When the girls were tired of waiting for the boys to appear the next morning they decided that a wake up call was necessary.
"You do the twins and I'll get my boys." Hermione said.
"Fair enough." And Ginny went to shout at her brothers.
Hermione crept into Harry and Ron's dorm. She couldn't help laughing. Ron was sucking his thumb and Harry, although he claimed he didn't snore, was doing so very loudly.
"Boy's wake up!" she said. "If I have to. RON! You're bed's on fire! HARRY! You're…you're…an idiot!"
"Hmm?"
"What do I have to do to get you up? I know." She pointed her wand at Harry's face and water poured out onto it. Not only water but ice cold water.
Surprisingly it didn't work.
What did work was Fred and George running into the room yelling because their hair was on fire. Ginny followed laughing.
"Nice, Gin!"
"I was going to set their pants on fire but that seemed a little mean."
"Put it out! Put it out!" the twins were shouting. Then they turned to each other and started swatting at each other's hair. Harry and Ron jumped up to help. As did Dean, Seamus and Neville.
The girls sank onto Harry's bed sobbing with laughter. Eventually Ginny took pity on them and put the fires out. Then they looked at the boys. They were only wearing their boxers. The boys caught where they were looking and followed the gaze. Then the heads snapped up at exactly the same time. Horrified looks were exchanged.
"BUGGER!" the boys shouted as one.
"Classic!" the girls said. And they laughed again.
"You boys, or should I say men, had better get dressed. We've got a shopping trip organised."
"You know, we should just go by ourselves. We aren't shopping with the boys, they just need to do shopping. We should have just gone, like the other girls have."
"You know what, we should have. Come on Ginny. We'll have to catch up with them."
"Relax honey. They're still in breakfast."
The girls waved goodbye and left the dorm. The boys looked at each other. There was a pause, then it clicked.
"They did that on purpose!" they all said together.
The girls joined their friends at the breakfast. Because there were less people the houses mixed at breakfast during the holidays. Therefore the girls from the other houses were sitting together.
"Guess what we just did!" Ginny said as she sat down.
"Never mind that guess what we just saw!" Hermione said excitedly.
"What?" all the girls said together.
"We just saw Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Dean, Seamus and Neville wearing only their boxers!"
"We set the twins hair on fire!"
"It was so funny. I'll never forget the looks on their faces when they realized what they were wearing."
"Or not wearing! It was so much fun!"
"Next time you do something like that you should call us."
Let me point out just who is sitting at this end of the table. Hermione and Ginny have just joined Angelina, Katie, the Patil twins, Luna, Hannah Abbot, Pansy and Lavender. They were all going shopping together.
They headed out of the front doors as the boys came down the staircase. The twins hurried to open the doors for them.
"Thank you boys, or should I say gentlemen?" Ginny said suppressing a giggle.
"I would have liked to see the performance you boys put in this morning."
"We all would."
"Any chance of a repeat performance?"
The girls laughed at the looks on all the boys faces before heading out into the sunshine.
"I think the sorting hat made a mistake when it sorted you all into Gryffindor. You should be in Slytherin." Pansy said laughing.
"Do we all know what colours we want to wear for this thing?"
"We're going in our new sari's so all we need to get is jewellery."
"And shoes."
"I'm going for a purple dress."
"Purple to match the name right, Lav?"
"How about you Hermione?"
"I think… I don't know what I think. What colour would Harry like on me do you think?"
"Green, like his eyes."
"We'll see. Ginny, what colour are you looking for?"
"My date likes black. I think a black dress would do me well."
"Who is your date?"
Ginny glanced at Pansy.
"You'll see on the night."
When they reached the village they went straight for Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions.
They each chose a few dresses they liked and went to try them on. Even the twins, although they already had their sari's they chose a few for fun.
They didn't notice the boys entering and choosing their dress robes and going into the row of changing cubicles opposite them. Malfoy and his posse followed.
"Ready girls?"
"Ready guys?"
All the doors opened at the same time. Out stepped the boys and out stepped the girls.
Twenty jaws dropped as they saw each other.
Twenty admiring sighs left twenty dropped jaws.
Forty eyes stared.
The girls bolted back into the cubicles. Together they shouted:
"Well, I guess we can't wear these dresses, now that they've seen them."
The boys were thinking the same according to their dress robes.
"Boys! What the hell are you doing here?" Hermione shouted from her cubicle.
"We're shopping for dress robes." Ron shouted back.
"Well, go have breakfast in the pub. You can't see us dressed up until the ball!"
"Let's go guys. Girls can get pretty testy when their shopping."
It won't surprise you to hear that Ron was walking like a penguin when he walked out of the shop with the boys.
"You have to admit, Ron, you did ask for that." Malfoy said laughing.
The girls came out in another dress each.
The twins said that since they already had dresses they would be the stylists.
"Lav, that colour is perfect with your skin and the cut flatters your figure. We have a match. Pansy, blue is so your colour. Crabbe will love it. Angelina you do realize that you and Katie are wearing the same dress?"
"Of course. Our dates will be matching why not match ourselves."
"Good plan. They look good on you. Ginny that black dress is fabulous on you."
"You look so sexy!"
"He'll love it Gin." Pansy said winking at her.
"Hannah, no. That dress doesn't work on you. Go with Padma now and get a batter one. Luna, oh my god! You look good enough to eat. If Ron doesn't eat you by the end of the evening then I am no judge of character."
"What about me? No one's said anything about my dress." Hermione said in a small voice wearing a brown dress that looked rather hideous on her.
"Girls spread out and find a dress that will make Hermione look better than any one of us. she is going with Harry Potter, therefore she must shine."
About an hour later Hermione felt like she had tried on every dress in the shop and the girls still weren't satisfied. Madam Malkin herself stood there giving advice and eventually she took Hermione by the hand and led her into a back room.
"My dear, you need a very special dress. I will make it for you now. Colour?"
"Well I think a dark green would suit me. Plus Harry likes green."
"How about green and white? I can mix them wonderfully. You'll be a fairy princess when I'm through with you."
She called in another lady, who she said was her sister and together they made this perfect dress and gorgeous jewellery to go with it.
Hermione didn't let the girls see this dress or her jewellery and after they had paid she said she was tired from all that trying on.
"But you don't have any shoes."
"For the dress, yes I do. See you later."
"Will Harry like the dress?"
Hermione saw the boys entering the door and then they came over to them.
"Yes, Harry will love it. I'll be very disappointed if he doesn't. You'll have to excuse me from the preparation session. I want to surprise you all."