Draco Malfoy was sitting outside, reading a book, when Curt went by. He lightly bounced to his feet, gathering a light stone, and headed after. For some odd reason, Curt was all alone. That wasn't generally a hufflepuff thing to do. Draco lightly chucked the rock at Curt, who turned around, looking a bit baffled. His expression cleared when he saw Malfoy.

"Draco!"

"We were going to study Herbology, remember?" Draco drawled, knowing that they'd agreed on no such thing, but also knowing that Potter was just as hopeless at Herbology as he was at Potions.

"Oh, yeah, right." Curt said with a smile. "Lead the way!"

"I don't think we'll need our books for this one," Draco said, as they drew near the greenhouses. "Just a bit of practical experience."

"Yeah, I've got a lot of practical experience with weeds," Curt put in slowly, "Just not the magical ones."

"Fear not, brave heart! My magic shall come to your aid!" Draco said in his best impression of Godric Gryffindor. Curt cracked up, his hand over his mouth until they were both laughing as they entered the greenhouse.

Curt's eyes cleared the instant they were inside, "What's wrong? Unless you really did just want to study?"

"Not exactly," Draco said with a hopefully-not-creepy smile. "What, exactly do the Hufflepuffs want me to apologize for? It's been bothering me."

"Being a bully, hitting on younger kids, you know - you do know, right?" Harry said the last part, and it sounded like him and a lot less like Curt, who tended a bit more towards genial.

"Oh," Draco Malfoy said, looking down. He wasn't sure how he felt about that, but he also wasn't sure... Eventually, he said, "Okay..." and they got down to work on their Herbology. Wrestling plants was more a Curt thing than a Malfoy thing, but he was able to help with intricate cages of magic that helped to seal the snapdragons in. Unfortunately, his name didn't actually extend any benefits when working with the plants.

After Curt had left, Draco spent a good deal of time with his head buried in his hands, thoughts crashing around his skull like waves, reverberating and only getting larger. Of course they'd have to have asked him to apologize about that. It couldn't be something easy. And yet, he'd have to... have to try, wouldn't he? He really didn't want to have come this far and not... for just a stupid apology!

Still, it wouldn't hurt if he moved up some of his plans a little bit, Draco Malfoy thought as he left the greenhouse, settling into his usual jaunty and confident pace. Better talk to Davies in the morning.

[a/n: