Title: Challenge

Author: Shinoko

1) Ron or Harry being naked
2) A proposal (from anyone to anyone)
3) Apple juice has to be mentioned 4) Someone has to choke on home-made cake/pie
5) Blaise's mum has to make an appearance

"I don't see why I have to do this," Harry said from under his invisibility cloak, where only his head was visible.

Hermione smiled sweetly while Blaise leaned against the wall, smirking. "Because," the young woman said, "you lost the bet, and have to live up to your end of the bargain." She paused. "I suppose you shouldn't have made the bet if you had no plans on honoring what would happen if you lost."

Harry just frowned, whimpering slightly.

Blaise chuckled. "Better you than me."

Harry might have slumped down, but it was hard to tell since his body wasn't visible. "Can't I at least get drunk first? That way I have an excuse."

Hermione shook her head. "Nope. Now get out there."

Harry made a few more sounds of protest, but begrudgingly left for the waiting room of the clinic, for where the party celebrating Ron and Luna's engagement was being held. Blaise's mother was a doctor and had graciously closed her practice for a day in order to host the party there. True, there had been a previous party held at the Burrow, but under the circumstances of the bet made between Harry and Blaise, they thought it would be rather inappropriate for the terms to be fulfilled there.

Blaise and Hermione followed him out silently, not wanting to miss out on the reactions of everyone gathered. Joining with the crowd, they waited. And waited. And waited some more.

"Any time now," Blaise called out, which drew some of the party-goers' attention to him.

There was a heavy sigh, and Harry removed the invisibility cloak. He closed his eyes, trying to avoid looking at anyone as he stood there completely starkers.

Ron choked on the cake Blaise's younger sister Cynthia had made for refreshments. Whether it was due to the shock of seeing his best friend naked or that Cynthia was just a bad cook was anyone's guess.

Harry sighed again, then recited his lines with absolutely no feeling. "I am the boy who lived in a nudist colony. Behold my naked glory." Someone snapped a picture, and Harry quickly opened his eyes to glare over the room. "Whoever took that picture is going to die a very slow and painful death."

"Oh, my. I didn't know someone was hiring a stripper," Blaise's mother exclaimed as she came into the room carrying a tray of apple juice. Harry quickly scrambled to put his cloak back on and ran out of the room. "What kind of party is this, anyway?"

Blaise took the tray and set it down on a table. "An engagement party. And he's not a stripper. He lost a bet."

She nodded. "Shame, that." Before Blaise could figure out exactly what his mother meant by that, she had walked over to Hermione, who was watching over the proceedings with an amused look on her face. "You're the girl dating my son, right?"

Hermione looked over to her. "Yes, I am. I don't think Blaise has introduced me to you yet, Mrs. zabini."

The older woman waved her hand. "You can call me Rosalie. And it's 'Ms.' Blaise's father and I never married." A bitter look flashed across her face. "And then he turned forty and went off chasing after some nineteen year old secretary of his to the Bahamas. Lousy dead-beat." Her face resumed its cheerful expression. "A word of advice. When the two of you give me grandchildren, make sure they're all born in wedlock."

"Mother!" Blaise exclaimed from where he had been standing and listening, absolutely appalled.

Rosalie Zabini turned to him. "The two of you have been dating for how long? Two years? And yet you haven't asked her to marry you yet? Need I say how disappointed I'll be if you turn out like that dead-beat father of yours?" Blaise slouched down, and the matriarch continued. "It's simple. You buy a ring, go out for a nice romantic dinner, and when the dessert comes, take out the ring, turn to her, and say, 'Will you marry me'." She turned back to Hermione. "You'll have to excuse him. He's had no positive male role models in his life."

Hermione nodded in understanding. "At least he seems relatively well adjusted, if a bit hesitant. The waiting is the hardest part, isn't it?"

Blaise just stood there mortified as his girlfriend and mother conspired against him. After a while, he shook his head and sulked off to the couch on the other side of the room, plopping down unceremoniously next to his sister.

"Is it safe yet?" Cynthia asked. Blaise glanced over at her, and she continued. "The naked boy who disappeared. He's gone, right?"

Blaise was about to tell her the coast was clear when he noticed the camera she held behind her back. "I don't want to know," he said as he put his head in his hands.

Of all the families in the world, why did he have to be stuck with this one?

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