Harry woke up in the middle of the night and realised that the reason for his doing so was that something was lying on him. A second glance told him that it was Hermione. Restraining his chuckle he tried to shift her so that she was lying next to him instead of on him and his eyes met those of Ron and Draco, both of whom seemed to be in the same predicament as he was.

Silently they mouthed "one, two, three" and shifted the girls off them simultaneously. Almost.

Ron couldn't remove Pansy as she was quite a large girl. Harry and Draco, chuckling furiously, crawled out of their sleeping bags to help him.

"Come on, let's get out of here." Draco hissed.

"Where are we going?" Ron whispered.

"I'm hungry."

"Didn't you have enough marshmallows?" Harry questioned quietly.

"No. And neither did you, I reckon. Come on. It's Christmas Eve, let's be a little bit reckless."

As quietly as they could they stole across the common room and out of the portrait hole.

Ron, being Ron, kept bumping into things and, were it not for Draco and Harry clamping their hands over his mouth, he would have yelled out in pain.

"Save it for the kitchens. No one can hear us down there." Harry advised.

Cautiously they crept down the corridors and luckily the moving staircases helped them get to the kitchen's corridor quicker.

When they entered the kitchen they were surprised to see all of the elves awake and busily cooking the Christmas Dinner for the next day.

"You get started this early?" Ron asked the room at large.

Dobby rushed up to them and bowed graciously.

"Yes, sirs, we must prepare the food well in advance, as there is so many masters and mistresses staying at Hogwarts this year. Would you like us to bring you anything, young masters?"

"Some hot chocolate would be great, thanks Dobby."

"Of course, Mr Weezly. Dobby shall fetch you some at once. Is you wanting to sit here and take it?"

"If you don't mind us being here? We don't want to get in your way."

"Mr Harry Potter is conscientious and good. We can offer you a comfortable seats by the fire if yous wishes."

"Thank you Dobby. If you need any testers we are ready to pre taste the food for the feast." Ron said hopefully.

"Of course, sirs. We is always open to ideas for dishes and flavouring, your help would be greatly appreciated, young masters."

Dobby scuttled away and a moment later a tray with three mugs of hot chocolate appeared to be floating towards them. Draco took the tray and found a house elf dangling from it. Draco's eyes widened and he put the tray down again and distributed the mugs. The tray floated away again.

"Funny things aren't they, house elves?" Draco observed.

"Don't let Hermione hear you saying that." Harry chuckled.

"Did you recognise Dobby, Draco?" Ron asked.

"How could I not recognise the house elf who served my family for all of my life? I am a little offended by your hints that I wouldn't notice our own servant. By the way Harry, my mother is not pleased with you."

"What did I do this time?"

"By all accounts it is your fault he no longer works for us. Now she has to do everything herself."

"Tell her sorry, but just because she's rich doesn't mean she has a right to do nothing. She only has one child, you, whereas the Weasley's have, is it six?"

"Seven, actually." Ron interrupted.

"Yeah, and Mrs Weasley has no house elf to help her. How she manages with all of them I have no idea."

"Well, the oldest have moved out and there's only Ginny and me left at home."

"But when you were young there must have been absolute chaos at home?"

"Chaos would be an understatement. Six boys and one girl in the house? The reason there isn't a straight line in the Burrow is because it has been blown up several times by almost all of us and then rebuilt from the remaining pieces." Ron laughed as though in remembrance, possibly of the time he had done it.

"That explains a lot. I love your house. It's brilliant. Every corner has a "

"Anyway, you said, Harry, that they only had six children. You spend your holidays with them, don't you? Why, then, did you say six instead of seven?" Draco observed.

"Well, for starters it's hard to keep track of all of them. Also Percy was such a jerk that I choose to forget that he belongs to a family as great as the Weasley's. The third reason is that the twins act like their one person anyway so I sometimes forget that there are two of them. Take your pick of answers." Harry finished, smirking.

"Where did you learn that smirk?"

"That's the patented Malfoy smirk! Give it back!"

"Oh please! You've smirked at me so often that I can't help memorising it. We still need to chose the song for tomorrow's surprise. What do you think it should be?"

"I know, let's use an old classic that everyone will know." Draco said pensively.

"The whole idea is inspired, Harry. How did you come up with it?" Ron asked looking at Harry in admiration.

"Well, I saw this film with Hermione when I went to stay with her for a weekend over the summer. It was called '10 things I hate about you' and it had this scene in it where the guy has offended his girlfriend and he sings this song to her in front of everyone in the school and it makes her forgive him. It was a great moment. This guy, who is allegedly very tough, singing this old love song over the tannoy. (A tannoy is an electronic thing that magnifies a voice. People use them for announcements and things. It's a little like a megaphone, only more high tech. Understand, Ron?) Hermione absolutely loved it and I could see the effect it had on the girl in the film."

"Wow. You really want to get this girl, don't you, Harry?"

"Draco, my friend, I have wanted to marry her for about four years. Don't tell her that. I dread to think what she would do if she knew."

At that moment Dobby bustled over and requested they taste the gravy and potatoes to see if they were as good as they could be.

Hermione watched the boys stumbling out of the room and chuckled quietly. Ginny and Pansy caught her eye and winked. As soon as the boys had left they burst out laughing. What a marvellous prank that had been! Lying on top of them so they woke up and had difficulty getting them off was a brilliant idea of Ginny's.

They lit the lamps and sat before the fire which sprang up again.

"Girls, I think we have to take a trip to one of the perks of being head girl."

What would that be Hermione?" Ginny asked.

"A previous head girl told me about this. Have you always wondered why the head girl is always the most beautiful girl at the Yule Ball? Well let me show you why this is."

Hermione rose from her seat and beckoned the others to follow. She pressed a panel in the wall and it moved back revealing a door.

"Why don't you go in first?" she said to Pansy.

"Is this a trap?"

"No, of course not. Go in."

Cautiously Pansy pushed the door open.

"I can't see anything."

Hermione walked into the room and clapped her hands. Suddenly the room was full of light.

It was a walk in wardrobe filled to the brim with gorgeous dresses in all sizes and colours. Hermione clicked her fingers and a cupboard opened revealing glittering jewellery and then she whistled and another cupboard opened displaying a vast array of makeup.

"Like it?" she asked the other girls both of whom were open mouthed in wonder.

"This is great! When did you find out about this?"

"When we were in fourth year, the head girl took me here. The outfit I wore to the ball that first time came from here. Every year since then I've used it to make me pretty for the balls."

"I can see why!"

"Let's not tell the boys about this, shall we?"