SEVEN FUNNY STORY

     Curfew was in a few minutes and the pair of best friends were skating down the empty Hogwarts halls trying to make sure they made it back on time or else they were bound to be found by a professor. Diana was muttering something about Potions class -- which now that Snape wasn't teaching it, was a newfound passion of hers -- as they skated. Xander was busy paying attention to what she was saying, talking about the Slug Party as it was called and how it was coming up, that he didn't notice a small ship in the hardwood floors. With his luck, his board caught on it and he went flying.

"Leviosa!" Diana called, having her wand out, before Xander could hit the floor, letting him hover for a moment before he crashed against the floor gently. His board rolled away and he went to summon it back to him (he was lazy by nature, sue him), but someone caught it with their foot.

Draco was standing there looking particularly cozy in his green Quidditch sweater, a nice contrast to the all black he usually wore when he wasn't in robes. However, of course, of all people to catch him fucking around with his skateboard it had to be one person who was most likely to snitch on Xander and Diana.

Diana bit her lip and held back the shit-eating grin he knew was coming as Xander pulled himself up off the floor and jogged over to where Draco had raised an eyebrow as he observed the skateboard. With a smile on his face, Xander said, "Thanks for catching that, talk about good timing."

"What even is this?" Draco asked with a critical expression on his face as he watched Xander tuck it under his arm. He shrugged, "Whatever, watch where you're going, Sakai."

"Will do," Xander grinend as he gave the blond a mock salute who simply rolled his eyes and walked off down the hallway. Suspiciously, in the opposite direction of the dungeons. Once he was somewhat out of earshot, Xander whispered, "So, curfew is in five, and he's heading away from the common rooms..."

"Xander, leave it, I will kill you," was all Diana said as she stood on her board with one foot on the hardwood floor. Xander eyes were stuck on where Draco had been walking. "Salamander, I will hex you."

Xander turned to face her with an expression that revealed he was absolutely up to no good. Handing her his skateboard, he said, "Take this back to the common room for me?"

The girl reluctantly took the skateboard and the boy turned to take off down the hallway Draco had gone down, calling out, "I'm not covering your ass, Xander!"

He brushed her off as he tried to keep a safe distance between him and Draco. The boy had to know that Xander had been following him since he seemed observant if last time was any indicator. Still, the blond never turned and Xander didn't waver in his trail. It was certainly past curfew by the time they reached where Xander already knew they were going. The doors to the Room of Requirement revealed themselves and Draco slipped inside without a second glance. Okay, now he had to know Xander was following him because that boy was constantly looking over his shoulder to make sure he was alone. Xander had half a mind to enter the Room of Requirement to confirm his suspicious that Draco knew he was there, but something in him hesitated. What was he really doing here? Was he just curious? Or was it because he didn't trust Draco to have a good excuse for these weird escapades to the Room of Requirement?

Shaking his head, he disregarded the second thoughts he was having as he pushed himself out from behind the column he had slipped behind in case Draco had looked over his shoulder. The doors were still there as if they were waiting for him -- which Xander found odd, but he wasn't going to question it. However, before he could even reach out to open the doors, a swish of black filled his vision. Fucking Snape.

"You're quite a long way from the kitchens considering it is nearly a quarter past ten, Mister Sakai," Snape sneered in that weird way he always spoke. Is it really that hard just to speak at a normal speed? All Slytherin-related people were such flairs for the dramatic, it was insane really.

Xander stuttered to come up with some sort of relief, spitting out nonsense, "I-um, uh... funny story..."

"It's my fault, sir," a new voice joined the interaction and Draco stood behind Snape, the doors to the Room of Requirement disappearing before Snape could turn around. To someone who didn't know any better, it would have looked like he appeared out of nowhere. Xander had an odd feeling that Snape knew better. Still, Xander had hardly expected Draco to take the fault for Xander's being out of bed. This also meant that Draco had to know Xander was behind him. "Xander mentioned his cat had slipped out of his common room and I suggested we look for her even though it was past curfew. It's my fault professor."

Are pigs flying? Xander is fairly sure pigs are flying because Draco Malfoy is covering him right now. Holy shit, maybe they actually were friends. Xander had fully convinced himself this moment was simply not happening. There was no way this was real. Okay, maybe he was being a tad dramatic, but still. This is Draco -- not exactly the perfect picture of selflessness.

"Hm," Snape considers this, whipping around to face the blond boy, towering over both of them. "I will make an exception just this once, but if I see either of you out of bed past curfew again it will be a detention. Now, off to bed, both of you."

"Yes, professor," Xander muttered, avoiding eye contact as the teacher walked away. Xander breathed a sigh of relief as soon as he was gone, looking back up at Draco, "Thanks for that, uh, you didn't have to do that."

"If you weren't so obsessed with me I wouldn't have had to," Draco scoffed as he looked down the hall where Snape had gone before taking off the way he had come. Without thinking, Xander jogged to catch up with him and fell into step beside him. The other boy glared as they walked, "Can I help you with something?"

"You knew I had a cat, you even knew she was a girl," Xander mused, "That means you pay attention to me outside of being an asshole, so sweet."

Draco scoffed at this, "Hardly. It was a lucky guess. Is there a reason for you continuing this conversation? I think I've taken pity on you enough tonight, don't you?"

"You're such a charmer no wonder every girl you meet is just head over heels for you, Malfoy," Xander teased, the words slipping off his loose tongue before he could stop them. "Ugh, you really do bring out the worst in me. I swear, I'm never this mean unless it's you I'm talking to."

"I find it hard to believe you could ever be mean," the blond said with a laugh. As they reached downstairs, he stopped and turned, "Next time you try and sneak after me and you get caught, I will watch as Snape assigns you a dozen detentions and I will laugh. Kitchens are that way, I suggest you leave me alone before you get caught again. You are dreadfully awful at sneaking around, I hope you know."

"So you knew, but you didn't stop me," Xander observed, letting the words hang in the air. Draco considered them, not responding right away. Instead, he avoided eye contact, his eyes drifting to the floor. Xander took the opportunity to speak, "If I were a little bit dumber, I'd say you want to get caught. You want your plans to be ruined -- whatever it is you are planning in there. Am I wrong?"

Draco scoffed and any hint of hesitation in his expression had dissipated completely, "Watch your mouth, Sakai, you don't know what you're dipping your nose into and I suggest you stay out of my business. I've drawn my wand on you before and I will not hesitate to again should you overstep your boundaries. This was fun, but cut it out before I'm forced to do something about it."

With that, Draco turned on his heel and stomped down towards the dungeons. Xander stood there for a moment with his hands shoved in his pockets, watching him go. He paid attention to the way Draco's voice wavered as he reached his last sentence. Xander had a feeling he was a lot closer to the truth of the matter than Draco wanted him to be -- not the truth as to what Draco was actually up to, of course -- rather he was close to the way Draco felt about it and that was a much more useful thing to know.

As Draco turned and disappeared down the hall, Xander smiled to himself as he headed off towards the kitchens and his respective common room. He was getting somewhere, he knew it.

draco hearing xander about to get detention from snape out in the hall: well, here we go, time to do some charity work