It was study hour in the Great Hall when Millicent showed Pansy her new trick.

"It's quite handy, actually," she said as students studied in a frenzy around them.

"Handy for what?" asked Pansy in a tone of deep disbelief.

Millicent pondered this question. "Information gathering," she suggested finally, testing the notion.

Pansy scoffed a little as though she did not think that Hogwarts held the type of people worthy of being spied on. Millicent quite liked this attitude on her. It was one of the reasons that she and Pansy were such good friends, though certainly not the main reason.

"Well," she said. "We could attempt blackmail with it."

Pansy merely scoffed again, and Millicent realised that the only people who had secrets that they would pay to conceal were Slytherins. Slytherins were the only people who could afford to pay to conceal secrets as well, and they couldn't blackmail Slytherins. The only thing that kept them safe from the blackmail of other Slytherins was an unspoken truce that existed between them.

"Perhaps it is useless then," mused Millicent pensively. "I had hoped it would have been fun."

"I don't see how," said Pansy dismissively as she ran her thumb across her glossy lower lip, the picture of bored beauty. "And anyhow you couldn't use it today. No one will neglect their studies to toss notes to one another."

Millicent shrugged wryly; just as someone neglected their studies to toss a note to someone else. Of course, they had just discussed how useless the trick was, but she flicked her wand without thinking and the note veered around in a gentle arc to land on the table in front of her, looking as though it had been intended for her all along. Pansy creased her nose at her friend's determination to be childish but she did lean towards the note as Millicent looked around to figure out who the sender had been.

Her eyes landed on the Weasley twins up the back of the Hall. Both of them looked as bright red as their hair for once, and were staring at her in horror. She raised her eyebrows at them to show that she was stunned that they had sent her a note and then looked back down at it.

She was not stunned, of course. The Weasley twins were the ones most likely, if one were to think about it for even an instant, to toss notes during study time. Especially only a week before exams.

Pansy took the note and began unfurling it from its paper plane shape when Millicent had taken too long, so Millicent caught the edge of it and pressed it flat on the table between them so that they both could see.

"Probably something stupid like the ingredients for pranks, or ridiculous Quidditch related feints," said Pansy in her usual tone of deep disdain.

"Mhf," said Millicent who rather agreed and was already bored with the prospect of reading what had to be a very dully scripted missive. But, she was in study Hall. The only other option was to study. Well, actually, the other option was to exchange nasty gossip with Pansy, but they did that so often that the note seemed more interesting.

Hey Gorgeous, said the note. Next Yule Ball coming up. You and me, how 'bout it?

"I should go right over there and slap them," said Pansy. "That'd be funny. I wonder how they'd explain to their friends that they'd asked me out?"

Casting a speculative look across at the still beet-red Weasley boys, Millicent toyed with the top button on the collar of her shirt. "I don't think they both sent the letter," she said. "And if you slapped them, who'd care? You're pretty enough. People would see what had snagged them."

"Then I was right," said Pansy in satisfaction. "This whole thing is stupid and boring and there's no point in snatching other people's notes out of the air."

"There wouldn't be," agreed Millicent contentedly. "If you'd been the one to snatch it. But consider the fact that they think they accidentally sent this note to me."

Pansy stared at her and then snuffled into her jumper sleeve. Then snorted. Then laughed. It was perhaps lucky that Millicent had never deceived herself about her looks. She knew that her eyes were too narrow and could at best be described as mud-brown, and that her hair wasn't silky and that her mouth was too severe.

"Hm-mm," she murmured in the placid tone she always fell into right before the opportunity to be terribly cruel came up.

"Are you going to slap them?" asked Pansy reverently. "You can hit so much harder than I can."

Millicent gave her a flat look. "Pansy, when a boy asks a girl out, the girl doesn't slap him." She paused to shoot a pensive look at the twins and said sweetly, "She says yes."

And Pansy almost fell off her chair laughing.