Acid Pop Junkies

    Draco had been sprawled out on the comfortable leather chair in Dumbledore's office for about ten minutes. Bored and angry, he fixed a magnificent cold stare on Harry Potter.

    Half an hour prior to now he had been having a nice, regular Care of Magical Creatures class, lazily counting how many different slangs Hagrid used. Then came the Jarveys.

    "Jarveys are tricky lil' fellers," Hagrid shouted to the class. "They're kinda like overgrown ferrets."

    All the Gryffindors laughed at this; Draco just lifted his chin and sneered. No one seemed to forget that little incident.

    Hagrid cleared his throat and continued with the lecture.

    "There's a big difference though, they kin talk. And they don't jus talk, they like insultin' people."

    Ron's voice could be heard within the crowd of Gryffindors.

    "Are you sure you don't have it confused with Malfoy?"

    Another eruption of casual laughter. Draco took a step forward in retaliation,

    "That was just weak Weasley. Let's see, no money, no brains, you'd think you'd at least have a sense of humor."

    Ron's faced flushed a lurid red right to the roots of his orange hair.

    "That'll be enough." Hagrid parted the crowd easily. "The next person ter insult anyone gets a month's worth' a detentions! I mean it, there's ter be no bickerin' in this class." He now had one giant crate under each arm. "Now, wer gonna feed Ôem, play with Ôem and see what they're like. Don't ferget ter take notes."

    Hagrid smiled at the class joyfully. The class was not joyful. Draco grimaced and the rest of the Slytherins were scowling heavily. The Gryffindors' faces were lined with worry, thinking about past catastrophes that occurred in this class. Draco studied them with contempt.

    Ron's face had lost all color now. Hermione cast a knowing glance at Harry and they both sighed in unison. Standing beside those three was the most pathetic looking person Draco had ever seen. It was a boy named Pollocks Rocket. His short brown hair stuck up in odd places and his huge black square rimmed glasses were slightly askew. He was a rather geeky American that had come to Hogwarts for sixth year and Draco enjoyed torturing him as much as he enjoyed torturing the trio.

    Everyone held their breath as the Jarveys were released. The furry brown creatures crawled out slowly and walked towards the teenagers, sometimes flashing rows of jagged teeth. No one seemed to be moving.

    Hagrid waved his arms excitedly.

    "C'mon, try and wrangle em!"

    A few Gryffindors moved closer, Harry among them.

    Harry stretched out an arm in an attempt to grab one. The Jarvey spun around viciously and fixed mad eyes on Harry.

    "Touch me and you'll be wearing your arse as a hat, four eyes."

    Harry jumped back, but had an angry expression on his face.

    "I don't think you s-should touch it Harry," Pollocks cautioned.

    "Don't be ridiculous!" Hermione said. "They probably can't even hurt us, I bet they're all talk."

    "That's the spirit!" Hagrid yelled enthusiastically.

    Draco was beginning to become bored with the class. He grabbed one of the Jarveys and it bit him once- hard enough to draw blood. He began to talk to it quickly before it tried to bite him again.

    "Listen, do what I tell you to and you won't get decapitated for biting me."

    Draco whispered something into the creature's ear and gave it a little shove towards the Gryffindors.

    Pollocks Rocket was the first victim. The Jarvey sauntered up to him and began to talk menacingly. As the boy's back was turned the Jarvey charged and sunk its razor teeth into his leg. Pollocks let out a high pitched scream and began to frantically kick and the animal that was not letting go. The Jarvey then flew off his leg and into Ron's face.

    "Arrrggghhh!" he screamed. As the Jarvey hit the ground it shouted out several loud profanities which seemed to set off the others.

    Suddenly half the Jarveys were swearing and attacking the Gryffindors.

    Draco had been laughing feverishly until he noticed Harry Potter staring at him furiously.

    "What's wrong Potter?" Draco spat. "Can't save them from a few overgrown ferrets? Honestly, the Boy Who Lived ought to do us all a favor and drop dead."

    Harry didn't move.

    "I saw what you did, Malfoy. This is all your fault."

    Draco smiled passively.

    "And I should be feeling what exactly?"

    Harry's face had twisted up in anger that made Draco's grin widen.

    "Hey Potter, your friends are being mauled by crazed animals, maybe you should do something."

    Harry let out a shout of anger and pulled out his wand.

    "Expelliarmus!"

    Draco was hit by the spell and sent flying. He landed on the grass with a dull thump.

    Satisfied, Harry turned around and started to walk towards Hermione and Ron. Still on the ground, Draco pulled his wand out of his tangled robes and pointed it at Harry's back.

    "Stupef-ahhh!"

    Just as he completed the spell a Jarvey pounced on his face. The wayward curse jolted to one side and hit Pollocks Rocket. He fell unconscious.

    Finally a huge hand came down and pulled the Jarvey off of Draco's head and threw it into the crate.

    "Las' one, " Hagrid said breathlessly. The whole class seemed to be sitting on the grass recuperating. Hagrid appeared again in front of Draco and grabbed him roughly by the collar.

    "Follow me." Hagrid walked over to the very frightened Gryffindor's and slung the dormant Pollocks over his shoulder.

    He gave a very melancholy look to Harry.

    "Harry, you'll need ter come too."

    And now the three boys were sitting in Dumbledore's office.

    Harry eyed Draco suspiciously.

    "Stop staring at me Malfoy."

    "I will if you'll stop staring at me," Draco said, not to be outdone.

    "I was NOT staring at you!" Harry raged.

    A voice floated from the doorway.

    "Stop staring at each other, lovebirds."

    The voice came from Malia Catley.

    Her small frame partially blocked the doorway and her long red hair was swinging behind her. Her eyes cast the same dull glare. One eye was blue, the other green. This had prompted someone to nickname her Mad Eye and also got that person cursed, badly. Malia wasn't exactly skilled in magic, but seemed to forget this in fits of rage. Draco noticed her skirt was hiked up considerably.

    Another form nudged it's way through the door. Draco recognized him as Dante Foxx. His brownish-red eyes whipped around the room madly. Dante and Malia were two overly promiscuous people and Draco half-expected to see them here for some related incident. Right now Dante's limited attention span seemed to have it's hold on him. He paced around the room and began to pick up various trinkets and play with them.

    "Ha ha, wonder what this little shitkicker's called." He ran a hand through his hair, which was also dark red. Draco spoke up.

    "What the hell are you two doing here?"

    Dante grinned slyly.

    "Indecency."

    "What?" Draco said disbelievingly.

    "Slytherins," Harry mumbled.

    "Shut up," Draco snapped.

    "You know, inappropriate comments, leering. Honestly though, it was pretty PG-13 if you ask me," Dante said as he fiddled with the various trinkets on Dumbledore's desk.

    Draco turned his attention to Malia.

    "And you?"

    "I'm here to cover his sorry ass. You know, a witness."

    "More like victim." Yet another murmur from Harry.

    Malia shot him a malicious look.

    "Don't you ever shut the fuck up!?" As Draco finished his sentence another person rushed into the room.

    "Since when did the old man's office become a common room?!" Draco shouted.

    The person turned out to be Hermione, she was flushed and breathless from running up so many stairs.

    "Harry!"

    On her way to Harry she stopped dead in her tracks as she caught sight of Pollocks slumped in his chair.

    "Goodness, shouldn't he be in the hospital wing?" Her eyes were wide with shock. Pollocks arms were flayed and his enormous specs had slid down his nose. A tiny, unnoticed trickle of blood appeared on his temple.

    "I dunno." Harry shrugged. " Dumbledore must want him up here."

    "Figures, the old man's gone completely mad," Draco sneered.

    "He is not!" Harry yelled.

    "Sure, that's why he hires dumb gits like Hagrid."

    Malia and Dante, both perched on Dumbledore's desk, laughed haughtily.

    "Take that back you slimy bastard!" Harry fumed.

    "And I've had all I can take of these filthy Mudbloods he lets in," Draco glared at Hermione furtively as he said this.

    He hadn't even bothered to sit up, but Harry had been standing for a while. He seemed to be slightly mad with rage. Harry began to reach for his wand.

    "Harry NO!" Hermione screamed. The others stared in rapture as Harry uttered a curse.

    " !"

    The spell flew towards Draco.

    "Shit!" An unprepared Draco yelled. He grabbed blindly at the nearest object. As he closed his hand around the object he realized it was alive. Daring a look he realized it was a Phoenix. Its open beak lunged at him and it's scarlet feathers gleamed. He shielded himself with the bird just in time. The curse hit the Phoenix.

    For a moment nothing happened. Then a blinding light pervaded the room. A blast of warm air hit their faces and the smell of sulfur filled the room. Someone screamed. The last thing Draco saw was Harry and Hermione bracing themselves against the blast. He fell unconscious.

    Draco awoke with his head throbbing. He looked around slowly and cautiously. The room was untouched. At first he was incredibly confused, but the confusion magnified the pain in his head, so he tried to think rationally. Slowly, thoughts joined with other thoughts to form sweet truth. He breathed a sigh of relief.

    Harry had knocked him out and was probably laughing it up with Weasley, but at least he was alive. He wondered what happened to the Phoenix. It was probably dead.

    Oh, I'm going to get hell for that one.

    However, there was no one else in the room so they had probably forgotten all about him. Off the hook for now, he thought passingly.             Dreamily, he strolled down stairs and through corridors. Suddenly, he noticed something was amiss. The hallways echoed with emptiness. That was probably natural. It was dark out after all. Everyone is probably asleep. Still... Draco thought. Acting on impulse, he ran the rest of the way to the Slytherin common room.

    Draco reached the spot between the two tapestries, but found he was so panicked, he couldn't remember the password. Thinking about how stupid he was to forget the password, Draco laughed nervously. It finally came after a few seconds and Draco whispered it despite the fact no one was around. He ran straight through the common room and into the closest dormitory. He searched them one by one. They were all vacant.         Draco's heart froze in his chest but he forced himself to keep moving. He ran upstairs to the entrance hall. He hesitated for a moment, anticipating what he would see. What he had predicted was true.

    The hall was completely empty. He kept running until he reached the gates of the castle. Relief swept through him as he perceived a figure in the distance. Jogging up to the figure, questions formed in his mind, questions he planned to ask this person.

    All the sentences dissolved as easily as they had come as soon as Draco realized who it was.

    It was Potter.

    Oh great, Draco thought sarcastically. Just the person I wanted to see.

    Harry was sitting on the ground with his head in his arms.

    "Potter, what the hell is happening and why are you sulking like a stupid twit?"

    Draco didn't think he had ever been so annoyed by anyone's attitude as he was now.

    Harry raised his head.

    "Don't you realize what's happened?" Harry's expression was blank. His devoid of any kind of emotion. This began to worry Draco.

    "We're the only ones left," Harry said despairingly. "We killed everyone."

    Draco's knees became paralyzed and he found himself slipping onto the ground helplessly. Considering the circumstances, Draco felt he should have the last word.

    "Shit."