"You got the popcorn?"

"Got it. Sodas?"

"Yup. Snacks?"

"All here. Candies?"

"Waiting to be eaten. What else do we need?"

"Uh…beer and a pack of cigarettes?"

"PANSY!!!"

"I was just joking!"

Ginny closed the door behind them. She grabbed a pillow and sat down on the floor. The others followed her. "I now declare this slumber party open!" she announced.

"What is this, court?" Pansy sniggered. Ginny glared at her. Pansy shut up.

"So what are we gonna talk about in this glorious slumber party?" Ginny asked them, grabbing a handful of popcorn and stuffing it in her mouth. She choked and gulped it down with her butterbeer.

"School!"

"Quidditch!"

"Crumple-Horned Snorkacks!"

"Draco Malfoy!"

"Hey!"

They all gave each other knowing looks and Cho nodded at Ginny.

Ginny nodded back and smiled innocently. "Speaking of Draco Malfoy, we have-er, noticed, a…few things about. So what's going on between you two?" she asked Hermione.

"Erm…not much…"

Cho smirked. "Not much, eh? What about the holding hands?"

"The secret smiles?"

"Periods of time where both of you have mysteriously disappeared?"

"The snogging sessions?"

All was quiet. Ginny goggled at Luna. "Snogging sessions?"

Then she rounded on Hermione. "SNOGGING SESSIONS!?!?" she yelled.

"Uh…"

"I caught them at it." Luna said simply. They all turned to Hermione.

Hermione gave an exasperated sigh. "All right, fine! We are together! We've been together since last summer! Happy?" They grinned at one another. Then Ginny turned to Pansy. "That'll be 5 Galleons."

Pansy gagged on her popcorn. "What for??" She protested.

"For that bet you made about Hermione not confessing until the end of term." Ginny reminded her. Pansy looked horrified. "I never made any bet!" she protested. Ginny glared at her.

"Oh, yes you did." She said sternly. Cho tapped Pansy. "I forgot, you owe me 5 Galleons too!" she said brightly. "And me!" Luna added. Pansy looked at all of them in horror. "Uh…I'll go get my purse now. See ya!" she said, turning away from them and running out of the door.

"She won't come back." Luna said sadly.

"Oh, yes she will." Ginny said firmly. "I nicked her wallet." She explained, holding out a hot-pink-striped purse she got from her pocket. She opened it. "Alright, here's a five for me, one for you," she said, giving 5 Galleons to Cho. "And another one for Luna," she said, handing Luna 5 Galleons. "And a five for you!" she said, shoving the money in Hermione's hand.

Hermione shoved it back. "I can't take this!" she protested. "I didn't make any bet!"

Ginny shoved it back to her. "But you're the subject of the bet!" She told her. "Well, one of them" she added. Hermione looked surprised. "Oh." She replied, putting the money in her pocket.

Cho cleared her throat. "Now on to more pressing matters…" Just then, Pansy appeared at the door. She was puffing and red-faced. "I just can't find my wallet!" she wailed.

They gave each other looks. "You were actually looking for your wallet?" Ginny said in disbelief.

Pansy nodded.

"That'll be 5 galleons, Ginny!" Cho said in a singsong voice. Hermione and Luna nodded at her.

"Fine." Ginny grumbled. She threw the wallet in Pansy's direction. Pansy caught it, looking confused.

"What-"

"Sit down!"

Pansy glared at her and stuffed popcorn in her mouth.

"Now, what were saying, Cho?" Luna asked her. Cho smiled at her mischievously. "As I was saying, we are now on to more pressing matters,"

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "And that would be…?"

Cho looked directly at Hermione and lowered her voice. "Draco Malfoy. Is he or is not a good kisser?" she half-whispered.

Hermione sat up straight. "Is that a rhetorical question?"

"Just answer it!" Cho hissed.

Hermione went quiet. After a ringing silence, Hermione opened her mouth. "Yes." She said finally.

Ginny hooted. Hermione blushed crimson, and soon, the whole room was hooting and whooping.

"You two make such a good couple." Luna told her. "Yeah," Cho added. "Brains," she said, pointing to Hermione. "And brawn's, that's Draco." she said. Hermione blushed once more and ate 3 pretzels.

Ginny unwrapped a chocolate frog. "Now that Hermione's little problem is done," she said, taking a bite of her chocolate frog. "It's time to move on to mine."

Luna furrowed her brows. "What problem? You don't have a problem, do you?" she asked Ginny, concerned. Ginny shook her head. "It's not that…"

"Is it Harry?" Hermione asked her.

Ginny groaned. "Actually, it is him."

Pansy clapped her hands excitedly. "You guys are fighting?? Can I have him, Ginny??"

"Shut up, Parkinson. You already have a boyfriend." Ginny snapped. Pansy harrumphed and muttered something about "redheads".

"It's just that," Ginny continued, chewing on her chocolate frog, "He won't stop talking about Quidditch and its getting quite boring to me."

"So tell him that." Hermione said.

"Hermione, I can't tell him that!" Ginny said, aghast, spraying her with chocolate. Hermione winced and wiped it off her face. "Sorry. He'll break up with me!" she said indignantly.

"No, he won't."

"Yes, he will."

"No, he won't."

"Yes, he will."

"Won't"

"Will"

"Won't"

"Will!"

"Guys!" Cho yelled. She turned to Ginny. "He won't break up with you." She told Ginny firmly.

"But-"

"'Honesty is the best policy.' That's what my dad says." Luna chipped in.

"Oh, fine." Ginny grumbled. "I'll talk to him in the morning."

"How's Michael, Cho?" Hermione asked her. "He's alright. No offence, Ginny." Cho said, glancing at Ginny. Ginny shrugged.

"He's been getting competitive ever since the Quidditch season started." Cho told them. "I'm trying to knock some sense into him, but it's not going anywhere."

"You know what you need to do?" Pansy told her. "Snog him. Give him a nice, long snog."

Ginny snorted. "She's right, Cho. She knows best. After all, she is dating my brother."

"You're dating Ronald Weasley?" Luna asked Pansy, surprised.

"Don't you know?" Ginny asked their. "They're like snog buddies."

"Well, it's true!" Pansy said defensively. "I mean, he is a good kiss-"

"Gross Pansy! I really don't want to hear about my brother's snog life." Ginny shuddered.

"Alright, alright. Let's talk about something else." Hermione said. "Got anything to tell us about Neville, Luna?"

"Longbottom? You're going out with Longbottom?? Ha!!" Pansy shrieked.

They all glared at her. "SHUT UP PARKINSON!!!"

Pansy retreated to a corner and grumbled furiously about "screaming people and hearing aids". Then she grabbed the bowl of popcorn and started stuffing her mouth with it.

"Well?" Hermione prompted.

"Well, he took me on a date yesterday." Luna said brightly. "We visited his Venomous Tentacula plant that he's growing. It was going pretty well until he got bitten by the plant."

"Ouch." They all said. "And why was he bitten by the plant?" Ginny asked her slyly.

"We were…kissing." She said sheepishly. They all smiled at her. "You two make such a cute couple!" Hermione squealed.

"I know. Everyone keeps telling us that." Luna said, smiling serenely.

Cho opened a box of Bertie Bott's Every-flavour bean, took a few, and passed the box to everyone. A second later, Ginny spat out a dark-green one. "Spinach. Sorry." She said apologetically, flicking the eaten jellybean out of the window.

"I got strawberry." Hermione said, examining the other jellybeans in her hand.

"Tart!" Cho said happily, nibbling on a red one.

"Popcorn!" Pansy said, eating it. "Then she clutched her stomach. "Ugh…I think I had enough of popcorn…"

"Here, try a banana-flavored. It's better that my bacon-flavored one." Luna said, giving her a yellow-colored jellybean. Pansy swallowed it. "Scrambled eggs. Euw." She picked up a red jellybean. "Cherry! Alright!"

"Anyone want my jelly bean?" Luna said, waving her jellybean around. It flew out of her hand and into Crookshanks' mouth. The cat happily walked away, eating the stolen jellybean.

"Oh well." Luna said nonchalantly.

She took a sip of her butterbeer and started chewing on a piece of Drooble's best blowing gum. A few minutes later, Ginny looked up and stared at Luna's bubble. "Erm, Luna, isn't that bubble getting big enough?" Ginny said, eyeing the bubble and backing away slightly. Luna ignored her and continued blowing her bubble.

But the others started to noticed the progress of the bubblegum and backed away as well.

"Luna, I think it's time to stop now." Hermione said in a worried voice.

Luna waved her hands in the air. "Mghff! Mghff!"

"What?" Pansy cried, as the bubble started to get bigger and bigger.

"Mghff!! Mghff!!"

"Can't anyone stop it?" Cho said desperately, flattening herself against the wall.

Luna's eyes grew wide as the bubble was getting bigger by the moment. Bigger and BIGGER until-

"Everybody duck!" Hermione yelled, flinging herself on the ground. The others followed her, except for Luna, her mouth still attached to the bubble.

POP!

Large and tiny bits of pink bubblegum flew as the bubble exploded. Everything was draped in pink gum. Pink, pink, pink. Pink bubblegum was EVERYWHERE.

After cautiously looking around, Ginny stood up and started to brush away the pieces of gum in her hair. It was stuck. Giving up, she looked at the room.

Her mouth stretched into a grin. Then she started to laugh. The others picked themselves up from the ground, surveyed the scene, and started to laugh as well.

"This has got to be the best slumber party ever!" Ginny giggled.

"Absolutely!" Hermione agreed.

"Look at you, Luna!" Pansy pointed out.

Luna smiled. "I know. Pink looks good on me, don't you think?"

Cho giggled. "Imagined if our boyfriends saw us."

"I wish." Hermione said. "But now, we've got to clean up our mess."

"Do we have to?" Ginny asked her.

Hermione laughed. "You know we do."

They drew out their wands (which was not covered in gum), and shouted, "Sourgify!" And the mess cleaned up. Then they brought out their sleeping bags and settled down to sleep.

"I shall remember this slumber party forever!" Cho declared.

"Hear, hear!" they chorused. "Good-night." they said. And the lamps were extinguished.

It may be so that everyone was asleep, but in a small corner, whispering could be heard.

"What about us?"

"Shut up, Longbottom."

"Malfoy, you shut it!"

"Ouch! Did somebody step on me?"

"Sorry, Harry, I can't see."

"Blimey, did you hear what they said about us?" Ron whispered.

"And you being a good snogger? Nah, I don't believe it." Draco said.

"I believe you're one as well, judging by the way Hermione turned red." Harry teased. "I can't believe Ginny wants to stop talking about Quidditch. I thought she loved it."

"Maybe she's right and you should talk about stuff other than Quidditch." Neville said reasonably.

"I don't remember you giving great advice, Neville." Michael commented.

"Shh!" Harry said. "We need to get ourselves out of this room without them hearing us."

"We could apparate out of here." Ron suggested.

"Don't be stupid! You can't apparate in Hogwarts!" Draco snapped.

Ron harrumphed.

"Hey, did you learn that from Hermione?" Neville asked him.

"What? Oh, er-yeah." Draco said distractedly.

Harry looked at what (or in this case, whom) Draco was staring at.

"Look, as much as I want to stare at my girlfriend," he said, grinning, as Draco quickly turned away and faced Harry guiltily, "We need to get out of here. It's late and it's no use staying up all night and staring at them."

"How about tip-toeing quietly to the door?" Michael suggested. "At least they won't see us. We're under the invisibility cloak, anyway."

Ron looked at him thoughtfully. "You know, that's a great idea."

"Uh, guys?" Neville called out timidly.

"Quiet, Neville." Harry told him. "On the count of three, we move towards the door."

"Guys?" Neville called out again.

"Shut up, Longbottom." Draco snapped. "We got to make sure that nothing's in our way, or else the cloak might slip off." He added. They nodded.

"Guys, listen to me." Neville told them urgently.

"Later, Neville." Michael told him impatiently. "Alright, on the count of three. One, two, three!"

As they started to move towards the door, Neville yelped, "Guys! The cloak's stuck on a piece of gum!"

But it was too late. The cloak slid off them like a sheet of silky paper and onto the floor. They stopped walking.

"Neville. You-Should-Have-Told-Us-Earlier." Harry told him through gritted teeth.

"I tried!" Neville protested. "Wait, lemme just get the cloak. I'll be quick!" he said, turning around.

"Neville, no!" they moaned. A split second later, they heard a crash and Neville was lying on the floor, having tripped over the bowl of popcorn.

"Anyone want some popcorn?" Neville said feebly, slumping on the floor.

Harry glanced at the sleeping bags of the girls.

Empty.

"Hey Ron, do you think they went to the bathroom?" Harry asked him, gesturing to the empty sleeping bags.

Ron shrugged. "No idea, mate."

"Unless…" Draco said slowly.

"Unless what?" Michael demanded.

"Unless they're right behind you, waiting for an explanation." A voice said behind them.

They froze.

Draco sighed dramatically. "We're busted."