Lupin loomed over his cup of tea, the steam hitting his clammy face as he sat with Sirius at the Weasley dining room table, the present wrappings and ribbons still strewn over the surface, left over from all the kid's attacks on their gifts. Remus was certainly not in the mood to be cheerful.

"Sirius, please don't break that. Danica would have to kill you and Molly would then have to clean up the mess."

Sirius, who had been trying to forcefully move the hand with Danica's picture, put down the pocket watch that Danica had thrown at Lupin a few hours earlier and slid it across the table to Remus who stowed it safely away in his jacket pocket.

"She's a teenage girl, Remus. She's going to say and do things you'd rather her not say and do but you can't control that. You can't control that girl in general," Sirius said thoughtfully, twirling his gift from the rowdy girl in his hands. Danica thought it would be rather funny to get a dog collar with a tag that said Padfoot on it as his Christmas present.

Gloomily, Lupin looked up and over at Sirius and pointed at the strip of leather in his best friend's fingers.

"It's charmed to be a necklace when you're human and a collar when you're a dog."

"How does that girl afford all these gifts?" Mrs. Weasley asked, still cleaning the kitchen long after the Christmas feast was over, wiping her hands on the new brightly colored floral apron she received from Danica. That woman never seemed to stop.

"She's worked since she was about 11. She knew I could barely support the necessities for both of us so she helped out the best she could. All the clothes and shoes you see her wearing, that all comes from her own money." Remus sighed, leaning back in his chair. He couldn't count how many times he wished he could give her everything she wanted. The bags under his eyes looked even darker, as if shaded permanently onto his pale skin.

"I wish my kids would do that. Ha! That would be the day."

"But Remus also has to remember that Danica isn't biologically his child. It's good she's providing her own possessions."

Remus' eyes flickered up to glare coldly at Sirius who avoided the gaze by putting on the collar which instantly changed to a silver chain with dog tags. Clever girl.

"You aren't James and yet you treat Harry like your own. I've raised Danica since she was days old. I may as well be her father."

The room grew tensely quiet. Lupin looked up from staring intently at the table as he massaged his temples. Glancing from Mrs. Weasley to Sirius, he raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Do you know who her real parents are?" Molly asked in a hushed tone, looking around observantly to see if any of her kids were up and sneaking about. She hadn't heard a peep from George or Fred in the last hour. If luck stays on her side tonight, they'd be asleep and not plotting another prank.

Lupin sighed, putting his elbows on the table and his face in his palms. He shook his head. "No, I don't know who they are. I've tried searching for signs, rumors, anything for years. There's nothing."

Sirius fidgeted in his chair, trying to make his nervous moving unnoticeable. But nothing went by Remus without being noticed. When Molly left the room to go check on all the teenagers she hoped were sleeping upstairs, Lupin leaned over the table and shook Sirius, causing him to look him in the eyes.

"What do you know, Sirius? I know you know something."

Black just shook his head, as if trying to shake off such a silly idea. Leaning his chair back so the two front legs lifted off the ground to give him some room to check the door, Sirius cleared his throat. "She looks familiar. Her face does. If you look at her for a long time, she looks like somebody we know. I just can't place my finger on whom. Those eyes, Remus, I know I have seen them before. This old dog's mind just can't remember where."

Lupin turned it over in his mind. Sirius was right. He caught himself staring and staring at the girl and a strange feeling would wash over him, as if he had seen her somewhere else. But those eyes, Remus noticed it too, they looked strangely familiar. Nobody they knew personally had eyes like that. Remus would catch himself looking into those gray eyes and feel something tug at the pit of his stomach. But he was an old wolf; he couldn't quite remember where he had seen them before.

"No one ever told me raising a girl would be so hard," Remus said tiredly as Mrs. Weasley just walked back into the kitchen. She came back just in time to hear Lupin's last comment. Molly pretended to ignore him because it just so happens, she told him it would be hard. Very hard.

Later that night, when the entire house was asleep and the moon shone brightly through the windows, Danica lay awake on the cot she called her bed in Ginny's room. It must've been really late because Ginny, Hermione and Danica spent hours talking, gossiping and dishing on the boys. It was so much fun. Danica never had friends like this. Them and their mothers never wanted the girl being raised by a wolf to play with their precious angels. So Danica had to settle for her own imagination. And Remus.

Ugh. Her stomach clenched at the thought of him. She closed her eyes, trying to block out the recollection of what had happened a few hours ago. She didn't want to remember what his face looked like when she turned back around from showing him her scars. Maybe she was acting like a child.

Turning over the fifth time, she groaned. Danica couldn't sleep. She remembered nights, however, when she was little and she would break something or cause Remus to be upset with her, she would sit up in her room, unable to do anything until she was sure that Lupin wasn't angry at her. Danica would sometimes stay up all night, thinking that Remus was mad at her when in fact he wasn't even close to it.

Her thoughts wavered when she heard Hermione start to talk in her sleep. Hermione had a strange habit of quizzing herself on spells in her sleep. The secret to academic success? Personally, Danica thought she kept all that knowledge stored up in her hair. That would be incredibly useful when OWL's- oh god, OWL's! Danica hadn't even begun to prepare to take her examinations. She hadn't even had 5 full years of school! Maybe Dumbledore could get her out of taking them…Most likely not.

Stressing over her OWL's did not help her get any sleep. Sighing, Danica slid out of bed and into her monkey slippers. Quietly, as to not disturb Ginny or Hermione, Danica left the room, shutting the door gently behind her. The Weasley house being dark, quiet and seemingly empty felt unusual. Now, if she only knew where to go exactly. She didn't want to wake anyone up.

Tip-toeing up the creaking stairs proved a challenge for Danica. She had to move slow on one flight, step fast on another. All of this had been memorized during the summer when she had nothing to do but hang around with the twins. Ron was never home so she never met him till the Order meeting. Ginny, she liked her, but they were just too different. Ginny and Danica were friends, close even. But not as close as she was with the twins. But going about the house while it was shrouded in darkness wasn't as fun as running around, avoiding Mrs. Weasley after she caught up with what we were doing.

She got to the room that she desired. With the adjustment of her eyes, Danica could barely make out the sign on the door:

Danger! Keep Out!

Yup, she had the right room. The only question was how to get in. Yes, opening the door was the logical solution. But knowing the inhabitants, there were bound to be traps and alarms that could wake up the entire household. Cursing herself for leaving her wand in Ginny's room, Danica did the unthinkable. She opened the door. Taking a small step in, she shut her eyes, waiting for the sirens to sound and the flashing red lights to go off. A woken up Mrs. Weasley was not something she looked forward to. Already cringing, Danica shut the door behind her. She hadn't even prepared what to say if she got caught sneaking into the twin's room. It was a little late now because the sirens and lights were going to go off any second as she became suspended from the ceiling in a fishing net with some horrible magic charm waiting for her.

Tensing her whole body, she stepped further into the room. But the twin's security system never sounded. Opening one eye, she looked around at the dimly lit room. Yes, there was a net dangling from the ceiling. And yes, there were lights and speakers hanging in all corners of the room. However, nothing went off. George lay, sprawled out on his belly with an arm hanging off the edge as he snored softly into his pillow. Danica started to laugh only to be cut off by trying to contain a cry of pain when her knee crashed into the trunk at the foot of George's bed. Biting onto her lip, Danica made her way over to the bed on the other side of the room, trying not to step on test tubes, supplies and some odd green stuff Danica would rather not know about.

Her heart suddenly warmed inside her chest as she saw Fred sleeping soundly on his side. His wand slipped from his fingers slowly. Danica took it and put it on his nightstand where he could find it in the morning when the sun broke into their room to wake them. Carefully, hesitantly, Danica went over to the vacant side of the bed. She was going to turn and leave, to go back to Ginny's room right then and there, where she's supposed to be.

"Fred?" Danica whispered, trying not to alarm George. "Fred, love?"

"Mmmm?" he groaned in his slumber, turning over onto his back, his eyes fluttering open to look up at whoever was waking him up. Once he opened his warm chestnut eyes to stare into the shining gray moons of Danica's, he smiled. "Well, hello, love. I knew shutting off the security system was a good idea," he mumbled sleepily, stretching under the cozy blankets Mrs. Weasley probably made herself.

"So you knew," Danica lifted up the covers of Fred's bed and slipped in next to him, "That I would sneak in here."

Fred, who blushed as she curled up against his side, wrapped his arms around his girlfriend and smelled the coconut lime in her hair. "No I knew you wouldn't be able to sleep and would come to me eventually." He smiled from over the top of her head where she couldn't see as she rested her head under his chin. Danica chuckled, inching her body closer to his. He responded by tightening his grip around her.

Fred's heart was pounding in his chest. No girl had ever made him feel this way. Tingly. She made him feel tingly just by touching him. When her fingertips brushed over his skin, he got goose bumps like a giddy child with his first crush. When he saw her walking down those castle halls with those gorgeous eyes and beautiful pale face of an angel, his breath caught in his chest and he found himself unable to breathe. He couldn't figure it out. He liked this girl in his arms, lying in his bed. A lot. He practically adored her. But did she feel the same? Fred had always been one to laugh off pain, to put on a smile so nobody else would see what lay beneath the smile and the jokes. The only person who knew the Fred that nobody else saw was George. But he wanted Danica to see that too. This girl, drifting to sleep in his arms at this exact moment, meant so much to him he surprised himself. If she broke his heart, would he be able to laugh this one off?

"Are you asleep beautiful?" Fred prayed silently George was asleep and couldn't hear his twin brother.

"Do you want me to be asleep?" she asked, her voice getting thicker as her body finally began to feel tired.

"I just want you to be here with me," Fred whispered, kissing her hair.

"It's funny."

"What is, love?"

"How you act like a totally different person around me. As if you're trying to show me a side of you nobody else sees." Fred inhaled deeply, his heart fluttering wildly as the breath left his lips once again. How did she know? "I like it. Makes me feel close to you." He felt the last bit of effort to stay awake start to leave.

"Wait, don't fall asleep yet." He started to climb out of bed which caused Danica to become wide awake. She clung to him, locking her hands to make a ring around him, not about to let him leave. She moaned and protested, trying to keep him next to her. No leaving. She had enough of that today.

"I'm not going anywhere." Fred simply reached across with his long, gangly arms to the nightstand. Still mindful of George, he opened the first drawer with Fred's name carved into it. Shining his wand with the light at the end, he rummaged through what seemed like a bottomless oblivion. Pushing aside his broke experiments, prank notes and plans, Chocolate Frog boxes and old crumpled pictures, he finally found what he had been looking for.

He turned back to Danica, his hand behind his back. Sitting up in bed, the blankets wrapped around her with her gray eyes drooping sleepily, Danica tried to peer around Fred to see what he was hiding. Fred sat next to her, patting his leg once he sat criss-cross. She crawled into his lap, leaning back against him as he snaked his arms around her. Her skin felt cold. He rubbed his hands over his arms, warming her up. She smiled.

"Danica, you are beautiful." He leaned down and kissed her neck, Danica giggled.

"Why thank you."

Silence followed and Danica found herself running her thumb over his skin as she held his hand, her skin warming from his touch. Fred continued to nuzzle his lips against her neck.

"Danica, I have something for you." Before she could turn to look at him, Fred reached into his pocket. Danica felt her hand being caressed gently. Right when she was going to ask what he was doing, she looked down and saw it. A silver ring with a small flower with white gold petals was being slipped onto her finger.

Danica's heart stopped in her chest as she continued to look down at the beautiful piece of jewelry he just placed on her finger. This must've cost Fred all his savings.

"Merry Christmas," Fred whispered in her ear. She turned her head to look into his face, stare into his golden eyes. A tear slipped from her shining gray moons. Fred wiped it away from her cheek, concern on his young face. "You don't like it." A frown started tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"No, it's gorgeous, Fred. I love it." She smiled brightly, the room lighting up from the dark just because of her dazzling display of teeth. Taking Fred's face in her hands she leaned in and kissed him deeply, her lips moving with his fluidly. His heart beat started running at 100 miles an hour as he leaned back and she leaned forward into his kiss. He settled onto his back as she lay gently on him, feeling her hand with the newly placed ring run through his hair. His arms wrapped slowly around her waist as he kissed her deeper, feeling the shape of her lips match his. 'Perfect. She loves the ring and now…'

The moment only broke when George groaned in his sleep and turned over. Danica smiled against his lips, chuckling slightly as she continued to run her fingers through his Weasley hair. With her forehead against his, eyes closed, Fred started to fall asleep. He could feel her heartbeat, count each beat along with matching each breath with his. As she lay upon his chest, Fred realized something.

"Danica?" he called quietly, barely audible. She did not stir. Opening his eyes, he saw her radiant eyes were closed as she entered dream land. He smiled and stroked her hair, thinking how he couldn't wish for a better Christmas than having his girlfriend sleeping in his arms.

"I love you, Danica Rae Lorenzo."

And with that, Fred drifted into sleep himself, hoping that the beautiful creature in his arms would be there when he awakened.