Here is the next chapter for the story. It focuses on the little pairings they'll eventually get into... Please review :D


Flowers and Cupcakes

Being bored was no fun and right now Pansy was bored. Draco and Blaise were playing with their new cars and Hermione was reading a book with a long title. Hearing a noise coming from the kitchen she made her way to investigate. Harry sat at the table chewing on his quill re-writing his Potions essay.

"Harry, me bored," he looked down to see Pansy peering up at him blowing her fringe out of her eyes.

"Well why don't you play with the boys?"

"Playing with cars, don't want to play with cars,"

"What's Hermione doing?"

"Reading," Harry nodded and looked back down at his homework, he was almost finished re-writing it.

"Well what do you want to do?"

"I pick flowers for Hermione?"

"Okay then what type of flowers are you going to pick?"

Pansy thought for a moment before smiling brightly "pretty ones,"

Chuckling slightly he told her to go and put her shoes and coat on and come back in the kitchen. Scurrying off to do that he dunked his quill back in the ink and scribbled the last few lines to complete his work. Scanning the re-written assignment he made small adjustments as he went, he could hear the chair beside him pull out and in the corner of his eyes watched as a bright pink coat appeared on it followed by a pair of pink wellies and Pansy.

Leaving the parchment on the table to dry he turned to Pansy and watched in amusement as she tried to put her wellies on her feet. Her brow scrunched in a tight knot and a look of annoyance flashed in her eyes as her lips twisted into a familiar scowl. He hated to admit it but she looked very cute. Hiding his chuckle behind a smile he took the wellie out of her hand. "Want some help?"

She beamed up at him nodding and handed him her foot wiggling her toes. He laughed before pushing the boot on her tiny foot. "Next foot." Taking the second boot he pushed it on her foot and helped her standing, in quick succession the coat was on and buttoned.

"Harry you need your shoes now," nodding he grabbed his trainers and jacket and walked out to Hermione.

"Right Pansy and I are going out." He told her and a look of confusion appeared on her face. Draco and Blaise looked up from their game and glanced at Hermione.

"Okay then have fun and Pansy be good," she told her.

"I will Hermione," she said smiling before grabbing Harry's hand. "C'mon let's go," waving to Hermione he allowed the miniature Slytherin to drag him out of the common room.

Outside the common room she stopped and frowned, "Harry where we gonna get pretty flowers?"

"Well how about we go on the grounds and see what we can find?" Pansy nodded and skipped beside Harry as they walked through the corridors until they were out on the school grounds. The fresh air felt good as they walked through the grass towards the lake where the giant squid lived. The last time he was down the lake he remembered seeing some flowers surrounding the trees.

"What colour flowers are you going to pick for Hermione?" Pansy shrugged looking at the lake wide eyed. Pointing to the lake with a big smile she grabbed his hand and pulled him closer to the water.

"Can I go in?"

"You can paddle but stay close to the shore we don't want the giant squid getting hold of you,"

"What giant squid?"

"The giant squid that lives in the lake."

Pansy looked at the lake in slight apprehension. On one hand she wanted to paddle in the water but on the other she didn't want to get eaten by the giant squid. "Harry," he looked down at his voice and raised a brow. "If paddle at front will squid not eat me?"

"If you stay near the grass then the squid won't get you." Pansy nodded happy with his answer and let go of his hand and jumped into the lake. The water splashed into the air before landing on the young girl, giggling she kicked at the water again this time aiming at Harry who quickly placed up a shield to stop the water from hitting him. Pouting she tried it again and the same thing happened once more. Sighing she bent down to put her hand in the water, looking at the pebbles that laid at the bottom. With a tiny hand she clenched hold of a pebble and brought it up for closer inspection. The pebble was no bigger than the palm of her hand with shades of green and blue splattered across the smooth surface. Holding the pebble tightly in her grasp she trudged out of the water, her trousers and bottom of the coat dripping wet. Scowling at the feel she hurried to Harry who was leaning against a tree watching her.

"What've you got?"

"Pebble," she said opening her hand for him to see. "You like it?"

Harry nodded picking up the pebble to examine it closer. When he went to put it back in her palm she moved her hand away and shook her head. "For you Harry," she said smiling shyly.

Smiling softly in return he brought her in close for a small hug, her small arms wrapped around his neck as his much larger arms wrapped around her waist. "Thanks kiddo," smiling in to his shoulder she whispered a soft your welcome before sitting herself on his knee.

Harry placed the pebble into his pocket for safe keeping before he looked down at her, "So what about these flowers?"

Her eyes shone at the mention of the flowers and climbed off his knee before wrinkling her nose at the uncomfortable feeling of her wet trousers. Upon seeing her discomfort he quickly waved his wand to dry her wet clothes. No longer feeling wet she scouted the grounds for pretty flowers. A few feet away a bunch of yellow daisy were sprung against the base of a tree. Trotting over to the tree she reached down and plucked three of the daisy and enclosed her hand to ensure they were safe before walking towards the lake where a scattering of blue and pink flowers were stretched along the banking. Picking three of each flower she placed them in the hand that was holding the daisy's before walking back to Harry.

"We keep looking?" she asked and with a nodded he stood and walked beside her as she looked for more flowers to add to her bouquet. Further down the lake she spotted a small gathering of daffodils and hurried over to pick a few of those.

"Harry, can we go over there to look?" he looked at the direction she was pointing and nodded. Why hadn't he thought of going to the greenhouses to look for flowers?

Pansy skipped towards the Greenhouses and squealed when she saw the variations of flowers around the glass buildings. From inside Greenhouse number 4 Harry could see Professor Sprout teaching the very same lesson they had learnt about Mandrakes in his second year.

Pansy completely ignoring the people in the greenhouse was picking up a variety of flowers in different sizes and colours. Her hands were bulging with the amount of flowers she grasped in her hand, every time she tried to add another, one would escape her hold and drift to the ground.

"Think you've enough flowers now Pansy how about we tie it all up and head back to the castle to give it to Hermione."

"How we going to do that?" she asked wrinkling her nose in confusion.

"What colour ribbon would you like?"

Still not understanding what Harry was planning to do she said pink and watched in glee as Harry waved his wand and the flowers were suddenly snipped at the bottom to make the stalks even and a pink ribbon tied itself to the stems keeping the flowers together.

"Do you think Hermione will like?" she asked passing the bouquet of flowers to Harry to hold.

"I think she'll love them," he told her. Pansy smiled and took hold of Harry's hand and skipped her way back to the castle.

XXX

Draco and Blaise frowned as Pansy left with Harry before turning to Hermione who was also frowning in thought. Standing up Draco made his way over to her and climbed on to the sofa next to her. Hermione glanced down to see Draco smiling beside her.

"Do you two fancy baking cupcakes?" she hadn't expected to be left with the two boys but she was sure that Pansy's departure would distract the boys from settling down.

"Cupcakes?" Blaise said frowning. "What's cupcakes?"

"They're big buns." Draco and Blaise's eyebrows rose to their hairlines and their mouths formed huge grins. Nodding enthusiastically, Hermione stood from the sofa and the trio made their way into the kitchen. It was then that Hermione realised the ingredients they needed had been spilt or eaten because of the hippos.

"How you make cupcakes?" Blaise asked from her right.

"Well we're going to need some new ingredients because the hippos ate everything."

"Naughty hippo," muttered Draco scowling.

Hermione clicked her fingers and one of the school house elves appeared. "How can Dippy help Miss Granger?" the elf bowed, his nose almost touching the floor.

"Hello Dippy, please may we have some flour, butter, milk, eggs, chocolate chips, icing sugar and a variation of food colourings, oh and some sprinkles please."

"Of course Dippy is happy to get those for Miss Hermione." Said the small house elf before he disappeared out of their kitchen.

Hermione turned to Blaise and Draco before waving her hand at the two table cloths transforming them into two child-size aprons.

"What they for?" Blaise asked.

"It's to keep your clothes clean while you bake," she explained slipping the noose over his head and fastening the ties behind his back before turning to Draco and repeating the same process. Just as she fastened the knot behind Draco a pop signalled Dippy returning to the kitchen.

"Hi house elf my name is Blaise," said the young Italian walking to towards Dippy.

"Hi Master Blaise, Dippy has brought ingredients that Miss Hermione requested." Hermione took the basket of ingredients and thanked Dippy before he apperated out of the room.

Transforming a chair into a bench she lifted the two boys safely on before laying out the ingredients.

"How do we make cupcakes?" Blaise asked leaning forward.

"Well the first thing we need to do is turn on the oven so it's hot for when our cupcakes go in." With a wave of her wand the oven switched on and slowly started to eat.

Grabbing a bowl and a weighing scale she settled it in front of Blaise, before grabbing the sugar and butter.

"Blaise I want you to get the number 110 or as close as you can by putting in some sugar." She handed him a large spoon and he dug it in the sugar bowl and poured into the bowl looking closely at the number. He repeated the process another three times until he got the number 112. Hermione took away the sugar and the placed the block of butter in front of Draco and moved the bowl in front of him. Cleaning the weight on the scales she informed Draco to put 110g of butter into the same bowl. Tongue poking out he scooped the butter into the bowl and watched the numbers increase. While he continued to do this Hermione cracked open two eggs and into separate bowls before handing one two each of the boys.

"When I tell you to add you egg pour the egg into the bowl," explained Hermione and took the bowl from Draco to start mixing the ingredients together, she motioned for Draco to poor his egg into the bowl as she continued to beat the ingredients. When the mixture became smoother she motioned for Blaise to poor his egg in. Excitedly he poured the egg in and peered in to bowl.

"Blaise will you grab the chocolate chips and poor some into the bowl please." Nodding he grabbed the bag of chocolate chips and pulled the sticky seal spilling the pack of chips across the floor.

"Oops," he muttered smiling sheepishly but Hermione smiled and shook her head.

"Just poor the rest of it into the bowl." Following his instruction he dumped the chocolate chips into the bowl. Mixing the chips into the batter she took hold of the flour and poured it in sections and continued to mix the ingredients.

"Hermione what can I do?" Draco asked.

"Can you get those bun cases and places one into each of the whole in the tray. Nodding he opened the tub and pulled out the bun cases popping one by one into the bun tray.

The mixture was now ready to be put in the bun tin. She picked out two spoons and handed one to each boy.

"Scoop the mixture into the bun cases until their half full." She explained and stood back to watch the two plop the mixture into the cases.

Blaise grinned as he used his finger to push the slimy substance off the spoon and then dipped his spoon back into the bowl and repeated the process. Once they had filled each of the bun cases Hermione popped the tray into the oven.

"How long will it take to make?" Draco asked jumping off the bench and rushing to the oven to peer through the door.

"It'll take around 20 minutes to cook," she told them. "Would you like to lick the bowl?" Blaise and Draco nodded and they dipped their fingers into the bowl before popping them into their mouths. As they licked the bowl clean Hermione began to mix the icing sugar and with drizzles of water. When the substance was thick enough she split the icing into four separate bowls before dripping the food colouring into the bowl.

"Hermione what you doing?" Blaise asked cake batter surrounding his lips. He looked at the four bowls with blue, green, pink and yellow stuff inside before attempting to dip a finger into the green bowl.

Grabbing a hold of his finger before it hit the icing. "This is coloured icing that you're going to decorate your cupcakes with. His eyes enlightened with excitement at the thought and quickly sat on the chairs ready to start the process. It was then he saw the sprinkles and carefully held them up to show Hermione. "Those are to sprinkle on top,"

Draco climbed on the chair beside him and waited for Hermione to pull the cupcakes out of the oven. With a quickly cooling charm the cupcakes were cool enough to touch. One by one she pulled the cupcakes out of the tray and moved the tray over to the sink. Excitedly Draco and Blaise picked up a cupcake each and poured a generous dollop of icing on to their cupcakes before smoothing the icing around the top of the cake. Draco dropped the sprinkles onto his green cupcake before putting it on a plate. He grabbed another and this time plopped yellow icing on to the top of the bun. One by one the boys decorated the buns in mixture of coloured icings. As they lathered icing on to icing Hermione snuck the camera into the kitchen and snapped away. Smiling slyly she looked back through the pictures and put the camera back into the living room.

"Finished," they chorused, their aprons were covered in cupcake mixture and their fingers and faces shared the same look.

"Those look great boys," she praised, rather impressed at their achievements she wiped their faces down with a wet cloth just as the common room door opened.

"Hermione!" Pansy cried stepping as she walked into the living room. Hearing commission in the kitchen she hurried over to give Hermione her flowers, just before she reached the door she stopped with Harry pausing behind her.

"What if she doesn't like them?" she whispered suddenly worried that Hermione wouldn't like the flowers.

"She'll love them, go on." He pushed her gently towards the door and she hurried in to see Hermione stood at the table next to Blaise and Draco.

"Hermione I picked these for you," she said shyly holding the bouquet in her hands. Hermione's face broke into a smile and bent down to Pansy's level.

"Thank you sweetheart they're lovely." Pansy beamed happily and watched as Hermione summoned a vase to put them in.

"Pansy want a cupcake?" asked Blaise with a cupcake already in his hand. Pansy nodded and climbed on to a chair before taking a cupcake with pink icing and sprinkles.

Hermione watched as the trio ate the cupcakes and listened to Harry explain that Pansy wanted to get her some flowers.

"You know I'm going to miss them when they get older," Hermione admitted sadly. Harry couldn't help but agree with her.