"How the hell do you expect me to see all this shit with this damn blindfold on?" Hermione moaned. Obviously, sitting on a broomstick in a blindfold for three hours wasn't exactly riding too well with her.

"Hermione!" exclaimed Ron, who had picked on her since they had left Hogwarts two and half-hours earlier. "Did I just hear you swear three times in one sentence?"

"Damn it, Ron! If you say one more word to me-oh, I swear, if you weren't flying this thing, I'd push you off right now, I promise I..."

"Temper, temper. Remember, we don't have to go to London." Ron said with a smirk. "But you better not expect another birthday present from me." Hermione was meanwhile struggling on the back of the broomstick, making a gesture that looked as though she were trying very hard to choke Ron.

"How did I get stuck with you on this broomstick, anyway?" Hermione asked, giving up on choking Ron.

"Well, everyone figured that since we get along so well..." Ron began, but was quickly interrupted by Hermione.

"Oh, don't give me that bullshit. Just tell me where we're going, when we're going to get there, and WHY THE HELL DO I HAVE TO WEAR THIS BLINDFOLD?"

Ron laughed. "Herm, why don't you just take it off? I mean, your hands aren't tied."

"What kind of a dumb ass do you think I am, Ron? It's got some kind of a locking spell on it; I'm not stupid. You just want to sit there and watch me try to untie it, when it won't come..." Hermione was this time interrupted by Ron.

"Just untie it, Herm."

"Fine. I will." With that, Hermione reached up and began attempting to untie the blindfold. Much to her surprise, it easily untied.

"Told you." Ron said in a smart-alec tone, smirking.

Hermione, now thoroughly disgusted, huffed the rest of the way to London, occasionally muttering things like, "Ron Weasley, I promise you, when we get on the ground-" and "you are the biggest pain in the..." until lights from the ground began shining from the tall buildings of London. Just to make Hermione mad, Ron attempted a swooping dive from the clouds to the ground below.

"Ron! Your going to crash!"

Ron rolled his eyes towards the sky in front of him. "Hermione, I think that you should definitely go out for the quidditch team next year. I mean, everyone wants to watch a quidditch star who sits on her broomstick and floats around while everyone else makes beautiful dives and turns in order to play. Whad'ya think?"

Hermione eyes flashed. She didn't even notice that she and Ron were rapidly descending into some section of London, or else she would've surely yelled and squealed for Ron to stop.

"You know I don't like sports. It takes time away from my studies," she snapped, her face reddening.

"Oh, Hermione. It's just me," Ron said, sounding strangely innocent. "You know it's okay to admit that you're just not athletic, I mean, I'm not going to laugh or anything." The innocence in Ron's voice had now turned to sarcasm.

With this, however, Hermione had had enough. "For your information, Ron, I played basketball at my muggle grade school before I found out I was a witch, thank you very much."

"Oh, and how old were you then?"

Hermione managed to mutter "eight," and then was hit by a sudden coughing spell. This worked to Ron's advantage, as it distracted Hermione until they landed softly on the sidewalk.

"Herm, you can stop coughing-we're here."

Hermione looked up to see that she and Ron had landed perfectly on a sidewalk surrounded by tall buildings. There weren't really many people around them, but considering the fact that it was three in the morning, this didn't come as much of a surprise.

Hermione then looked at Ron, smiled, looked up at the buildings surrounding them, smiled even more, and suddenly gave Ron a hug. Her feet left the ground as she laughed and Ron sputtered and choked in order to breathe.

"Uh...Hermione-you're choking me-uh, Herm?"

Hermione finally let go of Ron. "Oh, this is absolutely the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me! I mean it, too." Hermione looked at Ron for a moment as though she was going to pounce on him again, but Ron hastily turned and began walking, taking Hermione's hand as he went.

"Let's go find the others, shall we?" He said, as they walked passed parking meters and other muggle contraptions that Hermione noticed caught Ron's eyes.

"Where are they anyway?" Hermione asked.

"Well, they're in a hotel that should be right around here somewhere. I forgot the name, but I heard that it's an extremely fancy place."

Hermione smiled as she and Ron held hands and walked down the street. As much as she loved being with Harry, she had to admit that she loved having Ron as a best friend. It was moments like these that she liked the best, no matter how many arguments they had along the way.

"Ron, I'm glad you're my friend." Hermione said, caught up in her thoughts. She didn't realize how cheesy it sounded until after she said it, but really didn't care. Anyone who would put up with her on a broomstick for three hours could certainly handle a cheesy complement.

"Herm, I'm glad you're my friend too, even though you can be a royal pain in the ass sometimes." Ron said with a smile. Hermione grinned maliciously at Ron, and even began skipping down the street until Ron announced that they were at the hotel.

"Look Herm, we're here."

Hermione looked up and couldn't believe her eyes. She was staring at a beautiful, high-rise Ritz-Carlton hotel. All she could do was stare, open-mouthed, at the hotel, until Ron dragged her into the lobby.

They walked up to a marble-topped counter, where Ron talked to the man working like a regular pro. Had Hermione been paying attention, she would have been proud of Ron, but as she was too busy staring at everything in the lobby, she didn't notice.

Ron stepped towards Hermione and put his arm around her. "You happy, Herm?"

Hermione, with her mouth still wide open, looked at Ron as though she could kiss him. Ron, perhaps scared of another hug from Hermione, decided that they should probably get to the room to meet the others, and grabbed Hermione's wrist to lead her to the elevator.

They stepped inside the elevator where an attendant pressed the twelfth floor button. Hermione kept looking around and gawking at everything she laid her eyes on, and Ron simply smiled. The elevator reached the twelfth floor, which was also the top floor of the hotel, and Ron and Hermione began walking down the hall.

"Hermione, you don't care about the size of your room, do you?" Ron asked as the turned a corner and kept walking down the chandelier-lined hallway.

"Of course not, Ron. Good Lord, you brought me to the Ritz-Carlton, that's enough as it is. I didn't expect the penthouse or anything."

Ron smiled as he came to a stop. "Here we are. Room twelve hundred and forty-five. Now brace yourself, it might not be exactly what you expected." As he said this, he extended his arm and signaled to the door. Hermione grabbed the golden knob and turned it. As she stepped through the threshold into the room, her mouth dropped lower than it had all night.

"Ron-this really is the penthouse," was all Hermione managed to say before looking back at the room. It was definitely larger than most apartments she had seen, and much nicer. The room she was staring at was carpeted with white carpet and lined with beautiful Bohemian rugs. Atop the carpet was dark wood furniture in which Hermione mentally noted to remember when she needed furniture for a house of her own.

There were dazzling floral arrangements atop most of the furniture, and pictures that looked as though they hadn't been especially cheap lined the walls. There was a fireplace which at the time housed a roaring fire, and a large, state-of-the-art entertainment center. To top it all off, there was a spiral staircase leading upstairs.

Hermione couldn't believe it; here she was in the penthouse of the Ritz-Carlton at three thirty in the morning. Her friends had done all of this just for her-speaking of that, where were her friends?

"Ron, where is everybody?"

Ron began walking up the stairs. "Right this way, Herm."

Hermione followed Ron up the stairs and into a room more casual then the last, with gorgeous tapestries lining the walls. It also had an even bigger entertainment center than the last room.

She must have had her mouth wide open again, because the next thing she heard was Harry saying, "Hermione, pick your jaw off up the floor and kiss me."

Hermione turned and saw Harry, Lavender, and Dean all sitting on a couch, Ginny and Seamus sitting in a recliner, and Parvati sitting on a small loveseat with...Draco Malfoy?

Hermione looked around for a moment and noticed that everyone was holding wine glasses. Well, she thought, no wonder Harry's being so blunt. But why on earth is Malfoy here? Oh well, just enjoy yourself.

"Hey everyone," Hermione said with a shy wave as she sat in Harry's lap. "I see we have champagne, too."

Harry handed her a glass. "We figured that we would act grown-up and celebrate your birthday in style. And after the party last week, what damage could a little champagne do, anyway?"

Hermione grinned as she took a large gulp of her champagne. She had to admit, she thoroughly enjoyed it.

"Granger, do you realize that it's rude to gulp wine like that? You have to sip it, like this," said a drawling voice, and Hermione looked to see Draco Malfoy showing her how to sip wine.

Hermione rolled her eyes as Parvati said, "Oh, Hermione, ignore him. He's had a little too much champagne."

So that's why Malfoy was here, thought Hermione. Oh well, at least Parvati was happy.

"So, Hermione," said Lavender, " how do you like your present so far?"

Hermione grinned for the billionth time of the night. "It's the best birthday present I've ever gotten! I'm serious, everyone, I love it!"

Ginny stood up. "I think that since we have this multi-million dollar sound system, we should play some music."

She made her way to the sound system, but was almost knocked down as Malfoy jumped out of his seat and raced to the television.

"Or better yet," he said, "let's watch porn!"

A sudden quiet hit the room for a few moments as everyone stared at Malfoy, until, at exactly the same time, Seamus, Ron, Harry, and Dean yelled "Hell yeah!", "Yes!", and "All right!". Hermione, Ginny, and Lavender all screeched, "No way!", "Hell no!" and "Perverts!". All the while, Parvati was insisting very firmly that Draco had had too much to drink and should go to bed.

"Come on, Draco. You need to bed," Parvati said as she walked into another room and signaled for Malfoy to come with her. Everyone watched as she disappeared into the other room, Malfoy following her. He turned to everyone in the room as he reached the door.

"Sorry guys, no more porn. Well, maybe for me, but..." Parvati obviously grabbed his arm and pulled him into the room and shut the door.

Another silence overcame the room for a moment until Ginny burst out with giggles and Seamus exclaimed, "Damn it! No porn!"

Ron paced the room, obviously in deep thought, until he came to a conclusion.

"Okay, we can't go clubbing or anything, it's too late, and plus, we're not even old enough. So what should we do?"

Lavender seemed to have acquired Ginny's giggles as she said, "Spin the bottle! Spin the bottle!"

Ron nodded. "A little immature, but it could be fun. Whad'ya say, Hermione, Harry?"

Hermione was busy playing with Harry's hair and looked shocked that someone had acknowledged her.

"What?" She said, as she turned around quickly.

Fortunately, nobody noticed since Draco Malfoy came running into the room in boxers with little broomsticks on them. He looked unusually red in the face, and he seemed to be sweating furiously.

Ginny looked at him with concern. "Draco, what happened?"

He looked around at everyone and suddenly plopped down on the floor. He was breathing extremely hard, and looked rather cute, looking so scared.

"Well, me and Parvati were, you know, just...fooling around and all, and she was, you know..." he blushed terribly as he pointed down, "down there and all, and then she said she'd be right back, and I was just lovin' it, I mean she had just sucked my..." he stopped seeing the looks he was getting, "well, anyway, she came back and had a freaking whip..." he stopped again, to see the looks on everyone's faces, "I'm not lying, she really had a whip! That's when I just booked it outta there!"

Ron was the first one to laugh. "Malfoy, have you ever heard of sex toys?"

Malfoy looked at Ron with very wide, gray eyes. "Of course I knew it was a sex toy, Weasley. She was just so..." he clenched his hands, "ferocious."

"Well, that didn't last very long," Dean said.

"Yeah," said Ginny, "that lasted about five minutes."

Malfoy smiled. "Damn! I got that much in five minutes! I bet that's a record!"

Hermione and Harry seemed completely oblivious to the fact that Draco Malfoy was sitting in front of them talking about being attacked with a whip. They looked, in fact, as though they might be needing to be borrow that whip in a little while.

Lavender, unlike everyone else who looked completely amused, looked concerned.

"Where did Parvati go, Malfoy?"

"Oh, she got pissed and decided to go back to Hogwarts. She said to tell you sorry, Hermione, and then she said something about guys lined up to have her back at school. I dunno."

"Hey Malfoy, didn't you say something about porn earlier?" Seamus piped up. Ginny hit him and then said, "Forget that he said that."

Harry and Hermione seemed to have returned to reality and had caught on to what was going on. Ron seemed interested in the game of spin the bottle they had been talking about earlier.

"So, are we gonna play spin the bottle?"

Hermione snorted. "It's my birthday, and I say we do!" The champagne was obviously getting to her.

"Oh, come on. You can do better than that!" Malfoy said. "Why not spin the bottle, then take you're partner to the bedroom and see what all you can do from there."

Ron nodded. "That sounds good to me. Who wants to go first?"

Hermione's hand flew up into the air and she started jumping up and down.

"Alright then, birthday girl first. We need a bottle, too."

Dean pulled out an empty champagne bottle and set it on the table. Hermione seemed to be concentrating extremely hard on the bottle as she spun it. It spun slower and slower until it landed directly on-

"Potter!" Malfoy exclaimed. "What a coincidence! Well, we won't wait up for you two. Take as much time as you need!"

Hermione grinned at Harry as they walked into the bedroom, which was a slightly dressed-up version of a normal hotel bedroom. Hermione laid down on the bed as Harry climbed on the bed and sat for a second.

"So...what do you wanna do?"

Hermione smiled. "Doesn't matter to me. I'm the birthday girl. And I'm tipsy. And so are you! We can do anything!"

So, with that, Harry climbed on top of Hermione and they began kissing and making out, which had become a usual ritual for the two. Harry began kissing Hermione's neck, and as he did so, Hermione looked down at the pocket of his khaki shorts. There was a small blue packet sticking out.

"Harry, what's that?"

Harry, startled by the interruption, looked down, not knowing what Hermione was talking about.

"What's what?" he asked.

"What's that sticking out of your shorts pocket?"

Harry looked down at his pocket and started blushing immediately as he pulled out the small blue packet.

"Oh, um, this...this is a...a condom."

Hermione got a confused expression on her face and Harry couldn't really tell if she was mad or not.

"Herm, I'm sorry, I should've asked you first, I'm so, so sorry." Harry said quickly.

Hermione just sat there, as though she were thinking, and, in a way, looking completely appalled.

"Really, Herm, I wasn't planning on using it, it was just there so, you know, in case, since it's your birthday and all..."

But Hermione still just sat there.

"Listen, Herm, I should've waited until you were completely ready, and I'm so sorry. Are you mad at me?"

Hermione looked as though she had just snapped out of a daze.

"Harry! Of course I'm not mad. I just can't believe that you didn't know about the Protectinitus Charm," Hermione said matter-of-factly.

Harry looked puzzled. "The what?"

"The Protectinitus Charm," Hermione repeated. "You perform it on your-you know-and then you don't have to use a...um, a...condom."

"How do you do it?" Harry asked eagerly.

"Have you ever tried to do it before?"

Harry blushed. "No, I can't say that I have."

Hermione sighed. "Well, I've practiced it a couple of times, just in case this ever happened. I'm gonna have to perform the spell on you, Harry."

Harry's eyes grew wide. "Okay, well...uh, go right ahead," and he climbed into a rather odd position.

Hermione smiled and rolled her eyes. "Harry, you can't have any clothes on when I do it!"

Harry looked as though he couldn't believe his ears. "You mean, you just do that spell...straight to it?"

Hermione nodded. "So, just, take your shorts and boxers off, I guess."

Harry started undoing his belt faster than he had in his whole life. He unbuttoned his shorts and threw them into the floor. Since he was on such a roll, he figured that Hermione ought to take some clothes off too, so he slid her shirt off as well.

"Harry!" she squealed with a giggle.

Harry smiled sheepishly. "Um, can you not just do it with my boxers on?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Okay then. Here I go." With that, Harry began to pull down his boxers. He was interrupted, however, by the sound of a door opening and a large thud on the ground.

Draco, Lavender, Seamus, and Ginny all looked up to see Hermione, sitting in her bra, pointing her wand at abdominal area-and Harry's boxers were down.

"Good Lord!" yelled Malfoy. "I thought a whip was bad! Granger's in here putting the damn Cruciatus Curse on Potter!"

Lavender had her hand to her mouth. Ginny had burst out laughing. It wasn't long before Dean and Ron, who had been getting more drinks appeared in the doorway.

"Way to get creative, Herm," commented Seamus.

Harry had pulled up his boxers, of course, and thank goodness he had his back turned, Hermione thought.

Ron was laughing harder than Ginny. Everyone seemed overall stunned, but it was actually Malfoy who calmed it all down.

"Let them get back to their business, people. Sorry about eavesdropping, we just had to make sure you were playing the game right. So, go back to what you were doing, we'll leave you alone." Malfoy said. "Oh and moan loud so we can hear; Finnigan seems to enjoy this kind of thing."

As they walked out the door, Harry and Hermione stared at each other, open-mouthed.

A/N: Sorry for all the sex, I just thought it was kind of funny. Anyway, these kids are 17, it's about time they learn the facts of life! Oh, and by the way, I have no idea if there is a Ritz-Carlton hotel in London, but it was the only thing I could think of, so I put it in there. I'm so sorry about the long wait, my computer "got sick" so I couldn't post anything. Expect the next section soon! In the next section we find out what Harry and Herm actually end up doing, we find out how they paid for the hotel room, and I'm sure I'll come up with some other interesting things to put in here. Review and write what you think should happen! Hope you like it! As always, thanks to everyone who reviews! Keep on reviewing!

All these characters belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.