Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, they belong to J.K.Rowling and I'm using them without permission and for no profit at all. So there.
A/N: Thank you to the wonderful Ella_Marie for being my beta!
Girls Night In
Chapter 1 - Slumber Party
"You know mate," Ron said to Harry one rainy Saturday night, "the girls spending that much time together only spells trouble for us."
They were sitting in front of the crackling fire in the Gryffindor Common Room, playing Wizard's Chess. Ron was winning, as usual, but neither of them were playing at their best. They kept getting distracted from the laughter and squeals that were coming from the stairway leading to the girl's dormitories.
"You think so?" Harry asked, glancing over at the stairway as a particularly loud batch of giggling floated down to them.
"I know so," Ron said glumly, toying with where to move his castle.
The Gryffindor girls were having what Muggles called a 'slumber party'. Harry had never heard of one before so Ron had explained it to him, and Harry was still a little unsure about the whole thing. He didn't know what could be so bad about the girls staying up until late in the night chatting, but after hearing the sounds coming from the dormitories above he was beginning to think that maybe Ron was right. All of the girls from 4th year and above were present at the slumber party, which meant all of the girls Harry was friends with and closest to - Ginny, Parvati, Lavender, Angelina, Alicia, Katie, and of course Hermione.
"Tell me again about these slumber parties," Harry said warily as he moved a bishop to protect his king.
"They're never good mate, trust me. Ginny had loads of them when she was younger, you can imagine The Burrow taken over by hordes of giggling little girls . . . " Ron visibly shuddered at the memory.
"But what are they doing up there?"
"Gossiping mostly," Ron said. "It's really what these things are all about, a big excuse so they can all talk about boys . . . who fancies who, who's snogged who, that sort of thing . . ."
Harry mulled this over as Ron studied the board for his next move.
"Doesn't really sound like Hermione's thing, does it?" he said.
"Nope," said Ron. "She's up there, though. Go figure that one."
"So that's all they do, then? Talk?"
"I wish. I mean there's other stuff too; lots of eating chocolate and stuff, looking through girls magazines, and if they were Muggles they'd probably watch one of those whatcha-call-ems, girls films . . ."
"Oh I know that one," said Harry. "They're called 'chick flicks'. Dean is always on about how much he hates them."
Harry glanced around the Common Room; most of the other Gryffindor boys were present, and all of them were glancing worriedly towards the shrieks of laughter coming from the girls above. Neville was sitting with Dean and Seamus, trying to play a variation of poker with a set of Exploding Snap cards, but all three of them were looking very worried indeed.
"Those are the ones," Ron said, moving a pawn forward. "Soppy stuff where everyone's happy and kisses a lot. Well, there's those, and then of course there's the dares."
Harry's head jerked up worriedly at this.
"Dares?" he asked anxiously. He didn't like the sound of that at all.
"Dares," Ron said, nodding solemnly. "Ginny's mates tried to put me in makeup once . . . nutters, the lot of them. And that was when they were eight."
Harry swallowed nervously, trying to think what kind of things a bunch of fifteen and sixteen year-old girls would dare each other to do.
"The only good thing about it, I reckon, is that they're all up there in their pyjamas."
Ron was grinning at him after saying this, and Harry couldn't help but grin back, flushing pink slightly. He had to admit that seeing them all in their nightwear wouldn't be a bad thing really . . .
They played on for half an hour. Their glasses of pumpkin juice were refilled and their supply of chocolate frogs diminished rapidly; the laughter from above was getting even louder, punctuated by occasional whoops from Seamus as their cards exploded, sending poker chips flying everywhere. Despite the laughter Harry was beginning to forget about the girls upstairs when there was a commotion in the stairwell; everyone in the Common Room looked over as Ginny appeared, closely followed by Lavender and Katie who hovered in the doorway of the stairwell, giggling uncontrollably. Harry couldn't help goggling at Ginny, whose choice of nightwear was a rather small vest and shorts that didn't leave much to the imagination of the boys now all staring at her. Seamus began cat-calling as Ron stared at Ginny in shock, his mouth opening and closing quickly.
"Is THAT all you wear to bed?!" he said unbelievably.
Ginny ignored him; their was a rather daft grin on her face as she strode purposefully towards Harry, who was suddenly feeling very scared.
"Oi you lot, stop staring at my sister!"
Harry didn't know what to say as Ginny came right up to him, still grinning daftly, and before he knew it she had grabbed him and planted a kiss on his lips. It didn't last long; Harry was taken completely by surprise and barely had time to register the warmth and softness of her lips before she was running back to the other girls and they disappeared back up the stairs in a tirade of giggles. Neville, Dean and Seamus were cheering and whistling.
"Shut it you lot!" Ron shouted angrily. He turned back to Harry looking rather stunned at what had happened and found Harry looking equally bewildered.
"She just . . . you just . . . you just kissed my sister!" Ron said in shock.
"Um . . . no, she just kissed me . . ."
Harry looked desperately lost. Above them came a particularly loud burst of squeals and laughter: Harry guessed the other girls had just been informed of Ginny's kiss.
"Must have been a dare," Harry said, hoping that Ron wasn't going to punch him - he looked somewhere between anger and complete surprise.
"Bloody slumber parties," was all Ron said as he slumped back down in front of the chess set.
- - -
The rest of the night passed almost uneventfully - whatever else the girls dared each other to do, they didn't need to come down to the Common Room to do it. Harry and Ron were eating breakfast in the Great Hall the next morning when Parvati and Lavender entered; seeing the two of them caused the girls to break out into fits of giggles. Harry threw Ron a questioning look; Ron shrugged as the girls sat down by them, still giggling, and began helping themselves to cereals.
"What's so funny?" Ron asked.
"Oh, nothing," Parvati said, barely controlling her laughter.
"Yeah, it's nothing," said Lavender.
"Doesn't sound like nothing to me," Ron said, beginning to get angry. "So you girls had fun last night?"
More giggles.
"You could say that," said Lavender.
"Have you seen Hermione this morning?" Harry asked them. "We were all going to do our homework down by the lake but she hasn't turned up."
Parvati and Lavender exchanged a look before cracking up again.
"Um . . . I doubt she'll be doing her homework with you boys today," said Parvati between laughs.
"Why not?" Ron asked. "What have you lot done to her?"
"Nothing," Lavender said innocently.
"Lavender, Parvati," Harry said seriously, "if you've done anything to upset Hermione . . ."
Both girls put down their spoons and faced him, no longer laughing.
"There's no need to get angry Harry, we promise we haven't done anything to her," Parvati said.
"So why won't she be doing homework with us then?" said Ron.
"Well . . . " Lavender began, but then began giggling again, unable to help herself. "You'll see for yourselves, I'm sure, but let's just say Hermione is rather . . . oh, you'll see!"
Harry shot Ron a puzzled look as the girls dissolved into laughter again. He didn't like them laughing about Hermione like that - whatever had happened, even if they hadn't done anything. He nodded to the door and Ron followed him out.
"Open Sesame," Harry said told the Fat Lady. The portrait swung open and they had only just clambered through when Hermione suddenly appeared, barrelling past them at high speed. She only caught their eye for a second; her cheeks were crimson and she ignored them as they called after her.
"What . . ?" Ron began.
"Hermione!" Harry shouted at her fast-vanishing form. "Hermione, wait!"
But there was no stopping her.
"Bloody hell," said Ron.
"Those bloody girls," Harry said angrily. "They must have done something to upset her, I don't care what Parvati and Lavender said."
"Well, there's no use trying to talk to her now mate. She'll probably just run off . . ."
"Probably," said Harry, scratching his head. "Oh well, we'll have to just try and speak to her later, maybe she'll have calmed down a bit then . . . c'mon, we'd better get started on that homework or McGonagall will hex us into next week . . ."
- - -
They went down to the lake as planned, figuring that Hermione knew where they'd be if she decided she wanted to talk to them. Compared to the rain of the previous night it was a lovely sunny day, and sitting underneath the shade of their favourite tree Harry and Ron lazily completed their Transfiguration essay, a foot of parchment about the procedure and uses of turning household pests into stationery. The sun was much lower in the sky when they returned to the castle, discussing the upcoming Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff Quidditch match. There had been no sign of Hermione at all, something that only crossed their minds as they clambered through the portrait hole for a second time. She was sitting at their usual table, books and parchment spread out before her, but as soon as they appeared in the doorway her head snapped up; her eyes widened and in a flash she had gathered all of her things to her and ran up to the girls dormitories. Harry and Ron watched this with disbelief.
"Do we smell or something?" Ron asked aloud, to titters from some of their classmates.
"She's been like that all afternoon," said Neville, who was sitting nearby. "Everytime someone came through the portrait hole she'd look up, all scared."
"Like she was worried it'd be us," Harry said sadly.
"This is stupid," said Ron, and stomped over to the stairway leading up to the girls dorms. "HERMIONE!" he bellowed up the stairs. "THIS IS STUPID, COME DOWN AND SPEAK TO US!"
There was no reply. Everyone in the room was watching, interested. It wasn't often that something happened to cause a split in the great Trio.
"Leave it, Ron," Harry said, walking over to him. "She'll talk to us when she's ready."
But as it turned out, Hermione wasn't ready to speak to them at all. She didn't come down to dinner that evening, and spent the next few days avoiding them at all costs. She sat away from them at breakfast and in classes; when both boys tried to approach her she would look down fiercely, blushing bright scarlet and tell them to go away in a small, squeaky voice so unlike her own. It made no difference if they approached her individually either, it only elicited the same result. She scurried ahead of them in the corridors, her head down. In the evenings she shut herself up in her dormitory, Ginny bringing her food from the Great Hall. When Ron cornered his sister and demanded to be told what was going on, Ginny politely informed him that it wasn't her place to say, and even more politely asked him to get out of the way if he didn't want a good jinxing. The other Gryffindor boys were just as bewildered at Hermione's behaviour, but the other girls obviously knew what was going on and continued to giggle at Harry and Ron frequently. Harry was getting very fed up of it - it had only been a few days without Hermione's company but he already felt like part of him was missing. He was sure Ron felt it too.
On the evening of the fourth day of Hermione's avoiding them Harry and Ron were once again sitting in front of the fire in the Common Room. Harry was polishing his Firebolt with the servicing kit he'd received from Hermione; Ron was swapping Chocolate Frog cards with Ginny. Ginny was still talking to Harry perfectly normally, acting as if she hadn't kissed him at all. In fact, Harry thought, it wasn't even a proper kiss really . . . it had only been on the lips, nothing more. He was glad, as it saved them both from embarrassment.
"Is she ever going to come down from there, d'you think?" Ron said to him.
"I dunno," said Harry. He hated to think of Hermione all alone up there. "If she'd only talk to us, tell us what's wrong, maybe we could help . . ."
Ginny exchanged a glance with Parvati and Lavender who were sitting nearby, listening in on the conversation. The two girls nodded at her; Ginny began to gather up her cards.
"I think it's time we put you two out of your misery," said Lavender, as the girls came over to them and sat down across from them. Ron put down his cards and Harry's Firebolt became untouched.
"What's going on?" Harry asked them simply.
Lavender and Parvati both exchanged smirks, whereas Ginny scowled at them.
"I don't think it's funny at all," Ginny said.
"What's not funny?" Ron said. The exasperation in his voice was evident.
"Look," said Parvati. "There's a reason why Hermione doesn't want to be around you two at the moment.
"And?"
"Truth or dare," Lavender said simply.
"Truth or dare?" Harry said.
"Yup," said Lavender. "We were playing it at the slumber party the other night . . . it's a fun game see, you either have to answer a question truthfully or get given a dare to do . . . that's why Ginny had to come down and kiss Harry!"
Both girls giggled at this. Harry's cheeks turned a little pink but Ginny simply shrugged.
"So you got Hermione playing truth or dare?" Ron asked, sounding amazed.
"Yeah," said Parvati. "Only being witches, we took the truth part a bit more seriously. If you chose truth, you had to drink Veritaserum."
"What?!" Ron yelled.
"Veritaserum?!" Harry cried. "Where'd you get it from? Don't you know how dangerous it is?"
"Don't worry Harry, we knew what we were doing . . . Alicia's been studying it for some extra Potions credit, and she found out that there was a less risky way of using it."
"You water it down," Ginny cut in, "and add a few drops from the Draught of Peace to it. You know that when someone takes Veritaserum ordinarily, they'll speak the truth but won't actually have a clue of what they're saying. They don't remember saying it at all."
"Well," took up Lavender, "when you mix it like this, you still speak the truth but you remain lucid. You know exactly what you're saying and you definitely remember it."
"And you made Hermione drink it?" Harry said seething.
"Hey, we didn't make her," said Parvati, holding up her hands to try and calm Harry down. "It was Hermione's choice."
"It's true, Harry," Ginny said softly. "I wouldn't lie to you."
Harry felt his anger subside at this. He glanced at Ron, who was looking very perplexed by the whole thing.
"So Hermione chose truth," Ron said slowly. "What . . . what did you ask her?"
Both Lavender and Parvati collapsed into giggles again.
"We asked her the two questions we've all been wondering about for ages," said Lavender. "First we asked if her if she's ever actually kissed anyone, 'cause no-one really knows what happened with Viktor Krum do they?"
"Did she kiss him?" Ron asked, a little too eagerly.
"No," said Ginny. "She hasn't kissed anyone."
Everyone caught the smile of relief that spread across Ron's face at this.
"Which leads us to the second question," Parvati said, grinning evilly. "We asked her, out of you, Ron, or Harry, who would she rather have her first kiss with?"
There was a stunned silence from both boys at this. Ron's mouth was opening and closing again.
"But . . . but . . ." he was saying. "You can't ask that!"
"We can and we did," giggled Lavender.
"I think I get it now," said Harry quietly. "She chose Ron, and now she's too embarrassed to speak to either of us."
Ron looked positively delighted at this. Ginny smiled weakly at Harry, whereas Lavender and Parvati both grinned at each other.
"Well, you're half right Harry," said Lavender. "It's true that's why Hermione is too embarrassed to speak to either of you, but . . . she chose you, Harry. Not Ron."
- - -
Author's Note: This story popped into my head last night and I just had to get it written down. At this point in time I don't know how long it's going to be, but please bear with me. I've got another idea in my head too, so I'll do my best to get both this story finished and the other idea started!