The Talent Show

Chapter 9 - An Unexpected Partnership

Hey, so it's been a while. It's cause I've been working on something new that'll be up and published pretty soon. It's called How to Rebel in Three Months. It's a original work, but I hope you'll check it out anyway! But in the mean time, here's a chapter about Luna and Draco with a side of sassy Draco's Brain and Jeremy!

Luna thoroughly enjoyed categorizing the different shades of Draco's face. Like the shallow yellow he turned whenever she mentioned something particularly kind Neville did for her. Or the exact shade of magenta that came about when she vocalized her thoughts about his strange habit of staring at her for long periods of time. What Luna found especially fascinating though, was the number of changes in colour that Draco was suffering right at the moment.

He'd started with the typical yellow when she'd mentioned that Neville thought it was a wonderful idea for her to participate in the show. Then, he'd slowly shifted to bright red as she'd told him exactly what Ginny had thought about Draco learning to play guitar. Now, he was a shade of purple, tinged with blue, that she'd never seen. The reason, she suspected, was that he had not taken a breath in approximately a minute and a half.

Luna was about the ask Jeremy if he thought a person ought to be blue and purple when Drago suddenly let all his air out in one breath and whispered harshly, "What do you mean you're supposed to sing with a partner?"

Luna shrugged, "I saw the actual sign up sheet and right above my name, there was Cho's name along with one of friends' names. I don't really recall who. Maybe that one with brown hair? I've always thought she would look much better if she let some piknittles do her hair. They do this braid like-" she lifted her hands to demonstrate on her own hair and Drago grabbed her hands, effectively cutting her off.

Every thing was quiet for a long second and Luna could have sworn she heard Draco squealing under his breath and then saying something about 'let go of her hands you dope! You're making things weird'

She made a mental note to do some research on what type of creatures forced their hosts to talk to themselves. In fact, she was fairly sure she had recently read about a particular species of wisps who did things like this. Maybe she should mention them to Draco?

Before she could, Draco growled, "Who - exactly - did you sign up to sing with you?!"

"Oh, yes. You of course."

There was a gasp, a muffled thump, and quite a few curses that Luna didn't care to repeat as Jeremy fell off his chair and Draco fainted dead away.

• • •

Draco's first conscious thought was that he was going to kill someone. He wasn't quite sure who it would be, but he knew for a fact that someone needed to be silenced. Someone had suggested something so preposterous that they must be buried seventeen feet under as soon as possible so that they could never repeat it to anyone else.

His first suspect was Blaise. That wanker probably said something to Luna about Draco being head over heels for her. That's something he would do. Or maybe Pansy suggested too loudly that Draco had been staring at Potter's arse. That's definitely something she would do. But Draco was almost positive that he hadn't been doing that before fainting.

Oh, that's right. He'd fainting. And from the feel of it, he was still laying on the ground. He would probably have an easier time figuring out who had wronged him if he opened his eyes.

With a tremendous effort, Draco forced his eyes open partially to see Jeremy's face less than an inch from his. Rather than jumping back, he just let his eyes close again and resigned himself to death by humiliation. But then he heard Luna's voice. She was saying something about taking him to the Infirmary. That wouldn't do at all. Nope, not one tiny bit. He couldn't have anyone else knowing he fainted. So, with a groan, he rolled over onto his stomach and forced himself up to his knees.

When he managed to open his eyes again, Luna was sitting cross-legged in front of him, smiling. When she realized he had his eyes open and was looking at her, she smiled even wider, showing almost all her teeth. She leaned closer slightly and Draco thought his heart was actually going to stop. His brain, fortunately, suffered no such fate. It jumped into overdrive.

Draco. This is IT. It's happening. This is not a drill. Luna has realized that she likes you at least a little bit and she is either going to kiss you or smell your hair. Who even knows. Why am I being so calm? I should be freaking out. You should be freaking out! Stop talking to me and just freak out or something!

Draco leaned as far away from Luna as possible. He didn't exactly know why, but he didn't want whatever Luna was thinking. He had a sneaking suspicion that it was because he knew she deserved better than him, or at least she deserved to know him better. Maybe he just knew he wasn't ready and knew that he should wait until he actually knew Luna a little bit. Plus, if he was completely honest with himself, Luna wasn't going to do anything at all. But one thing he knew for sure was that his mind was pissed.

What the actually bloody hell, man?! She was right there! You could have gone for it!

Yeah, but Jeremy is still in the room, right?

That calmed his brain right down and Draco was finally able to focus on the fact that the world had moved on. He held up a hand to stop Jeremy in the middle of his sentence and said, "Okay. Stop right there, mate. I didn't hear I word you just said. Start over."

Jeremy rolled his eyes and said, "Well I was saying that maybe it wouldn't be too horrible if you sang with Luna. I mean, then you could keep an eye on everyone and make sure no one is making fun of her and also make sure Neville isn't getting too close."

There were so many things wrong with that whole thing that Draco barely knew where to start. First priority was, of course, to deny anything that could suggest that Draco was not cool with Neville eyeing Luna up, "I don't care who thinks Luna is embarrassing herself or who is getting close to drooling on her shoes."

Jeremy gave him a dry look that said, 'My friend, you're being a pompous idiot. And it is not befitting of your character.' Or he might have been saying, 'Dig your head out of your ass. It's not a hat.'

So Draco swallowed the other choice comments he had ready about Luna's pending performance and turned his focus to the other unacceptable part of what Jeremy had said. The bit about Draco singing. How ludicrous. "I am not singing with Luna. What a dumb idea. Why would I be?"

Luna shrugged and said, "I already signed you up. Right before Dumbledore took down the sign up sheet and made it permanent. He wasn't going to, but I think he saw your name because he got really excited about someone singing up on stage. He bound everyone on the list to honor their commitment and then ran off, giggling about telling professor Snape."

• • •

Luna decided that her favourite shade on Draco's face was the combination of red and green that he turned right before he grabbed Jeremy's sleeve and ran from the room. If she could just get him to turn that colour on stage, she was sure they would win and he could go on his Nargle hunting expedition. With that happy thought, Luna gathered up her bag and music and left the room of requirement.