because you'll like it

chapter 1

Hermione walked into the room of requirement with a very specific look in mind. She needed something calm but bright, festive yet not too cheery, and intimate but not too small for all the eighth years that evening.

She had made it her special project over summer that while everyone was working on rebuilding Hogwarts to its former glory she would work to make the room of requirement fully functioning once more. A task that took hours of research, burns, and -not that she would admit it to anyone- a fair amount of guessing.

But it had worked, she knew that the students in Hogwarts would always need a room like this, somewhere to escape even just for a little while. Which brought her to the present, fixing up the room for the eighth year's first party ever. It had already been two months since the school year had started and the tension in the new dorms with the remaining Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, and (much to everyone's surprise) Slytherins was enough to make Hermione's hair stand on end.

The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were mostly resigned with only a slight bit of animosity rolling off them whenever a Slytherin walked passed. But the remaining Gryffindors were all bombs waiting to go off and she had enough of it.

Hermione shook the thoughts from her head as she conjured a table on the far left side of the room. It had been a challenge to get everyone to agree to a party but it was the only thing she could think of that would help everyone come together.

She transfigured glasses and bowls and started pulling food out of her beaded bag along with a healthy amount of Firewhisky. She hoped that if everyone was relaxed with enough alcohol they'd see that they could get over years of pain, torment, and general dickishness.... Merlin what was she thinking?

She turned to the middle of the room and asked for a big plush rug, and an assortment of arm chairs and bean bags in a circle. They popped up as soon as she had the thought, the room eager to please the girl who worked so hard to nurture it back to health.

If there was only one area to sit hopefully that ment people couldn't group off or get out of spending time together. They would get along even if Hermione had to pull them by the ear and stick their arses on the furniture! She couldn't take balancing on a knife's edge anymore just waiting for something (or someone) to blow up.

She cast a quick tempus charm, seeing that people should be arriving any minute. Hermione wondered, rather belatedly if the Slytherins would come. Walking up to the group had taken all of her Gryffindor courage not to cow when they all glared her way earlier that day.

They had been sitting around the fire in the new common room, Parkinson, Zabini, Nott, Goyle, and of course, Malfoy. The first three sat on a small couch, a coffee table filled with books and parchment in front of them. Goyle sat on the floor at one end of the table while Malfoy sat in a deep brown leather chair closest to the fire.

He had an air of nonchalance as his long fingers tapped the arm rest. Lean body stretched out, relaxed and yet laid in a way that made him look ready to spring into action at any moment Fire light glinted off his hair, his eyes, his lips, giving his whole visage an orange hue. The reminder of orange snapped her out of where that was leading, she shouldn't have even been noticing Malfoy like that. He was still vile and a coward and her and Ron had been good, well...mostly good.

Malfoy crossed his legs as she approached.

"Well, well, well, Granger. To what do we owe the pleasure?" He lifted an eyebrow in question.

The rest of the Slytherins had turned her way, their eyes narrowing and Hermione could've swore she heard a faint hissing, but maybe it was just her mind providing sound effects for the proverbial snake pit.