IMPERIO // Draco Malfoy X Reader

Chapter 10: The Great Hall, Lunchtime

You picked at your lunch, half heartedly nibbling on some of the food in front of you. Lunch just wasn't the same with half of the crew missing.

"Why them, anyway?" Draco started again, picking at his food as well. "He could have chosen any of us-"

"We get it, you're jealous." Theo butted in. "Give it a rest."

You sighed to yourself. He had been like this the whole lunch.

Blaise and the twins had gotten summoned to Slughorns again, this time for a fancy luncheon, leaving their seats at the table open. It had been happening more often since Halloween, which would have been fine on its own, if Draco would have stopped complaining about it.

Why couldn't he just be like Pansy and sulk silently?

You glanced over at Pansy, who was tossing her limp salad around with her fork, forlornly looking at Blaise's empty chair.

"If he's just going for influential, we all should have been invited." Draco pressed on. "I mean, I hear some McLaggen fellow got an invite, and I've never even heard of any McLaggens."

Theo sighed, looking at you, silently begging for you to do something.

You shrugged.

"And I hear the Weasley girl got an invite too. What's so special about her?" Draco said. "Nothing! She's just the last in a long line of disappointments."

Theo looked at you again, this time more urgently.

"And don't even get me started on Granger." Draco said. "Why he would even want a Mudblood like her at his table-"

You dropped your fork, cutting Draco off. "Is that why you made up that secret mission thing on the train?" You asked. "Because you were jealous about them getting picked?"

Pansy perked up at that. "Ooh, I forgot about that."

Theo quirked an eyebrow, confused. "What's this about a secret mission?"

"He made it up on the train." You said. "Some top secret thing that happened over the summer that he can't talk about-"

"I didn't make it up." Draco hissed. "And I cant talk about it. Especially not here." He glanced around the table slowly, as if making sure there were no spies around.

"What, really?" Theo said, a light laugh on his lips. "A secret mission?"

"It's sounds stupid when you say it like that." Draco said. "It's not a secret mission, it's just something I have to do."

"And you've been working on it since the beginning of the year?" Theo asked. "What is it?"

"I can't tell you." Draco said. "It's not exactly something you can just say-"

"Because it doesn't exist." Pansy interrupted, finishing off his sentence.

"It exists." Draco said, glaring at Pansy. "I just can't say anything about it."

You rolled your eyes, going back to your food. "You can just say you're jealous Draco."

"I'm not jealous." Draco insisted. "And I didn't make anything up-"

"Okay, sure." Theo said. "Because were totally going to believe you weren't just trying to make yourself feel better about not getting picked-"

"I wasn't!" Draco said. "I wouldn't-"

"But you would." Pansy said. "Because you always need all the attention on you all the time."

Draco snapped his mouth shut, glaring daggers. "Watch your mouth."

Pansy just shrugged, looking very pleased with herself. "How's it taste?"

"What?"

"Your own medicine." She finished.

"Please." Draco sneered. "At least I'm not going to go cry about it when I think no ones looking."

Pansy dropped her fork, now glaring at Draco. "Really? Because-"

"Alright." You cut in. "Cmon, this is stupid."

Pansy stopped talking, going back to her food. Draco rolled his eyes at you, but did the same.

Sometimes you really hated your friends.

They were so... petty, for no reason, all the time. And yes, you knew that being tired of it from them was a bit hypocritical, but really. Sometimes it was just too much. What was even the point of throwing each other under the bus all the time if you were all going to get run over anyway?

You sighed, picking at your lunch again. You didn't feel like eating much anymore.

"Did we miss anything?"

You looked up as Lyre and Leo plopped onto their seats, Blaise not far behind them. The period must have been almost over if they were getting back.

"Nothing other than the usual." Theo grumbled.

"What'd you guys eat?" Pansy asked.

"Roast duck." Leo said. "Which is delicious, but filling."

Draco huffed, shoving some of his lunch into his mouth.

"What's wrong with him?" Blaise asked.

You rolled your eyes. "Spent the whole lunch complaining about how he didn't get picked. And then he tried to insist that his secret mission is actually real, again."

Blaise side-eyed Draco. "You're still on that?"

Draco said nothing.

Blaise just sighed. "I'm really getting tired of this Slughorn guy."

"How?" Lyre asked. "He keeps giving us fancy lunches, and totally bumps my grades in Potions. This is a major perk."

"He's just using us." Blaise said.

Lyre rolled her eyes playfully. "I know that. You just have to use him back a little bit."

Blaise smirked. "Sometimes I forget how evil you are."

Lyre winked across the table and Theo mimed retching. You smiled, grateful that the conversation had turned to something lighter with the return of the rest of the group.

As much as you were annoyed with your friends sometimes, other times you realized how much you actually enjoyed their presences. Theo's energy and rambunctiousness, Leo's shy smiles and laughter, Lyre's spitfire wit, Blaise's dry sarcasm, Pansy's playful demeanor, and Draco, the final piece of the puzzle that connected everything together.

And the eye candy, of course, what with his silky hair and piercing eyes and the way he would tap his fingers when he was thinking about something-

You forced your eyes away from him, looking down at your food again.

You needed to get a handle on this.