Hidden Faces

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the Harry Potter books,movie...etc, they belong to J.K Rowling.

A/N: Ok, so school has started for me again, so this will be the last update for the rest of the week, but maybe the weekend! I have just come up with some major cool idea's for this story, so I am pleased with how it's going. This chapter is slightly longer then the rest, but I like it :-)
Please remember to review, it keeps us authors going ya know!

As time passes . . .

It had only been one week since her transformation, and in those seven days, Hermione had already received fifteen date offers, six 'propositions', and one marriage proposal (but he had been drunk, so that may not have counted). It was as if the whole school seemed to adore the Clique; even the first years looked up to them as if they were goddesses. To Hannah and Hermione it was cute, and they always smiled and waved at any of the kids who had gotten the courage to speak to them. Whereas Padma, Parvati and Pansy felt that the kind gestures made them "look desperate for attention, like rabid hyenas that jump on a bone", and totally ignored the younger students. Hermione felt as if there was a distinct split between the group. She and Hannah were generally friendly to most people, Padma and Parvati were always together, there being a mutual connection between them because they were sisters, and Pansy was only nice to the Slytherins. Hermione didn't mind so much though. Ever since she joined the Clique all she was doing was having fun, and planning out 'major events' for all the 'cool people' to come to, according to Pansy. This basically meant finding a way to get Firewhiskey and liquor into the castle when they were planning a party.

As her thoughts wandered along this topic, Hermione realized that her first party was coming up, which Hermione was extremely excited for (she tactfully ignored the little screaming voice in her head saying this was a bad idea; Pansy had said hearing that was completely normal and you just had to ignore it). She had never really been to a party because to most people, she was too much of a bookworm and a bit of a loser. And now that she was going to be one of the hostesses of this party, a party which was going to one of the best parties Hogwarts had ever seen, she was as nervous and excited as she was when she was waiting for her O.W.L results. More, even. How did grades compare to a party as big as this?

Walking along the corridor, she frowned to herself as something about that sentence nagged at her. . .but there was no time to waste worrying. She was one of the main information spreaders of the party, which meant getting the word out about it as quickly as possible to everyone who mattered.

And now her first assignment was to give an invitation to Malfoy. It was one of those Hogwarts rules that you have to give the first invitation to the Head Boy and Girl if it was going to be a senior party. At least that's what Padma had told her, giggling.

As usual Hermione waited for him outside the Great Hall so they could do their morning duties. They had already fallen into a routine of when and how they would do rounds and other Head responsibilities. Neither of them had time that week to have their 'lessons', but she had left him a couple of notes on some 'tips', which she had gotten from a muggle dating book, cackling as she wrote them down, imagining the look on Malfoy's face when he realized he had been listening to Muggles. He hadn't mentioned anything about it, so she assumed all was good – and he hadn't figured her out yet. Saturday was going to be their first real lesson, and she would do anything to get a time turner and just skip it.

But first … the invitation.

"Hey Draco," she smiled, "I have something for you."

"Really? I think, from the rumors I heard, I have a pretty good idea what you're about to give me." he replied with a smirk.

"Well then, I won't bother explaining." she said coolly, and she gave him the black invitation with delicate gold patterns around it, the style was very chic according to the clique, and inside it read;

Dear Draco,

You have been invited to the first Hogwarts senior party of the year!

The theme is going to be ballroom styled masquerade, so come dressed in formal attire, but you have to hide your identity…sneaky

We will be providing drinks and food.

It will be (tonight) Friday night, at 9:00. The location is…

Reading the fancy inscriptions, Malfoy's eyes suddenly widened, then narrowed dangerously. Hermione instantly knew what part he had gotten to.

"What. The. Hell!" he roared, "it's going to be at the Head's common room! Did your makeover turn you really that bloody stupid, Granger!"

"Oh shit, I'm sorry!" Hermione gushed, giggling inside. "I forgot!"

Makeover? What is he talking about?

"No fucking way is it going to be here, I know how people leave places after a party!"

Hermione had been prepared for this, and she knew exactly what to say.

"Gawd Draco, scared you're going to get into trouble? Not much of a Slytherin at all, are you?"

She was challenging him, calling him a loser, and she knew he would get angry, as always, and rise to the insult.

"Me? Scared? No way Hermione…you can use the Heads' Room all you want, I don't give a damn."

And with that he stormed off to his room, leaving Hermione to dance around in exhilaration. She had just had a little personal victory over Malfoy, bringing the never-ending tally up to her favor by three fights. Checking her watch, (and she didn't have much time left!), she hurried out to deliver the rest of the invitations before getting ready for the party.

In all her joy she had forgotten that, for the first time in seven years, Draco Malfoy had called her Hermione, and that Hermione Granger had just called him Draco.

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Clique Meeting

"Ok, so…what are we going to wear to the party?" Hannah asked. Her question was immediately answered by Pansy, who seemed to Hermione to be the leader of the clique.

"Well, I want us all to go dressed similar, because we're all the hostesses, but then again…we're supposed to hide our identity, and it might be nice to just split up tonight…so that people won't know who we are."

"Good point,"

"Agreed!"

"But I still kind of want to wear the same as you guys…" that would be Pavarti, always desperately tagging along with the group, scared to be by herself. Hermione was reminded of another little rat in another sort of clique, twenty years ago . . .she just hoped Pavarti wouldn't go the same way as him.

"Well, maybe we can all wear the same idea, like for example if we were all to wear a cocktail dress, we could wear the same model, but just different colours and masks and stuff…" Hermione tentatively suggested.

"Ohmiiigawd . . ." This was from Pansy. And her "Ohmiiigawd . . ." was always reserved for something extremely good . . .or extremely bad.

"What?" Hermione asked, scared she had said something wrong.

"You're a genius!"

"Thanks," she grinned in relief.

In the end they all agreed on wearing a long slinky dress, hugging their figures. It was tight, but still flowing, they looked at least three years older in those dresses. It was a simple design, yet it looked as if it was the most complex and it was easily the most eye catching in the area. Less, according to the Clique, is more. They looked stunning, and they were so excited to show off to everybody.

Hermione wore a black dress, and everybody else wore their house colours, so she slightly felt left out, but then again, all the other girls told her that she stood out. One thing she noticed was that yellow was definitely not Hannah's colour . . But she didn't mention it.

The masks however, were very expensive. Pansy had quickly sent a letter to her mother, asking her to collect five masquerade masks, the most expensive and deluxe available, describing in detail each of their dresses. In a matter of minutes, it seemed, she had received a package and inside were the most divine masks the girls had ever seen. Hermione took the black one at the far end. It was one of those old-type masks where a long stick was attached to it, to hold it across your face, and take it off easily or let the top end down for a peek of your face. The base was black, and had pearls and silver trimmings around the eyes and nose areas. There were bright white feathers sticking out along the edge, and when Hermione looked into the mirror, she felt, and knew she looked, for the first time ever, absolutely stunning.

"Guys?" she said, turning around nervously for their assessment.

"Tut-tut, it's Lady Hermione" Hannah laughed, her nose in the air. The others joined her laughter, in between compliments of Hermione's dress and mask.

She smirked, "No seriously, I have something to say."

Everyone went silent to hear Hermione's confession.

"I…I really really appreciate everything you guys have done for me, and really…my year would have been ultra crappy if it wasn't for all of you. Y'all mean so much to me."

And she really meant her sentiments, she wouldn't be standing here, looking so beautiful right now if it weren't for them.

"Hermione….we love you too!" everyone cried, and they all hugged each other. But before long, Pansy yelled,

"Hey we have like…twenty minutes to get hair and make-up done, and then we have to go downstairs." They were all up in Hermione's room to get ready.

"Hey Pansy…" Padma said "Have we already arranged how the dorm is going to look, and the caterer and music and stuff?"

"Duh, Padma, you think I was going to leave it to the last minute? I'm a Slytherin, remember? I paid a bunch of people to do it for me." Padma quietly nodded, properly chastised.

Money, Hermione realized, really affected how popular the Clique was. Without it, they would just be plain "pretty", but with the amazing clothes, party, gifts, and everything else they had, it made them beautiful. She was lucky that most of the girls in the Clique (except for her) were loaded with Galleons, and Pansy and the twins each had their personal accounts.

"Ok, make-up!" Parvati squealed.

"Well, everyone knows how to do it themselves so…get on with it!" Padma laughed as they all faced the mirrors and in a matter of minutes had magically gotten rid of their blemishes, and turned their lips a blood red. That was all Hermione had time to see in between the rapid flurrying of spells and charms, but as they turned to face her, they were all perfectly made-up. She stood awkwardly by the fifth mirror, feeling like an idiot.

"Erm…I don't really know how…" Hermione muttered, blushing. The response was significantly more cheerful than she expected.

"Aaah! Yay, makeover!" Hannah yelled, leading the charge towards her, and in seconds they seemed to have her strapped in a chair saying things to her like:

"Your eyebrows are fantastic!"

"You really need to get rid of this . . ."

"I know exactly what color you need!"

She smiled, she really did love them.

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"Ok, we have like, a few minutes to spare, so let's tell each other who we're going to go for tonight" Pansy began. "I think it would be a cool idea to try and help everyone get together with their crush, like…if someone liked Neville," she said with a snort, "We would help her out to get him to ask her out. What do you think?"

"Ok, sounds like a good idea." Padma agreed.

"You start" Hermione chimed in, facing Hannah.

"Alright, well I think Ernie is so sweet! He's so smart and such a gentleman, even though he can get really pompous at times, but I think he's the best one for me!" She blushed as the others made appreciative noises.

"Parvati?"

"I like Ron."

Hermione tried not to burst out laughing, she had just spoken to Ron today about how he fancied Padma, and now that she found out that it was her sister who liked him; there might be a bit of trouble at the party.

"Padma?"

"Harry" she said dreamily.

Again Hermione was faced with trying to conceal her laughter. Now it was Padma who had the crush on Harry – wouldn't Ron be jealous! Too bad it was actually Pavarti Harry was drooling after. (In her opinion, the two girls seemed exactly the same.) She found it hilarious that she seemed to know everybody's crushes around here! Harry was her best friend, and she couldn't really see why anybody would ever want to date him, he had the most disgusting habits!

"And what about you Pansy?" This came from the still-blushing Hannah. All the whispers died as everyone leaned in to her Pansy's admission.

"Well I really still like Draco."

Hermione's eyes widened. Did she just say she liked Draco? YES! Now she wouldn't have to give Draco those stupid lessons on how to get Pansy back; she could just hook them up tonight! Awesome, now she would have one less problem to deal with!

"Hermione?" The prompting from Padma jolted her out of her thoughts.

"Oh," she said blushing "I really…I…don't really like anybody."

"What? Seriously?" came the astonished chorus from the girls.

"Ohmiiiigawd, you know what this means right?" Hannah yelled excitedly.

"Ya-haaa! We get to hook you up with someone we think goes well with you! Kinda like a blind date, because you won't know who it is, with the masks!"

"No…please don't!" But before Hermione could protest anymore, the four had all huddled in a corner thinking about who Hermione could date.

She gave a sigh, smiling in spite of herself. She didn't really mind, as long as it wasn't Neville.

Finally ready, they walked inside the common room, which Pansy's party people had done one hell of an amazing job of. They had magically made it bigger, and made it look like an authentic ballroom from the nineteenth century. Everyone was dressed to impress, and it was like one of those really old soirees, where the richest and the royal families went to. It was stunning, absolutely breathtaking.

They hurried over to the 'cool' section, where all the popular people were hanging out. She spotted Draco, Blaise, Ron and Harry over there. Being the 'boy-who-lived' automatically meant you were popular, no matter how much of a (loveable) pig you really were. On the end of the table, she could see Ron devouring his seventh chicken leg, by the looks of his plate.

Swiftly making her way over, Hermione saw out of the corner of her eye Hannah splitting off to talk to a furiously blushing Ernie. She heard murmurs erupting all around her, and wherever Pansy, Pavarti, Padma, or Hannah were mingling. Their elaborate masks didn't disguise their beauty and elegance, and everyone knew who it was walking towards them.

A/N: How will Harry, Ron and most importantly Malfoy react to Hermione's entrance? Who will the Clique set Hermione up with? And what happens when Pansy plays hard-to-get, Draco feels hurt, gets a bit drunk, and sees gorgeous Hermione talking to one of his friends? Muahaha! Lol, evil laugh! R&R, mwah byeeee! x