Draco Malfoy looked seriously strange, as it turned out, with ash-black hair (it turned out they weren't really using ashes, which was good. Harry had thought, for a heart-rending moment, that they might be human ashes. No, this was activated charcoal). His face was too young for it to be truly old-looking, and the change in hair color focused attention more on Malfoy's eyes.

Harry looked him over, nodding, "You look better like this. Less prattish."

"Very funny, Potty," Draco said.

"I mean it," Harry said firmly, in a voice that had unspoken certainty attached, "It brings out your eyes." Draco's eyes were that weird grey-blue that people called steel-blue, and the ashen black melded well.

Draco posed, more like Pansy might, than himself - going so far as to bat his eyelashes at Harry, "You think?"

"I do," Harry said, opting to ignore Draco's antics.

Ceija walked up to them, and Draco turned towards her, and said, in what was supposed to be a sultry voice, "He's such a flatterer, don't you think?" Draco had somehow decided to run a finger down Harry's chest, while looking at Ceija.

Harry Potter suddenly decided he was never, ever going to do anything remotely adult with Pansy Parkinson. Draco acting this way was weird enough. And yes, Harry knew he shouldn't complain. Draco having a psychotic break and turning into Pansy Parkinson was really quite far away from Worst Ways To Cope. Take Tom Riddle and killing his own parents, for example. Yeah.

Ceija smirked at Harry, and said to Draco, "Harry doesn't know how to flatter a living soul. Or a dead one for that matter."

Draco made a funny face, a sort of half smile that had his jaw jutting out, "True enough." At least he stopped being girly. That was creepy.

Ceija said, "It's time you started working on your act."

Draco looked around, "Who, me?"

Ceija nodded, "I've got my own things to do, so I just wanted to remind you two to play nice."

Draco looked, suddenly, at Harry, "Wait, he's going to help me?"

Harry shrugged, "I've never done this before, but that doesn't mean I don't know how it goes. Besides, someone needs to bark for you."

Draco gave him one of those Not Even Muggles are That Stupid looks, at which point Harry realized - "Bark's a technical term. A barker is the person that convinces people to come and see your act."

Draco nodded, "So you need a line for that too,"

[a/n: And we're off! Suggestions, reviews, anything welcome!

Thank you to the people who have reviewed, and a special thank you to the reviewer who asked "Do ashes really work like that?" No, they don't, but activated charcoal gets the results I want. Yay for the internet.]