Since the other evening out with Pansy and Theo, Pansy had taken to saying hello much more often. She had even gone as far as to invite me into her room one night for a couple of minutes to get an opinion on a new hairstyle she was trying. I smiled and told her it looked great and made a suggestion on fixing the back, which she nodded and thanked me for. Had I gone so many years judging all the Slytherins? Theo seemed happy we were speaking as well, Pansy had even stopped in the library last night to sit with us. She didn't study, but she sat and joined in when we would take a break to talk.

At this point, I was starting to look at Pansy and Theo as my friends. It hadn't been very long, but I found myself more and more looking forward to seeing them each day. Theo was witty and incredibly smart. He could be serious, and I could tell there was always more happening behind the playfulness in his eyes. Pansy reminded me of Ginny in a lot of ways. She was a little sassy and didn't take shit from others. Pansy spent a significant amount of time on her appearance, and I liked that about her. She wasn't rude to me about my lack of, she'd even bought me that set of robes.

Tonight, I had plans with Ginny. It was my 20th birthday and Ginny had insisted that we had to go to Hogsmeade. Going three times in almost three weeks felt like a lot, but it had been pleasant getting out of the castle. I was also happy with how ahead I was on my reading and essays. I had decided another night out wouldn't hurt. Ginny had insisted we go to The Hog's Head, we never did. It was known as a dodgy pub, but maybe something different would be exciting. I had invited Luna to join, but she had something to do first, so she would just be meeting us there.

I had thought about wearing the robes Pansy had bought me but decided it would be too much. We were going to a pub, not anything that warranted those robes. Ginny had given me a bottle of Sleekeazy's hair potion earlier in the day, insisting I use it on my hair for this evening. I began applying it like Ginny had shown me, taking my time to evenly distribute it in my curls. I had picked out one of my favorite knit jumpers, it was cream and had a mock neck. It was the perfect sweater for the weather we had tonight. I even applied a bit of mascara and blush. I finally put on the necklace my parents had given me before my 15th birthday. It had a dainty silver chain, and a small, flat disk that had a 'G' embossed into the metal. With my curls looking a bit more manageable, I was ready.

"Hermione! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Ginny screamed across the hall to me. Everyone turned to look.

"Shhh Gin, I already saw you this morning, why are you acting like you haven't wished me a happy birthday already?" I chuckled. Ginny always liked making her friends feel special.

"Well excuse me Hermione. I'm excited about your birthday. Is that such a bad thing?" It wasn't, but I didn't need everyone knowing it was my birthday. "Also, where is Luna?"

"Oh, she's meeting us there. Has something to do before, you know, Luna." We laughed thinking about our most bizarre friend.

"By the way, your hair looks beautiful. All of this for me?" She batted her eyelashes and I swatted at her arm.

Hogsmeade was a ghost town tonight, it felt like a tumbleweed would roll by at any moment. Gin and I had chatted on the way there. Why was it so empty? Was Ginny sweating? She had mentioned coming down with something yesterday. Was that a ruse? She couldn't have planned a party, she should know that I wouldn't be interested.

"Ginny, is everything okay?" Please tell me there's no surprise party.

"I didn't want to say anything, but I'm pretty sick. There's no way I would cancel on you, but I'm sorry if I don't seem excited to be out all night." I burst out laughing, thanking Merlin himself that there was no party we were heading to. "What are you laughing about? I'm bloody sick!"

"Oh, I got so stressed out. I really thought we were approaching a big party." Ginny scrunched up her face and laughed along. "Well, come on, let's go grab a table and wait for Luna."

We headed inside, and there was no surprise party waiting. There was exactly one other customer, and he was passed out on the bar, his drink still in his hand. We both giggled, looking at the elaborate night-life we had just walked into. We ended up picking a booth near the back that would have been big enough for 8-10 and felt very empty with just the two of us. Ginny began pulling a small bag out of the inside of her coat.

"Ginny! What did you get me now? I don't need more gifts, really it's fine." Ginny feigned shock and slid the bag across.

"Trust me, you're not going to enjoy wearing it. This is mostly for my own enjoyment." Ginny smirked, and her eyes looked evil as she watched me open the bag.

I pulled out a cheap plastic crown with hot pink feathers glued on, it had 'birthday girl' plastered across the front. "This is so tacky, Gin. I don't think I can wear this." I looked in the bag and there was a matching hot pink feather boa waiting for me too. I groaned.

"Hermione, I really want you to make a fool of yourself for me. Come on, who's going to see? The patron at the bar." She stuck her thumb out in the direction of the sleeping man. For the second time that night, she batted her eyelashes and in return I put the horribly cheap party favors onto my body.

Luna had arrived a little while later, and the three of us wasted no time to order a couple rounds of drinks. Luna filled them in on the family of Gulping Plimpies she had to help before heading out, explaining the family had recently lost their house, and it was quite difficult to find one. She went on to explain why finding a house was so difficult, and like always, Ginny and I listened and nodded along, I could see Ginny was tired, and I felt bad that she was feeling under the weather. Luna continued, and I really did love hearing her talk about creatures. Sometimes I wished I could believe in the unimaginable still. Ginny had just started telling a story when the doors opened up. Into the Hog's Head walked Theo, and Pansy. They both noticed Hermione immediately and waved and began approaching, as they got closer the door opened again.

"Theo, Pansy, what are you doing? You wouldn't even let me catch up." Malfoy said as he removed his outer robe. Of course, Malfoy had to be with them. His eyes locked on hers, looking bored and annoyed at the same time.

Hermione looked at Ginny and Luna, Ginny looked a little worried but curious. Luna looked nothing short of pleased.

"Hermione, what on earth are you wearing?" Theo snorted as he approached the table. Oh no, Theo.

"For your information, I picked these out specially for Hermione, and they're meant to be trashy. It's her 20th, not her 50th." Ginny crossed her arms as she narrowed her eyes at Theo. In response, he just held up his hands in surrender, as he loved to do.

"Why didn't you tell us it was your birthday? I would have gotten you something!" Theo seemed genuinely upset I hadn't told him. Had our short friendship already meant that much to him. If it was his birthday, I guess I would be equally upset.

Pansy stuck her tongue. "Ha Ha, Theo, I got her a present when we were all in Hogsmeade." Her hands behind her back as she swayed, boasting the win.

"THAT WAS YOUR FIRST TIME HANGING OUT!" Theo yelled, he was always dramatic.

"This competition to impress Granger is oh so exciting, but can we please go sit down." Malfoy rolled his eyes and looked to the other tables.

Ginny stood up abruptly. "Actually, Luna and I were just discussing leaving, I'm not feeling well. So this is perfect, we didn't want to cut Hermione's birthday just so short." Luna hummed in agreement as if they had just been talking. I gawked at Ginny. She was going to leave?

"Oh, don't leave on our account, darling. We're more than happy to join the group." Theo and Pansy both went to sit in the booth.

"Speak for yourself, I was under the impression we wouldn't be sitting with Granger and her sad friends." Malfoy sputtered.

"You guys have a nice evening, and don't worry. We're really not leaving because of you. Except for you Malfoy, go fuck yourself." Smiling and waving as her and Luna got up to leave.

"Happy Birthday Hermione" Luna said airily as she seemingly floated off with Ginny.

"Now, go on and get us drinks, and then you're coming to sit with us all, you git. It's Hermione's birthday, try to be nice." Theo grinned at Draco, and I could tell they probably did have a playful friendship.

Draco turned quickly and headed to the front, and I wasn't sure if he was planning on leaving or getting everyone a drink.

"Well, Happy Birthday, Hermione. I'm sad to say I don't have anything for you but don't worry, I will find something before the evening is up." I shook my head at him. Imagining the twig Theo would gift me before the night was done.

Looking over at Malfoy, I could see him waiting for drinks, tapping his foot. Figures the prat has no patience. Wait a second. There were already 3 up on the counter. Was he getting four drinks? Maybe somebody wanted two for themselves.

"Ya know, I can't believe we had to crash your birthday party. Let me guess, our invitations were lost in the mail?" Theo asked, wiggling his eyebrows and breaking me from my train of thought. "Joking, joking. Don't fret, we're only slightly hurt. Right, Pansy?"

She stuck her nose up towards the ceiling. "No, I'm very hurt." Pansy peeked down and started laughing when she saw my face.

"I'm sorry, it wasn't really-" I was cut short by Malfoy.

"Here ya go, drink up." Malfoy said sliding down in the booth beside me, his knuckles grazing my leg as he lowered down, I thought this booth was huge? "Happy birthday Granger. And now Theo, even I have gotten her a gift, you are truly the worst person here." Putting a drink in front of my nearly empty one.

I glanced over, surprised. Had he gotten it just to mess with Theo, or was this part of a peace offering?

"Don't think we're friends, or anything close to it either Granger, I don't expect a cake or anything else on my birthday. The drink was purely to bug Theo." He whispered, while Theo confronted Pansy about not mentioning my birthday. Well, that answered my question.

He continued. "Please don't make this go on longer than it has to, I don't want to look rude and have to leave." This time he had leaned over, making it look like he was placing his jacket on the other side of me. His breath was on my face and his hand once again bruised against my leg while leaning back over to his side. Why was Malfoy here, of all places, and why was he even speaking to me? I'm sure he was disgusted from accidentally touching me.

"Don't worry, Malfoy. You can be rude and leave whenever you'd like." I had refused to whisper and instead had said it at a normal volume.

"What was that, Hermione?" Pansy asked.

"Oh, just thanking Draco here for buying this drink for me. So kind of him" I slapped him on the back for good measure, turning to give him a huge grin. What an absolute arse.