The Truth Behind The Mask → ????????

[ G r o u p H u g ]

Hermione sat on the armchair on one side and Draco sat on the other, Blaise and Luna sat on the floor next to Draco's armchair; Blaise's arm wrapped around Luna's shoulder and the four Gryffindors sat on the long couch.

"So what the bloody hell are you two doing together?" Ron asked.

Blaise's hand immediately left Luna's shoulder and went into his lap instead. Luna looked calm as always, "Well, we are all here together."

Hermione smiled, "You guys wouldn't mind if I told them, would you?"

Luna and Blaise shook their heads with a smile and the four on the couch became confused. Hermione looked towards them, "They're dating, have been since last summer."

Ron and Harry's jaws dropped but to everyone's shock, Ginny shouted "YES!" then crossed her arms with a look of smug towards Lavender. Lavender rolled her eyes then she pulled two galleons out of her pocket and handed it to Ginny.

Hermione also frowned at them, "You guys have already been betting on their relationship?"

"Well Ginny said she saw them walking through the corridors hand in hand so she bet two galleons they were together but I didn't believe her so if by the end of the year, the two didn't say anything about them dating, she'd pay me." Lavender explained.

Everyone started laughing and the mood was lifted, but brought down again when Hermione got up and pulled Draco away into her room.

Everyone had a mutual agreement, they were all aware of what happened with Pansy, but saw it in their own perspective. "So why are you here specifically?" Harry asked.

"Draco came down to the lake to find us, he told us about how Pansy was being desperate over him again, and grabbed him to avoid him leaving. He was looking for us to to give him and Hermione some ideas for the new halloween ball."

All of their eyes went wide, Ron face-palmed himself and sighed, Harry put his head back and the girls gasped. "Merlin, we've told Hermione the wrong thing!" Lavender shrieked.

"What did you tell her? Blaise asked.

"We told her what we saw and heard, Pansy and Draco shouting, then Pansy hugging him and Draco doing little to nothing trying to get her off."

Blaise sighed heavily and Luna looked with worry towards Hermione's room where the door was closed. Although they were completely silent, they couldn't hear anything from inside their room.

That was because once Hermione entered the room with Draco, she closed the door and placed a silencing charm on it. She turned to Draco who stood there with his hands in his pockets and with a look of both worry and fear.

"While you were out finding Blaise and Luna, my friends came and told me that you and Pansy were hugging in the hallway." Hermione said, crossing her arms, she was trying to sound confident but it was clear there was some fear laced in. "I just want to know if it's true."

Draco's eyes widened and he put his hands out to calm her, "Trust me, that is not what happened." Draco sighed and ran a hand through his hair nervously, "She found out we were dating somehow and came to confront me. When I tried to walk away, she grabbed me from behind instead."

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief with her hand on her heart "Thank gosh, I was worried." She smiled and Draco came over and pulled her closer grabbing her waist, "Trust me, it'll be a million and four years before I'm with her."

Hermione smiled and kissed him, cupping his cheeks. They broke apart when they heard desperate knocking, thinking the worst of things, Hermione rushed over to the door. When she opened it, Luna and Ginny both started to talk, resulting in a loud jumble of words which Hermione heard nothing of.

"Wait guys stop! I can't hear anything! You both are talking!" Hermione shouted.

They both stopped talking, "Sorry bout that, we were just trying to say, that Draco-" Luna was cut off by Hermione. "Don't worry, he's explained everything to me."

Ginny and Luna sighed a breath of relief and walk back to the couches together, starting a conversation with Lavender, reassuring her that everything was fine. They watched their boyfriends all sitting on the floor crowed over the coffee table where a game of wizard's chess was being played by Ron and Harry, Blaise commentating on their moves.

Hermione whispered something in Draco's ear, Draco kissed her cheek and wished her good luck, before calling everyone apart from Harry and Ron over to the kitchen to come up with ideas for the halloween ball coming up.

The girls finally got excited and began talking one another's ears off with their excitement, walking over to the kitchen where they all took turns filling the piece of parchment with ideas.

Harry and Ron sat on the couch while Hermione sat on the arm chair. "So, I'm sure you guys just ran here in hopes of warning me but before this conversation, ours was-"

She was cut off by Harry, "We're sorry Mione, we know you're older than both of us but you've always been like a younger sister to us. We love you and we just didn't want him to hurt you like how he has in the past."

Hermione's eyes were filled with tears, "Aww, I love you guys too and don't worry I think I can protect myself." She said with a slight laugh as the three stood up and hugged each other. The three didn't group hug often, but this just felt right.

"Besides, we've got pretty scary girlfriends." Ron said rather loudly as they pulled apart, hoping Lavender and Ginny would hear. Harry and Hermione laughed nodding their heads; it was true.

"Now what's this halloween ball all about?" Harry asked as they walked over to the kitchen.

They sat together, laughing the night away coming up with ideas for the ball and for costumes as well. Since they were all couples now but not exactly ready to be telling people, they mainly thought of popular Muggle couple costumes. The conversation being led by Harry and Hermione, knowing most about muggles.

"How about Princesses and Princes, we could all pick a princess that resembles us. They all wear different colour dresses and have different personalities, some have a prince companion but some don't. We'll pick the ones that do." Hermione suggested.

Lavender seemed on board with that, she really wanted to be wearing a nice ball gown, accompanied by a man in tux since it'd be extremely romantic. Ginny looked at Harry but Harry shrugged, he knew some stuff from primary school and catching glimpses of Dudley's shows but Dudley never watched princesses.

"How many princesses are there?" Blaise asked.

"Oh tons! I don't think I could even count all of them on both my hands. Just to name a few princesses, there's Belle, Cinderella, Aurora, Jasmine, Ariel, Rapunzel, Snow White- eat cetera."

Everyone stared at her with wide-eyes. "Wait there are more than that?" Draco asked.

Hermione nodded, "Yea, but we only need four. Technically, we don't have to reflect on our personality since the other people won't know what we are. Just the looks would be great."

"So how do they look like?" Lavender asked.

"I think it'd be much harder for us to get both the princess and prince to match us with our boyfriends but we'll try."

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Thought I'd pop in an say, try betting your friends which what you think they'll dress up as

I bet the gender of kids once in a fanfic and won a dollar