A/N: WOOOOT!!! 19 reviews for just one chapter (okay, so one of them was for Chapter 2, but whatever)! I don't think I could be any happier!!! Hazzah!
Anywho, as you know, this is 'Act' I of the Sleepover. Yes, there will be more than one part, because this is pretty important. Of course, this chapter won't be as long as the last, sorry I had to bore you all to death. But I couldn't hold off another chapter for this. It would get too long and then you'd have to wait forever to see what the important thing is! Actually, after I read your reviews I realized that there are two important things. One will come in the sleepover part, but the one I had been originally talking about will be the chappie right after. All I'm going to say is that someone (or possibly more than that?) is going to be visiting Hogwarts very soon...
And there are all the names of my GREAT REVIEWERS!!!!!: iluvwriting (you were the 101st reviewer BTW), slytherinpunk, lewisa, RissaMalfoy, I-Can't-Think-Of-A-Name-lol, Karana Belle, MeLiO, Lana, mir, Cassiel Oliviari, tearless, PiratesLuv22, NeVeRmInD2, frifri, Kadoate24, Exploded toilet bowl, Hermione-Granger-420, NitenGale, and lilpsycho14!
Here's the chapter! Enjoy!
Be a DollChapter 14: The Sleepover, Act I
"Do you have to wear these?"
"Yes. They are the only pajamas I have with pockets."
"But they're cold, and slippery. I might fall out. Or catch pneumonia."
"Malfoy if I cared, you'd have a hair full of gel right now."
"You must care, or I'd be dead."
"How do you know? Maybe I'm just torturing you by keeping you alive." She told him, grinning.
He ducked into her pocket, grumbling about 'stupid Mudbloods'.
It was October 31st, aka Halloween, aka The Night of The Sleepover. Over a month had passed since the last time we saw Hermione and her shrunken...um, 'friend', but the truth was not much had changed. Sometimes they were on good terms, sometimes they were on bad (though it was mostly bad), they still were always teasing each other, and more than once Malfoy had said something out loud causing her to lie without blinking.
So in other words, everything was perfectly normal.
Hermione was running around her bedroom, stuffing everything she would need into a large duffel bag. From her 'cold, slippery' pocket, Malfoy was questioning her about tonight.
"So what do girl's do at sleepovers?" he asked while she grabbed up her entire collection of (unused) make up.
"Talk about you." She told him after a thought. Now where was that stupid talking mirror? She had hidden it somewhere, because it was so annoying, but where?
"About me?" he responded, sounding surprised.
"Yes, about you, you bothersome ferret. They are all madly in love with the devilishly handsome Draco Malfoy." She could just feel him smirking as she said this, so quickly added. "Their words, not mine.
His smirk didn't falter. "You're madly in love with me too, according to the Weaselette."
"Ginny only thinks I like you because I said you have nice eyes." She said distractedly.
There was a silence. "You think I have nice eyes?" If she wasn't mistaken, he sounded rather flattered.
"No, I don't. I was just joking and she took me seriously. Ginny doesn't know how to take a joke when it comes to boys." Hey, who knows, he might buy it.
"God Granger, nervous and tense. If only I could see your eyes...don't worry, I think they're very nice too." He cackled, laughing at his own joke. "You should know by now that it's no use lying to me. I know you all too well."
"And I you." She said, telling herself to stop talking at start looking. Why waste her time on Malfoy anyway, she still need to find all of her extra, not broken (so in other words, the ones she'd never worn) pins, not to mention the mirror. If only she could remember where she had put them.
"Your annoying mirror is buried under my stuff." He said suddenly. At her shocked look he continued. "I didn't read your mind, I just hear the damn thing"
Hermione went into the top drawer of her night table, and sure enough there it was, shrilly singing a song about 'lovely, ice blue eyes'. She did everything in her power to keep from blushing, and threw it in the bag. One last trip to the bathroom, and she had found her pins as well. There was only one more thing to take care of now.
"Okay Malfoy," she addressed him, sitting down on the bed. "What do you do at the party?"
"Nothing. I listen to you and your freaky Gryffindor friends talk about me, but other than that, nothing." He replied boredly.
"Good. Now let's go." She put her robe on over her pajamas and crept into the halls. She had just barely taken a step out of the portrait hole when the thought hit him.
"Where are we going?"
If he could see her than, he would have seen her extra wide grin. "Draco, you're smart enough. Think of where a bunch of girls would go for a sleepover." She said sweetly.
"We're not going to the Gryffindor girl's dorms, are we?" He said, a note of panic in his tone.
"Nope. Even better."
"Where?"
"Somewhere."
"Where?!?"
"I told you, somewhere!"
"WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME WOMAN?!?!?!?"
"We're going to the Room of Requirment."
123123123123123123123123123123
It took him the entire way there to get it.
"So that room you guys were in in fifth year...that was the Room of Requiremnt?"
"Yes." Finally. She didn't think he was that stupid.
"And the room can be anything? Any type of room at all?" he asked unsurely.
"Any type of room, of course, as long as you need it. Now, be quiet, it's in the next hall."
Hermione turned a corner and saw Lavender and Parvati standing there, both of their arms full of stuff.
"Hi." She said quietly, walking up to them. "Where's Padma and Ginny?"
Parvati shrugged. "Padma quit on us at the last minute. She decided to go the feast instead." She gave Lavender a secret grin. "But she doesn't know what she's missing."
She tried not to let the way she said this bother her. 'Just because I don't know what's going on doesn't mean I'll be part of what Padma's missing.'
Lavender was talking now. "And Ginny is down in the kitchens. Luna's there too, helping her get the food."
This surprised her. "Luna's coming?" Well nobody had told her THAT!
"Yes. Ginny invited me." Came a dreamy voice from behind them. They turned and saw Ginny and Luna, with armloads of food, not to mention...broomsticks?!?
"What are the broomsticks for?" she demanded, trying to hide that she was scared. They didn't know that she couldn't fly, and she wanted to keep it that way. Malfoy was the only one who knew, and that was already risky, but for some reason she had the feeling she could trust him. No idea why, but it just seemed like he was at least a little bit nicer than he had been a month ago.
Hermione shook her head. 'No way.'
"MIONE ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?" Ginny asked loudly, knocking on her head. She swatted her away, and rubbed the spot where she hit her. The red head merely laughed. "Well somebody's hostile. Would it be because she's been away from her love too long?" she teased, walking past her.
'No. I've been feeding, brushing the hair of, and on one occasion tucking into bed (don't ask) this person I supposedly love for the past 41 days!!' her mind yelled. 'And he's driving me CRAZY!'
But of course she didn't say that.
The five girls (and Malfoy) huddled together in front of where the room soon would be. "Okay, everyone knows how the room works, right?" Parvati asked, and they all nodded. "Good. And remember: think sleepover!"
They started to walk back and forth, all of their minds on what they needed. 'We need pillows. Lots and lots of big, soft, cushy pillows. Not to mention butterbeer. Mmm. And...teen magazines, the muggle kind. Ginny and Parvati will love it. Don't really know about Luna. What else?' She suddenly felt bad for Malfoy. It was a little unfair how she was going to make him sit through this. But there was one thing she could get him.
A large door appeared in front of them. The five smile and pulled it open together.
When they saw it, their eyes lit up and they all ran into the room, squealing with delight. She looked around in awe. The room was big enough so that they would have plenty of room, but small enough to be cozy. Just as she requested, there was a mountain of gigantic plush pillows with pretty golden fringe. A stack of colorful of paper stood in the corner (obviously the magazines) and she wasn't the only one who had asked for butterbeer; there were about 30 bottles standing next to the pillows.
"We're gonna get drunk off of something with no alcohol!" Lavender giggled, setting down her stuff on the floor.
"I didn't know everyone asked for butterbeer, or I probably wouldn't have." Hermione said, pulling off her robe and lugging the bag of make up with her across the room.
"Ooooooh, those are pretty pajamas Mione, where'd you get them?" Parvati asked her, touching the silky material. They were bright red with purple cowboy boots, yellow and green sheriff stars splashed every here and there.
"It's a place called the store Vati." She answered, using a stupid nickname for her as well. Why should she be the only one called by the last few syllables of her name?
Parvati just laughed, and ran off to help Luna sort out the food.
"What's with the scarves?" Ginny questioned, pulling on one of the see-through sheets of material hanging down from the ceiling.
"I asked for those. Aren't they pretty? I think it makes the room calmer. Not to mention it'll keep away the Spike-Backed Marmots." Luna said (in a dreamy sense) reasonably, arranging some Cauldron Cakes.
Ginny turned away from her, muttering something along the lines of "That girl is such a weirdo...". Hermione stifled a laugh.
But Lavender interrupted her attempts at trying not to giggle. "Hey!" she called over to them. "Who asked for a Quidditch book?"
Hermione felt herself go red in the face. "Uh, t-that's mine." She stuttered, snatching the book away from Lavender. "I've taken up...reading about Quidditch." Shoot. She hadn't wanted them to see it. The plan had been to just shrink it and slip it to the ferret. Now she was going to have to lie again. Another thing that hadn't changed was she wasn't any better at lying. Malfoy was even giving her 'Lying Lessons' now (his idea, not hers. He claimed that lying was the only thing he could still do as a person 3-inches tall). Not that they helped.
"Oh, you like Quidditch now?" Ginny inquired, brightening up a bit. "Maybe you could help me with this move then, Harry's been giving me a really hard time abou-"
"I meant the history Gin." She told her quickly. "You know, who invented it and stuff."
She became confused. "Then why is the book called 'Quidditch: Special Tricks and Moves' ?"
Hermione looked down at the cover. The letters seemed to be smiling at her, very happy that they were slowly tearing her apart. She wasn't so sure she was fond of letters any more.
She had to think fast. That had been yesterday's lesson. What had he said? Malfoy's little voice echoed in her ears:
"Mudblood, if you ever want to be a good liar, you have to learn think fast. When lying, come up with something-anything- and say it, even if it seems far-fetched. But you have to think fast, or then they can tell you're lying. And you definitely don't want that."
It actually was good advice, but she told herself never to remember his voice in her head again. Creepy.
"Oh, but it is about the history. Special, Tricks and Moves were the uh....NAMES of the people who invented Quidditch!" she proclaimed thickly. 'NO!!!!! That was DUMB! Good going you idiot.'
Everyone was staring at her. "What?"
"Yes." She heard herself go on. "Those were their names. Their nicknames anyway. You know, Mr...." she glanced around the room desperately. "Pill 'Special' Ow. Miss Dusty 'Tricks' Scarves and Mr. Lun..o 'Moves' Pat-sley."
Lavender looked at her skeptically. "Are you sure?"
She nodded vigorously. "Yes, I'm very sure. Fascinating, isn't it?" She knew that she hadn't blinked for more than a minute.
The rest of them shrugged, and went back to their work. She sighed with relief. That had really been a close one.
Hunching over in corner, she stealthily pulled out her wand and tapped the book. "Reducio." She breathed. It shrank down small enough to fit into her palm. Closing her hand around it, she dipped her hand into her pocket, passing the book to Malfoy. "If you heard that then you know how much I went through to get it."
"Mmph." Was his only reply.
She was thinking about how that better translate into some sort of thanks. Maybe something like, "Hermione, you are the most caring person I know, you're so smart and you think so fast and I am forever in your debt. You rule!"
Despite herself, she laughed. It looked like tonight was going to be interesting.
Again, I must say, if only she knew.
123123123123123123123123123123
Hermione groaned as she collapsed backwards onto one of the big pillows. "I don't think I've eaten so much in my entire life."
"Then I guess you don't want some of these caramel apple slices." Parvati said, happy to have them all to herself.
She popped back up. "Are you kidding? Gimme some of those, or I'll put you in detention for the rest of your life. And don't say I can't do that. I am Head Girl." She told her grinning, devouring an apple slice.
"Don't abuse your authority Miss Granger, I don't want to report you." Ginny said seriously, making them all break into giggles. Again.
They had been pigging out on all the little snacks brought up from the kitchen for almost an hour, and they still hadn't tired of it. Normally, Hermione would protest to such idiotic acts, but she had made a decision earlier that day: tonight was her night to be a girl. She felt like giggling over the stupidest thing? She would giggle. The others decided that she needed a makeover? She would let them give her a makeover. Because you know what? Sometimes it's nice to take a break from yourself.
And who gives a crap as to whether that makes sense or not?
"You know, we should do something." Lavender said suddenly.
"Yeah." Luna put in. "Something exciting. Something daring."
Why was it that this conversation sounded planned? Why was it that they were all giving each other little secretive looks?
Why was it that she was the only one not included in 'all'?
"I think," Ginny started, her smile widening with each passing second. "That it's time for The Rose Game."
"What's the rose game?" Hermione asked suspiciously. She didn't like the sound of that. This was usually the part of the sleepover horror movie that you find out your friends bodies had all been taken over by aliens, and that they had come to...well actually, she had no idea what the aliens came to do. Most of the time that was the exact place where she closed her eyes.
"Mione, it's not 'the rose game'. It's The Rose Game. You know." Parvati said, sounding oddly cheery. Unnaturally cheery.
"No, I don't know. Why don't you tell me?" she responded, backing away from her 'friends'. Realizing what she was doing, she ordered herself to scoot forward. 'Your friends are not aliens. Stop it this very second, or you might even make me believe it. Why must you always insist on scaring us?'
"You don't know?" Parvati went on, looking a tad surprised, "Well, then I guess we have to explain, don't we girls?"
It was Ginny who was finally 'given the honor of passing the knowledge'. Hermione found herself wondering if it was possible to roll your eyes to death. Sometimes her friends were more dramatic than Malfoy.
"The Rose Game is an ancient test, made to-" Hermione cut her off.
"Ginny, cut the crap and tell me what I have to do."
She pouted. "You're no fun. But since we don't have much time..." she leaned forward excitedly, and started to quickly tell her everything.
"The point of the game is to get a rose up to the boy you like. You just have to place it on the end of his bed, but trust me, it is pretty hard. There are some consequences though. If he catches you for instance, then you must present it to him openly. Or if you tell us you did it if you didn't. The next time you see him, you'll start to uh..." she said the next part quietly. "Sing."
"Sing?"
"A ballad. It happened to me once." She got a sort of pained look on her face. "It wasn't pretty. But anyway..."
All of them gave her puppy dog eyes (Luna's looking very dreamy). "Will you play?"
There was one and only one reason that she was going to say yes: She didn't like anybody. They could use Veritiserum on her, and they'd find out the same thing. There was absolutely nothing they could do about it either. Unless they...
"Yes."
Shoot. Too late now. She already said it. But maybe she could still...
Lavender, Parvati and Ginny all started doing some sort of 'we-made-Hermione-play-a-stupid-game' dance. And they were squealing.
Now there was no hope. You couldn't take something back after people had already started squealing about it.
It simply wasn't done.
Another thought hit her smack between the eyes, something else she should have asked about before saying yes.
"You guys?" she asked steadily.
"Yes?"
"How are we getting up to the boy's rooms?" Please don't let it be what she thought.
It was Luna who answered. "Through their windows of course."
The color drained for her face. "And how exactly will we do that?" she squeaked.
"With broomsticks."
It was right then, for the first time in her life that Hermione truly felt like a girl. In the sense that she was going to die because of a boy, that is. But this was because she was almost positive that she was going to fall off the broom and crack her head open.
SHE COULDN'T FLY.
Ginny interrupted her plans for what songs to play at the funeral. "We all know who Mione's gonna leave her rose for." She said overly sweetly, poking her in the side.
She gave her a thin-lipped smile. "Yes we do. Absolutely no one." Ha. Ha, ha, ha. She couldn't make her go now.
Lavender rolled her eyes. "Stop trying to deny it. We all know you like him. It's nothing to be ashamed of." Parvati and Ginny both gave her a Look.
Luna turned to Ginny. "Who?"
"Oh. Hermione likes Malfoy." Ginny stated, like it was official.
Luna nodded approvingly. "They make a good couple."
Hermione was more than shocked. Even Luna, for God's sake, LOONEY LOVEGOOD, just took this news like it was nothing. How could they do this? This just wasn't right. They were supposed to believe her. 'I mean, gosh, does it even vaguely seem like I like him? She opened her mouth to protest, but they had already moved on to Parvati.
"And who will Miss Patil give her rose too?" Ginny said playfully. Lavender had a look on her face that clearly said, 'Ooooh, she's not going to like this,' while Parvati had a hand pressed over her mouth, her face becoming a little pink.
"Your brother!" she burst out finally, starting to giggle like mad.
All at once, she and Ginny both got a horrible look on their faces. "Ron?!?" Hermione shouted. "But he's...he's Ron! How could you like him? That's just..." she didn't know what to make of this.
"Disgusting!" Ginny finished for her. "How could you have a crush on my idiot of a brother? That's just wrong Vati, I can't believe you."
Parvati stopped her fit of laughter for a moment, shrugging. "What can I say, he's cute, don't you think?"
"EWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!" the red head shrieked, shooting almost across the room at this comment. "No, my brother is NOT CUTE! He's ugly! Ugly, ugly, ugly!!!! He's all freckly and tall, and skinny..." From what she could see, Ginny seemed to be taking this rather harshly.
"He's the boy version of you." Lavender pointed out reasonably.
"Well then I'm ugly, aren't I?" she grumbled, folding her head into her arms. Hermione got up and dragged her back across the floor, ignoring her protests.
"Ginny, it's not that bad." She told her, patting her friend on the back. "And this way everything works out, you can got with Parvati when you give your rose to Harry." The next thing she knew, Ginny's face was back up, looking horrified. Everyone was looking at the two of them in shock.
"Mione?"
"Yes?" Oh gosh, she hadn't meant to do that.
"I didn't happen to mention the fact that I still like Harry to everyone else." Instead of her usual blushing, she was turning a little green. For a moment she wondered if she would be okay, but then Ginny shook her head and gave a weak laugh.
"It's okay, don't worry about it. They would have found out either way. And I guess it is a little reassuring that I don't have to go alone, you know?" She told her, shrugging. Hermione smiled. Thank goodness Ginny was so forgiving.
"What about Luna?" Parvati cut in nosily. "She hasn't told us who she likes yet."
"What about me?" Lavender whined, "You didn't ask me."
Parvati rolled her eyes at her friend. "Lavender, you've been going out with Dean Thomas since the middle of last year. Who else would you give your rose to?"
Lavender giggled. "Oh come on. You guys know I'm just kidding. Now let's hear it Luna."
The Ravenclaw didn't hesitate. "Colin." She hummed simply, her eyes clouding up a bit.
"CREEVY?!?" They yelled back at her together, disgusted. 'She did NOT just say that...'
She ran her wand through her hair. "Yes. He's so...different. Isn't he just perfect?" Her voice was normal sounding for once, not one touch of dreaminess in it. Hermione supposed that this was her way of talking about her, um, object of affection. She still couldn't get over her choice. Who would have ever suspected that Luna Lovegood would have a crush on Colin Creevy?
Well actually when you thought about it that way, it made sense. In a weird, horribly sickening kind of way that is.
Focusing back on her friends, she found that Luna was still talking (undreamily) about Colin. "...and he's a leader, not a follower. Always going with what he likes and not caring about what other people think of him-" Ginny came out of her stupor and interrupted her.
"Luna, it's his fault that I was in the Hospital Wing for almost a month!!!" she screamed.
"So he made a mistake. It shows he's human." She said defensively, folding her arms across her chest.
She had a feeling that this was going to take a while.
123123123123123123123123123123
A little bit later, after this had been sorted out
"There is absolutely no way that I'm going first. You can just forget it. I'd rather face the consequences." Hermione fumed stubbornly.
"But you have to. Me, Lavender and Parvati are all going to the same room, but Luna needs the broom, because she's going to a different window." Ginny said.
"Exactly! You all get to go together, and you leave me to go to Malfoy's room alone!" she exclaimed, tossing her hands into the air. "It's unfair! Because then I have to fl-" She stopped. Did she really want them to come with her? 'I won't even have a second to talk to Malfoy.'
'Oh, that's so cute. You would give up the company of your friends to talk to him.'
'WHAT? No! I just meant that I need to check on him! He could be dead for all I know.'
'I'm sure he appreciates your concern.'
'I am not concerned! The only reason I'd care if he was dead is because then it would be blamed on me. I'm supposed to be taking care of him, remember?'
'Sure. Admit it, you pathetic little freak. You like talking to him.'
'Shut up. And don't call me pathetic, because you are me.'
Suddenly Lavender was talking her. "Actually Hermione, there is one thing that we could give you, if you want to feel safer. We weren't going to use it for this game, but since you have to go alone, I guess you could wear it."
Wear it? What could she wear so that she could feel safe?
Lavender went into Parvati's bag and pulled out a very familiar looking silvery cloak.
She gasped. "You STOLE the Invisibility Cloak?!?" Another thought hit her. "You KNOW about the Invisibility Cloak?"
"First of all, of course we know about the cloak." Ginny laughed at her puzzled look. "Ron talks really loud, in case you didn't notice. I think my entire family knows about it. And second of all, we didn't steal it. We borrowed it. So do you want to wear it or not?"
Hermione shook her head. "I don't really think I have a choice. How are you planning to get it back in Harry's trunk?"
"Same way we got it out. I pretend to fall off my broom during Quidditch practice, Harry carries me to the Hospital Wing," Was it just her, or did it look like Ginny liked that part? "Lavender keeps Neville, Dean, Seamus busy, because of course Ron followed us to Madam Pomfrey's. Then Parvati sneaks up there, and TA-DA!" She made a gigantic sweeping motion with her hands. "It's back. Simple enough isn't it?"
It was also surprisingly simple to sneak out of the castle. Soon the five were outside in the cold October night, shivering under their robes. Hermione gave a final wave to her friends and swept the Invisibility Cloak over her head.
Now only one minor detail to address.
"Malfoy," she whispered desperately as she stared at the broom in fright. "I need help."
A/N: It's still pretty long I know, but at least it wasn't as boring (well, less than chappie 13 anyway). Hope you guys liked this chapter better. Don't kill me about the R. of R; I know that's not exactly how it works. But for the sake of my story it does, okey-dokey?
So, REVIEW! Please?