Ten minutes later, the group were bored of Exploding Snap.
"Marisa," asked Tracey, "can you teach us some Muggle party games?"
Leo froze. Being a pure-blood, he didn't actually know any party games, but there was no way for him to refuse without admitting this fact. "I – uh – "
"Oh yeah, what's that one you told me about the other day?" asked Marisa, rushing in before Leo could flounder too much. "Musical chairs?"
"Yeah, that's a good one," said Leo, hiding his relief. "But we need chairs for that."
"Magic," replied Marisa, grinning and gesturing at the chairs which had just appeared around them. "Everyone, sit down!"
They did, and Marisa explained the rules of musical chairs (pretending she was a pure-blood who didn't fully understand it). After a little experimentation they discovered that it was as easy to take away the chairs as it had been to add them. In fact, the Room ran the entire game for them.
Morag narrowly managed to beat one of the first-years to win the game. It was so fun that they played three more rounds, which were won by Leo, Tracey and another first-year respectively.
Next someone suggested playing wizard chess. Thankfully for Marisa (who wasn't anywhere near as good at chess as Leo) this was quickly vetoed by Morag, who said that it would be too serious for a party.
With a meaningful glance at her watch for Leo's benefit, Marisa suggested a few rounds of hide-and-seek. Instantly the flat space morphed into a jumble of objects perfect for hiding behind, on top of, under and between.
"You seek first, Leo," said Terry.
"Uh – no, I – Tracey, why don't you?"
"Sure," replied Tracey, seemingly not worried by Marisa's wriggling out of it. "What shall I count to?"
"Twenty?" suggested Marisa.
"Okay. One, two, three…"
Leo and Marisa hurried off in the same direction, and soon found an old door and bookshelf with just enough room for the two of them underneath.
"Ten seconds," muttered Marisa. They stood in silence for a little while until Marisa felt her skin once again feel like it was bubbling, and began to shrink a little.
Marisa pulled off Leo's trousers and Leo her skirt, and they tossed them to each other. Marisa felt herself shrinking, and hair shooting out of her scalp and changing colour. She pulled her skirt back on the legs which were halfway between Leo's and her own, and then, to her relief, felt her body settle back to its normal state.
"That was… interesting," she said.
"This is my hiding place," said Leo, as they heard a shout of "Coming! Ready or not!".
"Good point," said Marisa. "If the others find us here together, they'll probably think we've been snogging or something."
"You make that sound like it's a bad thing."
Marisa felt herself blushing. "Okay, okay," she said (quietly, to avoid attracting Tracey's attention). "I'm going."
She darted cautiously out and looked around for a new place to hide herself, refusing to let her mind dwell on the implications of Leo's remark. They were allies, nothing more.
But as she slid into the gap beneath an old-fashioned writing desk, she couldn't quite stop herself from wondering.