The Talent Show

Chapter 11 - Seperation

Draco was down right furious with Jeremy. How dare that, that little wanker try and tell him to man up?! It was outrageous! It was ridiculous! It was...it was....

It was a little hurtful, pouted Draco's brain.

With a scowl, Draco shook his head and continued on his war path to the Great Hall. He was going to make sure that little squirt apologized! Publicly! But not super publicly because Draco still wanted to keep a low profile about being friends with Jeremy. Suddenly, Draco's mind whispered, That's probably more than a little hurtful for Jeremy, too.

Shut up, Brain. I can have you replaced you know.

Draco's brain kind of frowned and said, Well, I bet it is. The poor bloke is trying his best to help you out. And he really did give you some pretty good advice. Plus, it seems like he really does care about your well-being. You should be nicer to him. I bet Luna would be nicer to him.

Oh, what do you know anyway?

Clearly more than you. You're the one personifying your own brain. I think you've got a problem. Now be normal. We're almost at the Hall.

Draco scowled even harder at himself and stomped into the Great Hall. Regardless of what his brain thought, needed to have a serious discussion with Jeremy.

• • •

Pansy had been sitting down to a nice, quiet, late supper in the Great Hall with Blaise when Jeremy stormed in. He was muttering under his breath and waving his fists around wildly. It was very entertaining, but Pansy knew that Draco would be upset with her if she let Jeremy go around making a spectacle. Draco already had enough trouble trying to keep Jeremy away from the more deadly Slytherins, and he didn't need to extra pressure that would come with Jeremy acting insane.

So Pansy nudged Blaise with her shoe and nodded towards Jeremy. Blaise sighed and turned around, stuck his foot out, and tripped Jeremy so that he stumbled right into the table. A few people around them chuckled, then went right back to eating without any comment. Jeremy sank down into his seat guiltily and muttered, "Sorry."

Pansy simply rolled her eyes and stuffed more potatoes in her mouth. It was Blaise who raised en eyebrow and demanded to know what happened. Jeremy blushed a light pink and mumbled under his breath. Pansy's ears perked up, as she knew that if someone had been awful to Jeremy, she got to exact revenge. She hoped it was the twit Claire. She'd been dying to put ageing potion in that bitch's shampoo.

But Jeremy wouldn't say anything about who'd upset him. He wouldn't even give hints. He didn't even smile when Blaise started coming up with potential punishments for the offender, like he normally did. In fact, Jeremy just took a deep breath, sat up a little straighter and let his new-found Slytherin mask slide into place.

As proud as she was that Jeremy had mastered the mask, Pansy was a bit peeved that it'd happened at such an inconvenient time. She was about to voice her complaint loudly and very vulgarly, when Draco marched into the Hall, looked at the table, then promptly turned sharply on his heel and marched right back out.

Of course, Pansy rolled her eyes, of course that arsehole went and said something to Jeremy. I swear, it's like he doesn't even want friends.

And just like that, Pansy dropped the matter, and kicked Blaise under the table until he let it go too. If Draco was going to be a dickhead to his charge, it was none of their business, especially if Jeremy didn't want to talk about it. Draco probably said something so awful that Jeremy was going to leave them and never speak to them again. Too bad, though. Jeremy was one of the lackeys that Pansy actually liked. But it wasn't up to her to do anything.

But as Pansy stood up to go back to her various romantic pursuits, she looked back at Jeremy scowling at his plate and looking like he was about ready to die inside. And something possessed her to pat his hand and say as reassuringly as she could, "Don't worry. I'll turn his nose invisible tomorrow when he isn't looking."

Jeremy's head snapped up and a ghost of a smile crossed his features before he shrugged and went back to poking his roast beef. Pansy smiled at him and glided out of the room. Blaise shook his head and followed after her. He was going to shave off Draco's eyebrows tonight and he wanted the satisfaction of doing it the Muggle way, so he had some preparations to make.

• • •

Draco was sitting in a secluded corridor a ways away from the Great Hall, with his eyes closed, and his arse numb from sitting so long on the floor. He could have made himself a pillow to sit on, but he felt he didn't deserve it. After kind of agreeing with Jeremy, Draco's pride had been so wounded that he ignored Jeremy for a full day, then called him a Mudblood to his face, and ignored/avoided him some more. At this point, Draco was so ashamed of himself that he didn't even know how to approach Jeremy at all.

Draco was just setting his head in his hands when quiet footsteps started down the corridor. Draco was so miserable that he just ignored them. They stopped right in front of him, and he sensed someone bending down. Hair tickled his fingers and when he finally peeked up, Luna Lovegood's face was looking at him curiously. Draco scowled and snapped, "What you do you, Loony?"

"You missed rehearsal. And Jeremy looked sad about it. I thought it'd be best for me to come find you and make sure the Nargles didn't get you."

Draco huffed out a laugh and muttered, "I never can tell if you're serious or not. You're just so strange."

To Draco's surprise, Luna sat down beside him and said, with a huge smile, "Most times I'm serious, but exaggerated. Of course the Nargles didn't get you. They're fairly peaceful in my experience. I just say things like that so that people leave me alone to my research. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to hunt secretive creatures with an entourage following behind me?"

Draco managed a weak smile and said, "That makes sense. And I think that's the most you've ever said to me in one go."

Luna smiled hugely and said, "Well, we can talk more, if you like. As long as you promise to whisper. Because I'm going to go see what kinds of creatures I can find in the dungeons and I'll probably get lost. I could use help navigating."

Draco tired not to let his smirk eat his entire face. He stood and started off down the corridor towards the dungeons. Luna caught up easily and whispered, "I'm glad you decided to come with me. The dungeons are fascinating."

Draco's smile got even bigger. He was going to use this time as best he could and he was actually going to start to get to know Luna. Also, he promised himself he would apologize to Jeremy. But for now, he was going to learn everything about Nargles if it helped him get closer to Luna.

• • •

Up in the Room of Requirement, Jeremy finished an essay for History of Magic that wasn't due for another two weeks. He'd been waiting for at least two hours. The only person who'd made an appearance was Luna, and she'd only stayed long enough to hear that Draco probably wasn't coming. Then she'd left to go hunt the dungeons for her creatures. She'd invited Jeremy, but he'd decided to hang around and wait to see if Draco would show up. But he hadn't.

Jeremy sighed, packed up his things, and left the Room. He hoped Pansy put troll vomit in Draco's trunk tonight.