"Hey Ely, did you finally ask your aunt about you guys staying at my house for winter break?" Lily asked as she, Ely, Bella, and Severus were doing their homework in the library.

"Belle didn't drop off anything, so I'm not sure yet. Maybe Aunt Minnie sent her owl instead. They only way to know is to check the Owlery." Ely answered with a shrug. Lily looked crest fallen slightly and Ely frowned.

"Why don't we go and check? I have to go see if Midnight is okay anyways." Bella suggested and they all agreed. Packing up their stuff, they headed towards the Owlery.

It was rather remarkable how well things had turned out. Severus and Ely were back on speaking terms, Bella was sort of friends with Lily, although it was still a touchy subject because she was a Gryffindor, and Potter's gang hadn't attacked Ely or Severus in while. Remus and Ely were still friends, and both Severus and James had gotten used to the fact that they were going to be friends anyways. However, James, Sirius, and Peter didn't like that they thought Ely knew something about Remus that Remus wouldn't tell them himself. Overall though, things were going rather well.

They got to the Owlery and as if on cue, Aunt Minnie's owl flew in from one of the windows and landed on Ely's shoulder. She scratched his head and handed him a treat.

"You can rest for a day Austin, you earned it." The owl hooted in gratitude as he walked off with another treat in his mouth, flying to a branch that was next to Belle.

"Do you have an endless supply of treats for owls in your robes or something?" Lily asked as she saw Ely pull out a few more treats from her pockets and put them in a compartment so Belle could have some later.

"Nope, I just literally carry this amount of pet food on me at all times." Ely replied sarcastically which caused Severus to chuckle. Bella hadn't quite picked up on the sarcasm so was a bit offended like Lily was. Ely quickly read the note and added, "By the way Aunt Minnie said yes."

Lily was about to retort when another owl came and perched itself on a branch in front of Ely. Ely's smile dropped from her face and Severus had a somber look on his face. Salazar stuck his leg out for Ely to grab the parchment from his leg. She took it and he flew off towards a nearby branch, cleaning his already clean feathers.

"Who is it from?" Bella asked, to which Lily shrugged as Ely was about to open the note. However, there was an interruption.

"Hey Elanora!" Matthew Watson had just walked into the Owlery. Ely smiled brightly at him as he came up to her.

"Hooroo Matthew, how are you? And call me Ely." Matthew bowed and kissed the top of her hand, then also bowed to the other girls and gave Severus a slight nod.

"Only if you return the same courtesy by calling me Matt." When she nodded he continued, "I was on my way here to deliver this to you actually," he held up a small note, "but since you're already here it makes this much easier. I was wondering if anyone had asked you to the Christmas dance yet."

Ely's eyes slightly widened as well as Lily's, Bella's, and Severus' eyes had done in shock. "I thought students weren't allowed to go until their third year."

"Most of the time, yes, unless they get asked by someone in a higher year." Matt ran his fingers through his short brown hair, "I guess what I am trying to ask is… Will you go to the dance with me?"

This left Elanora completely floored. Her mind couldn't process what it was that would make Matthew want to take her to the dance. Sure, they greeted each other when they passed and had the occasional chit-chat, but it still didn't add up. Then she remember the note that was currently in her hand. The dance was in two weeks, and she realized that probably that was what was probably awaiting her when she opened up the note.

"Yes Matthew, I will go with you to the dance." His smile widened as she had said yes, and his cheeks were slightly pink.

"Brilliant! So I guess this means you're my date. Um…" He looked like he wanted to say a lot of things at once but then chuckled, "I guess we'll work out the details later. Let me know what color you're planning to wear." He kissed her hand again, bowing to her and to Lily and Bella. Giving Severus another nod, he exited the Owlery much more confident than he had walked in.

Ely was almost as red as her hair as it finally sunk in what had happened.

"Did that seriously just…" Bella trailed off as Ely nodded. "So you're actually…" Lily also trailed off as Ely nodded again.

Lily was the first to react and tackled Ely in a big hug. "This is absolutely fantastic Ely! You're probably one of the youngest students to get to go to the dance. And you got asked out by a sixth year!"

"What are you going to wear?" Bella asked and then Ely's face dropped.

"I don't have anything to wear." Ely replied sadly to which Lily and Bella frowned.

"Before you three get any further into this, I would personally like to know what Lucius had to say." Severus interrupted.

Ely opened Lucius' note and almost rolled her eyes.

Elanora,

I know you realize that the winter dance is in two weeks. Normally students are not allowed to go if they are below third years, but I am willingly to take you as my date. It would give me great pleasure if you would accept. Please send your answer back with Salazar.

Lucius

"Wow Ely… You've been asked twice by fifth year and a sixth year to the dance in less than 5 minutes of each of them." Bella said in awe to which Severus rolled his eyes.

"Well I already said yes to Matt so I guess Lucius is just going to have to suck it up." She took out a small piece of parchment and quickly wrote back to Lucius, apologizing for not being able to go with him and explaining that she already said yes to Matt. However, she did recommend that he was Narcissa, to which he would most likely get a yes from. She called down Salazar and slipped it on his leg, to which she told him to go to his master. As the owl flew off, Bella had grabbed Ely's hand and was dragging her out of the Owlery.

"Where are you taking me Bella?" Ely asked as Lily kept her hasty pace back towards the castle, with Lily and Severus in tow.

"You need a dress in two weeks, well I have the solution." Bella told them to stay out in front of the dungeons as she walked into the Slytherin common room. She came back out a few minutes later with a magazine in her hand. Bella looked at Severus expectantly to which he took the hint.

"I'm going to start my Potions homework. You can find me in the library once you three are done doing whatever it is that you're doing." Severus said before he walked into the Slytherin common room.

Lily took Bella and Ely into the Gryffindor common room and into her dorm. Her roommates looked up but said nothing as they sat on Lily's bed.

Bella opened the magazine and Lily and Ely were in awe. It was like a muggle prom magazine, but the pictures actually moved so you could see the dress at all angles, including hair and shoes.

"Bella, this is great!" Ely hugged her as she watched the dresses on the page. Bella touched one of the pages and told Ely to stand up. She touched the magazine again and measuring tape came out of the page and measure Ely. Ely and Lily were shocked at first, but Bella shrugged it off.

"My parents are used to my sister and I buying dresses for ourselves. It saves them the hassle of taking us to Hogsmeade. My dad is also used to my sister always buying stuff for her friends."

"Bella, you don't have to do that." Ely was touched by Bella's generosity, to which Bella smiled.

"You're my best friend Ely. It's the least I can do." Ely gave Bella a big hug in a gesture of thanks.

In between Lily and Bella, with Ely putting in her two cents every once in a while, they had finally managed to pick a dress. The delivery would take normally three days, which left time for alterations if needed.

"They're not as perfect as actually getting the dress at a shop, but it's pretty close." Bella commented as she closed the magazine.

Ely hugged Bella in thanks and then asked Lily for a piece of parchment. Taking a quill that was laying around with ink she quickly wrote down seven words. Spelling the parchment to turn into a bird, she gave it a quick kiss before sending it off.

While the girls asked Ely how she had done that, the bird made its journey from the Gryffindor tower to the Ravenclaw common room. Most people stopped and watched it fly through the air, but no one dared touch it. Not even Peeves made a move as the parchment flew by him. The parchment successfully made its way into the common room where everyone just kind of froze. Matthew was finishing up some of his potions homework when the bird flew up to him, pecked his cheek, and landed perfectly on top of his textbook. Carefully picking it up, he slowly opened it and read what was inside. Almost no one understood why he was laughing so hard.

'Just to have some peace of mind, it's blue with silver. Have to have my Slytherin touches you know."