Friend's Advice

Sylvain looked at Lucius's broken hand with mild amusement. "What the hell did she do to you?"

"Narcissa didn't break my hand," Lucius grumbled, pulling out a chair with his good hand. "A wall did."

His best mate snickered. "Poor little Lucius punched the wall, you mean? How utterly sweet."

"Just heal it, Nott," said Lucius through gritted teeth. "Cut me the slack, will you?"

"Idiot." Sylvain rolled his eyes. "Fine. I just need to go borrow some Skele-Gro. Some of those bones are broken pretty badly - might be easier to regrow them."

"Fun," he muttered darkly as his friend left the room. He had had to regrow bones before, when he'd badly broken his arm during a Quidditch match.

Needless to say, he wasn't exactly excited to have to take Skele-Gro again.

Sylvain returned a few moments later, a brown-haired girl trailing after him. April Rosier - seventh year Slytherin.

Also Narcissa's best girlfriend and cousin on her mother's side.

"Hello, Lucius," she greeted, though less warmly than she would have usually had. "Hold out your hand - this might hurt a bit."

Lucius did as he was told and closed his eyes until the pain subsided a bit.

"Drink this." Sylvain seemed seriously annoyed with him; he was waving a vial of green liquid in his face. "It's the Skele-Gro."

Lucius took a sip with his good hand and narrowly missed spitting the putrid liquid in his friend's face. "You've spiked this," he said crossly. "It didn't taste like that last time I took it."

"How thick can you get?" Sylvain sighed. "It's supposed to taste like that! You must have a rather... faulty memory, Malfoy."

"I didn't come here to get insulted." Lucius wrinkled his nose as he took another sip of the horrid medicinal potion. "I came here to-"

"To get Narcissa back?" Sylvain slid in the chair opposite to Lucius, smirking at the other boy's indignated look. "Don't pretend, Malfoy. We both know that you're smitten with the girl."

Lucius scowled. "And we both know you're smitten with Rosier, Nott."

"So what?" Sylvain leaned from the other end of the table. "You want to get her back, prat?"

He sighed. "You're going to suggest that I give her roses, Nott, aren't you?"

"So cliché, Malfoy." Long, thin fingers rapped against the hard wood of the table impatiently. Sylvain couldn't help but smirk. "I thought you were experienced with those girls, Malfoy?"

"Being a player is different from being in a long-term relationship." Lucius's lip curled. "It's simple: seduce her, fuck her, and then leave. Friends with benefits, you know? You get hurt less that way."

Sylvain snickered. "What will Narcissa say when she hears that, Malfoy?"

"I'm pretty sure that she's been with her fair share of blokes," Lucius mused, "but it's hardly a discussion topic, is it?"

"Though it's quite obvious Narcissa isn't just another girl." Sylvain waved a hand. "This is going to be hard if your experience in these matters is... quite limited. Lucky that I'm much more intelligent than you."

"Ha ha." Even so, Lucius's grey eyes stared at his friend as Sylvain began to explain.