A/N Okay, I know that I have never done Draco/Luna in my life, and I never intended to, but it seems sweet. So I chose that pairing for the "Sell Me a Story" Challenge by SomethingWithMittens.
Disclaimer: These are annoying. Harry doesn't belong to me (though I really wish he did).
Draco walked the halls of the seventh floor, wandering aimlessly. He had searched with the Inquisitorial Squad for hours, looking for the stupid rebel kids. Why couldn't they just follow the rules and give up?
It had been getting boring so, like any other fifteen-year-old, he ditched Ugly Umbridge and went off on his own. Any kid in their right mind would do the same thing. Except for those idiot Gryffin-dorks and the know-it-all Brainy-claws.
Even the Puffin-poops wouldn't leave, and they didn't even know anything!
So Draco had gone off on his own, and had ended up down a deserted hallway on the seventh floor. That was when he heard the noise.
It had been brief, but loud. Like one of those Muggle "gunshots". But Draco knew that sound anywhere. It was the sound of a particularly strong spell hurtling out of a wand, and then being blocked.
It was the sound of power.
So, naturally, Draco had gone to investigate.
Another one of those sounds had penetrated the silence a moment later. Then another. And then another and another. Soon the air was filled with the cracks and slashes of spells flying everywhere.
Draco raced toward the source of it all, intrigued by the sudden outburst of power. But all he found was a wall. It wasn't unusual. In fact, it was exactly like any other wall in the castle. But something about it was odd.
Maybe it was the fact that this was a wall facing the outside of the castle, so there couldn't have been anything behind it. Or maybe it was simply that there was a painting of Barnabus the Barmy on it.
Whatever it was, it made Draco lean against the wall and press his ear to it, waiting for more noise. But none came.
Draco stood like that for over an hour, and nothing happened. But finally, at around nine o' clock (curfew), something caught his eye.
The wall seemed to be moving! It was rippling, like a reflection in a pool that was interrupted. But it was so subtle that he wouldn't have noticed it had he not been leaning on it.
A rumbling sound began, and Draco backed away in fear.
But nothing happened. Draco blinked his eyes, and something appeared.
It was a door. It was majestic looking, like someone from the time of King Arthur had carved it.
Draco hid behind a tapestry on the wall facing the one with the door. He looked through a tiny rip in the curtain silently. He waited for something to happen. After a few minutes, something did.
The door creaked open. A head popped out, but Draco couldn't see who it was through his little rip in the tapestry.
Finally, the person stepped out of the door and went down the hall. Before Draco could catch a profile, the person was gone. What he had noticed, though, was that the person was a girl. With striking blonde hair that looked about the same color as his own. She was skipping.
After her, a bunch of people filed into the hallway. Some ran down it, some strolled, and others walked at a brisk pace. Draco couldn't see one face.
But he saw, at the end, a patch of messed up black hair and the shimmer of green eyes, and he knew Potter was behind it all.
So who was the girl at the front, who had walked out so bravely from behind the hidden door? It must have been a Gryffin-dork, he thought disgustedly.
After everyone was gone, Draco got up and set off to the Grand Staircase. Instead of going to the Slytherin Common Room, however, he made a beeline for Umbridge's office.
These rebels would finally get what was coming for them.
After Draco told Umbridge all about what he had seen, he knew he had never seen the woman smile so widely.
"This is it, Malfoy," she told him. "Miss Edgecombe has presented me with information also. Now we will crush this army into less than dust!"
Draco nodded and walked out of the office. Sometimes the old toad scared him a little.
Once in the dormitory, Draco got ready to sleep the exhaustion off. But sleep didn't come easily. His mind kept wandering to that girl that had poked her head out first.
Draco had thought she was a Gryffindor, but he didn't recall anyone in that house with such blonde hair.
He would check the next morning at breakfast to prove his hunch wrong.
When Draco sat down in the Great Hall the next day, he looked around the entire room. Only one girl had the striking blonde hair. And she wasn't there yet.
Draco sat and waited for a long while. Maybe she just didn't eat breakfast? No, everyone ate breakfast.
He kept his eyes glued to the entrance of the Great Hall for the entire length of breakfast. The girl didn't show up.
Once the food started disappearing, Draco groaned. He must have missed her!
Draco was determined to be the first person to lunch. That way, he would have to see her, even if it was only for a few minutes. He put his face in his hands, and then picked up a biscuit. He hadn't eaten the whole time.
But just as he brought the bread to his lips, it disappeared. Draco growled in frustration and stormed to the Common Room. Well…
At least it was Sunday.
Draco sat on a couch the whole day. Pansy came to see what was wrong, but he shoved her away. She shrugged and left him alone.
The more Draco thought about her, the more he knew he was falling for that mysterious girl skipping down the hallway.
There were three problems with this: One; He couldn't like someone in another house, that was crazy. Two; Malfoys don't love. Three; He would have to capture those idiot kids, and he didn't know he could hold that girl captive.
Draco didn't understand why he cared so much about that girl. She was just the first of, what, a hundred kids in the hallway? So what made her so different? Draco hadn't even seen her face, but he could tell that she was brave just because she had skipped down the hall, completely unafraid of whatever may come her way.
Draco shook his head. Malfoys can't love. Love isn't real, it's just something fools make up to cover for their stupidity… Right?
He mentally slapped himself then. Why was he sitting here, on this couch, wondering about a girl? He was wasting his entire day! He could be off tormenting the new little Gryffin-dorks, and what was he doing instead? Sitting around.
It was despicable.
So Draco forced himself up and off of the couch, and into the East Courtyard. This was the busiest place on a Sunday afternoon, at least for the first years. So it was also the best place to bully little kids.
Draco had started to pick on one particularly scrawny first year when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was a flash of striking blonde hair, whipping around the corner.
He blinked. That wasn't possible. She couldn't be just walking around… But she was just some girl that Draco shouldn't even care about.
Draco shoved the kid down on the ground and strode off the way the girl had gone. He couldn't help it; his curiosity had gotten the better of him.
He walked around the corner. There was absolutely no one in sight. Except… was that a streak of white hair? A door closed shut, and Draco threw it back open again. A blonde head bobbed above the sudden sea of students rushing to the Great Hall.
It seemed that the girl was heading that way as well. So Draco raced to the Great Hall, still determined to be the first one there. His wishes were realized.
The Great Hall was empty. That was kind of odd, seeing as there were so many people heading that way.
But then everything made sense. Because the doors burst open, and everyone spilled into the Hall.
There had been someone standing there, trying to convince people of something. It was the girl with the blonde hair. Draco felt his heart melt as she skipped in and sat down- at the Ravenclaw table.
What? He thought. But she was so brave… I guess it isn't impossible for a Brainy-claw to have courage… Who cares, as long as I find out who she is, anyway? So Draco walked casually over to the Ravenclaw table.
The girl was already laughing and having fun. How had so many people entered so fast? But he walked over anyway.
Just before he reached the table, however, the girl's head flipped back in an enormous burst of laughter, and he saw who it was.
Luna Lovegood.