A/N: Hello everyone,
Thanks go out to:
Smalldiver: Something tells me you'll get your wish...
The Brainless Wonderr: Dumbledore over a cooking stove... I know what you mean, the mental images alone were enough to have me in a laughing fit! And I wish I could have gone to the slumber party too!
Phoenix: Hope this will satisfy!
Crystalwolf06: Glad you liked it.
And last but by no means least, Jabba1: I'm rather partial to the Malfoys and the idea of Narcissa at a slumber party... it was too good to resist!
Thank you for your lovely reviews you wonderful people, you! I really enjoyed writing this fic and I'm glad someone's enjoying reading it!
As promised, right on schedule and without further ado, here's the second and concluding part of this story.
Enjoy!
...ooOOoo...
This One's for the Girls
...ooOOoo...
Part Two
Another burst of laughter escaped from the girls' bedroom and echoed in the empty corridor.
"Honestly," complained Ronald Weasley just as his stomach growled for the umpteenth time, "what in Merlin's name can they be doing in there!"
Harry shrugged while Neville simply looked miserable. Harry didn't think that Dumbledore's omelette had agreed with him...
Actually, Harry didn't think that Dumbledore's omelette agreed with anyone!
Harry had offered to do the cooking.
Bill had offered to do the cooking.
Heck, even Snape had offered to do the cooking!
But Dumbledore politely refused each and every offer of help. He wanted to do the cooking all by himself, he said. Harry had felt partly safe with the choice of meal attempted. After all, how bad can an omelette be? But, boy was he ever wrong!
They had all shared a single large omelette between them, seeing as Number 12 Grimmauld Place had been pleasantly, and unusually, quiet that evening. But after today, Harry was certain that Dumbledore considered the four basic food groups to be sugar, starch, grease and burnt crunchy bits.
How did he manage to come up with that conclusion, you ask? Well, how else was Harry going to explain why his, otherwise illustrious, Professor had managed to combine all that in a single omelette?
They'd realised only too late, that Dumbledore had mistaken the sugar for the salt. The pieces of greasy bread stuck randomly in the omelette, hadn't helped much either.
"They're probably having chocolate chip cookies as we speak!" said a miserable Ron as yet another bout of laughter made it past their room's open door.
"Psst!"
Four pairs of eyes turned simultaneously towards the door. They focused immediately on Bill Weasley. Bill slid quietly into the room.
"Emergency rations," he said, before emptying his pockets on Harry's bed.
The boys stared hungrily at the small pile of chocolate frogs and sugar quills before hungrily diving for them en masse.
"I see I'm not the only one with a similar idea," drawled a voice that, all five of the room's occupants, could have recognised anywhere.
Severus Snape, smirking, stood in the doorway.
"I found this, in one of the kitchen cupboards. I believe they are called canary creams."
And with that, he deposited a whole box of what were most certainly canary creams on the bed next to the chocolate frogs.
Ron looked at them rather dubiously.
"Mum must have confiscated them from the twins."
"Who cares?" asked Draco as he reached for one.
Harry had seen Draco in a slightly different light since he had come to this house and for that, he felt compelled to warn him.
"Wait, Malfoy..." he said resting a hand on Draco's arm, "do you know what these do?"
Draco sneered, but a hint of pure amusement glinted clearly in his usually cold, grey eyes.
"Yeah, I've seen them around school. Look, I don't know about you, but I'm starving. I don't particularly care right now," and with that, he shoved the canary cream in his mouth.
The others were quick to follow his example, and in a while, all that could be heard from the boys' bedroom, was the squawking of several, oversized canaries.
One of them, the one who had previously been Bill Weasley, clumsily extended his left wing towards the only occupant of the room who had retained his human form: Severus Snape. Amidst the yellow feathers lay a canary cream. Snape hesitated briefly, but he took the proffered canary cream and soon, he too had suffered the inevitable transformation.
This of course did not last long.
Most of them were still seated on Harry's bed where the 'emergency rations' had been deposited. Snape still stood leaning against the door frame. No one spoke, but silence did not reign. More laughter and music could be heard from the room down the corridor.
"What do you think they're doing in there?" asked Neville.
"Eating chocolate chip cookies," Ron mumbled.
"And having pillow fights," added Draco smugly.
"Pillow fights?" Harry seemed sceptical.
"Everyone knows that girls always have pillow fights at slumber parties!"
Snape's sneer widened at his protégé's ignorance.
"What, as in jump-up-and-down-on-the-beds pillow fights?" asked Harry.
A glazed look came over Bill's eyes.
"Mmm, jumping up and down on the beds in skimpy little nightgowns..." he mused.
Three young men and a professor seemed a little flushed at that comment, but everyone in the room glared at Bill.
"What?!" he said cheerfully, "I was thinking of Tonks!"
"You like Tonks?" asked Neville wide-eyed.
"She's... ok," admitted a red-eared Bill.
Ron rolled his eyes at Bill behind his back. Harry chuckled for a while before letting a frown cross his features.
"But surely they can't be having pillow fights all the time! It must get a bit boring after a while!"
"They eat too, remember?"
This comment came from Ron of course, who was clutching his still-growling stomach.
"Ok, so they eat and have pillow fights, but they must do something other than that, right?" insisted Harry.
"Girls talk about hair and make-up and clothes... Things like that," Bill informed them.
The boys looked at him dubiously.
Draco frowned. Surely Granger didn't like talking about those kinds of things! She was much too clever for that! And besides, she had never seemed to care about hair or make-up or clothes much... She didn't really have to, said a traitorous voice in his mind.
He thought back to that very first time he had seen her for who she really was.
She was defending him, of all people, to her friends. It had been a few days after he and his mother had got there. She had bravely stood before Harry, Ron and Neville, one small girl against three angry, large boys. She had stood her ground and she had won. On his behalf. They hadn't seen him, but he couldn't help but look at the girl in awe and wonderment, while his stomach did flip-flops.
It had made him realise why he had enjoyed insulting her at school so much. He perversely wanted her to get angry at him, to shatter her cool façade, to allow him to see the fire in her eyes as she took on his challenge.
An angry Hermione took his breath away. If he was honest with himself, it always had.
She didn't need make-up or fashionable clothes. It sounded cliché, but her beauty came from within. The sincerity, the passion, the determination and sheer stubbornness that was purely her, left his senses reeling. She looked calm and cool on the outside, but Draco had had a taste of the flames that lurked just beneath the surface, and he was left begging for more.
When she had slapped him back in third year... It was all he could do not to grab her and punish her with searing kisses.
But her anger towards him wasn't the only time she had allowed him a peak beneath the surface of her calm persona. Since he had been here, he had seen her passionate nature whenever certain subjects had come up.
House elves was one. He smiled thinking back to the lecture he had seen Order member Mundugus Fletcher receive, after an unfortunate remark concerning the pathetic creatures, had left his lips. Draco had heard all about the Blacks' house elf that had worked at the house until he betrayed his master and then taken is own life. He had never particularly sympathised with the creatures.
Literature was another subject she got riled up about, he had discovered to his delight.
She had walked in on one of his and Professor Snape's literary discussions in the library one evening. Her eyes had lit up and she had joined them with gusto, quickly suppressing her surprise that it was muggle literature that they were discussing. Their antagonistic discussions of Shakespeare and other classics were Draco's favourite parts of an otherwise wasted summer.
"Maybe they talk about Quidditch," offered Harry.
"Come on Harry," said Bill, "I expected that kind of comment from my brother, not you!"
But Harry knew how passionate Ginny was about Quidditch. Her obsession with the sport almost rivalled her brother's.
When Harry had been banned by Umbridge from playing Quidditch, who would have known what a worthy substitute Ginny would be? She had practised hard, not wanting to let the team down, but Harry knew it went beyond that.
Watching her fly, she had stopped being Ron's little sister in his mind. She became Ginny Weasley; one of the best fliers he had ever known and one of his best friends!
He had seen her flying on her own one evening in the twilight. She had landed when she spotted him and they had talked for a long time before heading back to the common room. She had told him that flying made her feel free.
Loyal, brave, stubborn, funny, Ginny Weasley...
He sighed. Why, oh why hadn't he noticed her when she had had that sweet, innocent crush on him years ago?!
Harry's face darkened. Maybe it was better this way. There was a war coming. She was enough of target for being a Weasley. Being involved with him would put her into even more danger and he would do anything to protect her! Even if it meant denying him a chance at his own happiness...
"Maybe they talk about art," suggested Ron.
The others snorted at his suggestion, but Ron wasn't so sure. Luna didn't seem the type to discuss make-up, hair and clothes. Ron hadn't told anyone about the sketchbook. Not even Harry.
He had found it one night in the, aptly named, drawing room. It had been the beginning of summer. Ron was greatly impressed by Luna at the Department of Mysteries. In his eyes, she had been as brave as any Gryffindor.
He became curious about her.
An outcast among her own house, the whole school really, she didn't seem to let that bother her. She seemed to spend most of her time in a world other than their own. She had seemed almost ethereal to him, yet at the Department of Mysteries she had proved once and for all that she was made of sterner stuff than anyone had given her credit for.
And that is why, when he had found the sketch pad with her name on, he couldn't resist a peek inside hoping that maybe, just maybe, he would get a peek into the real Luna Lovegood. He hadn't realised what he was letting himself into...
The first sketch was of Hogwarts, and she had suffused it with all the love and pride she clearly felt for the school that had never accepted her for the wonderful girl she was.
The second sketch was of Dumbledore. Behind the twinkling eyes there lay a power that created awe in the observer. There was also a sense of serene acceptance and safety radiating from the portrait, and Ron realised that Luna felt safe around the old man.
Part of him, he had to admit, was jealous. He wanted the privilege to protect her, he realised. He wanted her to feel safe around him too.
The third sketch was of him and Harry playing chess. It had been unfinished when he first saw it, but in the few strokes that she had made, she had managed to capture not only the essence of the two boys, but also the very essence of their friendship.
He had made it a habit to look for the red sketch book in the drawing room daily, and he found that she often seemed to forget it there. Always at the same place, on the arm rest of what he assumed was her favourite chair. He sat at that same chair and looked at her sketches, looking out for new additions, watching the gradual development of each picture...
It was through her drawings that he had fallen in love with her, going as far as forgetting his silly infatuation with Hermione for her sake.
Ron smiled to himself.
Bill wasn't sure if Tonks would talk about clothes, hair and make up either. She didn't seem to care about any of it, but you never really knew with the little minx!
They had gotten pretty close since he had given up his job as a curse breaker in Egypt, to devote himself solely to the Order a few months ago. Dumbledore had mentioned something about the DADA position at the school next year, but it had all been pretty vague. He had thought that working full-time for the Order at a time when Voldemort was clearly laying low, would bore him to tears, and he almost regretted it the moment he came back to cold and dreary Britain. He was easily bored and that had perhaps been the main reason he had loved his previous job so much. There was never a dull moment in a curse breaker's life!
But getting bored hadn't happened yet. And all thanks to Tonks...
She had filled every moment of his life here, with her catching optimism, her love of life and adventure. She wasn't above laughing at herself and, in fact, her sense of humour often had him in stitches. She was simply the most fun-loving person he had ever known!
And she never turned down a challenge! He had found that out soon enough, when she apparated half-way around the globe to bungee jump in Hawaii! She had then made him do it, he remembered with a snort. It had been the beginning of a very interesting summer...
In truth, he had found that there was only one thing to remember when dealing with Tonks: Expect the Unexpected. And in all honesty... he wouldn't have it any other way!
His mind drifted to their heated training session earlier today. He had held nothing back and neither had she. They had been so close that their breaths had mingled. Her eyes had seemed fixed on his own, and he could feel the heat radiating off her body in waves towards his. He would have kissed her right there and then, if Ginny and Hermione hadn't shown up at the precise inopportune moment.
"And boys," said the Professor's unusually hoarse voice. "Girls always talk about boys during slumber parties."
Narcissa. He had loved her. He had always loved her. But she had chosen Lucius. She had loved Lucius.
Snape did not allow himself the delusion that their match had been simply a marriage of convenience. It was that too, certainly, but there was a deep love and passion between those two, seemingly cold people, that few could guess at.
He had seen it with his own eyes. She loved Lucius, and he knew she always would.
Only because of Draco had she left him at all.
When the young man had firmly told his father that he did not want to join Voldemort's ranks, Lucius had been furious! His son and he had always been close, and Lucius had thought that he moulded the boy into the perfect young death-eater.
Only at school did Snape manage to cancel out some of Lucius' negative influence on the young man. Snape had earned Draco's confidence like no other teacher had ever managed to, and he used this to gently show Draco that perhaps some of his father's ideas may have been wrong after all.
He used muggle literature to show that Lucius' ideas on muggles' incompetence were nothing more than a fable. He transferred his love of Shakespeare to the boy, and shook his perfect world to the core. He used Granger's obvious brilliance, without rubbing it in his face, to demonstrate that muggleborns could be jut as powerfully magical as purebloods. And he had shown him books on dark magic with horrifying pictures to imprint the horror of the dark arts to his young mind.
And he had done it all for her. Because despite Draco's superficial similarity to his father, he had been able to see his mother's son in him. And surely enough, when the time came, Narcissa defended her son's decision and left the Manor with him.
She would never love him the way he loved her, Snape knew. Her heart would forever be Lucius' and all Snape could have, was her friendship. But that was alright, because now that she had come over to their side, he could watch over her in the difficult times ahead. And that was enough.
He was illogically proud of her when she had stood in front of the portrait of Mrs Black with every right her lineage offered her. She had identified herself as a Black, and promptly told the old woman to stuff it! Everyone had held their breaths... and the old woman in the portrait, for the first time since anyone could remember, was quiet.
Her cool logic, intellect and cunning, would be invaluable to them during the war, but she was much, much more to him than that. These past couple of months, when Severus Snape could drink in the sight of her with his own eyes and hear her sweet voice with his own ears every day, were the simply-put happiest of his life.
The others seemed to be caught in their own musings.
Boys... his voice seemed to echo in the room. Girls always talk about boys during slumber parties...
It was Draco who made the first move racing down the corridor to stand in front of the girls' room. Ron jumped after him, closely followed by Bill and Harry.
"Guys?" asked Neville before following them.
When the room was good and empty, Severus surrendered to a very uncharacteristic chuckle. Young love...! He would never admit it to them, but he wished it for them with all his heart. It was too precious to waste.
.
"Look what I brought!" said Tonks proudly as she lifted bottle after bottle of alcoholic beverage from a box.
"Tonks, is that firewhiskey?" asked a scandalised Molly Weasley.
"And... vodka?" gasped Hermione.
"Te-qui-la?" read Luna off one of the labels.
"Tonks!"
"Calm down, Molly. I don't think it's such a bad idea," said Narcissa's cool voice.
The wicked amusement in her eyes however, betrayed that she was very aware of the fuming redhead.
Narcissa took the hair brush from Hermione's hands to gently brush the brunette's hair, as if it was something she did everyday. Hermione was so surprised, she let her.
"You know darling," the formidable Mrs Malfoy offered with a smile at Hermione, "you have lovely hair!"
Hermione looked at her incredulously.
"No really. It's so healthy and lively!"
"That's one way of putting it!" giggled Ginny.
"What do you think my hair would like if I left it natural?" Narcissa asked.
Hermione's eyes widened as she examined Narcissa's perfectly tame, golden tresses.
"You?"
Norcissa simply nodded.
"I could show you a certain charm that comes in very useful..."
"Narcissa!" fumed Molly, "Tonks brought alcohol!"
Narcissa's eyes finally focused on Molly.
"Well, the way I look at it Molly, everyone gets drunk at least once in their life. For the girls, it might just as well be now, when they're supervised by three responsible adults." Her eyes took in the grin on Tonks' face and she corrected herself. "...Two responsible adults. What could possibly happen?"
Molly was wavering under the girls' pleading, eager faces. Even Hermione seemed for once to be willing to try the proffered alcohol.
"Mrs M's right Molly," added Tonks, "now's the right time for drinking if there ever was one!"
Molly sighed.
"We won't tell any of the others about this, okay?"
Ginny lunged at her mother in a bear hug.
"Let's get this party started!" called Tonks before passing around the bottles.
.
"They've got alcohol and chocolate chip cookies??"
"Shut up Ron! I can't hear what's going on in there. Hey, Harry can you see anything?"
"OH, YEAH!"
Bill pushed him out of the way in a hurry, before bending down to the keyhole.
He visibly started at what saw.
"What is it?" asked Draco anxiously. "What do you see?"
Bill's eyes left the keyhole and he glared at Harry before slapping him on the back of the head.
"That's my little sister, you prat!"
"The Weaslette?! You were spying on the Weaslette?"
The eyes of two red-heads and a red-faced Harry Potter glared at Draco, before what Bill said seemed to finally sink in Ron's mind.
He turned back wide-eyed to his best friend.
"Ginny? You were spying on Ginny?"
Harry smiled sheepishly but he was rescued by another burst of laughter from the girls. The boys glued their ears back onto the wooden door.
"Guys, I don't think we should be doing this..." mumbled an anxious Neville, but the others ignored him.
"Care for a game of wizard's chess instead, Mr Longbottom?" enquired Snape who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. "If I remember correctly, your father was quite the worthy opponent, even if he was a Gryffindor."
Neville hesitated. Who wouldn't? It was an unusual request from the last person he had expected to make it.
"I'm not going to wait forever Mr. Longbottom. Would you like to play a game or not?"
"I'm not very good Professor."
Snape sneered.
"I hadn't expected you to be, Longbottom."
He turned his back, but paused before walking away.
"Coming?"
Neville quietly followed Professor Snape away from the eavesdropping boys.
.
"Pass the vodka, would you Gin?" asked Luna's unmistakable voice. Some of it's dreaminess had left it and she sounded happy.
"Only if you stop hogging the ice cream!"
"Switch?"
Ginny passed the vodka before taking the tub of ice cream.
"Hey Tonks," asked Hermione, whose hair Narcissa was twisting into an elegant do, "what do you really look like?"
"Do you really want to see?" asked Tonks almost shyly.
"Yes!" thundered everyone's response.
.
"Out of my way," said Bill, before pushing Ron away from the keyhole.
Ron rolled his eyes again, and this time, it was Draco who had to stifle a laugh.
.
Tonks transformed into a young woman with high cheekbones, short black hair and sparkling blue eyes.
"You're very pretty dear," commended Molly. "Why do you hide your true face?"
"I don't hide it... it just gets boring after a while. It's fun to be able to look completely different every day."
Ginny nodded.
"I wish I could do that... Maybe I'd finally get rid of all these freckles!"
"I think your freckles are cute Gin," offered Luna.
"You have a very sweet face Ginny," agreed Narcissa.
"But guys don't like sweet, Mrs Malfoy," she groaned. "They want beautiful, sexy, alluring..." she waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
Narcissa raised one of her's in amusement.
"And you don't think you are all that?"
Ginny blushed under Mrs Maloy's gaze.
.
'Damn right!' though Harry outside the door.
.
"Have you guys ever played 'Have you ever...?' "asked Tonks.
Several heads shook.
"It's a drinking game. Someone says, have you ever... bungee jumped in Hawaii, for example, and those of us who have, must down a shot!" she said drowning her own shot of fiery alcohol. "The only rule is that no one's allowed to lie. It's pretty easy and fun."
.
Bill's eyebrows rose in amusement.
Draco smiled with glee. 'Time to see if Hermione really is the goody-goody everyone thinks she is.'
.
An hour later the girls were still playing. Most of them were the better part of sloshed and the boys outside did all they could to stifle their increasingly frequent laughing fits.
"Have you ever..." slurred Molly, "drunk polyjuice potion?"
.
"Who drunk their shot?" asked Draco impatiently.
"Tonks and... Hermione?" commented Bill who was once again watching through the keyhole.
"Hermione?" screeched Draco unable to stop himself.
"Shh!" Ron covered Draco's mouth with his hand before he realised what he was doing. "You'll get us caught!"
"It's a long story," mumbled Harry.
"Have you ever..." said Tonks' voice, "gone commando?"
"What's that?" asked Narcissa, her voice definitely having lost its usual, clipped edge.
"Worn no underwear under your clothes."
.
Outside the door no one even dared breathe.
"Tonks..." offered Bill whose eyes were glued to the keyhole, "Hermione..."
'Hermione?' Draco grinned evilly. 'Well, well who would have thought? I knew there was more to little Miss Prefect than met the eye!'
"Luna..."
Ron blushed.
"And Ginny???" Bills eyes bulged.
"What??" whispered Ron.
Ginny's voice floated past the wooden door.
"... all my underwear were in the wash mum, honest!"
Harry's eyes seemed to be glazed over. Unfortunately Ron noticed and, irritated with his best friend, slapped him on the back of the head. It was the second time Harry had been hit by his friends that evening.
.
"What about the tequila?" asked Hermione. Her words were pretty slurred too. "We haven't touched the tequila yet!"
"We need salt and lemon to do it justice," said Tonks. "You guys stay here, I'll be right back."
The boys scattered, but the door knob was already twisting and it was all they could do to flatten themselves against the wall and hope that Tonks wouldn't see them.
Strangely enough, and probably due to the copious amount of alcohol they knew she had consumed, Tonks didn't see them as she made her slightly unsteady way towards the kitchen.
"Gentlemen," said Bill Weasley grinning, running a hand through his long hair, "if you'll excuse me...?"
And with that, he made his way after her leaving behind three hormonal teenage boys worshipping the ground he walked on.
.
"Tonks seems to be taking a rather long time..." Narcissa finally said.
"The poor dear didn't seem too steady on her feet," giggled Molly.
"Who would have thought she would have done so many 'have you evers'! "Narcissa giggled back.
"I'll go look for her if you want," offered Hermione getting up on her own unsteady two feet.
And with that she made her way out of the room.
.
Once again the boys flattened themselves against the wall. Hermione didn't seem to notice them as she made her way to the kitchen.
Two of the three turned back to the door the moment she was gone.
Draco seemed to hesitate.
"Err... guys, I need to erm... right. See you later!" he mumbled before slipping away.
"Malfoy?" said Harry turning.
Ron looked to see that their fellow co-conspirator was already gone.
"You don't think..."
"Hermione?"
"Nah..." they said in unison before turning back to the door and its keyhole.
.
"Mrs Weasley," said a slightly green Luna, "I don't feel so well..."
"Ah Luna, do you want me to take you to the bathroom dear?"
"I'll take her, mum," offered Ginny as she already helped Luna to her feet.
"You sure you can manage Ginny?"
"Yes, mum..."
It was after almost everyone had left, that Narcissa Malfoy turned to Molly Weasley.
"They all left," she said in drunken sorrow.
"It's alright 'Cissa," said Molly as she patted her awkwardly on her back. "I'm still here..."
Narcissa seemed slightly better at that pronouncement.
"And we've still got the firewhiskey," she continued.
An out of place goofy grin found it's way on Narcissa's features.
"We do, don't we?"
"Want a drink 'Cissa?"
Narcissa took the proffered bottle from Molly's hand before happily raising it to her lips.
.
"Ron, Harry, what are you two doing here?" asked Ginny when she spotted the two boys flat against the wall, hiding in the shadows.
"Ginny..."
Luna didn't sound good at all. She didn't particularly look good either. Ron was by her side in a second.
"Luna, what's wrong?" he asked, wrapping an arm protectively around her waist.
"I feel sick..."
"I'll take her, Gin," called Ron over his shoulder to his sister, as he guided Luna over to the bathroom.
Ginny hadn't had as much to drink as the others, but she was still a little tipsy. Had she been completely sober, she would have realised that she stood in front of her old crush in nothing but a rather long t-shirt. She would have blushed and dashed right back in her room. But as it was, Ginny simply giggled at a red faced Harry.
Harry took in her long legs, her dishevelled hair and sparkling eyes. He swallowed nervously.
"Were you boys eavesdropping?" she asked with amusement.
Had she been sober of course, she would have been absolutely livid.
"Err... no, of course not Gin. Ron and I just happened to be walking by."
Neither of them bothered to remind the other that it was approximately three o'clock in the morning and there couldn't possibly be any valid reasons for the two boys to just be 'walking by'.
.
Ron held back Luna's hair as she retched in the toilet. His hand made comforting circles on her back.
"Alright?" he asked when she had finished.
She nodded and gave him a weak smile and Ron chuckled.
"Don't worry about it. You should've seen me and Harry when my brothers took us for our first real drink last Christmas."
As she looked into his warm, blue eyes, Luna was grateful. She moved to the sink and splashed some cold water on her flushed face before brushing her teeth thoroughly. Ron watched her in silence.
"Better now?" he asked when she was through.
"Much. Thank you Ron," she said in her soft voice.
Before Ron knew it, his hand had reached out of its own free will to brush a wet tendril of blonde hair out of her eyes and tuck it away behind her ear.
Luna's heart beat faster in her chest. She felt light-headed, and she wasn't quite sure that it was all due to the alcohol. She lowered her eyes to the ground, thus breaking eye contact, but she still felt the intensity of Ron's gaze on her face.
"We should go back," he said.
"Yes," agreed Luna.
Neither moved. Seconds ticked on by.
Finally Ron placed two fingers under Luna's chin and raised her eyes back to his own. Luna was surprised at how close he was.
"Ginny will be worried," he said, but there was regret in his voice.
Ron took Luna's hand and laced her fingers with his own.
"Come on," he said and led her out of the bathroom.
.
"You know Harry, you really are cute when you're embarrassed," said Ginny giggling softly.
"I'm not embarrassed," choked Harry, but his scarlet face betrayed otherwise.
Ginny walked slowly towards him; long, uncovered legs and all. Harry backed up until his back made sudden contact with the wall behind him.
"Why Harry! You're not scared of me are you?"
She giggled again. There was a mischievous smile on her face and an evil glint in her eyes as she came even closer.
"Of-of course not, Ginny," and in a way, he was telling the truth. It was her brothers that he was afraid of...
But as she came even closer, when he could see that the shadows the soft light of the corridor threw on her red hair made it seem almost crimson in places, when he could take in her sparkling eyes in all their glory, when he felt her warm, sweet breath on his face, he stopped thinking of anyone and everything, but her.
"I always wondered what it would be like to kiss you Harry," she said, before her lips covered his own.
.
"Tonks!" called Bill.
"Hiya Bill!" she grinned cheerfully.
Compared to all the other girls, Tonks hardly seemed tipsy, even if she had drank more than any of them. Molly and Narcissa's observations of her being unsteady on her feet, had been over exaggerated. Bill knew that for a fact. The two of them had often gone to a bar for a few drinks – as friends only, of course – and he knew just how well she could hold her alcohol.
"What are you doing here, Bill?" she asked him suspiciously. "Wandering around dark corridors in the middle of the night, doesn't sound like you at all!"
"You girls," he said in a mock angry tone, "are making too much noise! How is anyone supposed to get some sleep around here?"
"Aww, poor baby..." she crooned. "Didn't wittle Billy get his beauty sleep?" she joked as she turned away from him to continue on her way to the kitchen.
His hand flew out to wrap itself around her upper arm. She turned back to him in surprise.
"What do you really look like Tonks?" he asked softly.
Tonks' eyebrows frowned in puzzlement.
"Why do you ask?"
"I want you to show me. Please show me Tonks..."
Tonks hesitated for a while before her features shifted, to change into the face Bill had seen through the keyhole earlier that evening. Her proud features left little doubt as to her Black lineage.
"Why did you want to see my real face she asked?"
"Because when I kiss you," he said breathlessly, "I want to kiss the real you..."
Tonks' breath seemed to catch in her throat as he leaned closer towards her. He stopped about a centimetre away from her lips.
"I'm going to kiss you now Tonks," he breathed against her lips, "it's your last chance to pull away."
In response, she lunged at him, finally covering that precious centimetre, stealing his breath away with a searing kiss.
.
"Oops!" said Hermione tripping over her own feet for the umpteenth time on her way to the kitchen. If only the world would just stop moving...!
Hermione found the thought hysterical and exploded in giggles. She lost her balance one last time before she ungracefully landed on her backside on the carpet. She laughed even more. She had laughed more tonight than she had all summer!
"Hermione!"
Hermione looked up to see a pair or concerned grey eyes. She frowned. Something wasn't right... Those eyes shouldn't be concerned...
But all coherent thought seemed to leave her mind as the face of Draco Malfoy seemed to descend from the heavens to look unto her own.
"Hermione are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?"
In a way, Draco was glad that she was drunk. When he had seen her stumble and fall, he had hurried to her side and let his true emotions show. Draco hoped that she would forget all this in the morning. He may have rejected his father's views on certain subjects, but, a Malfoy would always be a Malfoy, and Malfoys never let their true emotions show.
He reached a hand to help her to her feet, but she didn't react. She seemed almost mesmerised by him as she raised a hand to cup his face gently.
"Draco..." she said softly, and suddenly, Draco forgot to breathe.
His name rolled off her tongue like a prayer. Draco felt as if it were he that was drunk. He felt himself sinking ever deeper in the liquid depths of her warm, brown eyes. It took almost all the strength he had, but Draco tore his eyes away from hers.
"Can you stand? You haven't twisted an ankle, have you?"
She didn't answer. She simply stared at him for a while.
He sighed. There was no way around it, he would have to carry her. But, although Draco would think it strange later on, as he gathered her petite frame in his arms, the thought of levitating her with his wand had never even entered his mind.
Potter and Weasley would have a heart attack when they saw him carrying her back to her room in her flimsy little nightgown, and there would be hell to pay. Uncharacteristically, Draco ignored those Slytherin feelings of self-preservation, and focused instead on the feel of her in his arms.
"I love you..."
Her voice had been soft, reverent, yet its echoes seemed to thunder in Draco's soul. Or, it may have just been the answering, erratic beats of his heart. Either way, Draco froze. No one had ever said those words to him before.
"Hermione, you're drunk..." but his voice sounded unusually hoarse to his own ears.
In answer she placed a finger on his lips to silence him.
"I fell in love with you this summer. Those late nights when we argued Shakespeare by the fireplace... I've been meaning to tell you, but I never worked up the courage to, and if I don't tell you now I never will. I know you don't feel the same, but that's okay. I just wanted you to know..."
Draco didn't speak, didn't move, didn't even breathe until his chest painfully forced him to.
"Hermione..." he finally said, but he was too late. The brunette slept peacefully in his arms.
Once again he continued his way up the stairs, his heart in turmoil.
.
"Harry? Ginny?"
Guiltily, Harry jumped away from Ginny, leaving both of them breathless in the wake of their kiss.
Still, he couldn't help noticing the intertwined hands of Ron and Luna as they approached them.
"Are you feeling better Luna?" asked a flushed Ginny.
"Yes. I'm okay now."
Ron felt Luna letting go of his hand and the feeling of loss hit him so hard, it almost made him gasp.
"Is that, Malfoy... with Hermione...?"
At Ginny's hiss all of them turned to see Draco, with Hermione in his arms, walking up the stairs. The boys instantly pulled out their wands.
"What have you done to her, Malfoy?" demanded Ron.
"Shh, you'll wake her up," Draco hissed back in response.
The others simply stared in shock as Draco, walked past them into the girls' room. Narcissa and Molly were both asleep, each thankfully on a different bed. Draco headed towards the last bed and deposited Hermione gently on it.
Hermione's friends looked on from the entrance of the room, with eyes wide, as Draco Malfoy, self-proclaimed arrogant bastard, Prince of Slytherin and hater of all muggleborns, tucked the bushy-haired Gryffindor gently in bed.
As noiselessly as he had entered, the blond boy exited, made his way past the still-shocked teenagers and walked thoughtfully to his room.
"Well, I'll be..." breathed Ron in surprise.
His words seemed to break the spell.
"We better go too," whispered Luna to Ron, just as Ginny turned to Harry.
"See you tomorrow, Harry?" she asked smiling.
He made as if to lean in for a goodnight kiss before remembering that Ron was still standing there watching them, and stopped.
"Goodnight Ginny," he whispered.
"Goodnight Harry."
"Goodnight Ron," said Luna her hand searching his.
He captured it and covered it with both his own for a while.
"Goodnight Luna."
The girls walked into the room and closed the door behind them, before Harry and Ron even thought about moving away.
"Err... Harry? Do you like my sister?"
Harry sighed. No matter how thick Ron could be in matters of the heart, it would have been inevitable for him not to notice Harry's behaviour tonight.
"Yeah, I do Ron. I really like her."
"Oh. I thought as much."
"Does it bother you?"
Ron seemed to hesitate for a bit, before grinning.
"She could do a lot worse mate."
Harry was relieved.
"Just don't... err... do anything in front of me. You know, like, kiss and stuff..."
Ron seemed slightly green at the idea. Harry grinned and it was enough to give a Cheshire cat competition.
"We won't."
The two boys stayed in comfortable silence, for a while.
"You and Luna..."
Ron simply grinned sheepishly. Unknowingly, he perfectly resembled Luna's portrait of him.
"I thought so."
It was Ron who changed the subject.
"You don't think Malfoy and Hermione..."
Words failed him.
Harry placed an arm around Ron's shoulders.
"I say, we think about that, tomorrow Ron."
Ron stifled a yawn.
"Sounds like a good idea mate."
"Bill!" hissed a female voice behind them.
Harry and Ron turned round in surprise, but when they saw a flushed, wild-haired and giggling Tonks chased by the infamous Bill Weasley, it was all they could do to control their own laughter.
Tonks finally spotted them still standing outside the door of the girls' room and stopped abruptly. Bill slammed into her and they both ended up in mound of flailing limbs on the floor.
A squeal of laughter escaped Tonks lips before Bill cramped a large hand over her mouth. Tears of mirth rolled down her cheeks as she tried to withhold her laughter. Bill was having trouble himself. Harry and Ron looked on in amusement.
Harry managed a dry cough before opening his mouth to speak.
"We're were just going to bed you two."
Harry elbowed Ron sharply, before his red-haired friend had a chance to put his foot in his mouth.
"Goodnight Bill, goodnight Tonks," he said, dragging Ron away.
The couple on the floor still hadn't seem to notice.
It was Bill of course that managed to get a hold of himself first. Untangling himself from Tongs, he stood up before offering her his hand. She clasped it gratefully and hulled herself up.
"How about a goodnight kiss?" he offered.
In response, Tonks pulled him closer. He closed the distance between their lips.
"Goodnight," she whispered, before disappearing behind the door of the girls' room.
..ooOOoo..
This One's for the Girls
..ooOOoo..
This
is for all you girls about 13
High school can be so rough
Can be so mean
Hold onto, onto your innocence
Stand your ground when everybody's giving in
This one's for the girls!
This is for all you girls about 25
In little apartments just trying to get by
Living on, on dreams and spaghettios
Wondering where your life is gonna go
This one's for the girls
Who've ever had a broken heart
Who've wished upon a shooting star
You're beautiful the way you are
This one's for the girls
Who love without holding back
Who dream with everything they have
All around the world
This one's for the girls
This is for all you girls about 42
Tossing pennies into the fountain of youth
Every laugh, laugh line on your face
Made you who you are today.
This one's for the girls
Who've ever had a broken heart
Who've wished upon a shooting star
You're beautiful the way you are
This one's for the girls
Who love without holding back
Who dream with everything they have
All around the world
This one's for the girls
Yeah we're all the same inside
From 1 to 99
This one's for the girls
Who've ever had a broken heart
Who've wished upon a shooting star
You're beautiful the way you are
This one's for the girls
Who love without holding back
Who dream with everything they have
All around the world, yeah
This one's for the girls
Yeah, This one's for the girls
