Written for Interhouse Fest 2012 on Livejournal

Title: Can You Feel the Love Tonight?
Author/Artist: y3llowdaisi3s/l0stinl0ve
Characters: Hermione/Draco, Ron/Pansy, Ginny/Blaise, Harry/Luna, Daphne/Neville, Millicent/Seamus, Padma/Theo, and probably a bunch of other characters in some capacity
Prompt number: 208
Word Count: 3,752
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Mentions of sex, but not a whole lot
Summary: It's not quite on purpose, but somehow at least once a month the girls of Hogwarts end up meeting to compare notes on the boys in their houses.
Disclaimer: If I had owned the HP universe, things would have ended up a lot differently.
Author's Notes: Oh my God! This was so much fun to write. I'll admit it took me a while to figure out how to frame the story, but I read the prompt and simply had to write it - even if I had another prompt claimed beforehand. Thank you to nessismore for the fantastic prompt. To the mods, I love this fest so very very much. Thank you to Cherene, my fantastic beta who is more than likely surprised to have found this in her inbox when she had already sent back my entry for this fest. Can You Feel the Love Tonight?

It started just the four of them - well one would argue it started with three of them and the fourth just happened to follow, but no one was truly keeping track. They had met to discuss their boyfriends, or best friend's boyfriends, whatever it was.

Eventually, it became a monthly thing, where all the girls would show up and just talk about their love lives.

It helped them forget about what happened the year before.

The professors thought it prudent to let them continue and even managed to convince Filch to look the other way, it was only once a month anyways.

The first meeting happened just a quarter past curfew. Pansy Parkinson had grabbed hold of Ginny and Hermione, and dragged them towards the girls' bathroom on the second floor.

Luna thought it unusual so she followed them.

Before she could say anything, Pansy was already telling Moaning Myrtle to shut it and had pushed Luna's friends against the wall opposite the door.

"My best friend doesn't know what to do with himself. So you're going to tell me what he needs to do in order to calm down before he takes you to Hogsmeade this weekend." Pansy breathed out, staring at Ginny waiting for an answer.

Luna sighed in relief, glad that the confrontation was about boys and not something ridiculous. Well, if answers were what Pansy sought, than she could give some back.

"And what about Ronald Weasley?" Luna asked.

Pansy shrieked, spinning around to glare at the intruder. She didn't realise that Luna had followed her, so determined to help out her friend Blaise that her natural self-preservation didn't come into effect until Luna spoke in that eerie way she seemed to always do.

Pansy eyed her warily. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean." Luna replied.

Luna and Ginny walked around Pansy so that they were no longer trapped against the wall.

"Well," Pansy cleared her throat, "Ronald Weasley can buy me a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks. I don't expect much of anything from that."

"Is that a dig at our family finances, Parkinson?" Ginny sneered.

Luna, ever observant - if a little unusual - diffused the situation before it could escalate into something that would rival the Mountain Troll in Hermione's first year. "I think she is being honest. They barely know anything about the other. I'm sure they want to use their time to fix this."

"Yes, Looney is right." Pansy agreed.

"If you want to hit it off with Ron, you won't make fun of his friends." Hermione scoffed.

Pansy nodded and transfigured her messenger bag into a chair. She made herself comfortable and stared at Ginny once again. "And what should Blaise expect?"

Luna and Hermione turned their heads to their friend, wondering the same thing.

"Much the same, I expect. We don't really know each other and I guess it's a good idea to just go somewhere and talk."

"But not at the same time as you are there with Ron," Hermione quickly interrupted.

"Oh no, that would be very unwise." Luna said. "To be on a date while your brother is in the room. He would spend the entire time stalking his sister, not using it to get to know you Pansy."

Pansy startled at the use of her first name, but realized that if she was to really date Ronald Weasley, she would need to get along with his friends. She was Slytherin enough to take advantage of the situation and would learn what she could to ensure her own happiness, and any tidbits that she could collect about the She-Weasel and Granger would help her two guy friends immensely. She could probably trade the information for favours.

She liked it when people owed her, and who better to owe her than a Malfoy and a Zabini.

The next month, the group of four grew to a group of six. Pansy had been asked by her two dorm-mates to be brought along to spend time with the Gryffindors to also garner advantage with their prospective boyfriends.

The six girls had turned the unused restroom into a lounge of sorts. The wall that once had sinks lined along it was now a small kitchenette. They had blocked off all the stalls - except one, the one on the end, so that Moaning Myrtle still had a place to creep to - with fabrics of varying colours and weight. After having cast several Scougify on the floor, and much of the room itself, they had brought pillows of different sizes to throw on the ground for them to lay on comfortably.

Overall, it was a great little hangout for a group of girls to gossip.

Millicent Bullstrode had been spending a lot of time with Seamus Finnigan and wanted it to escalate to something more. She hadn't said anything about his fondness for blowing things up and catching on fire. He never said anything rude about her size. The two bonded when she offered to help him clear the Charms classroom after his last mishap. He made her laugh and all she could do while casting spells to rid the ash was daydream of him kissing her. She overheard Daphne talking to Pansy about meeting the Gryffindors and she did everything in her power - which physically was a lot, and required very little force to display, thank you very much - to score an invite.

Daphne Greengrass had a newfound affinity for Herbology. In previous years, she did what was needed to scrape by, but now, she wanted to be impressive. She had approached Neville Longbottom for tutoring and was spending two to three hours a week in the greenhouses with him. She never let him, or anyone outside the group of girls in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, know that she was actually pretty good at Herbology, and liked it as much as Ronald Weasley enjoyed potions - which wasn't very much. But she wanted to get to know Neville better and until she was even aware of Pansy's meetings with this bunch, it was the only thing she could think of.

Ginny was trying - and failing miserably - to catch Hermione's attention in order to convince her to double with Malfoy. Blaise felt sorry for his friend, and Ginny was starting to feel sympathetic as well. Half the time, when she was with her boyfriend, she was in the company of his best friend as well. It didn't help that Malfoy used that time to either make fun of or backhand compliment Hermione. It was starting to grate on Ginny's nerves how he didn't have to bollocks to just ask her out, but Ginny understood. She was surprised that Blaise even asked her.

Hermione sat with the girls listening to Luna talk about her double date from last weekend with Ron and Pansy. At first she was a little resentful at how quick Ron rebounded, and with the pug-face, especially. But then Pansy had taught Ron manners and Hermione figured it was worth it in the end. He would never listen to Hermione, which was a fact she had learned to live with. All Pansy had to do was snap her fingers and Ron would be at her feet. It was rather amusing to watch. Plus, Pansy wasn't as bad as Hermione originally thought. It was nice for Hermione to have someone her own age - not that Ginny and Luna being a year younger was anything bad - to talk with. She never had a girl in one of her classes to partner with, and lately Hermione always had something to talk about - like how Malfoy would not leave her alone. It was nice to have his ex-girlfriend's perspective on the whole thing.

"Hermione!" Ginny finally screeched, tired of trying to subtly capture her friend's attention.

"Ginny!" Hermione shouted back.
"Will you please double with me and Malfoy?" Ginny pleaded.

Hermione looked up at the ceiling and pursed her lips, pondering the question. She knew she was going to eventually say yes. Pansy had shown her some memories in a Pensieve of some of the things Malfoy had said about her when he wasn't insulting her to her face. She was intrigued to say the least.

She looked over at Luna who was smiling at Daphne, then turned to Pansy who smirked at her. "Okay," she answered.

"I know you don't get along... Wait, okay?" Ginny started. "Thank Merlin. I thought he would never shut up if you didn't give in."

"Enough about us." Pansy said. "I've called you girls here today so that we could help Daphne and Millicent snare their own lions."

The girls chuckled and began plotting.

It felt good to be plotting how to capture a boy's attention instead of how to avoid capture from Death Eaters.

Life was finally good.

It was December 'Girls' Night' as the eighth years dubbed the monthly evening when they were all girlfriend-less, or just girl-less.

The group had grown in the two months since the night Hermione finally agreed to go on a date with Malfoy, having now included Tracey Davis, Lavender Brown, the Patil twins, and Hannah Abbott.

Draco was still only getting to spend time with Hermione on double dates. She wouldn't let him call her his girlfriend and she enjoyed flustering him terribly. She and Pansy had a bet for how long it would last until he blew up at her for teasing him.

She only had to last until the train ride when break started, which happened to be the next day.

Hermione enjoyed when she could gloat.

Pansy did not.

But she - and the rest of Slytherin, and possibly the whole school - enjoyed watching Draco Malfoy suffer, especially when it was self-inflicted.

He still hadn't actually asked her out, filling Hermione with schadenfreude every time he suffered.. All the girls in school knew why she never spent time with him alone. She was waiting for him to finally ask her. Instead, he relied on his friend's girlfriends to invite them along.

It was one of the few ways Ginny could get her brother off her back. Doubling with Hermione and Draco meant snogging with Blaise would be awkward - at least in Ron's mind. Ron wouldn't snog Pansy if they were around either of their friends.

When alone was a different matter. Pansy liked to share - overshare in most of the girls' opinions - about their escapades.

Luckily, whenever she started, Ginny would shout about it being her brother she was talking about.

It would work for the first few times, but they would always end the night knowing a lot more than they ever wanted to know about Ronald Weasley's sexual capabilities.

It was nauseating.

"Have you noticed how we've eluded the Professors far more often than when we first started meeting?" Hermione mentioned.

"What do you mean?" Lavender asked.

"Well, when we first started spending time in this room, it was maybe just monthly." Luna replied.

"Yeah, we met one time at the beginning of the term, by accident considering it was Pansy cornering me. A month later, we stumbled in here once again when Harry and Luna started to get serious. And then again at the beginning of November when I finally convinced Hermione to go on a double date."

"And since then, we've been meeting almost weekly. Definitely at least every two weeks." Daphne confirmed.

"And we've only grown since." Padma added. The week after Daphne and Millicent joined the group, Padma had shown up at the door to the unused bathroom in hysterics. Apparently Theo Nott had asked her out. She stared at him for a whole minute and then ran away. When she finally managed to calm down - a whole half hour later - she ran to the only girls she knew who could help her fix what she had done. She had a crush on him since the War when he had helped her sneak past the Carrow Twins during their seventh year. Padma heard how he would help younger students avoid punishment and it all helped him out of going to Azkaban like his father. She was ecstatic that he had returned, unsure if he would.

"And Susan wants to come too! Her New Year's resolution is to ask out Dean Thomas and she doesn't believe she'll manage without our support." Hannah, who was dating Anthony Goldstein, was happy that her fellow Hufflepuff would join the girls. While the meetings were random and sporadic, they were frequent. Anthony let it slide because most of the other boys in their year would head to the Quidditch pitch for a pickup game. Without the girls around to swoon and worry over them it gave them the chance to really play.

"That's great." Lavender and Parvati exclaimed, clapping their hands.

Michael Corner had asked Lavender out when he needed assistance with Divination. As a Ravenclaw, he was adamant about getting at least an E and was scraping by with an A. Lavender, being Trelawney's favourite, was his first choice and after three sessions with her and an O on his practice exam, he had kissed her.

Parvarti, on the other hand, had brought her best friend to the group after hearing how they helped her sister. Lavender was complaining about how stagnant her relationship was and Parvarti figured that based off what she saw between Pansy and Ron - it was borderline illegal - she figured help would be found.

It was.

Lavender had shared how kissing led to groping which led to petting which led to...

Hermione forced her to stop there. She wasn't a prude, per se. She was just upset that everyone, and she meant everyonebut her was getting some.

She didn't want to go far - well, she did, but not now - but she wanted to at least snog. Hermione felt that if she were to snog Draco, it would give him ideas. And until they went out on a date, just the two of them, well, he would suffer.

He apparently had a ridiculous case of blue balls.

It made for a good laugh amongst all the girls.

However, everyone felt sorry for the bloke. Everyone knew why he hadn't asked Hermione out. It wasn't that he was scared - well, he was, but it wasn't the main reason - but he felt that she could do better. He had serious insecurity ever since the War and Hermione thought that if he didn't get over it, there wouldn't be a chance for their relationship to survive.

It was one - of many - reasons why Ron and her hadn't worked out. He had his own insecurity issues that Pansy was helping him get over. When Hermione was dating Ron, he always felt he was being compared to her, compared to his brothers, just always compared. It was taxing, to say the least, and Hermione had her own issues to worry about. Pansy, who was very self-assured, didn't care for any of that and as long as Ron behaved as a gentleman, she would feed his ego as needed.

"Anyways, back to the question!" Pansy yelped to capture everyone's attention.

"Oh yes, I believe it's because of House Unity." Luna pointed out.

Everyone seemed to ponder the answer. It made a lot of sense. In that room alone, all four houses were represented. And none of them were dating someone in their own house.

It was good for a Post-War world, that was for sure.

Especially if a Malfoy was longing to be with a Muggle-born.

It was the night before Graduation and the group had grown to include the rest of their year. Because family and friends, and most of the Wizarding world had shown up to see the class that included the Golden Trio leave Hogwarts, were at the school, the room was filled to capacity. It included several girls from the older years, all - except one, which was Angelina Johnson who was with George Weasley, and no one would do anything to break that pair up - interhouse relationships.

Alicia Spinnet started dating Adrian Pucey when he started working in her department at the Ministry. The Gryffindor and Slytherin hadn't realised they were following the trend of interhouse relationships.

Katie Bell had asked out Marcus Flint when he had asked the Muggleborn about dentistry - she had recommended Hermione's parents. Marcus, having owed a favour - or two - to the Malfoys, had brought Katie along when Hermione finally introduced Draco to her parents in February. The Grangers liked Marcus, and based off his recommendation - and all the good things Hermione expounded about her psuedo-boyfriend - her parents liked the boy who once lived to annoy their daughter. The only fault they found in him, was how he had to have a friend tag along when he finally came to meet them. After Hermione explained the circumstances, they were a little more understanding, but it didn't mean they liked it.

"We're graduating tomorrow!" the Ravenclaws shouted.

"I know, so it's a wonder why Hermione Granger is missing," Pansy commented.

"Since yesterday," Ginny smirked.

The news immediately caught the attention of everyone present, and they had all begun speculating what her absence could mean.

Rogue Death Eaters managed to kidnap her and were holding her ransom to stay out of Azkaban. No one believed that was the case.

She had to help her Muggle parents find the castle since they more than likely only saw ruins. Possible, but Katie's parents had managed to find the castle easily when she had completed school.

The Headmistress needed her assistance in preparing the ceremony. More than likely the actual case. Everyone knew Hermione was good with her charms, and with the number of people at the castle, the staff needed all the assistance they could get.

The door to lavatory slammed shut drawing the attention of all the girls. Standing at the entrance was a very dishevelled Hermione Granger trying to catch her breath.

"Do you look like that because you ran here?" Daphne asked.

Hermione shook her head and took a seat between Katie and Pansy. She cringed as she bent her knees.

"Or because of a certain Slytherin?" Pansy howled between laughs.

Hermione's face flushed and she unabashedly looked at her hands. "Maybe," she whispered.

The response had everyone in an uproar. Hermione had delivered them, quite possibly, the most scandalous gossip in all their Hogwarts years.

At the inquisitive looks, Hermione decided to clear the air. "He finally asked me to dinner."

"So you shagged him?" Hannah barked. The other girls were wide-eyed. No one had expected Hermione Granger to give it up on the first date.

"Technically, it wasn't our first date." Hermione answered, as if having read their thoughts. "Well, technically it is, I guess. If you include all the doubles we've gone on, we've gone on as many dates as all of you combined most likely."

No one could argue with that.

"And, technically, we weren't alone." At the look of shock her audience was giving her, she was quick to backtrack. "I mean, we had dinner with his parents."

"You met the Malfoys!" Pansy shrieked.

"She's already met them." Ginny muttered.

Hermione ignored both of them and continued on as if they hadn't interrupted. "He wanted to introduce them to his girlfriend, officially. They approved and his mother handed him something. We came back to the castle, but we made a detour down near Hagrid's. At a certain point he pulled me to a stop."

Everyone was paying rapt attention. Most were leaning forward with their elbows on their knees, listening intently to every word.

Hermione looked at everyone's face and was having a hard time keeping the exciting news to herself. "He held my hand to his heart and told me how he had spoken to my parents the day before. He got down on one knee and pulled out the box his mother gave him."

"And I said 'Hermione, this is where I first knew I loved you. Sure, you hit me in the face, but no one had ever stood up to me before. I was horrid to you all those years trying to force myself not to love you, but I couldn't help it.' and then I opened the box." Draco Malfoy interrupted the story telling. He walked into the room and shoved Pansy out of his way as he sat next to his fiancé. He held her close and kissed her cheek.

All of a sudden, everyone else's significant others joined the party and everyone was sitting in the arms of a loved one. It took a few minutes before Luna caused silence to descend by asking for the couple of the hour to continue their story.

"Oh yes," Hermione breathed out. "Well, he asked me to marry him, obviously. And, like an idiot, I said yes."

Draco was affronted at her response and nipped at her.

"But that still doesn't explain your dishevelled appearance when you got here." Hannah protested.

"That was entirely my fault." Draco answered smugly, smirking in the direction of all the males in the room.

Hermione gasped and smacked Draco, only making him mock-whisper into her ear, "You know that only turns me on, and I'm sure you don't want to give everyone a performance of what happened earlier.

This made Hermione blush scarlet and everyone to erupt into laughter.

That summer, Moaning Myrtle felt extra lonesome. It had been a long time since she had such consistent company and it was the first time that the other ghosts in the castle liked having her around.

She hoped that maybe next year a new batch of girls would occupy her bathroom and give her more gossip to take back to monthly 'tea'. She knew that the Grey Lady especially liked to hear about the love lives of the students of Hogwarts.