sipping it delicately.

"So how come you don't want to dance with her? Are you just being lazy?" Mia asked him and he laughed, leaning back in his chair so that the chair balanced on only it's rear legs, the front two raised off the ground.

"Lazy and she keeps stepping on my toes with those damned heels," Florean pouted and waved his foot in her face, meaning that Euphemia had to duck in order to avoid the patent black shoe wafting in front of her.

"They hurt!" he insisted, looking like a child as he complained, sticking his bottom lip out.

Mia simply patted him on the head in a slightly consoling manner and he scowled at her before grabbing the glass from her and taking a sip from it himself, just as she was about to drink some.

"Hey-" Euphemia started to protest until he spat out the juice anyway, dribbling it onto the once immaculate white cloth, making Mia jump back so that his shower of pumpkin juice didn't hit her white dress as she looked on in shock, trying not to laugh.

"There's no alcohol in that! Are you trying to poison me?" Florean asked her incredulously and Euphemia covered her mouth to conceal her giggles.

"We'd better move," he muttered to her, finally noticing the mess he had made on the white cloth and they quickly hurried along to the next table, sitting down innocently as if they hadn't done anything.

A couple came to sit at their abandoned table, eyeing the stained tablecloth with disdain and disapproval. "That wasn't us!" Florean told them loudly and obviously, leading Mia to hit him on the arm.

"Shut up," she hissed at him and Florean immediately sat up in his chair with the look of utmost innocence on his face, an angelic air around him.

"We look really suspicious here," Mia whispered to him and Florean quickly jumped up, extending his hand to Euphemia, "Then would you care to join me for a dance, Ms Black?" he bowed down to her exaggeratedly and she laughed as he dragged her up from the table, the pair of them pretending they had nothing to do with the spoiled tablecloth, quickly camouflaging into the crowds of couples waltzing around the dance floor.

Florean and Mia danced together for a bit, Florean was a much better dancer than Harold and kept cracking jokes underneath his breath as he steered Euphemia around the dance floor, the two dancing slowly to the music, feet tapping in rhythm to the tunes that were floating through the room.

After about half an hour, Florean got bored of dancing and went to go and sit down again, leading Mia to roll her eyes as she was used to dancing for hours on end at the balls at home.

She danced with Lyall for a bit, he was rather good on the dance floor but another girl called Bethany asked him to dance whilst he was spinning her around and Euphemia knew that Lyall must have a small crush on Bethany because he blushed when she asked.

That left Mia alone again and she was about to go and sit down with Florean - she could see him chatting to Pomona and Filius, who were both looking rather flushed in the face from all the dancing. And then she collided with someone, feeling their arms grip hers rather forcefully.

Euphemia looked up to be face to face with Orion Black who was looking at her with a slightly creepy smile spreading across his face and she felt a shiver run through her body but she did quickly force a strained smile at him.

"Can I help you?" she asked him, gulping slightly and he smiled again, taking her over to the centre of the dance floor.

"Yes, let's dance," he commanded and Mia tried not to sigh as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into him, leading her to place her arms around his neck in the dance stance, watching as a flicker of pleasure flashed through his eyes, freaking her out a little.

Orion was a bit handsy, he didn't seem to want remove his hands from her waist to spin her around and he seemed intent on just touching any part of her or her outfit as possible.

For example, when he complimented her on her hair, he wrapped a strand around his finger until Mia batted his hand away and told him to stop.

He was just being very annoying and coming across as rather creepy in the way that he kept dancing with her when she didn't really want to, plus his grip was quite tight as well which left slight bruises on Euphemia's wrists.

"Can you not?" she finally snapped at him, ripping her hands out of his grip only for him to reach for her wrists again, leading her to lean back away from him in irritation.

"You're hurting me, let go!" Euphemia told him and Orion smirked a little as he tried to get her to dance again, putting his hands on her waist yet again, only for her to wriggle away in frustration as she was feeling rather uncomfortable.

"She told you to let go, mate," a voice suddenly sounded from behind them, one that was becoming very familiar to Mia in these situations and she rolled her eyes as she faced Charlus, who was staring quite intimidatingly at Orion, meeting his deathly gaze perfectly.

"Fine," Orion laughed and looked between Euphemia and Charlus with a smirk and when Mia kept quiet and didn't tell Charlus to go away, he muttered, "Choose a blood traitor over me then, you'll regret it soon," in her ear.

She paled considerably but didn't move, causing him to throw up his hands and storm off, making Euphemia release a breath she didn't even know she had been holding.

"Come on, dance with me," Charlus told her, reaching for her hand but she shook her head, glancing around nervously to see whether Orion was watching, her heart thumping furiously in her chest.

He was nowhere to be seen, however, so she allowed Charlus to take her hand and lead her onto the dance floor.

Euphemia was about to get into the pose to dance with him, her eyes still flitting around the room nervously when Charlus quickly beckoned for her to follow him out of the hall, their hands still connected.

Once they got out of the stifling, crammed Great Hall, he let go of her hand rather awkwardly and she looked at him questioningly, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall behind her.

"You need to be more careful," Charlus finally told her in a hushed voice and she raised an eyebrow, feeling a little irritated.

"Why do I need to be more careful? I'm just like all of my family, remember?" she fired back at him, repeating his harsh words and causing him to wince at the reminder.

"Sorry about that," he mumbled and she huffed, shaking her head. "A little too late for that," Mia told him irritably.

"I'm just telling you - the way that Orion was looking at you wasn't right, I'm warning you to be careful!" Charlus said seriously to her, taking her aback at the genuine care shining on his face.

The shock must've shown on her own face because Charlus looked down at his shoes instead of sustaining the intent gaze that he was bestowing upon her originally.

"Why do you care so much? All you've ever done over the past years is shoot me down and judge me on my surname so why are you suddenly changing your attitude towards me? Why are you suddenly acting like you care about me?" Euphemia shot questions at him like flying bullets and each ones seemed to stab him in his chest sharply, he looked rather pained by some of the things she was saying.

"For an intelligent girl, you can be quite dense sometimes, Euphemia," Charlus replied gently, sounding frustrated but when Mia opened her mouth to protest or ask more questions, as she was extremely confused, he waved a hand in her direction to shut her up.

"Just don't get any ideas, okay?" he sighed and walked off, disappearing into the crowd so fast he might as well have disapperated.

Leaving Euphemia sat on the bottom step of the marble staircase, extremely confused.