Thank you to Singing-My-Song, HyperSquishy, Krystal Klear, and Crazy White Rabbit.

Disclaimer: The day I own Harry Potter is the day Draco Malfoy comes to my house wearing all black and with reservations to a fancy restaurant where he'll propose to me. So as you can see, I own Harry Potter in my dreams. But not in real life.

the glitter cloud of doom and destruction

issalee

Colin Creevey was usually very patient. You had to be, especially if you were friends with Ginny Weasley. But his patience was evaporating quickly as he looked at both of his best friends, who were currently dancing on a table in an empty classroom.

Ginny had gotten out of the Hospital Wing a few days ago, and after she had finally caught up with all her work and even managed to get a little ahead, she'd decided that this Saturday, she was going to celebrate. So she had had Hermione help her in charming several random objects into playing a certain song whenever you touched them, all of them from the Muggle world.

Colin hadn't meant to follow Ginny, really he hadn't, but then she and Tessa had proceeded to lock the door, dump a pile of unsystematic objects on the ground, and picked one up. As soon as the music had started, so had they.

Ginny was actually a very good dancer, as was Tessa, so they were well into the rhythm by the time Colin thought to talk to them.

"Er, Gin? D'you think we could possibly do something else? I mean—I'm a guy, and I'm not supposed to be dancing in empty classrooms."

"Come on, Colin!" Ginny said, in between moves. "If anyone walks in, they'll call you a player and you'll have girls simply swarming all over you."

Colin blushed. "Yeah, but I think I'd rather have another guy friend at least. Can I? Please?"

Tessa smiled at him. "Get Justin!"

Justin Connors was a transfer student from America, and with his boyishly good looks, curly blonde locks, and wide blue eyes, he was supposedly every girls dream. And he was a Gryffindor. The only person who rose above him in looks was—well, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were tied for that spot.

The younger trio had met him over their summer before fifth year, and although they hadn't spent a lot of time with him before then, he was instantly like a best friend to them. But he was also a seventh year, and seeing as he was in training already to become an Auror (yeah, he was that good) he didn't get to spend a lot of time with them.

"Yeah! Get Justin!" Ginny cried out. "And hurry, before we run out of music! Colin grinned at his friends' antics before he unlocked the door and ran out, forgetting to lock it on his way.

The song ended a few minutes after he had left, and Ginny hopped down from the desk. "Pick up that apple, there Tessa. The one with the drawings on it."

Tessa complied, and as the first few strains of a Black-Eyed Peas song came on, Ginny's eyes widened.

"We will dance until we die!" She proclaimed. "And no one can stop us!" With that, she grabbed Tessa's arms and swung around, singing:

"We're on holiday! So let's celebrate! I don't work today! Or the next three days! So let's celebrate! We're on holiday! I don't work today! Nah, pardon me as I celebrate!"

(A/N: That's my own little way of getting past the songfic rule.)

Tessa smirked and raised her arms above her head, taking the moves she'd learned from various dance classes she had taken. Ginny smirked right back and doubled the effort. She had been dancing literally all her life.

"Well, Weaselette, if I knew you were attracted to girls, I would've told the school a long while ago."

Ginny stopped and whirled around to face Draco Malfoy, who was leaning in the doorway. Behind him, Blaise was smiling slightly.

Ginny, who had decided around then that she was very tired of getting angry with this boy, merely smiled. "You're so coy."

Draco looked a little surprised, but he quickly masked it and sauntered into the room. Blaise rolled his eyes at the attitude and followed, then seated himself at a desk. Ginny joined Tess and sat on the table they had been dancing on earlier.

"What exactly were you doing, Weasel?" Ginny feigned surprise and looked around, under the desks and behind her.

"What are you doing?" Draco asked, more than a little annoyed. Ginny smiled perkily.

"You said weasel. I suppose you saw one, so I was looking for it. I've found a ferret already, he has the most annoying mind-set."

Even Blaise couldn't resist a snort of laughter at that one, and Draco looked down his nose coldly as Ginny continued.

"You will refer to me as Ginny, else I may have to castrate you and run far, far away." Tessa crossed her eyes at her friend to show that now she was just being silly, and Ginny waved her away with an airy hand. "So?"

Draco seemed to be considering it for a moment, before he pulled his robes closer and uttered, "No."

Ginny shrugged. "Fine then." She grabbed her wand from off the pile of things, jumped off the desk, and began to advance slowly, he mouth curving in a wicked grin. "You should have heeded my warning, Malfoy! Impotante!"

Draco let out a cry as a beam of yellow light shot out of her wand and into his—erm—pants. He barreled out of the room as Ginny and Tessa collapsed laughing on the floor, and when he returned a little while later, they were still giggling madly.

"They're still there." He said, with a relieved look on his face. "But what did you do? I'm sure that beam of light did something!"

Ginny wheezed a little as she stood up and headed to the pile. "It's something you should know, Malfoy, but seeing as you're much denser then I thought, I'll tell you. It's a charm, makes you impotent for the better part of the week. You can't ever show that you're—excited."

"WHAT?" Draco seemed highly upset, and this time Blaise joined in on the laughter.

"I told you, mate, you'd do good to be afraid of her." The dark haired Slytherin said. "And I've said it dozens of times, so you've only yourself to blame."

Ginny was inspecting a large quill with peacock feathers on the end. "It reminds me of you, Malfoy." She said, to no one in particular. Draco turned to her, smarting from the spell.

"What does, Weaselette?" She waved her wand around a little and he backed off. But she pointed to the feather. "Someday, I think I'd like to make you less arrogant."

Draco snorted. "That's the day I go up to Potter and tell him he's a great guy and I'd like to be his friend."

"I'll remember that," Ginny said quietly. Then she shrugged off her robes, which were making her feel very sweaty. "So, Malfoy, what did you come in here for anyway?" There was no answer, and she turned around irritably. "What?"

Draco was staring quite avidly at her body in a way that clearly suggested he was checking her out. Ginny checked herself. She was wearing a normal enough white skirt that she had borrowed for Tessa purely from curiosity. It was made of puffskein fur, and was very soft. Her shirt wasn't abnormal either. It was a black turtleneck she'd gotten over the summer from a relative, and hadn't bothered to wear until then. But the boots were high heeled, black and white, and went up to her knees.

"What?" she said again, tugging at her sleeves. Draco seemed to be coming out of a very deep stupor very slowly.

"New clothes, Weasley? Can your family afford that?" He said finally. Ginny's face flared a brilliant red, and she put her hands on her hips.

"As a matter of fact Malfoy, no. These are a little old, and if you had bothered to keep a social status over the summer, you would've known that my father has gotten a raise."

"Great," Draco said, nodding absently. He noticed Ginny's mouth swinging wide open and he started. "What? What did I say?"

"Mate," He turned to Blaise, who looked ashen. "What did I say?" Blaise shook his head and lifted one eyebrow in that I'm-A-Slytherin-And-Thus-I-Know-How-To-Pull-Of-This-Sexy-But-Dark-Look.

"You just congratulated Weasley on the fact that her father had a raise. You never congratulate anyone." After a moment, Blaise adopted a hurt look. "Not even me! See, what did I tell you a few nights back?"

Draco glared at him. He'd cast Blaise a dark look immediately after that vile statement had been uttered, and walked off to his Head Boy dorm without a word. The next day, they had agreed to disagree, and hadn't mentioned the matter since.

Luckily, Ginny didn't seem to notice. She had gotten over the shock of Draco' words and had leaned over the pile once more. She surface with something that looked strangely like a candle, but was twirling and sending out a spray of bright colors.

"I'm keeping this when we're done." She murmured, and Tessa nodded. The music came softly at first, but Ginny was delighted to hear a song with a soft, slow beat that she could really move to.

"Tessa, you up for it?" Ginny didn't miss the glance her best friend sent to the two Slytherins, but shrugged. "Ignore them. Mal-Ferret will be too busy admiring himself to say a word, and Zabini—" She looked carefully at Blaise, studying him. "Zabini's ok."

Blaise felt a slight blush creep into his cheeks. Not many compliments were directed his way. Draco nudged him and smirked.

But Ginny and Tessa were already dancing. Actually, both Draco and Blaise would have described it as flowing. Even in the most fragile of moments, though, Draco couldn't keep his mouth shut.

"Where'd you get the money to dance like that, Weaselette?" Ginny sensed the hidden question and smiled faintly, although she kept moving in the almost fluid-like way.

"While we were in Egypt, I snuck out while everyone else was sleeping." She arched her back slightly and continued. "Late night belly-dancing and tango classes are the best ones to take."

Draco couldn't help but let a smile quirk across his features. The little girl weasel surprised him every day. Ginny straightened and looked at him in mild surprise.

"You can smile?" Draco winked, an evil gleam in his eyes.

"That and much, much more, Weaselette." She grinned back, just as the door opened all the way and Colin walked in with Justin behind him.

"Ginny!" Justin said suddenly, eyes twinkling as he took in the scene. "My God, Ginny, are you being hit on?" he turned to Draco and Blaise as though he were going to chastise them, but instead a hopeful look alighted upon his face. "May I help?"

Ginny laughed and waltzed over to him. She put her arms around his neck and led him to the middle of the room. "Come now, Justin, dance with us or I'll hurt you, so help me."

Draco felt a pang of jealousy and winced. I do not like Weaselette. I do not like Weaselette. I do not like—hey, that's too low to be her waist arsehole!

Blaise could see his friends' inner turmoil and smiled. "Hey, mate be a little less obvious, please? Creevey here is staring." Colin turned a bright red and turned away while Draco growled.

"Let's go." The blond-haired Slytherin didn't think he could stand to watch Ginny dancing with anyone but him. He cringed as that thought went through, grabbed Blaise's arm, and left.

Ginny broke away from Justin. "What's with him?" She wondered out loud. "You know he congratulated me on something?"

"No!" Justin and Colin gasped at the news. Ginny nodded, then grasped Justin's hand.

"Oh, save me, Mr. Auror, save me from the Malfoy Madness!" Justin grinned and kissed her hand.

"I'd love to, Ginny, but Elsa wouldn't permit it." Ginny nodded, an understanding smile on her face. Elsa was Justin's Ravenclaw girlfriend of two years.

Tessa suddenly snapped her fingers. "That's two decent things, Gin! One more and you owe Malfoy a few things!"

Ginny flushed. "MERLIN, NO! I can't believe that prat, he must have known!"

"I think you need to rest, Ginny dear." Justin steered her towards the door, and conjured up a pack of tranquilizers, which he threw at Colin and Tessa. "Maybe those would help."

Tessa gave him a meaningful look and dropped the packet on the desk. "Let's just got to the common room, ok?"

Draco was slouching in a plushy armchair in his Head Boy's dorms. Blaise was lying on the floor and trying to keep in his very obvious urge to question Draco on what had happened. Just as he had worked up enough courage to ask, Draco spoke.

"I don't know what came over me. I just saw her with Connors, and it was like all I could see was red." He sighed. "Red like her hair."

"It's more of an auburn, actually."

Draco scowled and buried his head into his arm. "Why did you give her the password, Blaise? Why?"

Carina Zabini leaned over her brother's best friend and kissed him on the cheek. "So I could drive you to near madness, silly! And like I was saying before, Ginny's hair is auburn."

"How did you know we were talking about Ginny?" Draco asked suspiciously, raising his head once more. Carina shrugged.

"It's quite easily, especially since after I came in she was with that awfully cute guy, what's his face, Connors, and they were just talking about you. Ginny can mimic you very well you know." She mused. "Ow!"

Blaise had grabbed his sister and pulled her down to floor level like him. "Now, then, Car, why didn't you tell me you were friends with the littlest Weasley?" He tweaked her nose and she pushed his hands away.

"Because, oh brother of mine, you would have instantly forbidden me to continue our companionship, seeing as at that time you two were still taking orders from the ferret's father." Blaise looked over to Draco to see how he would react to the name, but to his surprise, Draco was smiling slightly.

"Yeah, she spends time with Weasley all right. What else could give you all that spunk?" Carina stuck her tongue out at him, and he smirked. "Right, Carina, so very mature."

The younger girl threw her hands up. "Oh, and I suppose sneaking into a hospital room in the dead of night and shamelessly eavesdropping on the conversation of two sixth year girls qualifies as mature!"

Draco and Blaise stiffened, the latter speaking first. "How did you know?"

Carina waggled her eyebrows. "Dearest brother, I took my lessons from you, remember?" They gave her scalding looks, and she sighed. "Ok, ok. Draco's got to be much more careful about where he puts his invisibility cloaks. I was heading for the kitchens with it on when I saw you two sneaking about."

"You used my invisibility cloak?"

"You were sneaking around at night!"

Carina rolled her eyes. "Oh, Merlin, you guys need to lighten up. And now, as I was about to say, I don't want to spend ages on this. So I'll make it nice and simple." She turned to Draco who shrank back. He was sure that along with Ginny's attitude, some of her insanity had brushed off on the girl Slytherin also.

"Draco, you love Ginny." She looked at her brother. "You love Tessa. You will all live happily ever after, and Draco and Ginny will have pink-haired babies who I'll be made the godmother of, and Blaise and Tessa's kids will have these weird rainbow eyes, and them I'll disown."

"My God, she's mad." Blaise scurried behind the bed and peered over it. Draco let out a snort of laughter, and Carina fumed.

"Fine then! I'll just go tell Ginny that you've been spreading rumors about her and her family, and then we'll see if there's enough left of you to laugh!"

While Blaise paled, Draco quirked an eyebrow. "Would you really, Carina? I don't seem to remember it being easy for a Slytherin to talk to a Gryffindor."

"Oh please." She flipped her hair. "How do you think the Gryffindors managed to sneak into your rooms to plant that man-eating plant? And all those other jokes they played; well, they didn't just guess where you would be at those precise times!"

Draco held up his hands. "Ok, peace, peace. But I don't love Weaselette. At the most, I'd say it's a minor crush, and after I mentally berate myself for a while, I'll have forgotten all about her!"

"You two are so dense! Don't you know when the right person comes knocking you have to answer the door? YOU CAN'T GO AROUND AND PLAY EVERYTHING THAT WEARS A SKIRT FOREVER YOU KNOW!" With that, Carina spun on her heel and stalked out.

Blaise fell back onto the floor with a light thud and smiled. "This from the girl who has a boyfriend for every day of the week."

Draco smirked. "Come on, let's go find her. She may prove a valuable information source."

"GINEVRA TERESA WEASLEY! MOVE YOUR ARSE IN HERE NOW!"

Ginny shuffled from foot to foot nervously. She glanced at Tessa and Colin, who were peeking at her from behind chairs. Not to hide from whoever was bellowing at her, but if Ginny bellowed back…

"I'm down in the common room, Ron." She called up the stairs. Moments later, Harry came down the stairs and immediately doubled over in laughter. Hermione followed, although she bit her cheeks to keep a smile from forming.

"What did you do, Ginny?" Colin asked. The redhead shrugged.

"I dunno. It could have been the itching powder in his underwear. Or d'you think it was the ketchup packets under his sheets? Maybe it was—"

"GINNY!"

Said girl winced. "Did it all happen at once?" Harry managed to nod, and she let a faint smile cross her face. "So he'll be a multi-colored horror with a few animal parts, I guess."

"You'd better go up and fix it." Hermione said. "He seemed pretty upset, and he has feathers and he's molting all over the floor."

"Ah." Ginny said, nodding wisely. "The Canary Creams. Gred and Forge are lifesavers for coming up with that one." She waved goodbye to her friends and started up the staircase to the boy's dorms. She took a deliberately long time, so that by the time she had reached the top, Ron had called for her about three more times.

She pulled open the door and stepped inside, hands on hips. "Now really, Ronald, what was this about my arse? It's—" she stopped, and a choking noise made its way past her lips, followed by full, blown-out laughter.

Ronald Weasley was every single color of the rainbow and then some. He was sporting bright pink wings in the place of his arms, and a neon green beak. His face was covered in fur, his back was soaked in ketchup, and he was itching madly at his rear end.

"Fix it, Ginny." He said, his voice deathly low. "Or else…"

"Oh—my—God!" Was all she managed, tears streaming down her face. Apparently, she had just noticed the beaded dreadlocks he was also sporting and his webbed ducks feet.

Ron finally snapped. Awkwardly holding his wand in one wing, he pointed it at her and cried out, "You want to laugh, eh? Rictumsempra!" Ginny had her wand out and shouted out the only spell she could think of. "Sparsemtpa!"

Ginny's laughter became louder and more strained, while a cloud appeared over her and Ron's heads. It thundered for only a second, before mounds and mounds of glitter rained down upon them. Panicking, the two opened the door and practically slid down the stairs, Ginny giggling, and Ron squawking.

Of course, people stared at them when they entered. But soon the whole Gryffindor common room was in chaos as everyone ran for cover from the Glitter Cloud of Doom and Devastation.

They spilled out into the corridors, rushing down stairs and heading for any sanctuary they could think of.

Ginny was having trouble running, as she was still laughing like mad and she had lost track of Ron or any of her friends. She stumbled about for a moment, and stopped to get her bearings. This proved to be a mistake, as the GCDD halted just above her and began to rain down on her heavily.

She screamed in frustration and attempted to clear her vision, but she couldn't see, and she was still giggling. Ginny was running out of breath, and everyone else was just running. Suddenly, she felt two strong arms wrap themselves around her waist and draw her towards a chiseled body. The GCDD swooped away, presumably to torment some other poor kid.

Ginny giggled helplessly, and tried to choke out some words. "Ach—laugh—charm—brother—Ron—counter—cloud!"

"What's she saying?"

If Ginny could have stopped laughing, she would have groaned. She twisted around and came face to face with Draco Malfoy, who smirked.

"I don't know, Blaise, but from the way she can't stop that awful cackling, I suppose she's been hit with a tickling spell."

"TAKE IT OFF!" She managed to yell, before succumbing to the magic once more. The glitter was getting into her mouth now and she made a little choking noise. Draco quickly took his wand and muttered the counter-curse. Ginny fell to the ground instantaneously and took deep, gasping breaths.

"I'll (breath) kill (breath) Ron (breath) I (breath) swear (breath) it (breath)!" She coughed. Draco kneeled down and wiped glitter from her face with his cloak hem, and smiled—actually smiled! Ginny gaped in astonishment.

"Nice cloud, Red…I haven't seen magic like that in ages. Where'd you learn it?" She came back to reality and nodded dumbly.

"Er, yes, nice…I found it in a book, in the Restricted Section." Blaise looked surprised. "Pince let you in?"

Ginny shrugged. "Harry leaves his invisibility cloak in the most obvious places, I mean, really."

Blaise and Draco exchanged a glance, and she rolled her eyes. "No, I will NOT tell you where he leaves it. Now, can you please help me get this glitter off? I'm very sure Scourgify doesn't work."

"And how are you so sure?" Blaise asked curiously. Ginny's grin cared the hell out of him, but her next words even more so. "I am not a nice little girl. Every single one of my brother's has glitter in their room, all of it pink, and their beds are enchanted to wake them up every morning by saying, 'Hello, Princess!' Then they sing 'I Feel Pretty' for an hour straight. They haven't found the counter-charm yet."

Draco and Blaise backed away very, very slowly, and she instantly adopted her You-Know-You-Can't-Help-But-Love-Me look. "Please? I swear I'll be your friend forever and ever!" They didn't look convinced, so she took a deep breath, and laid down her big guns. "And I'll give you the password to Gryffindor Tower for a week."

They welcomed her with open arms.