It was time. Draco Malfoy had nodded to Curt as he'd left the Great Hall, and Curt had risen and walked nearly beside him - almost moral support, that half step behind that said that if Draco decided to pull a runner, Harry wouldn't let him. Moral support with a spine, you might call it.
Draco Malfoy didn't want to be doing this. He'd been dreading this since it'd come up - and he'd lost all hope that he could actually pull this off.
Confidence, pride, and courtesy. Honor first, above all things. Draco Malfoy summoned his courage - least of his traits, but no less important than his self-control, in this rare instance. He knew that, for all his queasy nervousness, he looked completely unruffled. He also had a feeling that Curt knew that he was nervous, somehow - probably the long periods of studying that they'd spent together.
Curt hadn't heard Malfoy's sneering comments in the Slytherin common room, or he might not have been so quick to support his... new friend. Not that Draco'd try to hide those comments - what was done was done, and expecting bored wastes-of-space not to gossip was a futile endeavor.
Confidence and Pride, straighten your spine.
Honor and courtesy, you're not at their mercy.
And they were there, in front of the barrels that Draco Malfoy knew represented the entrance to the Hufflepuff Common Room. Not that he knew the password - a point of pride, that. Both that he could get in whenever he pleased (which was never, but still), and that the Hufflepuffs were so unimportant that it didn't matter that he hadn't learned it.
[a/n: Thanks for the review, guest! I promise another chapter per review, at minimum.]