The Social Riot Machines – Chapter Thirteen

Draco tried his absolute hardest to ignore the fact that nobody else in the class had chosen to sit in the back row. He already knew it was highly unlikely he would be welcome in the Muggle Music class. It was a well-known fact that he supposedly detested anything to do with Muggles. Nobody else could possibly hope to understand his budding interest in the alien culture. They were currently without their Professor -however Potter had shown up and informed them that Hillier was on his way. Even Harry had refrained from sitting beside Draco, and he couldn't help but feel a bruise forming on his ego.

Thankfully Jake arrived before the class had a chance to lynch Draco, and accompanying Hillier was Professor Snape. Draco looked pointedly away from Snape, still highly embarrassed by his outburst earlier in the week.

"Hi guys, sorry I'm late," Jake apologised, his voice jagged and edgy.

Draco fidgeted in his seat, he had never heard anything quite so erotic, and he was certain the Professor's voice didn't typically sound that way. Suspecting that something had occurred before the beginning of class, he glanced at Potter, catching the boy's attention. He gestured vaguely to his throat, making it appear as if he had an itch. Draco was immensely glad that Potter seemed to have understood what he was trying to get at. The Gryffindor inclined his head ever so slightly toward the Professor, who was currently writing something on the blackboard, and coughed twice.

The Professor resumed talking to the class, and Draco zoned out. He didn't mean to, he just found the gruff tones of Hillier's voice to be so distracting that he couldn't concentrate. It was actually a blessing in disguise, that he had the back row of the classroom to himself, it meant that no one could notice that he was currently pitching a rather unwanted tent. He was quite annoyed with himself really, he had no trousers except for the type his father approved on, and they were just the worst for unsolicited erections. Mentally, he cursed himself, why didn't he have the courage to wear those Muggle jeans again? They seemed much better than bigot approved school wear. Draco sighed internally, recently, he seemed to be getting hard at the drop of a hat, and it was beginning to become a bit of an issue. He could barely pay any attention at all to what was being said, he just let the sounds of the Professor's husky voice wash over him in wave after sensuous wave. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't concentrate, not with the throaty sounds filling every spare recess of his head. So captivated that he was he failed to notice Potter slip into the seat beside him.

Potter's hand rested on Draco's thigh, and Draco froze. He had no idea what was going on. Potter scrawled something across a spare piece of parchment, which Draco read, flushing deeply as he did.

'Okay, I know Jake is hot, and so is his voice, but you need to pay attention, otherwise he'll notice, and he's not above embarrassing you. We all know how much you'd like that. '

Draco berated himself, and resumed listening to Jake speak, although it was made even more difficult by the hand on his thigh. It was impossible to fathom why Potter was touching him, especially since his boyfriend –not to mention the class's Professor- was staring directly at them as he addressed the class. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Potter make an obscene movement that looked a bit like-

He felt his face heat up even more when he realised what Potter was miming. The Professor merely smiled and continued lecturing. Honestly, Draco could say he didn't have a clue what was going on. Potter's hand was still preventing him from paying attention properly.

'It's even harder for me to concentrate with your fingers right next to my dick'

He informed the Gryffindor in what he hoped to be a firm manner. The response was not immediate, in fact, it took several minutes for Harry to react, enough time for Draco to relax slightly and slump down a little in his seat. Harry's hand slid an inch or two to the right –directly onto Draco's now throbbing member. Bravely –or foolishly, he didn't really know which at that point- he laid his own hand on Potter's thigh, his fingers sitting directly atop a sticky spot on the boy's jeans. Jake's lecture was still floating miles above his head, but it seemed as if he and Potter had reached some kind of truce or stalemate.

After some time, during which both Draco and Harry managed to calm down somewhat –well, in Draco's case, it wasn't quite so obvious that he was aroused- and Jake stopped talking, rather abruptly in Draco's opinion. The Gryffindor beside him stood and made his way up to the front of the class. Draco watched curiously as the boy stretched to reach the top of blackboard, showing off what Draco believed the best pair of legs –and admittedly bum- he had ever seen, and wrote their names along with Mortal Enemies (WIP). Evidently he was doing something that they had been asked to do during the lecture, but he was the only one who had, so Draco wasn't sure what was actually going on. Before he had a chance to piece everything together in his head, Harry had re-joined him and pulled him out the classroom door.

"What's going on?" Draco asked, more than a little ashamed that he had retained so little of the lesson. His hand was released, and he had to assume it was because he seemed to have returned to the conscious realm.

"The lesson ended, obviously, come on, I need to tell you something!"

Draco's intrigue peaked as they entered Harry's music room.

"Okay, so," Harry shut the door behind them, and threw himself onto the bench, while Draco perched more sedately on the desk, with his feet on the chair. "Good, you're relaxing. Jake told me that we need another vocalist. Essentially, we mainly play three different styles of song, we have a cheerful, kind of fast vocal style which Alex has down perfectly, then we have an aggressive vocal style, with all of the screams and roars that you associate with that style which Ezra can do amazingly, and then we have these kind of sad songs, which Ezra also sings. Our problem lies in the violent style. Alex can't do it, he's tried so many times, and we've tried to help, but he just can't. The thing is, Ezra absolutely murders his throat, and ends up sounding like Jake did today, which wouldn't be a problem, if his school weren't convinced that he's being bullied by the rest of our band. Ezra is generally quite a nice person, the thing is, he doesn't like talking about what the band do, because I don't know, he feels –like me- that he hasn't been a member long enough to talk about us with any confidence, or maybe he's embarrassed by how much Matt and Paul mess around, I don't really know, but if someone asks him about practise, he gets really weird and defensive. He's the same with people asking about home life and relationship, nothing's wrong with any of it, I think he's just worried that he's going to say something weird and get someone in trouble. Oh yeah, I said 'generally nice' call him a faggot and he'll eat your spleen. So yeah, we're gunna sneak out, and you're going to learn how to sing like a pro, and then we're going to win the competition in two weeks."

It took Draco much longer than it should've to comprehend what had just been said.

"Excuse me?"

"You told Snape you want to be a musician right? Oh yeah, he told me about that, asked if I could help at all, well turns out I might be able to. Are you dressed warmly enough? I don't know if the band has a heater in the garage, so it might be a bit cold. We have a fridge, so a heater wouldn't be too much of a stretch I suppose, yeah come on, you'll be fine," Harry was already at the door, fidgeting impatiently.

"You pulled that talent out of your arse," Draco commented offhandedly, as they made their way down what Draco assumed was a relatively normal Muggle street.

Harry merely smirked, and stepped into a room, which Draco recalled might be called a garage.

"Hi guys, I've got someone for you to meet."

Draco honestly couldn't take his eyes off the four boys that stood to greet them. They were all very striking; he knew he wouldn't forget their looks any time soon. They introduced themselves one by one. Alex's low slung, ripped jeans caught Draco's attention first of all, they were so battered that a good portion of the boy's legs were on show, and the leather boots that encased his feet were as abused as his jeans. He attempted to pointedly ignore the fact that the boy was naked from the waist up, despite his newfound desires to molest the poor guy.

"I'm sorry, I was just changing my top, it got a bit smelly," Alex offered apologetically.

Draco wanted dearly to say that it wasn't an issue, but damn it, he was not a Gryffindor, he didn't have that kind of valour!

He immediately recognised Ezra, he certainly didn't need an introduction, as he resembled his sister closely, and –as Harry described- was easily taller than the others, by at least a head. A glimmer of shocking blood red captured his attention, and he looked to the boy beside Alex, who introduced himself as Matt. He couldn't refrain from complimenting the boy, no matter how hard he tried.

"I like your hair," he offered shyly, enraptured by the range of warm hues in the boy's hair.

"Thanks, it took me fucking hours to get it like this," Matt replied with a grin.

Finally Paul introduced himself, and again the thing that entranced Draco the most was the boy's hair. It started off a strange mix of deep blue and forest green, and as it descended past his shoulders it lightened and faded to a beautiful teal, and then white. He found that he couldn't even stammer out a compliment, suddenly too anxious to speak.

"So how come you snuck out of school?" Paul asked, saving Draco from having to verbalise anything remotely understandable.

Harry grinned and slung his arm around Draco.

"Draco here, is my punk apprentice, you have to teach him our ways. I was thinking Matt and Paul could teach him how to play guitar, Alex could show him how to dress, and then Ezra could do some vocal work."

The four glanced at each other, as if silently communicating. It was Alex that eventually answered.

"Sure, we can do that, in return for a favour, Harry, we need new strings, bleach, all of that good stuff that we spend way too much money on, we teach him, you go shopping for us, is that okay?" Alex propositioned, a maddening glint –which closely resembled Dumbledore's- in his eye.

To Draco's surprise, Harry agreed without hesitation.

"We need an absolute metric butt-tonne of stuff, so you're going to be out for a while, but that's okay, by the time you're back, Draco will be a class A punk, we promise," Ezra said with a smirk.

Draco quite didn't know how to feel about that.

Harry made his way back through the park that led to Ezra's garage, laden with all the things the others asked him to purchase. The list was fairly extensive, and included hair products in their many forms, clothes (mainly t-shirts and vests, they didn't particularly care if their jeans were falling to pieces), strings, lubricant (both for guitar strings and sex), plectrums and food. He was officially over-encumbered. As he neared the garage, he heard the sounds of guitars playing, and very faintly, he could hear the vocals for a song that Jake had composed a month or so ago. When he was a little nearer, he was able to determine that it wasn't Ezra singing. Excitedly, he sped up, wishing to see the inevitable transformation that Draco had gone through, he knew the others would be successful, they had a knack for it in Harry's opinion. It was an extremely useful talent -well, it was mainly Alex that had an eye for that sort of thing. He seemed to be able to take the natural inclination for rebellion in a person and add so much fuel to the fire that they ended up expressing themselves in amazingly creative ways. That's how Harry saw it, seeing as that was what had happened to him.

The last little bit of the path was always fairly treacherous, the ground was slick with slippery mud and wet leaves, and Harry felt his feet slide several times as he traversed the dangerous terrain. He was distinctly pleased with the fact that he managed to get to the garage unscathed. The sight that met his eyes was shocking to say the least. He was certainly not disappointed by Draco's progress. The boy's hair was artfully spiked in every single direction possible, and he wore a black leather choker, clasped snugly against his pale skin. He was wearing t-shirt that was stained with bleach and hair dye, so much so that the staining and discolouration looked almost intentional. It was ripped at the neck, and exposed a white tank top, one that Harry knew Jake had made from the colourful splattered design of the skull that it bore. The red jeans that clung to his legs were deliberately shredded, showing off large amounts of flesh. The guitar that was slung from his shoulders was Paul's own black Gretsch, sleek and as good looking as guitars could get.

"Let me listen from the beginning," Harry demanded as he set his shopping down. Draco seemed surprised and slightly pleased, but then Harry was well aware of the boy's exhibitionistic nature.

Draco's fingers danced across the Gretsch's fret-board, it wasn't quite as effortless as a performance from Matt or Paul, but it was definitely a big improvement from just hours ago, when Harry knew the blonde had little coordination. It was certainly impressive. The sounds that filled Harry's brain were decent enough for a beginner, the boy's style was noticeably different from the other's and Harry assumed that was because he hadn't learnt directly from Matt and Paul, as Harry had. The speed of the chord changes was a little bit slower than it should've been, but Harry was confident only Jake would actually know that if they had to perform as Draco was playing that evening. When the singing began, Harry was nearly blown away entirely, it was just superb to listen to. Draco had talent it seemed, and his voice was more than pretty enough. The harsh, almost brutal lyrics that fell from the blonde's lips made Harry shudder, he knew, he just knew that the others were ecstatic with how it sounded, and was confident that they'd be willing to work with Draco, should Harry ask nicely enough.

He hadn't seen Alex sidle up to him, and he jumped when the boy spoke.

"I'm impressed, I think we all are, we need this guy, Harry make it happen. It isn't hard to persuade someone to do what they already want to right? We're counting on you. I want some of this pressure off Ezra's shoulders, and off the rest of us too! The teachers at that fucking school keep sticking their noses in, they keep giving us these filthy looks as if... well... please Harry, I don't know how much longer Ezra can put up with it."

"Ask him yourself, I'm sure he'll say yes," Harry asserted.

Alex looked stricken, but observed the blonde anyway.

"He made real progress today, he was a bit shy at first, but after a few leers from Paul, well, yeah, all of us really, he soon calmed down. The clothes really suit him too don't you think. I did a good job," Alex exclaimed proudly.

The song ended more abruptly than it should've, and Harry noticed Paul getting the first-aid kit from a shelf.

"Do you want to join or not? You have an official invitation from Alex, but it seems Alex is feeling shy and won't actually ask you himself," Harry said with a smirk, he couldn't help but laugh at the indignant look shot at him from his right.

"Can I really? I want to, I want to so badly, fuck it, screw my father, fuck what he wants, this feels so good, so right. I'm having so much fun, and everyone's really nice, I mean you've probably told them I was a complete and utter prick and you had every right to, to be perfectly honest, yet you show up, ask them to help, and they do! No one's said anything mean, which is really surprising considering some of the stuff that gets said about me normally. I want to, I want to more than anything else right now." Draco spoke so quickly that Harry barely kept up.

"I definitely mean it, I don't know if Harry's told you everything that's gone on, but we need you, no doubt about it," Alex confirmed.

"Yeah, I agree," Ezra said rather unexpectedly, "also, tell Jake to put a zipper on that t-shirt, and attach this to it," Ezra handed Draco a Celtic style cross.

"I can keep the clothes?" Draco asked excitedly, and Harry was reminded very strongly of a hyperactive child. Or a puppy. Either worked.

"Yes," Paul confirmed, as he cleaned the cut on Draco's hand. Harry realised it must've happened when Draco slid down a string, he must've had his hand to close to the strings. "We're going to make up another full outfit for you too, it's okay, most of us have expendable money, I mean, we have jobs so it's okay, but if you feel too bad about it, send the money for it via Jake, we don't really care, we have enough clothes either way."

Draco looked thoughtful for a few seconds.

"In that case, could I be really cheeky and ask for a pair of white jeans? If you have any of course."

Paul nodded, and opened the box where they stored their clothes. As most of the members of the band wore the same sizes, they often shared clothes. From within the jumbled mess, Paul withdrew a black hooded jacket, s t-shirt with a zombie fairy on it (another of Jake's own designs), a black tank top, and some white skinny jeans. Harry could honestly say he had never seen anyone look so excited at the prospect of such ordinary clothes, although he supposed that such attire was not entirely commonplace for Draco.

"I think you would suit dark red hair, way better than blue," Matt said, looking through the various jars on the shelves. Harry remembered when he had been subjected to the same look, and determination from the boy. Having his hair bleached for the first time was a fairly frightening experience. His aunt and uncle were not overly impressed when he returned home sporting bright yellow hair.

"I can't do that, everyone would think I'm a Gryffindor."

"Draco, you don't actually care about that do you?" Ezra suddenly asked, his voice demanding. Draco looked fairly embarrassed. "That's just something you've been taught to say. 'Red is a Gryffindor colour therefore I can't wear it. I must only like the colour green because that is my own house colours'. Back when Jake attended our school he had pink hair for a while, and everyone called him gay -this was before his first boyfriend as well- he told them to fuck themselves with a pineapple. Or so I've been told. It might be a bit exaggerated. Do you like the colour red?"

Draco nodded sheepishly.

"In which case, you should do your hair red, because we think it would suit you better than the blue, the blue is too close to a black, but that's probably what Jake was going for otherwise you'd be caught out. Do you not agree?"

Draco agreed.

"Okay, I'm going to wash the dye out of your hair, and then Matt will put the red on top," Ezra explained.

"I can't do that, this dye won't wash out," Draco answered worriedly.

"Okay, when you've gotten rid of that colour, give these to Jake, tell him to mix up a dark red," Matt said, unconcerned. He handed several little jars of red dye to Draco. Most of them were nearly empty. "This should be enough to do your hair with, if not, I'm sure Jake has red somewhere that he can use."

Again, the joy that Draco exuded was absolutely delightful to witness.

"We need to be getting back Draco, otherwise they're going to notice we're gone, its been great seeing you guys," Harry said, and paused as if thinking about something. "Actually, Matt do you still do that braided mohawk thing to you're hair? I want to learn how to do it."

"Yeah, okay, I'll show you," Matt replied.

They spent another hour with the others, during which Harry learnt how to style his hair into a braided mohawk, and Draco continued playing the guitar. Harry was sure that his absence had been noted, but he couldn't care less, and Draco didn't seem to have any qualms about remaining either. He dearly wanted to stay until curfew, and almost resisted, until he saw just how comfortable Draco had become, he didn't want to upset the blonde, so he made no mention of the time for several hours longer than intended. He wondered if anyone had tried to find him, that might be awkward, especially since Ron and Hermione knew where Jake's quarters were too, so they could easily go and ask him. It was twenty minutes before curfew when Harry decided it was time to go, he had held off as long as he could in order to give Draco a chance to relax further, and was more than pleased with how serene the Slytherin seemed.

They snuck back into the school, the same way that they had exited, via Honeydukes, and parted ways.

As soon as he entered the Common Room, he was confonted by Hermione. Well, no, as soon as he had taken a seat beside her, what she was angry about wasn't exactly the kind of thing that could be shouted across forty people's heads.

"Where were you? Did you forget you arranged a lesson? Harry that's so irresponsible! I went up to the music room when you didn't arrive, and even Jake didn't know where you were, because he showed up, I asked him, and he said you disappeared off with Draco after virtually molesting him in class! Harry you're absolutely obscene!"

"I didn't molest Malfoy, I had my hand on his thigh, anyway, yes I did forget, but it was important, I'll apologise to the group tonight, and offer another lesson."

Hermione frowned, but didn't say anything else about the subject, and Harry was left to do his Charms homework in relative peace.

hi guys, sorry about the amount of time between uupdate, I really am sorry its taking so long. I wrote most of this chapter on my phone, so there might be a few mistakes, but I'll correct them when I notice. Originally, the chapter was a bit different, and I had real trouble with the flow, and chapter progression, I started the new version a few days ago, so yeah, I hope you enjoy.