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Just a moment after the jingle of a small bell attached to the quaint café's doors was heard, a svelte figure quickly deposited herself in the chair opposite his. He looked up to tell the person off for the rude intrusion but was shocked still.
"I know who you are; you're Draco Malfoy," said she, pointing out the obvious.
Panic ran its chilling touch down the length of his spine, paralysing him in slack-jawed horror. Despite his state of looking like a complete moron- as he would admit- the girl just continued the monologue, unfazed.
"You should close your mouth," she advised, leaning on her elbow to reach over and swat the empty air about his head.
"I'd hate to be rude, but you're swarming with Wrackspurts. No offence intended, of course; they like some kinds of people more than others," she informed him.
By the time he supposed she was done, he had managed to fasten his jaws together and surveyed her with an inquisitive gaze, unspeaking. She lazily tucked a strand of dirty blonde hair behind an ear and offered him a hand to shake.
"I'm Luna Lovegood, by the way, if you recall," she introduced herself. "I suppose my name would sound a tad unfamiliar. Unfortunately, I think I'm more renowned as-"
"'Loony Lovegood', I know," he said in mechanical monotone, just staring warily at the proffered hand.
"Ah, so you do remember," Luna simply smiled at him. It was a smile that lit her pale blue eyes; the smile the affable girl offered him was genuine.
He clenched his jaw, repressing the memory of the gaunt blonde girl that was held captive at Malfoy Manor. The light never did touch her eyes then the way it did now; her blue eyes had been mostly dull with only a dimly glowing hope held within them. Guilt stabbed at his gut; it was he and his family that had caused the light to nearly vanish from her expressive eyes.
"I swear, I absolutely do not have Grindylow-blood in my veins, though I think my cousin Dorris- twice removed- does due to genetic experimentation; I can promise you shan't be lacking a hand just by shaking mine," Luna idly said, staring at him earnestly with her pale blue eyes that was almost grey.
Draco chose not to take it anyways and instead returned his gaze to the stack of papers before him. The odd duo spent a moment steeping in awkward silence at the table for two. In a bit, Luna placed her order and the whir of a blender preparing a Frappuccino made for a background noise. It took a while before the Malfoy lad realised the girl opposite him was watching him with a quizzical look.
"What is a child of Malfoy- pure-blooded since the birth of the house- doing in a muggle coffee shop?" she asked, fidgeting with the crisp paper napkin.
He averted his gaze back onto the paper whilst muttering something that sounded suspiciously like, "Getting away from nutters like you."
Luna, however, had been thanking the kindly waitress heartily for her drink. She merely raised an eyebrow at him an apologised, "Sorry, I didn't quite catch that."
He gave out a sigh and stretched a little to buy time.
"I said," He enunciated clearly, "'To get away from the nutters known as the wizarding world.'"
She gave a nod of comprehension at his distinctly worded whisper.
"Why, though?"
He was ever so tempted to let out a humourless laugh of sarcasm but stifled it when he saw her innocently honest expression. She didn't seem to be mocking him, but instead truly clueless to his predicament.
"Because the name 'Malfoy' is the equivalent of 'fucking bastard', at kindest," the blond male explained and saw comprehension colour her eyes. She gave him a small nod and he shrugged.
"Why are people doing that?" She questioned, and he very nearly did answer before he realised she was mostly pondering out loud.
Her doe-eyed gaze wasn't on him but on some miscellaneous spot on the pastel green wall to her far right. Her brow was furrowed and she had a small pout on, absent-mindedly drawing attention to her lips by teasing her straw.
"Why do you think people do that, Draco?" was Luna's question, an odd serenity in her tone.
"I did many horrid things, Lovegood, and made many wrong choices," Draco said, remorse in his tone. "As did my father, and many others before him. I wonder if any of us Malfoys has ever done something right."
"But you aren't doing bad things now," Luna stated. "In fact, you're being repentant. I believe they use the term 'see the light' to insinuate something good."
Draco took a while to consider her words before countering with, "It still doesn't make up for the things I did. I killed Dumbledore-"
"Technically, Professor Snape did, but Professor Dumbledore had foreseen it and wanted it as well."
"I nearly killed Weasley and the Chaser girl in the process."
"I'm sure it's because of the pressure you were in. Mind, Myrtle is quite a tattletale; that's how I came to hear about your sensitive side."
"And there I was showing off like a prat because I had a blasted Dark Mark branded on me. I would curse it off if I could now, but back then, I thought it was a mark of glory."
"You were in the company of Bellatrix Lestrange. She is off enough to affect those around her. Her aura was alarmingly potent, I recall."
With each passing statement, the edge that Draco held himself by was crumbling under his grip. His breath caught in his throat, leaving him to attempt to calm his erratic breathing pattern. For every point he made, Luna countered it effortlessly. Perhaps it should have been expected of a Ravenclaw, but it was fucking Loony Lovegood, for crying out loud!
"Why do you act like you understand me?" he half-gasped through the lump in his throat.
"Why do you feign indifference in order for me to show you some pity and pretend I understand you, when you really don't want me to?" she countered, giving her drink a stir before taking a sip.
Draco was dumbstruck. How could she peg him just like that?
"How did you-?"
"Lord only knows I know that trick too well," Luna gave a small smile.
"Who are you?" he ventured.
"I am simply Luna Lovegood, avid dreamer," the sylph of a girl replied without a moment's hesitance. "But I think the real question is: who are you?"
"I-I don't know. I suppose I'm just Draco, for now."
"Well then, Just Draco, I wish you luck in finding yourself," Luna greeted as she left the amount of her bill and a tip on the table. She fixed her muffler and pulled out a pair of mismatched gloves.
"By the way," she said, pointing towards an object made of folded paper napkin, "that is for you."
"What is it supposed to be? A peacock?"
The dreamer flashed him a smile, "Only if you want it to be."
He watched the girl leave, the paper bird his only company. Draco looked back at his papers and gave a curse. Without a second of thought, he tore the papers he had painstakingly filled up in half, then quarters, and finally eights before crumpling them into a ball. He fished the pockets of his furred coat and placed some muggle money on the table before heading out to the chilly, grey streets.
The next time he saw her, he was sitting outside a train compartment of the Hogwarts Express. She gave him a puzzled look before slipping down to sit by his side.
"I see that you've decided not to make a transfer to Durmstrang," Luna smiled at him. He merely shrugged.
"I've got a name to rebuild- hopefully the right way, this time," Draco murmured.
She nodded before asking, "By the way, why are you sitting in the corridor?"
"All the compartments are occupied," was his simple reply.
"And here I thought you were hoping to trip some Nargles," came Luna's laugh as she took his hand and tried to pull him up. "If that's the case, the compartment I'm in can do with another person."
Draco tried to decline her offer but the eccentric Lovegood girl just turned a deaf ear as she dragged him- and he in turn, his baggage- down to one of the compartments where she eagerly slid upon the door.
Immediately, a couple wands were aimed at his chest and he pulled out his own.
"Put that away, Potter," Draco growled. "And tell Granger, Weasley and Weasley to put theirs aside, too."
None of the wands so much as lowered. Draco's stare held Harry's in a deadlock though he was still able to watch Ron, Ginny and Hermione from the corners of his vision. In a singular feat of valour, Luna planted herself at the junction of all the wands.
"Really, there's no need for wand-pointing," Luna declared, reaching out to lower the wands with her hands. Hesitantly, Draco stowed his away in his cloak and saw the others lower theirs.
"Honestly," Luna chastised, "you can put them in your pockets if you haven't changed into cloaks. I assure you, Harry, the chances of you arriving at Hogwarts buttock-less is slimmer than the skin keeping Nearly Headless Nick 'nearly headless'."
"Only because Luna trusts you," the iconic figure warned. "But if you so much as try something funny, I wouldn't hesitate to hex you, Malfoy."
"The same way I would not be reluctant to duel you," Draco countered. To Luna, he said, "Lovegood, I think I shall be going. The idea of my staying here clearly isn't wise."
"You invited him to our compartment, Luna?" asked Ginny, bewildered. In the back, Ron seemed to be mouthing, "What in bollocks-?"
Luna nodded, unfazed.
"He did look ever so lonely sitting in the corridor," Luna said, adopting the tone of a child asking to keep a stray she found.
"Luna, I-"
"What in blazes is Malfoy doing here?" was an outburst from a certain Neville Longbottom who had chosen then to return to the compartment.
"Neville!" Luna clapped joyfully. "You'd let Draco stay, wouldn't you?"
"I don't know; he was in the loop with He- I mean, Voldemort not too long ago," Neville mumbled, shooting Draco a poisonous look which Draco bothered not to counter.
"I'll just go, Lovegood," Malfoy shrugged. "I'm clearly not wanted here."
Draco sidled away by his lonesome. He sensed Luna making to accompany him and he denied her intentions by a forlorn shake of his head.
As the glass door slid shut, he could hear two voices, one a fraction of a second later than the other.
The first belonged to the youngest Weasley going, "Have you gone barmy, Luna?"
The second was of a dismayed Lovegood declaring, "I can't believe you horrendous lot!"
It had taken about a year to get the main parts of the castle fixed enough that the students are invited to have a do-over of their year of studies. There weren't many seventh year boys about- they were now aged nineteen or twenty, and far more eager to pit themselves against the world than face another year of books and tests- and the four houses' numbers were greatly reduced (with Slytherin having only a handful of students); thus, Draco saw a lot more of Harry Potter and friends than he would have liked.
He learned to keep by himself in the library, ever since it became all too apparent that Moaning Myrtle fancied him enough to offer him a place in the second floor bathroom. It's not like he disliked Myrtle, he was just unsettled by… the extent of her affections, to put it kindly. The last straw had been when he caught her peeking on him in the bathrooms.
The past quarter year had been painstakingly consistent. He collected stares in the hallways, but he had expected that. He got jeered at and heavily insulted, but he was fine with it and believed himself deserving. He was only bothered when the year's intake of first-years stared at him in wide-eyed horror despite having never met him before, but as time passed, Draco learned to ignore it and it became just a nettle.
In less than a month's time, it would be Christmas, and he was wondering how to break it to his mother that he would not be going home. He had thrown himself into books and found Charms to be his forte now that he actually put his classwork to practice after school hours.
He knew Flitwick did not quite approve of him nor completely forgiven him, but at least the Professor was putting an effort in treating him indifferently. Draco was in the midst of contemplating being an apprentice to the Charms Master so long as the professor did not regard him with open contempt.
An origami bird-creature flapped lazily about him. He had spelled it to keep him company, and the silly little folded napkin creation would hover to the frosty window pane and back to him. However, it was to Draco's surprise when the bird flew the opposite way and fetched a perplexed Muggle-born Granger with him.
"Hullo," greeted the boy in a laissez faire manner that held none of the usual disdain.
Hermione nodded in greeting, her mouth pursed in a straight line, as the bird came to rest shortly on the table before taking off again. He pretended he didn't see her wince and have her fingers graze against the sleeve that hid that offending word that his aunt had put there. 'MUDBLOOD.' He ducked his head, repressing a twinge of guilt. An apology was on his lips but he stopped himself. It was obviously a reflex of hers, and he certainly did not want to further darken the sombre mood. He made a mental reminder of working out a charm to remove scarring someday.
"Did you charm that?" the knowledgeable girl blurted before she could stop herself.
The Malfoy heir raised an eyebrow, "I did; yes."
"It's a fair piece of work," the girl reluctantly admitted as the bird opened its beak as though to emit a silent caw.
"Thank you," was Draco's curt reply as buried himself in his book again.
"What is it, actually?"
Draco gave her a look.
She scoffed, "It's fine if you don't tell me; it's not as if we are friends or anything."
Draco kept an impassive face as he opened the nearest window. A blast of chilly air stole into the library as he did and the paper-creature fought against the gust to escape towards the cloudy sky.
When it was about three meters away, the boy casted an Incendio, causing the bird to curl in the flames.
Hermione just stared at him with narrowed brown eyes. The ashes drifted according to the breeze for about a half-minute before relighting. When the flames died out, the paper-bird was formed anew and making its way back to the castle.
"It's a phoenix," Hermione observed.
"Really? I never noticed," was Draco's negligent reply as he returned the piece of origami to its inanimate state.
"I'm sure of it," Hermione stated, "'Rebirth from the ashes'. Is that what you want, Malfoy?"
"I have no idea."
Come January, Draco no longer found peace in the library. He was still enraptured by the knowledge, yes, but he had come to be bored with the library setting. He would study out by the lake, but the air was still frigid. Instead, he would check the books out of the library and occupy the Come-And-Go Room, otherwise known as the Room of Requirement.
'I need a place where I am who I am and I can find who I want to be.'
It was a farce thought at first, that wish of his, but his heart had been earnest whilst his head was sceptical. The door appeared and he found himself in a weird cross between an odd cottage and the shed of his manor where he had spent playing as a little boy. Those were the days when his grandfather was still around- happier days. Draco vaguely remembered the grassy scent of the manor's garden, and the feel of the wood under his hands as his grandfather attempted to correct his posture on the toy-broomstick. The lessons didn't stick too well with the young Malfoy.
The workbench-cum-coffee table as it now served as was clearly from his memories, but the paisley-print arm chair was not. However, he spent no qualms settling himself in the chair with his book by some Jedidiah Smithe. The book looked a couple centuries old with English that took the better of his time to discern and even longer to put the spells to practice.
Draco had only come across the existence of the Mirror of Erised when he decided to pull off the canvas drapes and employ the mirror to check on his smarting eye which he had rubbed at furiously when irritated by dust.
He was beyond surprised when he found a toddler boy staring up at him from the height of his waist. He reached out his hand haltingly, and the boy raised his in the same manner until they met the sheet of glass. The pain in his eye was forgotten, letting them water to flush out the worst of it.
Draco's grey eyes watched as the boy grew before him, increasing in age and stature. He watched the child grow into what could pass as his twin, except where Draco was sure his face was twisted in surprise and confusion, the young man wore a grin.
On both sides were the boy's parents, a mirror image of Draco's, but they were at ease and proud of their son. The mirror-Lucius was not thin and haggard from his time in Azkaban nor did he have the crazed, empty look of a Demented prisoner. The man was handsome and Draco could see very clearly, for the first time in years, the heavy resemblance between himself and his father.
The image of Narcissa, on the other hand, had gentle eyes and a lot less worry lines that adorned her brow. She did not have the shifty eyes Draco's mother had developed from paranoia about her boys' safety nor the hollow look that was painfully evident when she returned from a visit from the wizard prison. She held lovingly onto her husband's arm- something Draco could not ever recall seeing- while a hand stroked her son's head.
He could read her mouthing, 'I am so proud of you, Draco.'
'As am I, son,' framed the mouth of the Malfoy patriarch.
It was then did Draco's attention catch the Head Boy badge gleaming on his chest and a Professor Flitwick tugging at the sleeve of his robes to tell him he would accept the reformed fugitive as an apprentice. In the background, he spotted Harry Potter giving him a courteous nod that held no animosity, though the jet-haired man's face still showcased awkwardness.
Draco had read about the Mirror of Erised; it was famed as the most spectacular piece of blacksmithing and charming. The frame appeared simple, but when scrutinized, Draco was surprised to see small rune inscriptions all about the frame. It was incredibly detailed and Draco was awestruck. If the handiwork wasn't enough to gawk at, the prospect of a mirror that showed your innermost desires definitely was.
"I see you've found the Mirror of Erised, Draco," said a calm voice.
"Luna Lovegood?" Draco squinted, watching as the figure of the svelte young woman blossomed behind his reflection.
"I suppose I am; yes," she said, voice bright and cheery in a way uniquely Luna.
Never in a million years would Draco Malfoy imagine that Luna Lovegood would be amongst his heart's greatest desires. He stared at the slender figure, wondering what about her that he longed for.
"What are you doing here?"
"It's not someplace new to me, Draco," she replied, a smile that highlighted the kindness in her wistful blue eyes and the serenity that seemed to be her. "I knew there was someone around but I never did think it was you."
The girl was pretty, to say the least. She had matured and her face had lost its cherubic roundness of youth. Her blue eyes, still a very prominent feature of hers, no longer appeared overly large on her face as it did when she first started out at the school. Her physique was slender but not unhealthily so as, Draco shuddered to remember, of the time she had spent as a captive- and for that, he was eternally grateful.
Her scraggly waist-length, dirty blonde hair was sun-bleached to a paler shade. She had clipped it off to mid-back's length and her hair had increased in volume, now rolling in waves. Draco would admit she was attractive despite having a slimmer figure than the hourglass-shape famed as the most desirable body type. He laughed out loud; he, Draco Malfoy, had found Luna Lovegood attractive.
"Have you found yourself, Draco?"
He took a moment to ponder before laughing, half-nodding his head, half-shrugging.
"If you would please," a very solid hand guided him by the shoulders and he found himself face-to-face with a very real Luna Lovegood. He was surprised by her presence but the smile was still on his face; after all, it was Luna Lovegood- it was best to expect the unexpected when it came to her.
"Hello, I'm Luna Lovegood," she greeted, offering him a hand. "I happen to be an avid dreamer with a passion for Care of Magical Creatures classes as well as Herbology. I aspire to be the first wizarding naturalist to classify the Crumple-Horned Snorkack."
Malfoy took her hand and shook it firmly.
"Hello, Luna. I'm Draco, a coward seeking to be free of my past. I hope to further my studies in Charms and take on a job in relations with that. Along the way, I hope to make friends and keep them."
"Well then, Draco. It appears that today happens to be the fourteenth of February. Happy Valentine's day, friend."
From the corner of his eyes, he swore his reflection that had aged by at least a half-dozen years wink at him. Many more figures had appeared around him, draping arms around his shoulders and clinking wine glasses merrily with him.
Draco grinned, "Happy Valentine's. Would you like to join me for lunch by the lake, as friends, Luna?"
"I'd absolutely love to."
He paused for one last glance towards the mirror on his way exiting the Room of Requirement after the younger girl's lead.
It finally dawned on him that, all these years, Draco Malfoy had only wanted to be happy. He had been looking for it in all the wrong places.
He squinted at the mirror, watching the reflection of a certain Lovegood grabbed his mirror image by the wrist and tugged him along with an excited "Come on, Draco!" as such an event unfolded in real life.
Only, in the mirror world, a toddler napped contentedly with his face buried in the crook of his father's neck.
A/N: This little thing here was actually started on the 8th of February 2012, put aside for awhile, and finished on the 14th of February 2012. I've only found it recently when going through my old stuff. I think it wasn't meant to be posted on here (I think I was going to attempt a more detailed rewrite or somthing...) but I kind of still like it, so I figured to just wing it. This thing actually came from the random thought that crossed my mind when reading the epilogue portion of HP:DH... I was wondering what if the blonde with Draco was Luna. I think the ship shows in this piece even if you don't squint, haha.
Well, thank you very much for reading it.
Besides the obvious OOC-ness, please feel free to point out any errors I've made (I'm not very sure about the weather and things like that because I live in the tropics in a country where English isn't the first language). Oh, and the title is subject to change as well. Suggestions are warmly welcomed. I thank you kindly in advance!
Have a nice day!
- Kid Al