Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K Rowling does.
A/N: This was written for kitty132383's Things I'm Not Allowed to do at Hogwarts Challenge. It's mostly just meant to be a fluffy, funny story, but I tried to slip in a little character development too. This story is set in their second year, and I tried to capture the awkwardness of the preteen years when friends are maturing at different rates, sometimes in a funny way.
"I've heard every possible joke about Oliver Wood's name" is not a challenge
Draco tried his hardest to keep a straight face as Professor McGonagall paced across the front of the classroom, drumming her nails on the confiscated clipboard. The fact that Blaise kept reaching over to jab him in the ribs every time McGonagall looked the other way didn't help matters.
"You passed around a list of jokes about Oliver Wood's name. You passed around a list of jokes about Oliver Wood's name. And you did it in my class." McGonagall glared over the top of her glasses at the small cluster of students in front of her. Draco accidentally caught Blaise's eye, who then had to pretend to drop his quill under the desk to avoid being caught laughing.
McGonagall pursed her lips. "When I said, 'I've heard every possible joke about Oliver Wood's name', that was not a challenge to compile a list of new ones, in addition to the highly inappropriate ones you apparently felt the need to add to our class discussion." Blaise, who had reemerged, actually snorted. Draco faked a coughing fit and McGonagall cast a look of deepest disgust at all of them.
"Since it would appear that you all have a talent for writing, you're going to spend the entirety of detention putting those skills to good use." She flicked her wand at the thick stack of battered, yellowing books on her desk. "Flip through these and fill in all the passages that are no longer legible. The better you focus, the more quickly you'll finish."
This elicited a groan from the entire group. McGonagall sat down at her desk and took out her quill to begin grading papers. Draco turned to the first page of his book, and thought, wait a minute, why am I doing this? I'm a Malfoy, I don't do "detention". "Professor, I really don't think we should have to be doing this. That list technically wasn't my fault. Besides, this stuff is way beneath us anyway. Just wait til my father-"
Draco's sentence was interrupted by the sound of a tremendous explosion at the end of the hall. McGonagall started so suddenly that her glasses went askew. She leapt up and started for the classroom door, but not before throwing the students a forbidding look and saying that she would tolerate no foolishness from them while she was gone. They could her hurrying down the hall, followed by a bang, a high-pitched whistle, and "Weasley!"
"-hears about this", Draco muttered, smirking at Blaise.
Blaise yawned and stretched. "You just can't resist, huh?"
"This is useless anyway." Draco pushed his book aside. "Besides, they can't even spell 'book'. She'd have to go back and fix everything they fixed." He jerked a thumb back towards Vincent and Greg, who were seated behind them. He glanced over his shoulder. Vincent had put his head down and gone to sleep the second McGonagall had left the room, and Greg was busy drawing on the desk.
"True." Blaise nodded in agreement. "So what's going on with you and Pansy? She was practically falling all over you after that last Quidditch game."
Draco laughed and shrugged. "Pansy? She's okay. I don't know if I want to take it to the next level yet though- I might want to keep my options open, if you know what I mean." Draco didn't want to admit that he didn't like Pansy "that way" at all; if anything, she was just annoying. Not that he didn't like girls, he just couldn't bring himself to like an old playmate "that way".
That sure wasn't the case for Blaise though. They were only in their second year, but Blaise had already dated three of the Slytherin girls. (Only for about a week each, and he and Daphne had only lasted a few hours, but it still counted.) Blaise had held off on giving Draco too much of a hard time about his own lack of experience so far, but he was afraid that if he didn't pick up the pace he would become the butt of as many jokes as Vincent and Greg (and Oliver Wood, for that matter).
Draco decided to change the subject. "Did your dad say if you could come spend the first part of Christmas break with us yet?"
Blaises's nonchalant smirk faded slightly for the first time. "I haven't gotten an owl from him yet, but I don't think he'll care. He's always travelling anyway; he wouldn't even notice if I didn't show up over the break."
Draco fiddled with the fraying corner of the book at his desk; he never knew what to say on the rare occasions that Blaise said anything about his family. He may not have always had the best relationship with his own father, but he couldn't imagine what it would be like to have a dad like Blaises's, who as far as he could tell just didn't even care that he had a son.
"Well, we can hang out over the break and practice Quidditch and stuff; I don't have anybody else to practice with at home. I don't like being stuck at the manor with my parents for too long anyway, they always get on my case about school. I thought my mum was going to send me a Howler after that last Transfiguration exam. Like it actually matters what kind of grades I get."
"Yeah, we have better stuff to worry about, don't we? Like the third year girls…I think I'm done with girls our age; I think I'm ready for someone with more experience if you know what I mean." Blaise winked.
Draco smirked appreciatively, but rolled his eyes when Blaise wasn't looking. Ever since they had come back from summer break, all Blaise could think about was girls. Draco secretly didn't know he did it; he didn't even know how he would go about asking a girl out. What if she said no? He didn't want his friend to think he was a loser though.
Draco was saved from having to come up with a response by McGonagall's return. She looked frazzled, and the hem of her robes was smoking slightly. "Well, what are you all looking at?" she snapped. "Get back to work!"