Author's Note: First, thank you all to everyone who reviewed/added this story to your favorite/alert list. It always makes my day to see that! Second, this chapter is going to be different from the previous ones in a few ways. One, it spans an entire week, as opposed to a day. I've put the dates at the beginning of each section to help. Two, it's a bit longer than the ones I've posted previously, but I doubt you guys will mind that! I didn't plan on it being this long, but then I decided to add a little scene in that I hadn't thought of before but felt it would help progress the story along more believingly. More Hermione/Draco interaction in this chapter, folks, which is good, because that means it should only increase from here!

Sunday, October 26

"So, Sophie, how are the therapy sessions going?"

"Fairly well, although there are still a few students who haven't opened up to me in the individual sessions, but that's not really what I'm worried about."

"Oh? And what is it that you are worried about?"

"The group sessions, Headmistress. There have been improvements, which have amazed me, quite honestly, but I'm still worried about the students. Many of them are having trouble relating to one another, opening up to each other. There are a few who do it without any problem, of course, namely Neville and Pansy-"

Here she saw McGongall's nostrils flare, ever-so-slightly, and she knew it was because McGonagall disapproved of the first name basis with which she was on with the students, but she pressed on determinedly-

"-Neville and Pansy, but they need to bond with each other, as soon as possible. I'm afraid achieving any sort of serious inter-house unity will be quite impossible, if they don't."

"Well, I appreciate your concern, but myself as well as the Heads of each House are working on that. We have finally finished reviewing the proposals Miss Granger and Mr. Longbottom submitted for unity events, and we have chosen which ones to use. There will be one a month, and the first one is to be at the end of this week, on Halloween."

"Oh, that's wonderful to hear. What will it be?"

McGonagall's nostrils flared again, only for a moment. "A carnival."

Monday, October 27

Feeling very guilty, Hermione tickled the pear on the painting which concealed the entrance into the kitchens. But honestly, she was hungry, and she'd been avoiding Ginny since Saturday because she really didn't want to talk about her and Ron's breakup. So she had skipped dinner and told herself she'd just get up really early in the morning for breakfast. But her stomach had been rumbling horribly since eight o'clock, and she knew there was no way she'd be able to sleep if she didn't get some food in her.

"Miss Granger!" exclaimed Kreacher when she walked in. She smiled down at the elf happily, noting that he still wore the locket Harry had given him around his neck, and he gave her a little bow.

"Hello, Kreacher! How are you?"

He grinned toothily up at her. "Kreacher is very well, thank you misses. What can Kreacher do for you?"

She patted her stomach. "I missed dinner and I was just wondering if there was anything left over for me to eat."

Kreacher nodded happily. "Of course! Kreacher will heat up some of the soup right now. Please, have a seat."

She looked around and saw that four little elves had brought over a table and two chairs for her to sit in. Her guilt worsened, and she sat down dejectedly. But she wondered why they had brought two chairs-

"Evening, Granger. I see you missed dinner as well."

She looked up and saw Malfoy walking over from the back of the room. He sat down across from her, and she sighed. She wasn't in the mood for company.

"Yes, I missed it." She volunteered no more information, and cursed herself for not bringing a book with her.

"Hmm. Well, I missed because I was finishing that book you let me borrow. What's your excuse?"

There was no malice in his voice, but still she looked at him disbelievingly. "I don't see why that's any of your business, Malfoy."

He rose his eyebrows, then shrugged. "That's true." He looked off toward the stoves, where Kreacher was heating up the soup. Hermione sighed. She already felt bad enough for coming down to the kitchens, and now she felt bad about being short with Malfoy. What was the world coming to?

"I…was trying to avoid Ginny. Weasley," she added, when she realized he might not know her first name. He frowned, obviously thinking.

"Why? I thought you two were friends."

She sighed again. "We are, but…she's going to want to talk to me about something I don't want to talk about."

She had no idea why she was telling him this. She also wasn't 100% sure why she didn't want to talk to Ginny about it. Ginny would be understanding, and very much on her side, she was sure. But, she supposed that she also felt like Ginny would expect them to get back together. Ginny would say that Ron was just being an idiot and after he was alone for a while he'd realize that and come begging for her back. And…Hermione didn't really want to tell Ginny she was starting to think she didn't want that. They'd spent many nights at the Burrow talking about how fun it would be to be sisters-in-law, and she somehow felt like she would be letting Ginny down by telling her it didn't look like that was on the table anymore.

Malfoy nodded. "Fair enough."

Kreacher brought over their soup then, and they lapsed into silence but for the sound of their spoons scraping their bowls. It was beef stew, one of Hermione's favorites, and she gulped it down hungrily. After her first few spoonfuls, she realized Malfoy was watching her with an amused expression on his face.

"Merlin, Granger, hungry much?"

She felt her face redden, but she was too hungry to have time to be embarrassed. More importantly, she kind of wanted to get out of there. Malfoy was being…nice, and it was throwing her even more off than she already felt. She could deal with Malfoy being civil. She could not deal with him asking her questions about her personal life, have her answer those questions, and then have him accept her answer like he understood. And not make fun of her in any way, shape, or form. She'd just had her whole image of her future shot to hell. She couldn't deal with having her thoughts about Malfoy altered even more than they already had been, at least not right as she finished thanking Kreacher and the other house elves and rose to leave, he asked her another question.

"So, what didn't you want to talk about with the girl Weasley?"

She turned around slowly. He was leaning back in his chair, arms behind his head, and she hadn't seen him look so relaxed all year. She wondered what had prompted the change.

"What makes you think I'll talk to you about it?"

He shrugged. "Isn't it supposed to be helpful, talking about things? That's what Sophie keeps telling us, anyway."

"Which you know so well from personal experience?" she asked sarcastically. Really, though, he never volunteered any information about himself in the group sessions.

Amazingly, he grinned. Well, more like smirked, which was something she was used to seeing on his face. It…calmed her, oddly.

"Take a seat, Granger. Let's have our own little therapy session."

He really did not just say that. Let's have our own little therapy session? First off, it sounded vaguely sexual, although he was sure Granger wouldn't catch the innuendo. Secondly, he was pretty sure he already knew what it was that was bothering her. He was just curious as to whether or not she would actually tell him. He watched her debating in her head, and thought back to the previous Saturday.

The reason why (he was pretty sure) he knew what she didn't want to talk about to the girl Weasley was because he had seen her and Pansy in Hogsmeade. He hadn't been planning on going into the village, mainly because he had no one to go with (which he didn't care about, not one little bit), but then decided he might like to peruse Tomes and Scrolls since he had finished Granger's book. He had been right on the outskirts of the village when he saw them, huddling on a rock. Granger's face was red and splotchy, and Pansy had her arm around her. They did not see him. He probably would not have heard what they were saying, and he didn't mostly, except while he stood there, a slight breeze blew for a moment and carried some of Pansy's words over to him. Specifically, the words were "…why in the hell he would break up with you." He was not familiar with the context in which they were said, of course, but judging by the fact that it was fairly obvious Granger had been crying and he was aware that she and Weasley were dating because of the Blablabla section of the Daily Prophet, he assumed that Weasley had just broken up with her.

He had never really given them dating much thought, because honestly he hadn't cared. He remembered thinking, when he read that they were together, that it was a long time coming, and probably rolling his eyes a bit, but that was it. Hearing they that had broken up, though, was strange. Thinking about it, he had realized he assumed that they would end up together forever, just like Potter and the girl Weasley. It still wouldn't have affected him much, though, if the breeze hadn't blown again, and carried one more part of their conversation to his ears. Granger's voice this time. "…I guess I'm really upset because I don't love him in that way."

That really surprised him. He had always thought she was incredibly obvious about the fact that she liked Weasley, and Weasley was an idiot for not seeing it earlier than he had. And, quite honestly, what Granger was saying reminded him a bit of his and Pansy's relationship.

He and Pansy had started dating in his fourth year. He had been proud to date her, because she was pureblood and considered "hot" by most of the Slytherin boys. His father had approved. And she doted on him, almost pathetically so, but he liked the attention.

Then in their sixth year, he had ended it. He was so concentrated on his mission, he didn't have time for her anymore, he had said. Which was true. But he had kind of assumed that after the War was over and they had won, he and Pansy would get back together. The thought hadn't really excited him, he wasn't counting down the days until they could be together again, it was just sort of expected. That was going to be his life. Fight for the cause, marry Pansy, produce a male heir. And before sixth year, he had looked forward to such a lifestyle.

But as his mission started to wear on him, he started questioning his future. Was that really going to be the rest of his life? The thought terrified him briefly, then began to disgust him. He didn't want to fight for such a stupid cause, he didn't want to marry Pansy because he didn't love her, and he really, really didn't want their side to win. And thankfully, they hadn't. And he had survived. Which was good, he supposed, but coming out on that side of the War was possibly scarier than being in it. Now he had no idea what he was going to do with his life.

He freaked out a bit, privately and quietly over the summer, but had calmed down significantly when he realized what he wanted to do, for a job, anyway. He was going to be a curse-breaker. So he needed to blow his Arithmancy N.E.W.T. out of the water. But just in case he didn't (Merlin forbid), he was taking all those other classes as back-up. But what about other areas of his life? He had never thought about it before, but thinking he was going to end up with Pansy had instilled in him an odd sense of calm, and of superiority. All of his other Housemates were unsure of their futures, spending time worrying about this crush or that. But he had been above it all. Yet now…now he was back on the same page as them. It had messed up his world a bit, when he realized he didn't love Pansy.

So he could sort of identify with Granger, if his assumptions were correct. He couldn't exactly explain why he was trying to talk to her, and on such a personal level, too. If he was completely honest with himself, as much as it pained him to admit, he was just…feeling lonely. And trying to talk to Pansy, when he had been ignoring her all year, would feel a bit too much like begging for attention. He hated begging.

He watched Granger mulling over his invitation, and he found himself wanting to know what she was thinking. What was going on in that bushy-haired head of hers? He knew enough about her to know that she wasn't afraid of him, or anyone, really. But he could not say whether she was disgusted by his offer, or pleased by it (unlikely), or only surprised and caught off-guard by it. To his satisfaction, she walked back over to the table and sat down slowly, a slight frown on her face. He resisted the urge to smirk and merely looked at her expectantly.

"Well…I don't know why I'm telling you this," she looked up at the ceiling, as if the answer might be there, "but…Ron broke up with me Saturday, and I really don't want to talk to Ginny about it."

He nodded, his suspicions confirmed. "Why not? You're not the one who broke up with him."

Granger sighed. "Yes, but, I think she'll expect us to get back together. But I…don't really want to. And I don't want to disappoint her, I suppose." She started fiddling with a strand of her hair, twirling it between her fingers absent-mindedly.

Draco barked out a laugh. Were all Gryffindors that bloody…selfless, all the time? Probably not. It was probably just Granger, because she was obviously mental. She glared at him.

"What's funny about that?"

He continued chuckling. "You don't want to talk to your friend about her brother breaking up with you because you think your reaction will disappoint her. Do you ever think about yourself?"

He got up then, because he really meant it as a rhetorical question. He saw a slight frown appear on her face as she contemplated his words. As he walked by her toward the door he acted on impulse and patted her on the shoulder once, twice.

"I'll see you in class, Granger."

He thought she might not reply, but as the door closed behind him he heard her call softly, "See you, Malfoy."

For some strange reason, even though he hadn't talked about anything in his life, he felt better than he had in weeks. Perhaps Sophie and Pansy were on to something after all.

Wednesday, October 29

Hermione was chatting with Ginny at the end of dinner, reaching for a slice of blueberry crumble, when it happened.

Peeves, master of mischief that he was, came zooming into the Great Hall with handfuls of cream pie and dropped them onto the heads of six students.

There was a brief silence as everyone sat stunned, looking toward the teacher's table and waiting for Professor McGonagall to launch into a tirade against Peeves.

But she wasn't there.

So instead, before Hermione could even think what to do, before any of the other teachers intervened, a sixth year Gryffindor boy that she vaguely recognized as having tried to vie for the Resident Prankster position that became vacant after Fred and George left her fifth year stood up and yelled "FOOD FIGHT!"

Chaos reigned.

Unsure of what had possessed them, she watched as students from every year and every house began laughing and flinging food at their peers. Chocolate cake, treacle tart, and madeleines flew through the air.

Aghast, Hermione jumped up and ran down the Gryffindor table to where Neville sat. He was watching Dennis Creevey launch a huge dollop of whipped cream into the face of a nearby Hufflepuff.

"Neville!" she screamed. "We've got to do something!"

Neville turned to look at her, a curious expression on his face. Then he smiled at her, shrugged, grabbed an entire pie and threw it indiscriminately across the room. It hit Ernie Macmillan on the shoulder, who roared with laughter when he saw who had thrown it and fired a couple of strawberries back in their direction.

Hermione did not know what to do, so she looked helplessly toward the teacher's table. A few of the more strict Professors had gotten up and were attempting to stop the students, but most were still sitting down. A couple looked amused (notably Hagrid, who was chuckling into his pie) but some of them looked like they just didn't want to get hit themselves. The few of their colleagues who had ventured into the madness were now covered in dessert, because except for the few students who had been forcibly restrained my magic, most of them had ignored the Professor's thunderous instructions to "STOP AT ONCE".

In Professor McGonagall's inexplicable absence, she felt it was her duty as Head Girl to try and fill McGonagall's shoes. She peered through the flying bits of food, searching for the Prefects. The only one who had not joined in the activities was, oddly, Malfoy. She ran across the hall to the Slytherin table, being sure to stay close to the walls so as to avoid getting hit.

"Malfoy!" she exclaimed when she reached him. "Malfoy, we've got to-"

And then Peeves dropped a cream pie onto the top of her head. It splattered all down her front, and she froze, her arms in the air, horrified by what had happened.

Malfoy took one look at her, his expression briefly one of shock, then started cracking up. Although he had not been participating in the fight, she could see some icing smeared across his forearm.

Hermione's immediate reaction was one of outrage, but she bit back a scathing remark as she watched him. He had his head thrown back and his mouth open wide, holding onto the table for support. She couldn't remember him laughing so hard ever, let alone with such genuine, innocent amusement. He looked like a kid. And it was such a beautiful thing to see. She realized that's why she thought Neville had looked strange earlier.

That deadened, haunted look that filled their eyes more than any other's in their year was gone, at least for the moment. She wanted to feel like that too.

So she let go and started laughing too. If you can't beat them, join them, right? "You prat, Malfoy!" She dug her fingers into some cake and smashed it on top of his white-blonde head.

He stopped laughing out loud, but the laughter didn't leave his eyes. "You're going to pay for that, Granger!"

She squealed and darted out of the way as he threw a piece of blueberry crumble at her.

At that moment, the doors to the Great Hall burst open. She was perhaps one of the only people to notice as Professor McGonagall came running in, her gray hair falling out of her tight bun and Argus Filch hobbling behind her, but somehow, through all the noise and laughter and food, every person noticed when a piece of treacle tart hit Professor McGonagall squarely in the chest.

The Hall immediately fell silent. Students were frozen in bizarre positions, having just been hit by a piece of dessert or with their hands full of food, mid-throw. Every eye darted back and forth between the Headmistress and the terrified third-year Ravenclaw boy who had accidentally hit her.

Professor McGonagall stood quite still, but Hermione saw her chest heaving as she breathed heavily with contained fury. No one moved a muscle except for Sophie, who came running up through the middle of the tables and whispered something hastily in Professor McGonagall's ear. Hermione watched McGonagall close her eyes briefly, as if in pain, then nod her head curtly. She walked up to the Hufflepuff boy, who appeared to be shaking in fear.

She pulled out her wand and flicked it, causing a pie to hover above the table. Everyone watched with bated breath, waiting for McGonagall's next move.

"If you're going to throw food at someone, Chambers, at least do it properly." Hermione saw the sides of McGonagall's lips twitch, as if to smile, and with a small SWISH of her wand she sent the pie flying right into the boy's face.

The Hall erupted with laughter. Taking it as their cue that the food fight was for whatever reason to be allowed to continue, students resumed throwing food at their friends. Professor McGonagall marched up to the teacher's table, pulled a plate full of madeleines toward herself, and began eating them as she started a nonchalant conversation with Professor Sprout.

Amazed and confused as she was to McGonagall's reaction, Hermione joined in with her peers. The fight lasted for approximately 10 minutes, and even Professor Flitwick was seen magicking food into the foray from the teacher's table. Slipping in the muck that had accumulated on the floor as she made her way back to the Gryffindor table, Hermione chuckled as she overheard Professor Trelawney telling someone that her Inner Eye would protect her from being hit, right before a handful of cake smacked into the back of her head.

When the fight was over, students began traipsing back to their Common Rooms, or racing each other to reach the showers. They were all discussing what had just happened, their eyes wide and bright with excitement, even the older students. Hermione recruited Neville and all of the Prefects to stay behind and clean up the mess, because she refused to allow the House Elves to do it.

And not one of them uttered a word of complaint.

Friday, October 31

"…and there's also going to be a pie-throwing stand. Students can pay a sickle and throw a cream pie at a Professor. It was inspired by the food fight the students had Wednesday," Professor Fortescue's portrait was saying.

The portrait of Dumbledore chuckled heartily. Phineas Nigellus sneered in his direction, then said in a cold, snide voice, "Absolute depravity. I would not have allowed students to act in such a manner in my day!"

Professor Snape bowed his head in concurrence. "I quite agree. I was very surprised by Minerva, letting the students behave so abhorrently."

Dumbledore only smiled serenely, and Dexter Fortescue continued. "Yes, well, apparently Professor McGonagall had quite a time trying to find any Professors to volunteer to sit in the pie-throwing booth, but eventually the magical therapist Ms. Sophie Oblenio obliged."

Dumbledore looked over at Snape. "That's a shame. She's rather liked by most of the students, from what I hear. It's too bad you aren't around for it, Severus. If you had participated, I'm sure that all the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw students that lined up to throw pie at you would have raised enough money to pay for impoverished student's books for a century."

Pansy's eyes sparkled as she surveyed the spectacle before her. The Professors had set up the Halloween Carnival in the flat, open terrain between the Greenhouses and the Lake. They had been served a regular dinner instead of the usual feast, and now students were pouring onto the grounds from the Entrance Hall. She was waiting impatiently for Hermione at the bottom of the stone steps, bouncing on her heels in excitement. When Hermione finally appeared, she grabbed her hand and squealed "let's go!" as she practically skipped toward the festivities.

There were many activities to choose from. A few were completely muggle-inspired and devoid of magic, like bobbing for apples, the huge bat piñata, the cake walk, the pie-throwing booth, and the glass-breaking booth, which was mainly surrounded by boys from various years trying to one-up each other. There were, however, a few things which required a magical influence: Professor Thorian, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, was escorting small groups (which mainly consisted of first and second years) to the Shrieking Shack, where many of the Hogwarts ghosts had gone earlier so they could howl and moan in order to terrify them. Also, at the center of everything was a huge enchanted carousel. The magical creatures upon it were not the real thing, of course (which was good, because Pansy spotted a chimaera and a manticore among them), but they were charmed to move on their own accord. A haunting melody echoed out over the grounds, and from where it came she could not tell, but she didn't really care. What she really wanted to do was go try that strange treat which Hermione had told her was called cotton candy (Pansy had a bit of a sweet tooth), since some of the house elves had set up booths between every couple of activities in which to pass out sweets.

"Let's go grab some munchies," she said to Hermione, leading the way over to one such booth.

"Oh, alright, but then let's go over to the pin Hagrid has set up, I'd like to talk to him, it's been ages since I saw him last."

Once Pansy had her treat she really couldn't have cared what they did, it was positively delicious! Bright and pink, it looked like a cloud and tasted almost sickeningly sweet. But Pansy liked it that way. She followed Hermione through the milieu, gazing around at the bright lights and colors and sounds of everyone's laughter and chatter. She was so enthralled because it reminded her of the birthday parties she used to have when her mother was still alive, and it made her feel like a kid again.

As they approached Hagrid's pin, she saw that he had caught a unicorn foal and a gaggle of delighted girls surrounded it. She walked up to it and decided she would try and feed it some of her cotton candy, wanting to give Hermione time alone with Hagrid to catch up. She wasn't paying attention to their conversation much until she heard her name.

"What are ye' doin' hangin' out with Parkinson, Hermione? She's right up there with Malfoy, in my book."

Pansy felt her insides clench up, but continued listening.

"Hagrid, really! Pansy and I are friends, I happen to like her very much, and Malfoy has changed quite a bit. They're here to start over and get a second chance, and we should be willing to give it to them!"

Pansy felt her stomach unclench slightly at Hermione's defense of her, but she still felt a little sick. She knew people felt that way about her, of course, but it was very hard to hear it nonetheless.

"Well, if there's anyone's judgment I trust it's yer's, but you gotta admit, it's hard to forget all the stunts they pulled in the past…"

Inexplicably, Pansy felt tears spring to her eyes, and she suddenly felt very bad for every horrible thing she had ever done or said to Hagrid. Hermione was obviously starting to rub off on her. She thought about going over to him and apologizing, but she didn't want them to know she had been eavesdropping, plus she didn't want them to see her cry. She quickly turned and walked blindly through the crowd, not sure of where she was going but suddenly feeling very put-out. Then she ran smack into someone's chest.

"Oh, so-sorry," she mumbled, looking down at the ground and attempting to side-step them.

"Pansy!" exclaimed a familiar voice. A voice she hadn't heard in weeks. "What's wrong?" And she looked up into the face of Draco. He was looking at her so concernedly, and all the hurt she felt at being virtually abandoned by him washed away and she fell into his arms, her own around his neck as she sobbed into his chest He patted her on the back awkwardly.

"Um…you-"

She cut him off. "Dra-Draco, I'm so-so-sorry, bu-but I just heard Ha-Hagrid talking to Herm-Hermione and I felt so-so bad," she wailed.

"Felt bad about what?" he inquired, still patting her on the back awkwardly.

"Everything!" she cried. "Every ba-bad thi-thing I ever di-did or said to him…"

"Yeah, well, we were idiots, but there's no point in crying over spilt pumpkin juice…"

She continued to bawl, but as the minutes passed she slowly regained her composure. The entire time Draco had let her cling to him, patting her back and ignoring the strange looks people no doubt gave them as they walked by. She pushed herself off of him and wiped her face with her sleeve, peering up at him through eyelashes which still had teardrops hanging off of them.

"Thanks," she said, her voice thick with phlegm. He gave her a small smile.

"Want to go grab some caramel apples? I saw some that had sprinkles on them. And that bat piñata is supposed to be filled with candy too…"

She grinned. Draco always had known just how to cheer her up.

Hermione walked through the crowd a little worriedly. One minute Pansy had been feeding the unicorn foal her cotton candy while she talked to Hagrid, the next she had turned around and Pansy was nowhere to be found. She had thought that maybe Pansy had just wanted something else to eat, but she hadn't been at the closest treat booth, and Hermione was at a loss as to why she would have just disappeared. She was rounding a corner, thinking that maybe she should alert a Professor, when she saw her. She was standing beside Malfoy, biting into a candy apple covered in sprinkles and watching him throw a ball at a pyramid of butterbeer bottles. Heaving a sigh of relief, Hermione approached them.

"Oh, Hermione! There you are. I was going to come look for you after Draco knocked one of these bottles down, but I was just realizing that I might have to wait all night." Pansy flashed Malfoy a devious grin and he threw her a glare as he wound up his arm, threw the ball, and missed it by about a foot and a half. Hermione bit back a laugh.

"Wow, Malfoy, I guess it's good you didn't want to be a Chaser."

He threw her a glare too, and she marveled at how their relationship had changed. It was not something either of them had said out loud or acknowledged to each other, but every interaction they had had since the beginning of the year seemed to chip away at the wall that was built between them. They had been little chips at first, since at first they only spoke in class or in the library working on their Arithmancy project. And if things had continued on that path, they would still most likely only be cordial. But the conversation they had in the kitchen at the beginning of the week had definitely put a hole in the wall, and the food fight a few days ago may have broken it down completely.

It was bizarre. But it…made her feel rather happy.

Hermione couldn't explain why she had opened up to Malfoy in the kitchens, but he had just seemed so approachable leaned back in his chair like that, his arms behind his head, almost vulnerable, and a tiny little voice in her head had told her he wouldn't make fun. He seemed to be reaching out to her, and she knew better than anyone what it was like to be alone and friendless with your only company the books you buried your nose in. That was why she had accepted Pansy. Why not accept Malfoy too? She'd be an awful hypocrite if she didn't. Besides, she had heard the plea in his question. He masked it well, attempting to convey an attitude of nonchalance, but why ask about her life, of all people, if he wasn't desperate for someone to talk to? She figured he'd chosen her because she was Head Girl and it was her duty to treat everyone fairly, or something like that.

"Why'd you run off?" she asked Pansy as Malfoy attempted another throw.

"Oh, I wanted some more candy and then ran into Draco," she replied, not looking at her. Hermione felt like she wasn't getting the whole story, mostly because just yesterday Pansy and Malfoy hadn't been speaking to each other, but she decided to ask for details later.

"Okay, well, let's do the cake walk next, that was always my second favorite when I was little."

"What was your first?" Malfoy asked, finally giving up on hitting a bottle.

She smiled. "The Carousel, of course."

Malfoy didn't participate in the cake walk. Pansy won and swore that she was going to have to diet for two months to cancel out the damage that had been done to her figure. Malfoy didn't go on the Carousel either, but he watched them, a little sadly. She rode on a Hippogriff, Pansy picked a Unicorn. They ran into Ginny and Luna on it as well; Ginny was riding on a dragon, Luna a Sphinx.

Overall it had been a lovely night, and somehow by the end of it she, Pansy, and Malfoy had made plans to watch the Quidditch game the next day together.

Author's Note: I anticipate people thinking the food fight was a bit much, or that McGonagall's reaction was very OOC. I'll just say that the ONLY reason she didn't flip her shit and send everyone to detention was because of Sophie. But I'm happy with it, so, hope you enjoyed it too!