Hi! I'm back with another chapter. Ummm...It's rather short. Sorry, I haven't had mush time because we had my aunt and her family come over so...Anyway Thanks to all my reviewers. You guys make me so happy.

Disclaimer: I own Nothing that you reconize from the Harry Potter books or Movies and no profit is beingmade. Please don't sue me.

"What's going on?" Ginny asked.

"A costume party! Isn't it wonderful, Ginny?" Hermione was positively beaming.

"Just peachy." Ron griped.

"A party? Isn't that kind of…I don't know, cliché?" She asked looking at Ron and Harry who seemed nearly as unhappy about the idea of a Halloween ball as she did.

Hermione looked slightly insulted but brightened almost immediately. "But you haven't heard the best part! It's for a good cause."

"What cause exactly?"

"The AOHEAP." Hermione said cheerfully.

She was met with three blank stares and groaned in frustration at their ignorance.

"The Agency for House-Elf Abuse Prevention." She clarified.

"And I thought SPEW was bad." Ron grumbled. Hermione seemed not to hear.

"You see, I thought we could charge, like, a sickle to enter the contest, and then at midnight we would announce the winner. Well, not us of course, the teachers would be doing the actually judging, because, I mean-"

"Come on Hermione," Ron said, but not unkindly, "Get on with it."

"Right. The winner would get half the entrance fee and the other half would go to AOHEAP. Isn't it just brilliant?"

"Well, it certainly is…original." Ginny said in what she hopped sounded like a supportive voice.

The truth was, she suspected the older girl had something more on her mind then house-elves. This was her gentle way of pushing Ron to make some kind of commitment, albeit a small one. Ever since their first kiss, they had been following each other around like two lovesick puppies, but Ron hadn't actually taken her on a date anywhere. He hadn't really made any effort at all to further their relationship. All this, Ginny knew, through the after curfew talks that she and Hermione had become very prone to having. But Ginny also knew that Ron probably didn't even realize Hermione was unhappy. After she and Ron had kissed, Hermione had ran to the library and checked out all the books on relationships she could find. While Ginny wasn't all that well versed in relationships herself, was pretty sure that all that assert yourself-set rules and boundaries-make him take you out at least once a week-greet him at the door in saran wrap crap wasn't what the two needed to base their relationship on. Especially since Ginny really didn't want to picture Hermione and Ron snogging in a pile of Saran wrap.

"In fact, Herms, I think it's a great idea." She said smiling and hoping no one would realize she was lying through her teeth.

Hermione glowed, but her smile faltered after a moment. "But, of course, I'll need some helpers to recruit participants, and I don't know where I'll find three willing volunteers. No one would want to give up some of their time at the ball soliciting people for a sickle. I mean, I guess I could just do it by myself. But I don't know what I'd do about time there's no way I could get to everybody by myself…maybe I could just break out the old time turner again. I-"

"Enough, Hermione." Harry said smiling. "No need to keep guilting us into it. We'll do it already."

"Oh, thank you Harry!"

"Personally, I'm ashamed of you Hermione." Ginny said. "I thought I taught you how to act better than that. Time turner indeed!"

Hermione laughed. Then, in her best modest student voice she said, "I'm sorry, Ginny, I just don't have the same experience with guilt trips as you do."

"That's okay, Herms, you do seem to have the flattery department down pat."

"Why thank you." She said giggling before noticing that Ron was looking very sullen. "Ron…?"

"I never said I'd do it, you know." He said.

"But…"Hermione looked stricken. She had just kind of assumed that Ron would help her. He was her…well, not boyfriend yet, but that would change soon if she had anything to say about it.

"Please Ron?" She asked sweetly, before shyly kissing him on the lips and whispering something into his ear that made him blush.

"Fine, fine." He said, looking rather flustered. "But I'm not wearing a costume."

Then, his ears still rather pink, he hurried up the stairs. Ginny made a mental note to ask Hermione later what exactly she had said to him.

Ginny had been racking her mind for a solution, any solution, and as of yet, she hadn't come up with anything. She bit her lip nervously and tugged on one of her curls, as she tended to do when she thought. She rolled over, not wanting to think about it anymore and reached haphazardly for her wand.

"Lumos." She whispered.

"Ah, Gin, turn off the light. I have an exam tomorrow. I need to get some sleep."

"Sorry Lavender. Nox."

Quietly replacing her want on the bedside table she rolled over once again and silently prayed that she wouldn't be visited with images any scarier than Ron and Hermione having a go at it surrounded by cellophane.

"Are you completely daft, woman?" He demanded, looking extremely irate. "I am not wearing that. I haven't even said I'd go with you."

"Oh, but please, Drackie? We would be soooooooo cute together." Pansy said, putting an extra accent and girlish giggle at the word so. She thrust the offending article at him and he glared at it in obvious disgust. It was a lacy, frilly…something, trying to disguise itself as a costume. It was meant to be a dragon, Draco was pretty sure, but falling miserably short of its intentions, the frock brought the words green rhino to Draco's mind. And unless he was trying to entertain a bunch of five year-olds with balloon animals, there was no way he would even let the thing touch his perfect skin.

The matching costume, which he couldn't even begin to imagine what it was supposed to be reminded him of a big, neon pink, flamingo.

"Did you not just hear me? I. Am. Not. Wearing. This. I don't even want to go with you; I'm thinking of asking that pretty Ravenclaw girl from Transfiguration."

They both knew it was a lie. Draco would have liked nothing better then to not have to go with Pansy, but social responsibility dictated otherwise. She had, since a very young age, been on the list to potentially become his future bride. And while the Malfoys had long ago discarded her name they didn't feel the need to disclose this information to her father as he still continued to give generous donations to all of Lucius's many business enterprises. His father intended to milk money out of the family for the longest time possible before having to break the news to Mr. Parkinson that his daughter was a pug-faced brat who would never tarnish the Malfoy name or gene pool.

Draco would have liked nothing better than to tell her that very thing right then, just to spite his father (not to mention to keep the little tart away from him) but he knew doing so would incur Lucius's wrath.

"Draco, you don't really mean that do you? I mean, you would never really leave me would you?" She attempted to make her voice silky smooth and seductive. She failed horribly.

"Just shut up, Parkinson. I'm not wearing this and that's final. If you insist on going with me, then so be it, but I'm not wearing some bleeding ridiculous costume. Now get out of here."

She simpered and ran out the room. Idiot.

He sighed and sat down on the couch in his dorm room. Blaise entered, smiling brightly.

"Pansy just ran out of here crying like a banshee. Good job, mate." He clapped Draco happily on the back, but then paused when he saw the look on Draco's face.

"Still no answer? He asked.

Draco shook his head. "No, not in four freaking weeks. Merlin, I can't believe I was stupid enough to leave her alone with that monster." He looked up at Blaise with eyes full of unshed tears. "If anything happened to her…" His voice cracked.

If it had been anyone but Blaise Draco would have been horrified at this show of emotion that was so unlike him. Calm, cool, collected, that was Draco Malfoy, not some blubbering, soft idiot. But this was Blaise, the only person he didn't have to pretend around, the only person he could trust.

Draco wasn't a Gryffindor; sacrificing wasn't in his nature, but Blaise knew that if he ever needed anything that he could go to Draco and he would get whatever he required in excess. It was true, Draco was a fierce enemy, but he was an even fiercer friend.

No one seemed to understand that. There were so many layers, so many masks and misconceptions that he had built up over the years to hid himself. He knew that if you were brave enough to get through all those layers, you'd find a pretty decent guy underneath. Not that it wouldn't be hard. Draco fought like heck to keep anyone from encroaching his meticulously kept barriers.

Blaise had once heard an old proverb that stated if you pushed something away and it came back it was meant to be. Draco put a whole new meaning to that.

He sat down next to his blond friend and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Hey, I'm sure she's alright. She dealt with him way before your time. Besides, I've met your mum, and she's a clever woman. She'll take care of herself."

"Then why won't she answer me! She must know it's driving me mad!" Draco yelled, knowing no one could hear him through the charmed door.

For a moment, Blaise said nothing. "I don't know." He finally said. "I just don't know."

Okay, for those of you who didn't get it...Marabel Morgan wrote a book that's become rather infamous. She wrote that women shouldn't need to further their education at a university, but should instead study upon the wants and needs of a husband as to be more pleasing. It was supposedly very anti-feminist. One of the more famous things from the bok was the suggestion that to keep your relationship passinate you should greet your husband at the door wrapped in Saran Wrap(is that what it's called in England? You know, the plastic stuff you wrap your food in before putting itin the refrigerator?)and notiong else.

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