Yes, I deserve to rot in the bowels of hell right about now, I completely agree. Not only did it take forever for me to upload this, but it's neither good nor long. But I am finding it very hard to push on with the plot, seeing that I'm making this stuff up as i go. Oh well, try to enjoy and as always, let me know what you thought! Bunny out.

No matter what she was doing or which subject she was studying, Hermione couldn't keep her mind off the party the next few days.

After his initial shock wore off when she came banging on his door, Malfoy had burst into laughter. When she didn't even crack a smile he realised it wasn't a joke and pondered her statement for a while.

"Okay, sure, come if you want it so bad. Just don't act all scandalized or something afterwards. It was you who wanted to come, no one forced you."

Very satisfied with his reply she already started turning on her heels, but he grabbed her by the elbow to stop the movement.

"Granger, it's a themed party. Do try not to embarrass me, huh?" With that lovely parting comment he let her go and in a slightly worse mood, she returned to her room.

Since then, her thoughts had been thoroughly occupied. She couldn't stop overthinking details, but mostly, she couldn't decide what to wear. Silly, really, but somehow, she was extremely nervous about that. The point was, there were universally two types of costume parties; either the goal was to have the most complicated, funny or unique mask or simply to wow everyone with your amazing sexiness in a skimpy outfit.

Seeing as Malfoy was the host of the party, she was quite certain they were aiming for the second archetype. That didn't alleviate her worries in the least though.

Never in her life had she intentionally tried to look sexy and Hermione was worried she'd end up being ridiculous. But even if she did achieve her goal, there was the persistent question of what to wear. Vampire or Mummy? Bunny or Mouse? The first solution that popped into her mind was to ask one of her roommates. Lavender or Parvati would surely have some great ideas. The only problem was that they weren't her roommates anymore.

The internal battle went on like that right up to the evening of the day before the party. She finally couldn't take it anymore and suddenly, she found herself knocking on the blonde's door. Hermione could hear a few muffled swear words and a lot of shuffling before her roommate appeared at the entrance, opening the door just enough to be able to see her - without a shirt, his hair tussled, lips swollen and a very pissed off look in his eyes directed right at her.

"The fuck do you want, Granger?"

Supressing a few giggles at knowing very well what she just interrupted, she quickly spat out her question. "I was just making sure about something... This a costume party, right? Vampires, zombies, that stuff?"

Still glaring at her like he was going to kill her any minute he answered while already closing the door. "Of course not, I have more class than that... It's a masked ball. Wear something fitting, for Merlin's sake."

Slamming the door in her face, Malfoy quickly got back to his bedroom companion. As she was leaving, she could hear the brat complaining, and then a voice answered him. But it wasn't a female voice as she had expected it to be. It was a deep, man's voice that answered the Slytherin with laughter and Hermione froze on her spot.

Malfoy was making out with a guy? There was no mistaking what he had been doing, what with how he had looked when he opened the door. Was he gay?!

Even in the muggle world, gay people were often frowned upon, but the wizard world was even more traditional. She only knew of a few famous wizards who had been openly gay through the history and those had mostly been violently executed. She couldn't possibly imagine someone like Malfoy being homosexual.

I mean, he didn't look or act gay, that she was sure of. He did perfectly masculine things like obsess over sports and work out, his body spoke volumes about that.

But thinking about that body that she had been faced with a bare minute ago brought up another issue that Hermione worked long to push into the very depths of her carefully closed-off mind.

She hadn't felt a pang of attraction towards those perfectly chiselled abs, and she was pretty sure she should have. She had been facing the same issue back when she was together with Ron. Kissing him felt nice, but she never felt the urge to do anything more, simply because no matter what he did, he couldn't invoke sexual desire in her.

She thought that maybe it was just that she and Ron weren't meant to be, or perhaps that she didn't feel comfortable enough in her own skin. All that sounded nice and plausible, but that still meant she should have been able to feel some attraction towards other guys, right? Instead, she couldn't even remember ever having a so-called 'crush' on a guy.

Was she asexual?!

That thought kind of scared her, but not more so than the other possibility. Feeling quite a bit panicky, she pushed it all back into the dark corners of her mind and rushed into her room to get started on her dress.

Luckily, she already had a solid base. She had started transfiguring an old dress of hers into a beautiful Victorian gown because she had meant to dress up as a vampire. What she needed to do was to simply tweak a few things here and there and find herself something to make into a mask. No matter what, she was determined to look stunning tomorrow evening.

Friday flew by in the blink of an eye and when she returned to her and Draco's joint common room, it was like entering a different era. At first she was extremely impressed with the amount of effort and work Malfoy must have put into it, but then she realised that approximately five house elves kept zooming around the space and adding details to make the room appear even more perfect.

As her roommate was nowhere to be seen, Hermione took the liberty of looking around for a bit. Heavy velvet curtains were hung on the ceiling and the walls, creating a mysterious, dark atmosphere. There were candle holders all around on the available surfaces, because the windows were covered as well, which meant that the fireplace was the only real light source. Their comfy couches had been transfigured into rich, dark purple sofas that fit perfectly with the atmosphere but one of the biggest changes had been made in their kitchenette. It had been transformed into a bar, with wine and champagne bottles abound, a number of fancy cocktail glasses behind a counter and what appeared to be different mixes each in its own container, labelled appropriately. It was a goldmine of alcohol and Hermione could just feel a certain giddiness arising at the thought of getting drunk for the first time in her life.

Wanting to go drop off her stuff and make sure her outfit was entirely perfect, she headed for her room and had to actually go behind one of the curtains. She made a mental note to lock the door later – she didn't exactly have a particular desire for a couple of drunken horny teenagers to get it on in her room.

I do so hope for this to turn out well.