The Hogwarts Lonely Hearts Club

The Cairngorm Grange

When the Gryffindor girls had all settled, wrapping themselves in thick dressing gowns and fluffy socks, Lavender Brown went around and handed them all cups of hot chocolate topped with marshmallows, as Parvati's wily charms had failed to convince the boys to part with any of the Butterbeer bottles that they had liberated from the Yule Ball.

Fay Dunbar was sat next to Hermione on her bed, with the other girls set to face them on Fay's bed next to it. Accepting her hot chocolate from Lavender, Fay frowned at her fellow witch's open dressing gown.

"Lavender ... have you not got any knickers on?" Fay quirked. "I can see your pubes through that cotton, you know?"

"So?" Lavender shrugged. "We've all got them. Besides, there should be no secrets between girls. And, after all that dancing tonight, my minge is sweaty and needs an airing."

Parvati snorted out her hot chocolate as Lavender flopped down on Fay's bed next to her.

"Lav!" Parvati cried, scandalised. "That is vile!"

"What? It does," Lavender replied, shamelessly. "I'm not the skinniest witch, as you know. And just because I don't have any knickers on doesn't mean you can look, Fay!"

Fay smirked as Lavender winking teasingly at her. "I wouldn't worry about that. My date didn't exactly go well. Maybe dating witches is something best left to being older, when half the people around you don't look at you as if you've sprouted a second head."

"You didn't get on then, you and your Beauxbatons girl?" Parvati asked.

"It wasn't that, but I don't think she liked people talking about us," Fay sighed. "I suppose that sort of thing might happen a bit more at an all-girl school, but we were the only same-sex partners there. She went back to her friends half way through the night and never came back."

"That's her loss," Hermione told her, loyally. "How did you get on with the Durmstrang boy, Lavender?"

"Not much better," she replied, sadly. "He didn't want to talk a lot ... he was more interested in getting a bit handsy with me. I didn't mind so much, but he was a bit brutish about it. Then I got a paper-cut from him."

"A paper-cut?" asked Fay. "How in the world did that happen?"

"Dimitar was carrying around a piece of card in his back pocket and I caught my knuckles on it," Lavender explained. "Then I got a little stab from a pencil he had attached to the card. I made a joke about it, something like asking if he was going off to play golf after the Ball, then he got all huffy and stormed away. I didn't see him again after that."

Hermione bit the edge of her mug as Lavender told her story. She wondered if she ought to tell them that this sounded exactly like what had happened with Sally-Anne Perks and Viktor Krum, but as Harry hadn't given her permission to divulge the information she just sipped her hot chocolate and stayed silent.

"What a clown," Fay spat. "How about you, Pav? Did your date go any better?"

"It was alright," Parvati replied. "Nothing special. Terry Boot was a bit dull, to be honest. Nice to look at, but not much of a conversationalist. But nevermind that, he's not the Ravenclaw date we are here to talk about!"

"Yeah," Lavender nodded, her eyes lighting up. "Come on, Sly Miss Cross over there ... clear your throat and tell us all about you and a certain Boy-Who-Lived that you've been keeping all these secrets about!"

Parvati and Fay hooted out twin giggles at that, and Hermione buried her head in her mug to hide the deep flush that was spreading over her cheeks. Composing herself a second, she finally looked up at the others.