Disclaimer: I don't own (sadly) the Harry Potter series, characters, etc. Although if I was older and thought of this idea before JKRowling I would have...
Summary: There's a masquerade ball and Ginny and Draco fall in love. They have to meet in secret, hiding their identities, afraid of the consequences if they show their true faces.
Chapter 1 Masquerades and Matts
"Ugh...can you believe it? We have to go to a bloody ball. Hey, bloody ball. That's pretty clever, eh?" Ron said, holding up a flyer for the Hogwarts Beginning Ball.
"It sounds pretty exciting to me...it's a masquerade, so we might fall in love with someone that's completely fascinating behind his mask, but he might be a Hufflepuff. Or worse Slytherin," Hermione stated with a dreamy look in her eyes.
Harry and Ron gaped at her.
Or her mask. Sorry, I'm thinking about myself only again aren't I? Oh God I just said that out loud. You did not hear anything I said, okay? Okay? Forget everything I just said!" she said, all in one breath and blushing.
"As if we were actually going to this mas...mas...what did you say?" Harry responded.
"Masquerade Harry. You guys seriously need to expand your vocabulary..." Hermione said exasperatingly.
"Whatever. The thing is, we're not going to this ball because balls are for babies. Hey, balls are for babies! That's pretty clever too, eh?"
"That is pretty clever...not!" Harry joked.
"You're just jealous because you can't come up with any clever quotes. Hey, clever quotes, that sounds…clever."
"You have got to be kidding…"
"But guys, this masquerade is mandatory! It's an exam grade for…Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts? How queer. No matter, we have to go. Now, I'm going upstairs to decide what mask I'm going to wear…" Hermione finished, leaving the boys to quarrel about their silly matter about clever quotes and flounced upstairs to tell the other girls.
A couple of the girls were busy reading Teen Fiction Romance Comedy Novels when Hermione burst in.
"Emagawd! Check this out! We're having a mandatory masquerade ball for an exam grade!" she squealed.
"Really? What subject?"
"You won't believe this: DADA and Transfiguration."
"No way! Wait, what does dancing in masks have to do with those classes?"
"Never mind that! I hope it's going to be romantic!"
"I hope my date is a mysterious man who turns out to be like Matt!"
Suddenly all the girls except for Hermione (because she wasn't reading the silly novels) shrieked like crazy.
"Um…who the heck is Matt?"
"Emagawd you don't know who Matt is?"
"Don't contradict me, I just want to know!" Hermione cried, muttering to herself, "Like I would be caught reading those books…"
"She's right, she deserves to know, she got us these books for Christmas last year. Matt," Parvati, who was sitting on her bed, swerved her body so that she was Hermione, "is one of the major characters in this book, 'I'm a Girl in an All Boys Boarding School!' and the main character Jamie was admitted to an all boys boarding school while her parents leave for the year on a 'business trip.' But they didn't know the school was boys only until Jamie told them once she was admitted. Anyways, she has to share a room with this guy Matt. He's HOT! He did a commercial for Gatorade and a modeling shoot for Guess. They argue a lot but secretly love each other. Then they sign up for this pen pal thing and it just so happens they get each other. They email one another for weeks and decide to meet up. When they finally meet, Jamie becomes overcome with fear and starts crying emotionally and Matt holds her in this strong arms…well…you know the rest…" Everyone sighed dramatically.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go get our Matt!" Angelina cried, and all the girls cheered and ran for their trunks.
"Hermione, when is this thing?" Alicia hollered, head buried in trunk, throwing random things out.
"Saturday..."
"Oh hell! That only gives us four days to get ready!" Lavender panicked.
"Don't worry, I think we have a Hogsmeade trip tomorrow!" Hermione said, digging through her own trunk.
"Lemme go check!" cried Alicia, sliding down the banister so fast you'd think she'd burn her butt off.
"Quick everyone, dig through Alicia's stuff, she's bound to have clothes! Hurry, hurry, before she comes back!" Katie cried.
The girls clamored over to Alicia's trunk and looked for clothes like savages (sadly pathetic) and stopped occasionally to listen for her return.
"Wow, why doesn't she just wear this..."
"Why does she have this skimpy...shit! She's coming back!"
Everyone scrambled back to their own trunks, not daring to take anything because Alicia was famous for her short temper and hawk eyes.
Alicia ran up. "Yes...there's...one...tomorrow...after potions..." she panted.
"Emagawd Alicia! Look at your freaking butt!"
"What? Damn it! This is my Dolce & Gabanna skirt!"
"I can fix it for you. Wear it backwards when I'm done and it will turn from trashy to classy!" Hermione said. "Now go change."
"Oh would you? Thanks soooo much!" Alicia called over her shoulder. She was a bit preoccupied trying to run for the bathroom and change out of her skirt at the same time. No luck, she caught her skirt in her heel and stumbled.
In 10 seconds flat Alicia came out wearing a pair of Mudd jeans. You can fix this right?" Alicia questioned worriedly.
"Don't be so dramatic, I can handle this!" she answered, rummaging through her trunk for accessories and sewing items.
"I'll be back!" she said, in a half girly, half Terminator voice.
"Women..." muttered Ron as he and Harry watched Hermione rush up the stairs. "Every single little gathering comes up and they ahve to go and giggle about it for hours. I just don't understand."
"Tell me about it," Harry said, as they walked out of the Gryffindor common room to head for the Quidditch field. "Women are so complicated. You need a manual to understand them."
"And you need 3 manuals to understand men!" giggled Pansy and her posse as they walked passed them.
"Pansy alone needs 10 manuals, she's so retarded, not really of course, but she doesn't know what the hell she's talking about half the time..." drawled Malfoy, followed by his usual crowd, Crabbe and Goyle.
"We don't want to fight Malfoy," Ron started.
"I know, neither do we. This isn't a fight between houses but but between sexes."
"Huh?" Harry and Ron said simultaneously.
Malfoy impatiently sighed. "Don't the girls in Gryffindor giggle about the ball too?"
"Oh. OH. Yeah, so?"
"Aren't you tired of them doing that?"
"Definitely!" cried a voice from behind them.
Fred, Geroge, and Lee were appraching, and boy, did they look mad.
"I told Angelina to stop gibbering about the ball when she could just go with me and she says, 'Why would I bother going with you when I'm going to dance with my Matt.' What the hell does that mean?" Fred said, turning red with embarressment and humiliation.
"I don't know, but I also don't care. You think that's bad? I heard about Alicia's problem and I told her I'd buy her a new skirt and she snaps back and says, 'One, Hermione is fixing my skirt. Two, no guy could possibly buy me a skirt that values up to D & G. And three, stop trying to suck up to me so we can go to the' mas...mas.."
"Masquerade," Harry miserably said.
"Right. Anyways, '...so we can go to the masquerade togther 'cause I'm going to find my Matt."
"Who the hell is Matt?" Lee muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"I don't know, maybe a stupid guy in those stupid books they read," Malfoy said disgustedly.
"Actually they're called teen fiction romance comedy novels," Ron said.
"What?" Fred, George, and Harry said.
"Wait, how do you know this, Ronald?" Fred asked.
"I saw one of Ginny's copies, but it's not like I read it! It's a romance novel for crying out loud!" Ron cried, blushing.
"That's not the point! The point is that we have to show those girls that they don't need an imaginary Matt when they got us!" Draco said.
"I have an idea!" shouted Lee. "Why don't why raid the girls dorms and chuck out all those books so they can forget about their stupid Mark!" Lee pumped a fist in the air.
"That's bloody brilliant except the fact that his name is Matt you idiot..." Fred hissed as swift footsteps approached them.
"I have an idea. Why don't you boys go back to your common rooms and write me an essay on how to transfigure liquid. Two scrolls due Monday. I'll see you later, now shoo!" Professor McGonagall said. She had heard them squabbling, and thought it best to keep their minds busy with extra homework and the festivities.
"Hermione...when are you going to give up on SPEW?" Ron said.
The three of them were in the common room and Ron and Harry were trying to do their homework, while Hermione was knitting.
Suddenly, Hermione threw the knitting down furiously. "Ron, for the last time it is NOT SPEW! It's S.P.E.W...wait. That's brilliant Ron! I have the greatest idea! Just you wait, I'm going..."
"To the library, we know, we know," Harry said, bored.
"Actually, what I was going to say before I was rudely interrupted," she shot a glare at Harry. "I'm going to see Dumbledore. Bye!"
When Hermione left, Ron looked at Harry. Harry said, "What was that all about?"
"Who knows, but we have to work on our extra Transfiguration homework."
Ron looked down at his paper, then back up at Harry, who had fallen asleep.
"Good idea mate. This thing is due on Monday." And Ron fell asleep.
Hope you guys liked it, sorry it took forever, because I typed it up on a floppy disk on my really old laptop and then I tried to transfer it to the main computer, the only computer in my entire freaking house that has internet access, and it wouldn't make the transaction, so I had to type the whole thing up again on the main computer. Life sucks...or as my friend maddie would say...school bites, so bite back...or something like that. read her stories, they're really good. i think she's under the name poke-the-sleeping-dragon now...don't forget to review!