She sat on one of the desks in an empty classroom—the weather was starting to get a bit too chilly to hang out with her friends in the courtyard, and sometimes standing around in the hallway could be a bit lacking in privacy. The classrooms were generally a bit warmer than the outdoors, and also had places to sit which was a plus.

The Yule Ball was coming up, and like many other students, Juni was wondering who was going with who, and if  anybody would ask her out—she already had a dress or two in mind, and she didn’t even have a date yet. Her heart was set on Connor Todd, though she doubted that would ever happen. Plus, if he knew that she fancied him, all hell would break loose. The apocalypse would begin. Life as Juni Zamperia knew it, would be over. But still, it was a nice distraction from her family troubles, and she might take the world ending over dealing with the real issues. Her mom being killed by a werewolf (or something werewolf like), really should have been at the top of her list, but talking about boys and the ball made her life feel a bit more normal.

“Do you have any dates to the ball yet?” She asked Cyhirae and Winifred, fiddling with a strand of her curly hair. “I don’t, but I already know what kind of dress I want to wear.” She tapped her bottom lip with her thumb pensively. In the past, Juni used to chew her own nails, but she had broken that habit. Still, she still had a tendency to touch her fingers to her lip from time to time. “No one’s asked me yet.” Juni pouted dramatically. She didn’t want to go by herself, but she would rather go alone than not go at all.

“Do you have any dates to the ball yet?” She asked Cyhirae and Winifred, fiddling with a strand of her curly hair. “I don’t, but I already know what kind of dress I want to wear.”

Cy leaned forward eagerly on one of the desks in the classroom, resting her elbows on the desktop. "Oh? What do they look like?" Juni had been down for days after learning about her mother and Cy was happy distract her by talking about something else.

“No one’s asked me yet.”

"Me neither," Cyhirae matched Juni's pout, her tone dripping in dissapointment.  She sighed leaning back agianst her chair, "Do you think Daddy has something to do with it? Maybe he's scaring them off?" Cy hoped not, she wasn't certain she wanted to date anyone who would bow down to her father's threats. And anyone her father approved of was guarenteed to be boring. "He made it nearly impossible to find a dress, he kept rejecting all of my choices. I wouldn't be suprised if he was scaring away someone who's trying to ask me." Her father was so lame sometimes.

Her eyes turned star studded, "I hope one of the older boys asks me." She sighed dreamily, "Especially one of the boys from the other schools." She turned to look at Winnie, "What about you Winnie? Any one ask you yet?" Ambrose Pepper had a crush on Winnie if Cy remembered correctly. Maybe he had asked her out.

Winifred enjoyed spending time with her girlfriends. Cy and Juni were just as boycrazy as she was, and lots of fun. Plus, they were Ravenclaws- which meant they smart. Maybe some of the smart would rub off on her if she hung out with them enough. Zoe's smart had rubbed off on her, after all! But Zoe hadn't really had the patience for Winnie's gossip and talk. She was all work when it came to tutoring.

"My mum took me shopping during the Hogsmeade weekend," Winifred said. "And she bought me a dress. It's very pretty. Not as fancy as some of the others I've seen girls talking about. But it looks like a Hufflepuff dress!" Which was why she had loved it. Winifred was all about house pride, even if most of her closest friendships were with people outside of her own hous. Juni and Cy were Ravenclaws, and Ambrose and Sophie were Gryffindors.

Winifred was already bursting with pride when the topic changed to dates to the ball. Winifred did, in fact, have a date to the ball. She'd just procured one the night before. It might have been a bit unorthodox- Winnie had asked a couple of boys until someone told her yes, but she was thrilled with her current date.

"Maybe he is scaring them off. Anybody who is friends with Storm has to have some evil in them," she said to Cyhirae. "Maybe he's having Storm POISON your dates! Or murder them or splinch them or something. Dads can be super weird like that."

When Cy asked if someone had asked Winnie, she perked up, smiling. "Actually I do have a date to the Yule Ball," Winifred finally confessed. "Just last night I happened to find a date. He's a sixth year!" Winifred covered her mouth and giggled. "It's going to be so romantic! I can't wait! It's going to be just like a ROMANCE NOVEL!"

Juni pouted when Cyhirae expressed her concerns about her father scaring off potential dates. How rude of him! Maybe she needed to corner her head of house and tell him it was just unacceptable, that Cyhirae just had to find a date. Juni doubted that would go over very well at all—but it couldn’t hurt to try, right? At the worst, Professor Trishna would deny he was doing anything so wrong as to prevent Cy from getting dates. At the best, he would admit all his wrongdoings and beg Cyhirae for forgiveness.

The latter was something that Juni denied would happen.

“Some of the boys from the other schools are pretty cute.” She admitted, “Maybe one will ask you? Are you friends with any of them?” Cyhirae was so pretty, she would have no trouble finding a date if her dad wasn’t so weird about everything. Juni beamed when Winnie started talking about her dress and her date. That girl was so enthusiastic about the ball, and rightfully so. She had a date! She was the only one out of the three of them who had actually found someone to go with her.  Her dark eyes widened when she heard that it was a sixth year.

“Winnie! Who is it?” Juni asked excitedly. Romantic? Who out of the sixth year boys had potential to be romantic? She didn’t pay too much attention to the sixth and seventh year boys, her heart was set on Connor Todd’s magnificent face and confident exterior. Others might say he was just annoying. Juni would disagree, he was glorious.

“Maybe one will ask you? Are you friends with any of them?”

"I wish, unfortunately not," Cyhirae sighed in response.

"Maybe he is scaring them off. Anybody who is friends with Storm has to have some evil in them," she said to Cyhirae. "Maybe he's having Storm POISON your dates! Or murder them or splinch them or something. Dads can be super weird like that."

"Dad isn't evil Winnie," Cyhirae said, torn between avenging her father and not yelling at one of her best friends, "he's just   lame, and boring, and and lame. And Storm isn't..." Cyhirae searched for the word to describe their scowly but sometimes oddly affectionate professor, "he's like practically my step grandfather? He and my grandmother snogged in front of Daddy, Gigi and me." Her uncertain expression and tone betrayed just how uncomfortable she was with the idea over six months later, despite her pretending otherwise.

Grateful for the distraction she pounced on Winnie for the details of her date. "Is he a Hufflepuff? Or a Ravenclaw?" There were a lot of cute upper year boys in Ravenclaw, despite it's reputation as the nerd house. "Did someone from Slytherin ask?" Cy squealed, completely putting aside the insult to her father. "Oh, congratulations. Your so lucky."

"There's a couple of Salem boys who are the absolute cutest!" Winifred exclaimed. "I bet if you flirted with them, you could get one of them to go with you! But... I think that you'd like one of the Beauxbatons boys more than ones from Salem, Cy. They seem really smart and sophisticated and stuff." And since Cy was a Ravenclaw, Winifred assumed she had to be sophisticated on top of being super smart.

"And I never said that Professor Trishna was evil. Storm is the evil one. And EWWWW! HE SNOGGED SOMEONE?" Winifred made a face of absolute disgust and a fake sound of dryheaving. "AND THEY DIDN'T DIE?" Poor Cyhirae! Having to look at something so absolutely hideous. "I think I'm going to be sick! Gross!" Who would ever want to kiss a man like Professor Storm? He was old and gross and wrinkly and evil and a total butthead!

Winifred had a hard time distracting herslf from her disgust to properly gush about her date to the ball. She shot Cy a weird look when she asked if it was a Slytherin. "Like I would ever be seen anywhere on the arm of a Slytherin! They're all evil, Cy. You should stay away from them! They're all going to end up trying to be the next You-Know-Who and you deserve better than that!"

Composing herself again, Winifred held her head high at a haughty angle. "Zel Trumble asked me just last night if I'd like to go to the ball with him!" she confessed. "It will be just like those books I read where that girl had to tame the wild soul of her werewolf lover! To think- me- going to the ball with an upper year, prefect, and werewolf! It's going to be absolutely spectacular!"

“Wait, so he’s like your step grandfather because he kissed your grandmother?” Juni gave Cyhirae a confused look. And she thought her family was weird, what with her dad’s side of the family being full of Portuguese Romani. Her uncle Emilian was neat, and he knew so much about Transfiguration. Grandpa Nicolae had a strange sense of humor, and Grandma Lucy was so serious and secretive. Sometimes she thought her dad was too much like his mother, but she’d never say that out loud.  “They weren’t married or anything though, right?” Juni couldn’t imagine Storm ever being married or having a girlfriend. It was weird.

Juni wasn’t as disturbed or grossed out by the idea as Winifred, but it didn’t keep her from being amused by her friend’s overreaction. Typical Winnie. She didn’t agree that all Slytherins were evil, but she didn’t say anything because after all, Casey was pretty annoying—she respected him, but he was still annoying. Then wait—Winnie’s date was Zel Trumble? The albino? The werewolf? Juni’s eyebrow twitched. Ugh. That was so gross. She could feel the hairs on her neck going on end.

“Wait, really? He’s a werewolf. You can’t tame a werewolf!” Juni exclaimed, but then realized she didn’t want to crush Winnie’s excitement and quickly changed her tone. “But—that is so cool. An upperclassman.” She said in a fake-happy-for-you sort of voice. Really, Juni was trying to be enthusiastic, but really? Zel Trumble? Bleh. Plus he had creepy albino eyes. Winnie could do so much better.

“Wait, so he’s like your step grandfather because he kissed your grandmother? They weren’t married or anything though, right?”

"No no no. He and my grandmother wanted to get married but they can't cause she's in Azkaban, that's all. So it's like unofficial and stuff." And weird, but that was a given. She giggled at Winnie's over reaction to the though of Storm kissing someone, "How do you think I felt. I had to actually see it."

She frowned, looking hurt when Winnie mentioned that Slytherins were evil, "Winnie! My mom and Gigi are Slytherin. They're not evil! How could you say something like that."  Sometimes Winnie's tendency to speak before she thought things through could be a problem with their friendship. It was only Winnie's good intentions and that she didn't mean things to come across as they did that smoothed the rough patches int heir friendship over. This however didn't mean Cyhirae would let the slight pass without acknowledgement.

. "Zel Trumble asked me just last night if I'd like to go to the ball with him!" she confessed. "It will be just like those books I read where that girl had to tame the wild soul of her werewolf lover! To think- me- going to the ball with an upper year, prefect, and werewolf! It's going to be absolutely spectacular!"

Upset with Winnie as she was Cy completely missed Juni's discomfort at the mention that Winnie's date was a werewolf. "Zel Trumble? Isn't he that pale, skinny guy who's a walking definition of introverted people pleaser?" She groused. And she couldn't resist adding a final dig, "I'm not sure how much more you could tame him? He's like a puppy that's been smacked with a newspaper too many times."

"I'm sorry, Cy," Winifred offered- feeling a little sheepish. "I didn't mean to say anything awful about your mom and Gigi. But all the Slytherins we have now except for Gigi are pretty awful. They're all very mean to me, even when I don't deserve it. I really didn't mean to insult your mother or Gigi though. Or anybody you're related to, Juni," Winifred added.

But then she was promptly annoyed by the way her friends reacted to her date. They were supposed to be excited for her! And swoon over how special and romantic it was that her date was a werewolf. She frowned a little, and crossed her arms over her chest, giving both girls a disappointed look. At least Juni had tried.

"That's not a nice thing to say about Zel!" she snapped at Cyhirae. "You shouldn't say mean things about how people look. So what if he's tall and skinny? That doesn't make him any less of a person. And he's nothing like a puppy! They wouldn't let someone who was totally spineless be a Prefect." If she had known that Cy was going to make fun of her date, she wouldn't have apologized for the Slytherin jab. "At least someone has asked me!" Winifred pouted.

Juni looked from Cyhirae, to Winnie, and back again. Ugh, she hoped this wouldn’t turn into some big, petty fight. She actually liked spending time with the both of them, and if they were fighting, she didn’t want to have to sacrifice spending time with one of them. Winnie had a tendency to be a little fickle-- one day she loved you, the next she didn’t. Nevertheless, the Ravenclaw wanted to avoid some sort of conflict. If worse came to worse, she would definitely side with Cyhriae, them being roommates and all. Juni didn’t want to do anything ot upset the dynamics in their dormitory.

Just because it wasn’t a nice thing to say about Zel, didn’t mean that it wasn’t true. He was such a wimp, but it was deceptive. He was a werewolf,. and therefore he was dangerous. How was she supposed to trust that he would take his wolfsbane and that the ministry was competent to enough to handle their werewolves if there were new ones all the time? After all, Zel was a new werewolf, as he hadn’t been one before this year. She was glad that someone asked Winifred, but she was also disappointed that the person was someone who, simply put, did not seem good enough for her friend.

“Winnie, just be careful, okay? I don’t want you to get bitten.” Or killed. If Zel was tall like that, then imagine how big he must have been in his werewolf form. She shifted closer to Cyhriae, though the gaze she had upon Winifred was a concerned one.

Cyhirae flushed, her father had lectured her many times about reghning in her temper and she had let it get the best of her, again. She looked apoligetically at Winnie, "Sorry Winnie, I was just... upset. But, he is kinda a people pleaser," She said, even if she had said it rather meanly it was the truth and Cy didn't want Winnie to get her hopes up. She was happy for her friend, even if she was sorta envious that Winnie had a date.

"Rather than taming him maybe you could help Zel out in other ways, like growing a sp-, er helping him get stronger? Mentally?" She finished rather weakly. She had just finished apologizing for being mean, it  wouldn't do to have her commit the same offence.

“Winnie, just be careful, okay? I don’t want you to get bitten.” Cyhirae met Juni's glance and her eyes widened in realization. "Oh, Juni I'm sorry this must be upsetting." She glanced over at Winnie hoping she would pick up on Cy's que and drop the subject for something less likely to refresh Juni's pain.

Bitten? But the Yule Ball wasn't even on a full moon! What would Juni think she was going to get bitten? And when it was the full moon, Winnie knew that you didn't hang out with werewolves. Besides- last she had heard, the current werewolves at Hogwarts always spent the full moons at the ministry, where it was safe. Winifred frowned a little. She didn't understand why it should matter that Zel was a werewolf. It wasn't like he was mean, or like he had wanted to be a werewolf. It was one of those things that just happened to people. But Cyhirae suddenly apologized to Juni- saying it must be upsetting. But why should it be upsetting?

"The Yule Ball isn't on a full moon," Winifred said to Juni. "So that's not something you have to worry about." She wanted to launch into a speech about how it shouldn't mater at all that he was a werewolf and that it wasn't nice to automatically assume he was going to rampage through the halls because of it. But the look that Cy had given her was enough.

Grumbling, Winifred rolled her eyes a little and crossed her arms in a huff. Maybe Sophie would be more excited about her having a date. She was smart enough not to lecture her about how dangerous it was and she was nice enough not to automatically start insulting Zel just because he was tall and skinny. Merlin. It wasn't like she was marrying him or having his babies. It was nothing more than going to the Yule Ball together. That was no reason to get so bent out of shape about things!

But Winnie didn't want to get into a huge fight with her friends so close to the ball. "Just promise me that you won't be rude to him at the Yule Ball?" Winnie asked. "Promise me that and we don't have to talk about him anymore tonight. Cross my heart."

Juni gave Cyhirae a slightly confused look before realizing just why Cyhirae was sorry. Oh yeah. That situation. Dspite the fact that her mother had most likely been killed by a werewolf, Juni honestly would probably have had the same reaction if it didn’t happen. She had always feared werewolves, and the whole direwolf situation didn’t help matters. She wasn’t quite sure why she had always been afraid—her father didn’t show any particular dislike towards them, but maybe it was just the wizarding culture in general. Maybe it was all the scary stories about werewolf attacks she had heard since she started Hogwarts. It was terrifying, and she believed that if werewolves were regulated much more carefully, none of these attacks would even happen in the first place.

“I won’t be rude to him, Winnie. Promise.” Juni bit her tongue and sighed, “You can talk about him all you like—I’ll try to be more..” She struggled to think of the right word. “Supportive?” After all, Winnie was the only one out of the three of them who had managed to get a date thus far. And it was with an upperclassman too! If it had been any other person than Zel Trumble, Juni would have probably squealed in excitement for her friend. Still, Juni would probably not spend much time with Winnie at the ball, if she went to the ball. Despite the fact that Cyhirae’s description of Zel was probably spot on, she didn’t want to associate with him much at all.

Winnie didn't catch her hint. Cy privately wondered if Winnie even knew that Juni's mother had been killed by a warewolf Juni didn't seem to want to go into the matter so Cy let it drop. "I won't be mean Winnie, I promise. I'm glad your happy with him." Cyhirae clamped down on the small urge to throw in a but. Continuing to rain on Winnie's parade would only really make it look like it was all sour grapes. "So what does your dress look like?" Cy said, changing the subject.

"Oh, do either of you need help getting ready?" Cy clasped her hands together excitedly, "We should get together before the ball and do each other's hair and makeup. That would be so much fun." She seriously doubted that she could get Georgiana to help her this year and while she  had done okay with her Halloween costume makeup, it was infinitely easier if someone else did it.

Finally, her friends had agreed to be nice to Zel. Juni even said she'd be more supportive. "I am happy," Winnie said. "He's actually really nice and smart. And I think those are very good qualities for a boy to have." To say the least. But they were keen to change the subject, and Winifred decided to take the social cue and let the subject of dates drop. If Cyhirae and Juni wanted to be total party poopers- they could do it on their own time. Winifred wasn't going to let anyone bring her down about her date. She was far too excited about it.

"Ooh! My dress is very pretty," Winnie said. "My mum took me shopping. I couldn't get the one I really wanted. My mother said that I wasn't allowed to make a fool of myself at the Yule Ball by wearing it. She just doesn't understand that I have very unique fashion. But the one I got is nice! It's a big puffy ball gown. And it's Hufflepuff colored. Mum got me some cute shoes that she said were very good for dancing. And a new necklace to wear with it. The earrings are really pretty, too. My mum said they actually look real. But they're just fake. Because we can't afford nice things and she is afraid I will lose or destroy them." It was obvious from Winnie's tone, that she had more faith in herself than her mother did... Even if her mother was right.

Winifred bounced a little when Cy asked if she needed help getting ready. "I would like help! I'm not very good at it. And I can't do beauty charms for hair and make up and stuff. Because I'm just not good at them. But I bet both of you could cast them without blowing my face up! I want to wear my hair down, though. I don't like how it looks up. It makes my face look really round. And I know that it is round, but I want to minimize its roundness if at all possible." Winnie smiled, just thinking about how much fun it would be to get ready with her friends. "But where would we do it?" she asked. "Since I'm not a Ravenclaw I'm not supposed to be in your tower."