Chapter Text
Pansy didn’t want to talk, which wasn’t surprising after how dinner went, but it was still sort of hurtful.
After Draco had returned to his common room, he found Theo and Crabbe lounging, playing a game of Exploding Snap, unaware of his presence. Draco coughed, Crabbe jumped, and Theo turned around to face him. His expression flashed with confusion for only a moment before he turned back around. “Oh. I thought you were Blaise.”
“Er, no. Where is he?” Draco said stiffly, crossing the room to take a seat on the other chair. The common room felt even colder than usual, and it wasn’t because of the weather - the room was almost silent. Besides the group of first years making background noise, but that was irrelevant. There was barely anyone around, and that was unusual for a Wednesday night.
“Sleeping,” Crabbe blurted, scratching his nose. Theo nodded, shuffling the deck of cards. Draco restrained himself from making a huh? face. It surely wasn’t that late, was it? He couldn’t have spoken to Potter for that long…
“Alrig-”
“So where’d you end up going?”
Draco’s mouth clasped shut instantly. Theo had always been one of Draco’s best mates for many different reasons. He was loyal and trustworthy, also a kid who had never been told to have a filter once in his life, which made for the best stories. But Merlin’s beard, was he ever confrontational. It was frightening, to say the least - and Draco thought he was the aggressive one.
Not lately, anyway. He didn’t answer, and Theodore said, “Well?”
What on earth could he say, though?
A) “Oh, you know, I was talking to the Boy Who Lived, civilly!! How great is that, I fixed his glasses. He broke them due to his own wrongdoings, and we made a truce because we both dislike the idea of spending Christmas alone so much that we’d rather spend it with each other! Aren’t you proud of me?”
Or
B) “I decided to go on a little evening stroll and ended up hanging out with ___ ???”
Lying would be the safer option.
“I, er, well, uh…” He took a deep breath, internally fuming. “I decided to blow off some steam by walking around the corridors, then I bumped into… uh, Luna. So me and her hung out for a little while.”
Draco had been told several times on different occasions that he was a lousy liar - his father, a lot while growing up. His mother, a few times. She liked to tell a specific story of one evening where the chocolate cookies the house-elves baked went mysteriously missing. She kneeled to get down to his level and asked, “Draco, darling, where have the cookies gone?”
His toddler self held up his chubby arms in guilt and said, “I-I’m not sure, mamaa!!” Which wasn’t at all convincing.
“You were just the cutest little boy. I couldn’t ever get mad at you, even if it was clear you were lying with the chocolate smudges around your mouth and crumbs down the front of your shirt.” She had said, pinching his thirteen-year-old self’s cheek affectionately before exiting the room.
His parents weren’t the only ones who told him he was a terrible liar. His friends did too. It was still a shock when Theo laughed at his fib.
“That is the biggest load of shit ever told in Hogwarts! Wow!”
Crabbe chortled, and Draco looked bewildered. “I beg your pardon!? I’m not lying.”
He totally thought he nailed that!?
Theo stopped, blinking with his mouth still open amusedly. He looked like a doofus. “Yes, you are.”
“No, no I’m not.” Draco groaned, dragging a hand down his face.
Theodore looked gobsmacked. “How would you have hung out with Loony Lovegood if we were the ones speaking to her?”
Oh for fuck’s sake.
“Why would you be speaking to Luna?” Draco said accusingly, trying to save his arse. Crabbe’s snickering stopped.
“’Cause we were looking for you? Are you that daft?” He sure felt like it.
Draco wanted to know who we was, because he highly doubted Pansy and Daphne were wanting to find him. “Okay, thanks… I guess. I’m fine now, so…” He responded uneasily, his arms crossed.
“I’m not buying it, he wasn’t with the Loony girl.” Crabbe shook his head, pointing a finger Draco’s way.
Theo rolled his eyes, rubbing Crabbe’s arm for a moment. “We know, bud. We know.” He sounded annoyed. Disappointed even.
“Who the bloody hell is ‘we’, Theodore!? What is going on!?” Draco shouted hysterically. Oh great, ten minutes around his friends and he was already losing his temper. He breathed deeply, ignoring the sounds of the first years behind him scrambling to leave.
Now it was just the three of them.
Theo stood up, yawning before speaking again. “‘We’ as in me, Crabbe, Goyle, and Blaise. We fucking bet on it! We knew that you’d lie about wherever you sulked off to. Anyway, we talked to Lovegood for a few minutes and that was basically pointless because she said she had no clue where you were.”
“Can’t believe I owe you all two galleons,” Crabbe muttered, picking up their game pieces. Theo smirked before glancing at Draco, he felt like a fool.
“Well- okay. Cool. You knew I’d lie, I got that. I’m a terrible liar, I’ve been told. What about the girls?”
Theo tucked his hands in his pockets, biting his lip. “Yeahhh… about that. You’re not going to want to talk to either of them for at least a day or two. Sounds like they want you dead.”
“Seriously?? They can’t be that mad. Don’t any of you think they’re being dramatic?!” He had already come to terms with the fact that he’d been the one in the wrong. Pansy was worried about him, and he took his anger out on her. This was one of the downsides of being friends with girls .They could be so unreasonable!
Crabbe said goodbye, leaving to go to their dorm. It was more directed at Theo than Draco.
Theo waved back, waiting until Crabbe was gone out of sight before giving Draco a tired look. Draco sank into his seat more, frowning and agitated.
“I’m not sure what to think of this, Draco, honestly. Sure, all of us think the girls are blowing this out of proportion- they made it clear they didn’t want to be around you. Especially Pansy. But I wasn’t even here for the last few days. I was sick. And now I come back and everyone is- whatever is happening, I’m out of the loop. But seriously, you should talk to Blaise tomorrow, because I no longer want to talk about this or get involved. Goodnight.”
He didn’t spare a single moment, not allowing Draco to speak, or defend himself, or apologize, or anything at all. He followed the direction Crabbe went.
Draco cursed loudly, kicking the centre table. He stayed wallowing in self-pity, alone in the empty Slytherin common room for quite some time after that, thinking things over.
Pansy and Daphne sounded as if they hated him (why was Daphne so mad anyway?! He didn’t say anything about her!!). The others seemed somewhat worried for whatever reason, and then he remembered Potter asked him for a truce?? How utterly horrifying and ironic…
He had a harder time falling asleep that night than any other before, his hand over his empty stomach which held no dinner.