"The yule ball." Raven read the poster that had been attached to the wall outside the great hall. "Like an actual ball? That sounds exciting."

"Better get your dancing shoes on Raven, it's going to be a party!" Lee grabbed her hand and spun her round.

"I've never been to a proper dance before, this is so exciting!" She squealed, she rarely got excited over the more stereotypical 'girly' things so she shocked Lee for a moment before he grinned.

"Hey do you think Katie Bell will go with me?" Lee asked her with a slight hint of nerves.

"Of course!" Raven smiled at her friend. "If you work up the courage to ask her!"

"I will!" Lee defended himself, but she rolled her eyes at him teasingly.

"I'll believe it when I see it." She replied. "Come on, let's go and find the twins."

Running just in front of Lee, Raven was first to reach the twins.

"What's got you in such a tiz?" George asked as she reached them.

"There's going to be a ball!" She told him excitedly. "An actual ball!"

"And you're excited?" Fred asked in surprise.

"I am as a matter of fact!" She defended herself. "I've never even been to a dance before."

"It'll be a laugh, that's for sure." George nodded approvingly.

"But what will I wear?" Raven asked, she did have a few nice dresses with her, not that she wore them, but just in case, and her dad had bought her a beautiful new dress 'just because'. Maybe he had known?

"Raven you've got time yet." Lee reminded her, she grinned at him.

"Lee I'm so excited!"

"Woah calm down there little crow!" Fred caught her as she almost fell into him.

"Sorry Fred." She laughed, before she noticed Hermione and Ginny beckoning her up the stairs. "Looks like I have to go."

Telling the boys she would see them later, Raven followed the girls into Hermione's dormitory.

"Raven isn't it exciting?" Ginny gushed, Raven laughed.

"I know, I can't wait." She nodded.

"Will you two help me do my hair?" Hermione asked, Raven and Ginny looked at each other and grinned.

"Of course, we can all get ready together!" Ginny decided with a happy grin. Living with all boys apart from her mother, Ginny certainly savoured moments where she could have proper girly moments.

"Mind if we join?" Lavender and Parvati, the girls in Hermione's dormitory asked.

"Of course, come to our dorm, I'll make Katie come, Angelina and Alicia won't mind." Raven decided, having a proper girls night before the ball would do them all good.

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked in surprise.

"Yeah, it'll be fun." Raven grinned. "What do I do with my hair?" She lifted a strand of hair and looked at it in disdain.

"Anything, go wild." Lavender advised. "This is the one night you can try out that super cute hairstyle you've always wanted to try."

"Well when you put it that way..." Raven laughed. "Girls this is going to be so much fun, now all we need are dates!"

^^^
"There you are! What are you doing?" George appeared in the common room beside her. Raven looked up from where she was pondering over her charms textbook and shrugged.

"Just homework, why? Have I missed out on anything?" It was so rare for her to see just one of her friends alone, that she found it kind of alarming.

"What? No I was just looking for you." He sat down beside her, there seemed to be something on his mind, but she couldn't figure it out.

"Oh, where are the others?" She finished the sentence she was working on and closed her book.

"I'm not actually sure." George confessed. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Well let's go and find them then!" She stood up, waiting for him, when he didn't move she frowned at him. "George?"

"Right, yeah, let's go." He nodded.

"Are you okay?"

"What? Oh, yeah, let's go." George managed a smile for her and followed her out of the common room.

"Where do you think they are?" Raven pondered, hoping George would have at least some idea of where Fred and Lee were.

"Not a clue." George replied with a shrug. She rolled her eyes at him.

"Fat lot of good you are." She sighed as they reached the main staircase. Noticing Mercury, Emilia and Leonardo, she called out to them. "Mer! Emilia! Leo!" They stopped and waited for them to catch up with them.

"Hey Raven, what are you two up to?" Mercury asked as she hugged each of them in turn.

"You haven't seen Fred and Lee have you? We seem to have misplaced them." She asked brightly, the three beauxbatons students laughing at the way she worded her question.

"We haven't sorry, do you want us to help you look for them?" Meecury offered. She shook her head.

"No, you guys go on to the feast, we'll check our usual haunts, they might already be at the feast anyway." Raven smiled at them as they left and then followed George to their favourite part of the castle, passing Peeves as he zoomed overhead.

"Ooh, weasley and cloudy apart from the group." He cackled as he disappeared from view.

"What a weirdo." Raven sighed, George laughed and took her hand, dragging her down the corridor.

"They're here." He decided, and sure enough, the two almost ran into their friends.

"Well look who it is!" Lee laughed, catching Raven as she almost fell over.

"Are you two heading to the feast?" Fred asked.

"We were looking for you." George replied, "but let's go, I don't know about you, but I'm starving."

"Me too!" Lee exclaimed, leading the group back down the corridor.

"What were you two doing?" Raven asked as she wandered happily in between Feed and George.

"We were researching materials for our skiving snackbox in the library." Fred explained. "Its going well, at least it was until we lost George." Fred shot a disappointed look at his brother.

"I decided we needed Raven, but I didn't think you'd have stayed in the library, and then we found you." George shrugged, Raven laughed.

"Honestly you two!" She shook her head and grabbed both of them by the hand, pulling them into line with Lee. "Come on! Or all the good seats will be gone!"