Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling owns all the Harry Potter characters, although I created Julianne Michaelson and any other characters not part of the original Harry Potter 'cast'.

Author's Note: The song in this chapter is called "Beautiful Disaster" by Kelly Clarkson from her CD "Thankful."

Chapter 6: Veritaserum

"I meant good ideas, Malfoy," Juli retorted, glaring at him. For a moment, Juli felt like she was back at the orphanage, arguing with her brother. 'Although he was much easier to argue with,' Juli thought. 'Give him the puppy dog face and he would melt like chocolate out in the sun.'

"Will you give it a rest?" said Cho, impatiently, stepping between them. She turned to Juli and said, "Is he always this difficult?"

"Yes!"

"I am not! Only around the Mudblood," he said and Cho spun around to glare at him.

"You may think you're all high and mighty, Malfoy, but you won't go around insulting Juli while I'm here," she almost yelled. Even Peter had stood up from his seat behind his drum set.

"Oh, don't worry, Cho," said Juli, growing impatient. "Coming from the spoiled little rich boy it means nothing," she glared at him over Cho's shoulder.

"ALRIGHT!" yelled Cho, who looked as if she was about to blow up. "As long as we're here in this room rehearsing, neither of you are to insult each other. If you do, I'm telling Dumbledore that I can't do this and the whole thing will be off," she looked from Malfoy to Juli, expecting another smart-aleck answer from one of them.

"Cho, you wouldn't," Juli said, staring at her. "You wouldn't." she said again, realizing that Cho might not actually be kidding.

"Oh, I would," she said, tapping her foot and glaring at Juli. Usually Cho and Juli were on good terms, but the fights between her and Malfoy must have really hit a nerve. "Now, will you agree to not argue while we're here in these rooms?"

"I'll behave if he does," Juli said, now looking at Malfoy. She wasn't glaring at him, just expecting him to agree. She didn't want to have to plead with him.

"Alright," he said, as if he had no other choice. "But outside of this room I'm not playing nice," he added.

"I wouldn't expect you to," said Juli, almost regretting it. She looked at Cho, and she seemed satisfied, so Juli sat down on a large pillow resting on the floor.

"What about a name?" said Peter, who had quietly walked over and laid down on a floor next to Juli.

"You said you had some ideas, Malfoy?" Cho finished. Peter did not seem to be the speaking type.

"Something with our initials, maybe an acronym," he said, sitting down in a chair near where Peter and Juli were seated.

Cho sighed with relief and sat down too. "Or maybe something about the houses?" she said. "I mean, since the whole point of this band is to promote inter-house unity, isn't it?"

"You think so, Chang?" said Malfoy, in his usual cold tone. "Or maybe it's just a bunch of lies trying to cover up the truth?"

"What truth?" interjected Peter.

"We're about to be in a wizarding war," Draco replied. "But,--"

"Didn't need You-Know-Who on Veritaserum to tell us that," Juli said sarcastically as Cho gave her a silencing look. Juli held up her hands and apologized. "Sorry..." she said.

"What if we were called 'Veritaserum'?" interjected Peter, who had been quiet the entire time. "People know what it is, and it makes sense," he sat up as the older students stared at him agape. "I mean," he cleared his throat nervously. "Neither of you want to be here with each other," he motioned to Juli and Draco, "and so the only true reason you're here is because of the music." He shrugged and slouched back down onto the pillow he had been sitting on.

"That sounds like a good idea to me. I mean," she stopped and turned to Malfoy. "Unless, ahem, Mr. Malfoy here has a better idea?" Cho said sarcastically.

"Well," he said, and then looked at Juli. She looked up into his cold grey eyes, and for half a second she felt like she was looking into the eyes of her brother. For a moment there was a hint of green in his eyes, a sign of life and compassion. She blinked and the cold grey eyes she had learned to hate were staring into her own. It was almost as if he was trying to get inside her head; trying to figure out what she was thinking.

"Well what?" asked Cho.

"It's better than nothing," he said, only after rolling his eyes.

"Right," Cho said, a little puzzled. "Okay, so now we have to pick a singer," she poked Malfoy to get his attention and he gave her a dirty look.

"Not me," said Peter, who Juli noticed was very quiet. "I can't hit a single note."

"Me either," said Cho. "So hopefully one of you guys can sing." She looked from Juli to Malfoy and then stood up. "Let's hear it then," she said, standing above them with her hand on her hip.

"What? You're out of your bloody mind!" said Malfoy as he stood up. "You want me to sing you a song?"

"I'll do it," said Juli. "I'll sing for you," she shrugged and carefully took her new guitar. She had been singing at the orphanage's Christmas parties ever since she could remember and once or twice a week she sang at the church down the road during the summer.

"Okay, then," said Malfoy, sitting down again.

Juli started plucking the strings, and was going to start to tune them when she figured out that they were already perfectly in tune. Then she realized that she had no idea which song to sing. "Okay then," she said and started singing the first song that came into her head.

"Oh and I don't know,

I don't know what he's after.

But he's so beautiful,

He's such a beautiful disaster.

And if I could hold on,

Through the tears and the laughter

Would it be beautiful,

Or just a beautiful disaster?"

Juli got up and put her guitar safely back onto its rack. She turned back to look at the group, who were quiet. Cho was staring at Juli and Peter had his jaw open, as if he was completely shocked by Juli's performance. Malfoy was just sitting there, obviously thinking about her choice of song.

"Juli," said Cho as she got up. "You're brilliant, I mean," she got up and put her hand to her head. "Malfoy, do you have any objections to make? 'Cause, if you don't, well," she turned around to look at him. "I think Juli should get the job," Cho then turned to Peter and he nodded.

Malfoy gave a heavy theatrical sigh. "Oh, I guess you're alright," Juli smiled to herself, knowing his compliments, however vague and distant, were very few and far between. "Besides," he said, seemingly uncomfortable at the fact that he had made Juli so happy. "I don't want to sing anyway," he mumbled as Cho and Juli squealed and hugged each other.

They all began practicing, testing out their new instruments. It didn't take Juli too long to realize that she had problems hearing because of Peter's drumming. She soon found a three pairs of headphones; one blue, one green and one red next to a guitar rack that was sitting next to a red door. She shrugged, satisfied, and walked over to Cho, handing her the blue headphones. Cho smiled and nodded, then pointed up to the clock.

Juli looked up at the clock and was shocked. She had five minutes until the start of her next class; Potions with Snape and the Slytherins. Juli nodded and walked over towards Malfoy to give him the headphones while Cho went over to Peter to let him know the time.

"Here are some headphones," Juli said once she had reached him, after watching him play for a few moments. "And, uh, just to let you know," she said, after he had grabbed the headphones rather hastily. "We've got Potions in a few minutes," she said, shrugging. She walked away from him and put her own red headphones on the guitar stand. She slung her bag over her shoulder and waved bye to Cho and Peter as Malfoy walked out the door.

"I'm going to probably be down here during dinner, if you guys want to come down and figure out when our next rehearsal should be," she said to Cho and Peter before following Malfoy out the door.

"Hey, Malfoy," she called after him while she ran to catch up to him. He turned around to see who was calling her name and then rolled his eyes at her.

"What did you want, Michaelson?" he said nastily as he began walking again.

"There's more to me than you think there is," she said quietly. "I just wanted to say thanks," she said as they approached the Potions classroom. "For, you know," she was trying to find the right words. "For agreeing to be nice, during rehearsal," she said uncomfortably. "You can go back to ignoring and insulting me while we're out here, if you'd like," she said as Harry, Hermione and Ron were walking up to them. "Unless that's too difficult for you?"

Malfoy just walked into the classroom, but Juli could have sworn that he muttered, "You're welcome," just before he was out of earshot.