Pretty Woman!
Dear Draco,
I hope this letter finds you well. The twins filled me in on the dementor incident aboard the train. It's appalling how the Ministry thought it wise to expose young students to such soul-sucking creatures. Sometimes their decisions defy all logic.
Regarding perplexing matters, I'm still scratching my head over how you managed to persuade me into helping plant those XX-Level magical plants. If not for the compulsion negating runes, I might have suspected some form of enchantment at play!
On a brighter note, the flower harvest is proceeding according to plan. We're expecting the plants to start budding around the new moon. I'm looking forward to that moment and also to catching up with you.
Please give my regards to Ginny and Ron. And could you do me a favor and ask the twins to tone down their mischief? I worry they might inadvertently cause a catastrophe one of these days – their pranks can sometimes spiral out of control.
Looking forward to catching up soon.
Warm regards,
Bill Weasley.
The next morning started off relatively calm until Montague took it upon himself to mock Draco for his fainting on the train. It took Ron, Neville, and Theo to restrain Harry from confronting Montague, the Karate Kid style.
The Slytherins went to collect their timetables from Snape, while the twins took it upon them to further calm Harry down. Draco was 90% sure that Montague would soon be facing the twins' wrath for his mocking.
After breakfast, it was unanimously decided to spend the day near the lake to enjoy their free time before the term properly started. Surprisingly, enough the idea came from Hermione, which Draco realized might have been an effort to take a breath before the madness could start for her and Blaise.
"-they've messed up your timetable. Look, they've overbooked you both." Ron was saying to Hermione and Blaise as they discussed their timetables. (Once again, what the hell are these people smoking? Handing off timeturners to these teenagers.)
"We'll manage, Ron," Blaise assured him.
"We've already discussed it with Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall," Hermione added, folding and putting away her timetable.
"It still feels like too much," Ron shrugged, returning to his homework.
Amazingly enough (and to no ones surprise really!), Ron was the only one who hadn't finished his homework this summer. Vince and Greg (to everyone's surprise) were on the offensive, for a change, and had decided to up their game - acadamically.
"Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Harry asked Draco once again, gesturing around them. "We can just go to the Room; no need for you to stay out here."
The rain had stopped early that morning, but the weather remained dull and gloomy, likely due to the dementors. Draco was bundled up in several layers of clothing (probably too many to even count at this point). He had woken up feeling cold, and despite casting multiple warming charms, the chill had persisted. Their time outside the castle was proving to be even colder than anticipated for Draco.
"I'm good, Harry, really," Draco replied, and if he moved a bit closer to Harry for warmth (honestly people human proximity is the best source of warmth), no one commented on it.
"We should plan something fun for this year," Luna said in their calming, singsong voice. "After all, there won't be any exciting adventures this time around." –proving once again that there was something special about them.
"Let's not jinx it," Pansy teased Luna, pulling her braid. "We still have a whole year for Harry to go hunting for the serial killer, you know."
"Nope, no hunting there," Draco interjected. "Like I said, Harry doesn't need to worry about Sirius Black."
"Then we really should decide on an adventure," Theo chimed in, looking up from his book. "We all know a bored Harry is a dangerous Harry."
"Oi!" Harry protested.
"Oh, I know," Draco perked up, sitting straight and taking out his wand. "I learned this thing over the summer. We should totally doa talent show."
"A what now?" Ginny asked.
"A talent show," Hermione explained. "It's a muggle thing. Students plan an event to showcase their special skills or talents to the whole school. Some sing or dance. I’m surprised Draco knows about it." She looked at him inquiringly.
“I have my sources.” Draco smirked.
"So, how do we do it?" Neville looked at Draco. “Not like Hogwarts has many extracurricular activities for students.”
“Yeah… why is that so?” The Twins asked, derailing the conversation a bit. “We always hear about the House unity stuff but there isn’t anything that actually motivates the students for it, now is there?”
"Oh, Come on, we're wizards; we can figure something out," Draco said, waving his wand and casting a spell. "I learned this spell over the summer. It's really good."
"We should probably discuss it sometime.” Hermione murmured for the Twins only. (That was a wrong idea, Draco just knew it. This was going to come back to bite him. But that was future Draco's problem.)
The next moment, an upbeat music filled the air. Draco started singing loudly and cheerfully:
"Pretty woman, walking down the street
Pretty woman, the kind I like to meet Pretty woman...
Percy!" Draco made a finger gun gesture towards Percy, who was passing by with Penelope, and Percy Weasley, the uptight prefect, broke into a two-step routine, singing along:
"Pretty woman, won't you pardon me? Pretty woman, I couldn't help but see Pretty woman..."
Percy pulled Penelope into his dance routine, and the rest of the group performed what looked like a choreographed line dance.
"Wow!" Ron exclaimed.
"Pretty woman, stop a while..." Fred moved next to Hermione.
"Pretty woman, talk a while..." George pulled Hermione towards him.
"Pretty woman, give your smile to me
Pretty woman, yeah, yeah, yeah
Pretty woman, look my way
Pretty woman, say you'll stay with me..." The twins got onto their knees acting as if they were pleading with Hermione.
"'Cause I need you, I'll treat you right
Come with me baby, be mine tonight..." Blaise sang as he pulled a laughing Neville into a low dip.
"Pretty woman, don't walk on by
Pretty woman, don't make me cry
Pretty woman, don't walk away, hey..." Pansy sang to Luna, who walked backwards with Ginny, arm in arm wide teasing grins on their faces.
"If that's the way it must be, OK
I guess I'll go on home, it's late
There'll be tomorrow night, but wait
What do I see?" Theo sang as if consoling Pansy, but she was soon pulled away by Ginny and Luna.
"Is she walking back to me?
Yeah, she's walking back to me
Oh, oh, pretty woman..."
The entire group burst into a chorus of "Hey, hey! Pretty woman, walking down the street..."
The music faded as applause echoed around them from passing students and some professors who had come out to see what the commotion was about. Remus was grinning ear to ear, while Snape looked on with a roll of his eyes. Draco and Co. took an elaborate bow to their audience, all laughing maniacally at this point.
"You might be onto something with the talent show, Draco!" Pansy shouted excitedly, hugging Draco before pulling Hermione and Theo into her planning session for the talent show.
(Yeah, this was gonna totally come back to bite him in the arse.)