Author's Note: I actually wrote this one back in 2006, and just found it on my hard drive as I was cleaning it out of old useless files. Enjoy. :)
As Draco walked out of Greenhouse Seven after a grueling Herbology lesson, he spotted Loony Lovegood drifting out of the Forbidden Forest. She was followed by a group of classmates, who were pointing and chuckling at her behind her back. Even from the distance, he could make out that there was a slight stiffness to her step. She was trying hard to ignore the laughter.
When she spotted him drawing near to the younger students, she abruptly changed direction and headed to the lake on the pretense of suddenly finding something interesting near the water.
Did she think he'd join in and harass her too?
Two of the three boys that had followed her out of the forest continued to chuckle, while another produced his wand and pointed it at her back. Draco stopped in his tracks and watched, curious as to what they were up to.
As he looked on, the flap on Lovegood's book bag lifted up, and a small drawstring pouch floated out of it into the outstretched hand of the boy holding the wand.
"Ten points from Ravenclaw." The words were out of his mouth before he knew what he was saying. The four wizards all stood there in slightly shocked silence. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Lovegood had turned around and was studying him with utmost interest.
"I'll need to confiscate that as well, Corner." Draco announced, trying to appear as though he had intended to take points in the first place. He received dirty looks from everyone else but Lovegood as Michael thrust the pouch at Draco.
"I wouldn't have thought that the female Weasley's discarded leftover would want to draw attention to himself," he sneered at Corner as they gave him a wide berth on their way into the castle. He made the mistake of glancing in Lovegood's direction, and saw a look of uncertainty mixed with something that was almost like hope in her protuberant eyes.
She made her way towards him, but he couldn't move his feet for he was still in shock at his own actions. She smiled at him and looked him dead in the eye.
"Thank you… I hope you don't have to do it, you know."
"Know what?" he asked, incredulously.
"Hurt him. He gave you that Prefect badge, not Professor Snape." She paused and studied his reaction before continuing. "I had hoped I was wrong, but after the way you've been acting every time he's actually at a meal, and the absences from Quidditch even though most people with half a brain could figure out that you enjoy it so much and wouldn't voluntarily quit playing, and the lack of harassing Harry, Hermione, and Ron so far this year, and your facial expression just now, I know that I'm correct. You can keep what's in there," she explained, pointing to the bag in his hand before she left him silently contemplating her words.
When he opened the pouch, he saw several different flowers that had been Charmed into various precious and semi-precious gems. A saffron bud made out of amethyst and ruby, a lily out of rose quartz and jet, and a rose of pale green jade. Slytherin green jade.
She was nutters, but she had already guessed the orders he had to follow and didn't just assume he'd follow through on them. Given that everyone thought of her as dotty, no one would believe her even if she did decide to tell anyone. Draco thought to himself as he put the bag in his pocket and headed back to the castle that just maybe she wasn't actually as mad as people made her out to be.