AN: this isn't beta'd and I just kind of banged it out so there's some bits I don't like that I wish I'd done better or whatever but I don't really want to rewrite it or tweak it as this was more just an exercise of trying a new writing style so I don't want to linger on it too long. Enjoy :)

9:37pm pans where r u?

9:37pm potters here?

9:38pm send help!

9:38pm abort mission

9:38pm I'm srs where ru?

9:41pm I'm at rehearsal draco I told u earlier

9:41pm fuck rehearsal? its 10 on a saturday and ur at rehearsal come party

9:46pm piss off I already told u I wasn't coming tonight

9:48pm grangers here too

10:02pm fuck off I can't come

10:09pm I'll be there in like an hour

True to her word Pansy arrives at the party a little past eleven, her outfit maybe a little less thought out than she would like and her hair not 100% straight but she's there nonetheless. She can hear Formation blasting from the house and thinks how Hermione likes this song; sure enough Pansy spots her as soon as she walks in, dancing right in the centre of the room, she doesn't notice Pansy, who walks right through to the kitchen to get a drink.

"Thank God you're here!"

She turns to see Draco stumbling in from the hallway, his shirt wrinkled and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Pansy raises a single eyebrow at him; "you called?"

"I made it worth your while." Draco assures her, holding up a bottle of vanilla vodka. He reaches the kitchen table and unscrews the bottle, pouring a generous helping in the glass and onto the counter. "Coke or lemonade?" he asks.

Pansy grabs the bottle of lemonade and pours it herself.

"Potter's here." Draco announces again, as though she'd forgotten the reason she was dragged down here in the first place.

"Yes?"

"He looked at me when he came in, what does that mean?"

"I don't know, that you happened to be in his line of sight?" Pansy sips her drink.

"No he looked at me, Pans."

"Yeah, I don't even know what that means." Pansy takes another gulp of her drink. "Is Daph here?"

"Yeah she's with that Flint dude, but Pans you're not getting me!"

"No I'm not. I'm going to find Daph, I wanna do shots."

"I'll do shots with you." Draco wobbles dangerously as he lets go of the kitchen table.

"Draco you're fucked, go find Potter and ask him what it means that he looked at you."

"Do you really think I should?" Draco asks, but Pansy's already leaving the kitchen.

Back in the living room someone's put Busted on; Pansy tries not to look at Hermione and instead pulls out her phone and texts Daphne.

11:42pm daph where u at?

11:42pm draco said ur w marcus flint?

11:42pm I wanna do shots

11:44pm smoking outside

11:44pm u want one I got menthols?

11:44pm sure u out the back?

11:45pm ya come

Pansy finds Daphne with Marcus Flint smoking in the back garden, Daphne lights Pansy a menthol and hands it to her. Pansy takes a drag and turns to Daphne, "you up for shots?" She asks as she exhales.

"Yeah sure, let me finish this."

"Someone say shots?" A loud, giggling voice asks from behind them.

Pansy turns to see Hermione stumbling out from the French doors, her eyes wild and her hair bigger than ever.

"Sorry." Hermione falters. "I'm looking for Harry."

"Draco's probably got his claws into him." Daphne drawls from behind Pansy. "You wanna do shots with us?"

"Sure," Hermione agrees, "someone put Coldplay on." She adds as an explanation, scrunching her nose up.

Pansy nods, inhaling again. She sees Hermione eyeing the cigarette and offers it to her. "Want a drag?" She's embarrassed to find her voice doesn't sound quite normal.

Hermione leans forwards, attempting to tuck her unruly curls behind her ear and inhales from the cigarette; her lips brush Pansy's fingers. Pansy stiffens but doesn't pull back.

Hermione straightens up and closes her eyes as she exhales and finally Pansy can really look at her. She hasn't seen her in almost 2 months; she's almost convinced Hermione's been avoiding her around campus.

Pansy looks away as Hermione opens her eyes again and finishes the rest of her drink. "Alright shall we do shots then?"

"I haven't finished." Daphne grumbles.

"Well I have." Pansy says, "let's go."

Daphne rolls her eyes but stubs out her cigarette and follows Pansy inside.

Daphne lines up the shot glasses as Pansy roots around for something to drink.

"How many do we want?" Daphne asks, "like 5 each?"

"At least 7." Pansy replies, "I have vanilla vodka?"

"I thought Draco brought that?"

"Yeah he gave it to me."

"You guys want tequila?"

Pansy and Daphne both turn to see Hermione clutching an amber bottle of tequila shaped like a sun.

"Where'd you find that?"

"I know where they keep stuff here." Hermione grins wickedly and uncorks the bottle, pouring out the twenty-one shots before replacing the now almost empty bottle to its cupboard.

"Bottoms up!" Daphne announces, taking her first shot.

Pansy catches Hermione's eye as she lifts her first shot. Hermione grins at her, her eyes glinting. Pansy can't help but smile back.

They take the seven shots in quick succession and run to the dance floor, giggling as thought they'd just got away with murder. Pansy doesn't remember the rest of the night.

Pansy wakes to her alarm at 8 o'clock and immediately wants to die. She rolls out of bed, pressing the buttons on her phone until the alarm subsides and immediately heads to her bathroom. She showers in the dark, then takes 4 paracetamol and drinks a litre of water. Only then does Pansy check her phone.

5:07am pans I slept w potter

5:07am (4 missed calls)

5:07am fuck pans answer me

5:07am PANS

5:08am PAAAANSS FUCK

5:08am (3 missed calls)

5:09am ANSWER ME

5:09am we need to talk tomorrow u were right fucked up

5:12am today lol

8:23am draco what happened last night?

8:25am (incoming call)

Pansy answers the phone on the first ring.

"Hey"

Draco moans.

"What happened?"

"I think the better question is what didn't happen Pansy pie?"

"You slept with Potter?"

"Yes."

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"How was it?"

"Drunk."

"Not good?"

"Not really, it was really embarrassing we were both so drunk."

"No way?"

"Fuck off?"

"He couldn't get it up?"

"Fuck off Pans. He could just it wouldn't, y'know, stay up."

"Oh my God."

"Yeah." There was a pause, "what about you and Granger anyway?"

"What about us?"

"Did you two fuck?"

"I don't know? Do you think we did?"

"You were getting with each other in the middle of the dance floor."

"Oh God…"

"You did body shots off of her."

"Fuck."

"Indeed."

"I have to go; I have rehearsal."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know, what are you gonna do?"

"Touché."

"Later."

"Bye."

Pansy hangs up the phone and tosses it onto her bed. She crosses to her drawers and pulls out a leotard, sports bra and a pair of leggings and dresses quickly, pulling on a jacket and tosses her ballet shoes into her bag along with her phone and keys. Pansy pins her short hair into a bun on the back of her head and applies winged eyeliner and mascara before heading out of her dorm to the dance studios.

She stops at Starbucks on the way to buy a large coffee and almost walks into Potter leaving as she arrives.

"Potter." She greets him nodding.

"Parkinson." He inclines his head in the same manner.

8:47am I just saw potter in starbucks

8:47am shit what happened

8:47am nothing?

8:47am what did he say?

8:48am Parkinson

8:48am whyd he say that?

8:48am it's called a greeting you may not have heard of it

8:48am don't get funny w me did he say anything abt me?

8:48am no now go away

8:49am u texted me first

8:49am u sure he didn't say anything? did he look any different? did he act different?

8:53am no now I have rehearsal

8:53am ur actually going to rehearsal after the amount u drank last night?

Pansy arrives at rehearsal exactly three minutes late. Her teacher calls her out in front of the whole class then picks on her technique throughout the entire warm up.

"Turn your toes out more Parkinson! Even my Grandma has stronger ankles than that."

Pansy grits her teeth as she pliés, turning her feet out so that they are almost at a 180-degree angle.

"Your arms are supposed to be soft Parkinson, you are elegant not an ogre."

The two hours of rehearsal couldn't possibly have gone slower and by the end of it Pansy felt as though her legs were going to snap. As everyone around her changed their shoes and headed off to their classes and friends as Pansy leant against the barre and drank a bottle of water.

After her teacher leaves Pansy connects her phone to the speakers, fully intending on running through her routine when the door opens behind her. She turns, although she needn't have bothered as she was facing the mirror, to see Hermione standing in the doorway.

For a moment Pansy is too surprised to speak, then she regains herself. "I was going to text you after rehearsal."

"Well… I knew you'd be here so I just thought I'd stop by." Hermione pushes her unruly hair off of her face. "Is that okay?"

"Uhh… Yes that's fine." Pansy is very aware of how sweaty she is, "if I'd known you were coming I'd have done my hair or something."

Hermione grins, "do you remember last night?" She asks, letting the door close behind her as she moves further into the room.

"Not really, no." Pansy admits, grinning wryly, "I heard we did body shots."

Hermione laughs and Pansy revels in the sound.

"We did, yes." Hermione confirms, brushing a stray hair off her cheek. "I don't know how you're still alive after that much alcohol, let alone at rehearsal at 9am."

"I've been training since birth." Pansy replied, with a straight face.

"An admirable goal." Hermione nodded sternly, moving towards Pansy, her boots clicking on the wooden floor of the dance studio. Pansy wishes her hair were down to hide her blush somewhat.

"I came by for a reason." Hermione tells Pansy, she's standing almost right in front of her now.

"Oh?" Pansy replies, feeling as though she's lost all control of her brain.

Hermione giggles, her cheeks warming a little and Pansy wishes she could think of something clever to say.

"Yes." Hermione confirms, "I came to ask you out on a date."

Now Pansy knows for certain her blush is visible, "a date?" She asks, "you mean body shots and drunken grinding don't count?"

Hermione laughs again, "both perfectly acceptable dating activities but I've heard that for it to be an actual date one party must ask the other out beforehand."

"I believe I may have heard that somewhere too," Pansy agrees, with a small smile.

"Well?" Hermione asks, advancing still closer.

"I'm going to have to mull it over." Pansy tells her, stepping back, her back hitting the barre.

Hermione laughs out loud at this, "not if last night was anything to go by."

Pansy tries to frown but finds she can't, she's absolutely certain she's bright red by now and curses Hermione's dark skin.

"Next Thursday." Pansy replies, "eight o'clock."

"Make it seven." Hermione grins, "what do you wanna do?"

"Rob a store?" Pansy suggests, glad to have her stride back. "Go trick or treating?"

"It's February." Hermione mumbles, her hand finding the barre behind Pansy, effectively trapping her.

"No time like the present," Pansy smirks, lifting her chin defiantly. Usually she's an inch or so taller than Hermione, but the shoes she's wearing provide Hermione with the height advantage.

"So I've heard." Hermione murmurs, her hair cocooning them as she leans down to kiss Pansy.

Their lips meet and Hermione's hand moves from the barre to Pansy's waist, pulling her closer. Pansy feels as though her head is underwater and she can't think of anything but Hermione but she supposes that if she could she'd be thanking Draco for his crazy obsession with Harry Potter.