The Crash Years

Cole shrugged. "If there's a thousand she can get a new one, now can't she?" he asked, raising an eye at Drew, twirling the pencil in his hand. "Now, kindly, go away so I can finish packing my things away. I would like to get out of this room sometime in this century."

Demi wanted the pencil back, if only just for the reason that she could stab him with it. She gave Drew a 'well that worked' look. "Dude, seriously." She said looking at Greengrass. "You'd leave faster if you'd actually have given me the stupid pencil when I asked. Rather then being an idiot and standing there not giving it back to me. Honestly."

Drew was losing his patience--not that he had much to start with. "Both of you are being ridiculous. Demi, calm down. It's just a pencil. He isn't attacking you with it, is he? I know you want it back, but you do not have to throw a hissy fit." He turned to Cole. "And you. It is a PENCIL. It's not like she bombed you. You act like you've never been hit with anything before. Why are you being such a jerk?"

"Actually, I don't get this at all. Why do the two of you not get along?"

Cole sighed and fought the urge to roll his eyes at the both of them. "Look," he said, voice getting colder with his annoyance. "I'm not giving it back, because I don't appreciate stupid little Mudbloods throwing things at me, okay? Now shove off and go back to parading around with Muggles or something."

Demi's eyes narrowed, even before he said the word. Just the tone he was using. She clenched her fists biting down on her lip, and took quite a bit of restraint not to yell as many vulgar swearwords as she could think of. He would have it coming, but, she had a feeling the teacher would notice her yelling swear words at him, as the teacher was finishing packing up his things. "Don't call me that," She just about snarled through clenched teeth.

Drew shot Demi a look. "Calm down," he said. He then turned to Cole. His attractive face was turned up in a harsh, condescending sneer. It made Drew nearly as angry as it made Demi, but Drew was not going to let Cole know that. He was not going to let that boy under his skin more than he already had. "I'm not a muggleborn. Why won't you give it back to me? If you are going to be mean to her just because of her blood status, you could at least show some common courtesy to the rest of us." Drew sent an apologetic look Demi's way. He doubted that Cole would listen to him, but it was worth a shot.

"You're not the one that threw it at me," Cole replied to Drew like it was completely obvious. "And it's not your pencil." But, he sighed and flicked the wooden object at the boy, having grown tired of this little spat. "Also, I don't care if you're one of them or not. You associate with them."

Drew grinned. Mission accomplished. He had gotten back the stupid pencil which should not have mattered so much anyway. However, Cole's comment bothered him. "Oh no! I associate with witches and wizards who have magic and are JUST AS LEGITIMATE AS YOU, but don't have their own wands stuck up their arses." Drew kept his voice even and bored, with just a hint of sarcasm thrown in. However, he had gotten what he wanted, and did not want to cause any more trouble. "Come on, Demi. Let's get going."

Demi gave Greengrass a filthy look before she turned and walked off, supposing that Drew was following her. "Thanks," She said in reference to him getting the pencil back, but she would never have gotten him to give it to her.. "Just, Ugh!" She exclaimed throwing her arms up into the air. "Stupid, fricken, ugh," She made a face jostling her bag. "Just. Never mind." She sighed. "Jerk," She added as an undertone.

Cole rolled his eyes at the pair of them before mechanically packing his things into his bag again, making sure they were all neat and organized. It got tedious to do after a while, but it was just something he did out of habit. His siblings were organized like mad, so he was too. His parents hated mess anyway, so he didn't want to disappoint them any if they were to see his school things during a holiday.

Drew walked out of the room with Demi, proud of having got back her pencil, annoyed with the attractive pureblood supremacist, and just in general confused. He thought Cole was such an interesting character, but it seemed that he was nothing more than a big old git. Why would he do that--keep the stupid pencil when it was not that big of a deal--JUST because Demi was muggleborn? That made absolutely no sense.

"Jerk," Drew muttered to himself. Bloody attractive jerk.

"And that," Demi set to Drew, as they made their way through the halls which got more and more crowded the closer to the great hall that they got. "Is why I hate him. Because he is always like that. And oh my god." She made another face. "Pencil please?" She asked holding out her hand, thinking that next time she should throw something she didn't want to keep at him. Like, a ball of paper, or steal someone else's pencil and throw it at him.

Drew handed back Demi's pencil. "He was kind of a jerk. However, you DO need to be more careful, Demi. We both know that you tend to act before you think, and that's cool and all. But the point is to get into as little trouble as possible when we can. You knew that would cause trouble."

Demi waved her hand vaguely in the air. "Yeah whatever," She said in her tone of voice that meant she wasn't going to heed anything that Drew had just said. She took her pencil off of him and put it into her bag where it bounced about her belongings. "Good idea that," She said looking at him. "Next time I'll throw something I don't want." She nodded. "Awesome."

Drew rolled his eyes. He supposed that if he wanted to keep a low profile, he should have found friends other than Demi. She was the polar opposite of a low profile, very much the Gryffindor that she was supposed to be. "Yes. No more throwing pencils you want to keep, at the very least. Why did you do that?"

"Andrew dear," Demi said with a slight shake of her head. "You've already answered that. Something about, what did you say? "Not thinking before I act" or something other junk that you always go on about and no-one ever listens to. Besides. It was the only thing in reach that I had that I could throw without a teacher noticing. Unless you want me to throw my book next time?"

Drew groaned. "Yes, but why did you have to throw anything at all? He's a jerk, but he did not do anything in particular to incite any attacks. And don't you dare say he was just asking for it. He was paying attention, not doing anything to you. What's up?"

Demi looked at him with a mock puzzled expression. "Isn't him being a jerk a good enough reason to throw something at him?" She cocked her head to the side looking at his expression. "Huh," She said. "Whatdayaknow, the things you learn everyday." She grinned cheekily at him, knowing that she was probably annoying Drew quite a lot right now, but she couldn't help it.

Drew shook his head. "You're a real piece of work, you know?" Drew was teasing, of course--he had to, with Demi, or he would lose his mind. She was that kind of person. There was no reining her in, and if you wanted to get through to her, you just had to put up with all of her impulsiveness. It was the only way to get through.

Demi winked at him, as they reached the bottom of the stairs and headed towards the great hall. "You wouldn't love me otherwise," She said with a grin, her tone also borderline teasing. "Besides, what would you do if you didn't have a Gryffindor to stop getting into trouble. You'd be bored out of your wits you would."

Drew could not help but grin. "I'd never get in trouble, alright. It would be downright peaceful. I would never have a pesky Gryffindor girl hovering around, causing trouble and making new enemies every day. I would have some nice, nerdy Ravenclaw friends. Life would be brilliant."

Demi shoved him playfully. "There is only so many times you can play chess before it gets boring Andrew," She said smiling. "And that's about, ten minutes into the first game. I hate chess. Seriously. Anyway, you'd miss me if I was gone. You'd have no form of entertainment except to actually do work. Le gasp." She winked again.

"Oh, work. How dearly I miss thee! Doing homework is not allowed around Dictator Demi, with her wild ideas and even wilder hair. Thou shalt not do work is the first commandment. I would never have to give the daily report of the gossip via body language and I might actually learn something in school." Drew stopped for a second. "Okay, nevermind. I guess I'll keep you around."

He could not help but think of Cole, though.

Demi gave him a weird look, but couldn't help laughing at him anyway. "Who needs work?" She asked with a wave of her hand. "It's not like you learn anything important anyway. Be-sides. You'd sit there trying to work out people whether I wanted you too or not, it's something you do. And, Dictator Demi wants some lunch. And. March." She smiled doing a mock salute.

As they walked to lunch, Drew noticed that Demi had that Look in her eye. The one that said she was plotting something. "Demi," Drew started, "Don't cause any trouble. I can see you want to cause trouble. You look like you want to cause trouble. What are you plotting?" He did not want to be roped into another detention because of her.