A/N: Yes, here it is, a full week after Christmas… I'm slow, okay? I'm sorry… Okay, I'm trying to make the transition from Draco and Ravyn to the whole group. I promise there will be lots of snogging for everyone later on, as well as general debauchery and inappropriateness as well. ;-) It is a Slytherin party, after all.

~ Chapter 2: An Enthralling Visit ~

" – and I think Kate is planning on visiting Kevin's house, and Fallon's taking Cassius home to meet her family – "

Ravyn was interrupted by a snort from Draco. She looked up at him with some surprise; it was the kind of undignified, spluttering sound that Draco rarely made.

"Warrington's meeting Anderson's family?"

Propping herself up on one elbow, she replied, "Yes. Why?"

"I can only assume that she got all her – hem, lovely character qualities from them." She nodded lightly, still looking a bit confused. "So Warrington's going to be spending the holidays in a house full of Andersons." He chuckled. "Poor sod."

Ravyn's mouth curved into a small smirk as he pulled her back into his arms. She had propped herself up to look at him, but was resigned to resume her place, her head in his lap as the two of them sat on the couch in front of the fire in one of the many sitting rooms tucked away in Malfoy Manor. "Feeling pretty lucky, now, aren't you?" she teased.

He grinned as she studied the lines of his face from this new angle. "Well, I was going to save that for tonight, but if you're in the mood now – "

The pillow she'd been clutching quickly connected abruptly with his face. Had it been anyone else, he probably would have been reaching for his wand in the next instant; as it was, he knew it was only a part of their ongoing game.

"That's all you think about, isn't it?" she accused, though the light in her eyes told him that his proposition hadn't been entirely unwelcome. "That and the best possible ways to seriously piss off Harry Potter. And I'm not entirely sure that those two things are unrelated."

He started so violently that she would have been thrown to the floor if she hadn't grabbed onto the front of his robes. "What exactly does that mean?" he demanded, getting nothing but giggles in return.

"Oh!" It was her turn for a violent action as she sat up, eyes glowing with excitement. "You'll never guess what Potter's doing this Christmas!"

"What makes you think I care what Potter's doing?" he asked in return – or at least, he'd begun to. He'd gotten as far as, "What -?" before she interrupted him.

"And don't bother telling me that you don't care, because I know you want to know."

"What's Potter doing?" he intoned, only a little grudgingly.

"He's staying at school again – so he can be with his girlfriend."

His eyes widened, and she grinned. "Potter's got a girlfriend?" he asked incredulously.

"Well, not technically, but it's really only a matter of time."

"Who is it?"

Her nose wrinkled as her expression turned mischievous. "Xanne Malloy."

He stared at her. "Malloy?" She nodded eagerly, grinning wickedly. "Potter's got a Slytherin girlfriend? How the hell did he manage that?"

Content with his reaction, she laid her head in his lap once more. She'd known that little scrap of information would have a significant effect on him.

"What else do you know that I don't?" he asked, running his fingers through the shining black hair that framed her face.

"Hundreds of things," she replied, "but if you're talking about holiday plans, I think that's about it. Oh, and I hear Derrick's got plans with a girl but he won't say which one."

"Derrick who?"

She frowned up at him incredulously. "I knew you were self-absorbed, Draco, but to not even know your own teammate – "

"Vittorio Derrick?"

"Of course Vittorio Derrick!"

"Derrick's got plans with a girl?"

Her expression was made up of amusement and disbelief. "Why is that so hard to believe?"

"Well, Derrick – we all thought he was – "

"Gay and happy and merry are we! Fa la la la la la la! Everything looking so Christmassy! Fa la la la la la la!"

Ravyn propped herself up once more as Draco craned his neck to see over the couch. Several of the Manor house elves came frolicking into the room, carrying between them a large pine garland that wriggled like a struggling snake as they moved. She smiled to herself, casting a glance at Draco. He had an eyebrow arched, but his expression remained bland, as if he hadn't quite decided what to think.

"Ickle Master!" A tugging on Draco's robes redirected his attention from the dancing elves. "Ickle Master Malfoy, there are guests, Master."

Ravyn couldn't quite hide a snort of laughter, but Draco merely glared at her from the corner of his eyes as he replied, "Guests? Who?"

"Friends from Master's school, sir, down in the entrance hall."

"Friends from – ?" He cursed like she hadn't heard him curse since his team had lost that last Quidditch match to Ravenclaw. Ravyn barely smothered her laughter as he sprang lithely from the couch and was out the door almost before she had time to rise herself.

"Why, what's wrong, ickle Master Malfoy?" she called teasingly after him from the top of the stairs.

All she heard in return was a string of, "Damn Pritchard, damn him, damn him, damn him…"

She'd begun to suspect the same thing. It looked like Pritchard hadn't followed through with his promise to dispel the party rumor. That, or Pansy had taken it up, bothersome slut that she was.

Just as she'd suspected, she heard familiar voices in the entrance hall when she'd finally made it down the third flight of stairs. How Draco didn't get lost in this massive manor was a mystery to her. She had a suspicion that there was some gene in the Malfoy family bred specifically for this.

" – thought we'd come early and help out," Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint was just finishing.

"Don't lie to me, Flint," Draco shot back. "You're all horny and there's no place else you can go that isn't full of parents or teachers – "

"As if he couldn't say the same about you," Ravyn teased, rounding the corner into the entrance hall, which was less of a hall and more of a giant sitting room near the main entrance, complete with high ceilings, a huge fireplace, and pictures of generations of scowling Malfoys glaring down at passersby. Ravyn suspected that Lucius had deliberately hung his most derisive relatives here to intimidate his guests.

Draco didn't get a chance to reply before Ravyn had seen exactly who these "guests" were. Flint had arrived with not only Akasha (since the two were hardly seen apart), but the entire Quidditch team and all of their fellow cheerchics as well. She let out a delighted squeal and rushed forward to hug her friends. Within seconds, the team was looking a bit doubtfully upon an ecstatically giggling cheerchic cluster.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Much as Draco and Ravyn had been before, there were now six couples sprawled on couches in a lounge in the Manor, in various states of "friendliness" ranging from Montague and Morrigun looking quite cute in each other's arms to Fallon and Warrington bantering in a surprisingly passive way. Vittorio Derrick was surrounded by the remaining girls, all absorbed in a conversation of their own.

Draco was considerably tenser than he had been earlier, and Ravyn knew he was itching to curse something. Or, more accurately, someone.

"Why don't you just have the party?"

He glared. "What?"

"Well, it'll be the last thing anyone would expect. Whoever's behind this – Pritchard or Parkinson, whoever it might be – thinks you're going to go on a murderous rampage when they show up."

"Damn right. They – "

"All right, all right, I know all about the Malfoy code of honor. What I'm saying is, have the party and give them what they least expect. It's not like you can't afford it. You could feed the whole House for days, and your parents wouldn't even notice the money was gone. And this place is so big that they could be home and they wouldn't notice a party going on at the other end of the Manor."

"That's true. We've given up using the east wing. It's too far to walk; it's just not worth it."

She looked at him with wide eyes; the humor came not in what he'd said but the fact that his tone was so bland she actually had no idea whether or not he was joking.

"I say do it."

"Here, here!" said Pucey loudly from the couch where he had an arm around Malice. He was looking at Malfoy with a grin and asked, "What are we talking about?"

"The party Malfoy's having tonight."

"Oh, you mean there really is a party?" Persephone asked, her eyes lighting up.

"I thought we'd just come to grace Malfoy with our enthralling presence," Warrington remarked.

"That only works when you actually have an enthralling presence, Warrington."

"I have an enthralling presence! Well… I could, if I wanted to!"

"That really depends on your definition of enthralling."

"I – "

While various cheerchics had been teasing Warrington, Draco had been speaking to a house elf who had slipped in unnoticed. He now stood up with some force. "All right, Warrington, you're not enthralling. Enthralling is a speck on the horizon to you. Now, everyone, if you would kindly shut up – "

"Is this how you treat all your guests, or are we just lucky?"

"Yeah, Malfoy, I mean, I know you're not one for manners except for your own benefit, but really, you could at least say please…"

There was a knock on the door. "Draco, sweetie?"

Draco said something in French. Since he didn't know any French that wasn't a curse word, even those in the room who weren't familiar with the language knew he wasn't too happy about the sugary voice at the door.

"Who's that?" Flint asked – a little too loudly, as Draco immediately sprang on him, dragging him from the couch and shoving him in the general direction of a bookcase on the opposite wall.

It was Ravyn who answered the question that had passed through all their minds. In the near-silence, she mouthed a single word: "Narcissa."