Disclaimer: The disclaimer from the previous chapter still holds. Please go back and read it if you're considering suing me, or if you like reading disclaimers.
Note d'auteur: Well, I finally crawled out of my cave and wrote another chapter for this. Hope you all enjoy! I'm thinking that after this there will be around two or three more chapters until the end. (Provided I don't get severe writer's block again. ugh.)
Chapter 2: A Pop Culture Reference
"Here's one that always makes me feel like, um... doing it," Lavender offered. Ginny listened to the song with a critical attention.
"Lavender, this is a song about party drugs; it doesn't even mention sex or anything."
"What??" gasped Hannah, who was sitting on the other bed. Clearly, this was news to her.
"Yup," said Ginny. "I mean, you might be able to interpret it multiple ways, but I have it from a reliable source that it is definitely more about the drugs than the sex. We need something totally unambiguous."
Lavender looked put out at having her contribution rejected so summarily, and Ginny could hear her mumble "But it's a fantastic song," as she wracked her brain for another one.
The girls were listening to songs on their wands, which Ginny thought was altogether a much more convenient method than any muggle pod. The charm to store a song on one's wand was fairly easy, and among the first real magic that first years learned when they came to Hogwarts. (Though from older students, rather than in the classroom.) Mrs. Weasley had not been entirely pleased when she found out Ginny was using her wand in this way – her reaction was something to the effect of "I hope you don't do anything that might break the brand new wand we just spent Galleons on for you!" But it was perfectly harmless, of course, and far too convenient to give up. All it took was another simple charm to play the music directly in your head, or broadcast it aloud. No need for a tangle of wires and headbands…although that certainly had its upsides too….
"Here, try this." Lavender, said, interrupting Ginny's train of thought. She started playing the next song, and the other girls all crowded around to listen.
"What is this even about?" Parvati asked, puzzled. "All she does is keep singing 'Umbrella', over and over. It makes no sense!"
"Agreed!" said Ginny. "I don't care if you think it's romantic, Lav; if it makes no sense then it's no good."
Lavender pouted. "Fine, if anyone else has a better suggestion, feel free. My music is clearly inferior."
Ginny sighed. "That's not what I meant! I just don't want to mess this up, you know?"
There was general agreement among the girls that it was of paramount importance that Ginny not mess this up, seduction being a tricky and precarious art, apt to go awry at the least provocation.
"Ok, I have one," said Parvati, after a while. "Here, listen."
"What? This is worse than the others!" exclaimed Ginny violently, about forty seconds into the song.
Parvati looked offended. "How can you say that? This one is the best so far; it's absolutely clear that it's about sex."
"Yeah, but I want to seduce her, not call her virtue into question! Besides, this song applies way better to, say, Lavender, than to Hermione."
"Her virtue?" Lavender cocked an eyebrow, pointedly ignoring the last half of Ginny's remark.
"Yeah, whatever, it just sets the wrong tone, you know?"
"I know exactly what you mean, Ginny," Hannah contributed, helpfully.
The next few songs were rejected just as fast, for various reasons.
"This one might work, except they're saying 'sexy boy.' Hermione was a girl, last time I checked…"
"Um, is this even in English?" Ginny asked, puzzled.
"Well, no, mostly it's in Chinese, but the important part is in English anyway, and it's a really great song…" Hannah rationalized.
"Her humps? Who would ever come up with a song that crude?"
"Yeah, you don't want her to think that what you feel for her is carnal lust alone, Ginny," said Parvati, rolling her eyes. Hannah started giggling uncontrollably, and soon they were all collapsed on the beds, weak from laughter. Parvati calmed down enough to say, "She might actually like to know, Ginny, if you do like her breasts that much. Might be a disservice to her not to use this song!" Ginny aimed a pillow at Parvati, and soon they were all laughing again.
Half an hour, and many songs, later, they had still come up with nothing satisfactory, and Lavender and Parvati had started to complain that Ginny's standards were too high; the song she was looking for did not exist.
"Just one more, then I swear I'll just pick one," Ginny said, conciliatorily. They all listened in rapt attention to the last song.
"This is the one!" Ginny exclaimed finally, with the air of one who has just discovered the Holy Grail sitting in their cupboard.
"This?" said Hannah, doubtfully. "But all it is is 'I just wanna feel your body, touch my body, …feel my body…' again and again! Not the most subtle song in the world, is it?"
"Catchy!" was Lavender's contribution, and Parvati nodded agreement.
"Yeah," agreed Ginny, "but it really can't be too un-subtle. I don't want to give Hermione a chance of ignoring it, and there's no way she could possibly misinterpret this one!"
Parvati nodded sage agreement again. Then there was a muffled "eeep!" from the other bed; Hannah had just cast a Tempus charm, and was now scrambling to gather all her things, at breakneck speed. "Sorry guys, I have to go now or else I'll miss curfew!"
Parvati rolled her eyes. "You have at least half an hour before curfew starts, Hannah! How long does it take to get to Hufflepuff from here - ten minutes at most?"
Hannah's face reddened slightly. "Still, you can't be too sure." She was already hurrying out of the room. "Bye guys, see you tomorrow! Good luck, Ginny!"
"Thanks!" Ginny called after her, and then turned back to her other friends.
Lavender and Parvati scooted closer to Ginny on the bed, closing the circle. It would have been redundantly clear to anyone walking in the dorm at that moment that these girls were Conspiring Something Important. "So, all set for tomorrow?" Lavender asked in an appropriately conspiratorial tone.
"Yeah, I think so," said Ginny. She ticked off items on her mental list one by one. "Obtain song that will make Hermione want to jump me. Play this song in her vicinity, while wearing a really sexy outfit. Act…um…generally seductive. Wait for miraculous results. Repeat as necessary," she added, self-consciously.
"Perfect, Ginny, there's no way this will fail," said Parvati, encouragingly. Ginny didn't blame Parvati for believing in the power of The Plan; after all, they had all helped come up with it.
"Oh, wait, I almost forgot to give you the song," said Lavender. Ginny held out her wand, and Lavender touched the tip of her own wand to Ginny's, murmuring the charm as she did so. "There. All done."
"Thanks, Lav," said Ginny gratefully. "You guys really helped a lot; I had no idea what to do…"
"No problem!" Lavender gave Ginny a quick hug and kiss on the cheek. "Maybe you could return the favor sometime." Seeing Ginny's look, she hastened to add, "Not right now, obviously! You have your own problems to think about right now; mine can wait!"
Parvati said goodbye as well, and then they both went down to their own dormitory, leaving Ginny alone. She really was glad they had come on such short notice, and they had been really helpful, ultimately. Well, it had taken them a while to get down to business; first they had had to hear the story of what had happened in the common room, repeatedly and in great detail. Ginny had dutifully reported the whole story: that she had been studying, but got distracted by Hermione listening to music, and then she had – accidentally! – sort of kissed her on the ear, after which she had endured several awkward moments on the couch, before escaping up to her dorm, where she had sent urgent notices via Pigwidgeon to her friends, saying a personal crisis was under way and could they come and help now?
They had then spent several more minutes parsing Hermione's enigmatic response to the kiss, and the general consensus was that she was definitely interested, but not enough to actually make a move. "Open to the possibility of something more, but not ready to actually do anything to make it happen," was Lavender's learned opinion. Having more experience in these matters than all the younger Gryffindor girls put together, her opinion was one to be trusted.
Ginny wasn't about to let Hermione sit around and wait for Ginny to come to her, though. As she saw it, there were only two possible outcomes to tonight's – whatever had happened in the common room. Either she could never mention it again, and hope the ensuing awkwardness between the two of them would fade before she left Hogwarts, or she could take this – whatever it was, and run with it. The worst that could happen this way was certainly no worse than the consequences of taking no action at all, and the best was far better. Ginny smirked. She had liked Hermione for quite some time now, and now the time to act on her feelings had finally come. Hermione would never know what had hit her.
-fin-
In case you were curious, here is a list of the songs they were listening to in the beginning of this chapter (yes, I did have actual songs in mind!)
Song List: (in order of mention) As the Rush Comes - Motorcycle; Umbrella - Rihanna; Promiscuous Girl – Nelly Furtado; Sexy Boy - Air; Superstar – S.H.E.; My Humps – Black Eyed Peas; Don't Be Shy – Rouge (I luuuuuuurve this song; I did a dance to it for a show and it was !awesome!)
Review replies! (note: I've decided that this clutters up the bottom of a story too much, and as much as I like to respond to everyone's review in one place, it really is more convenient to reply to them individually, so I'll be doing that from now on. I can only reply to your review if it's not anonymous though, hint hint!)
Everhart13 - Thank you for the vote of confidence; luckily I got some ideas finally and don't need tons of other ones (for the time being!)
Cloogle - Thanks a million; funny + cute equals awesome fluffy femslash, which is what I aspire to lol! I do plan on writing more HGGW; they're a fun pair to play around with.
Padfoot Reincarnated - I could not agree with you more! There needs to be more femslash everywhere, in general, as well, tehe : ) (ps I love your username - yay padfoot!)
PlaneAmage - Here's what happens! hope it lives up to your expectations; I didn't really have any since I had no idea where this one was going when I started it...
Vampslayer08 - Hmmmm...really heavy flirting...something tells me this will be coming up in the next chapter! yay for suggestions; I think what you said is pretty much what ends up happening! (oops, not to give too much away too soon)
Chibichoco - Thanks!! I really love making people laugh, so yours was a very happy-making review : )
Anna - See, this is what I mean by someone who leaves anonymous, unsigned reviews, guys. This is the type of person who will NEVER RECIEVE A REPLY AGAIN, under my newly-instated policy. Look and learn. Also, wtf? I don't think there's anything wrong with saying "one and a half hours," and I get to make the rules, since I'm the author, NAH[(cue in the Marie-Laure impish attitude. No one says "Nah!" like she does, verily) (um, ps, this is my sister, guys, so that's why I'm allowed to treat her this way. we love each other very much, don't worry!!)
Kerrzs - Here's another chapter, finally! (probably everyone gave up on this fic months ago :P) I don't think it's entirely like the first one, but hopefully it'll do!
Cooltrainer124 - Thanks! I didn't forget all of you who wanted me to keep going with this one; it just took me a while to get back in the mood for it ; )
Tom.K.A. - Ok, ok, I continued! Please don't beg on your knees anymore; it might get uncomfortable! lol : )
Ogis - wow, you reviewed, like forever ago, and I never replied to it until now! Talk about a time difference in communication, mdr. Did you recognize any of the songs in this chapter?? I absolutely know you know at least four of them, but then again the hints are practically non-existent... but see, this is what happens when people go away for weeks at a time and are unavailable to do song stuff with...it just ends up getting channeled into other venues, with questionable results...; ) (gros bisous!)