1100 words by google docs

for the houses competition, gryffindor, year 3, additional, draco and luna in the same fic and studying dragons

thanks to ck for betaing

Draco's gotten better. That's the truth. After the war, he was pretty sure that he would never feel like himself again. He just went through so much and he felt broken in so many ways.

And then he heard about dragons in Romania. Which sounded crazy. So, naturally, Draco had to go and study dragons. At the time, it seemed like something crazy enough to jolt Draco back to normal. Shock therapy, almost.

Now, two years later, Draco's so much better. He enjoys spending his days at the dragon reserve and his nights with his boyfriend, Charlie. It was weird, at first, dating a Weasley, but Charlie didn't put up with any of his bullshit, and that made Draco feel more normal.

And then he spots Loony Lovegood talking to Charlie one day at the reserve. He's laughing at something she says, and Draco can feel his heart stop as he makes eye contact with her.

Because here's the thing:

Draco's gotten better. He's gotten better by not thinking about the war, or about the people he hurt, or about Hogwarts, or about England in general. He hasn't gone back to England since he started at the dragon reserve, and the only time he even slightly thinks about someone there is when Charlie offhandedly mentions one of his family members, which isn't often — he knows that Draco doesn't want to think about that.

And yet, Loony Lovegood, someone Draco's definitely hurt, is here. In Romania. At his dragon reserve.

Draco starts to back up — maybe he can just ignore it and it'll go away — but Charlie looks up with Loony and sees Draco.

"Draco!" he says, smiling. Draco melts a little inside at that smile. He hates it.

He hates it even more when Charlie grabs his hand and pulls him in closer.

"This is Luna," Charlie says, gesturing. Luna. Draco has to remember not to slip up. "She's going to be training at the reserve."

"Nice to meet you," Draco says, forcing a smile and putting up a hand to shake.

She doesn't take it.

"Oh, we went to school together," Luna remarks, smiling lightly at Draco.

He forces his hand down, making a noncommittal noise.

"Well, Draco," Charlie says, obviously not sensing the 'NO, NO, NO' waves radiating off of Draco, "I thought you could show Luna around the reserve."

Draco looks up Charlie, trying to communicate that he really doesn't want to. Charlie has a lot of things going for him, but he's the most oblivious person Draco's ever met.

"Sure," Draco says through gritted teeth when Charlie doesn't say anymore. He forces another smile, before starting to walk away. "Come on," he tells Luna.

He's totally going to make Charlie pay for this in some subtle way later.

The two of them walk around the reserve, Draco pointing out the different areas. They go through the exotic dragons and the ones that were born at the reserve and the dangerous ones.

They don't talk much, and Draco's actually okay. He can get through this.

Except, a small voice at the back of his mind tells him, if she's touring, she might work here. You'll have to deal with her every single day.

"So," Draco says, as they make their way to the dining all. He cringes at how his voice breaks. "So," he repeats, normally this time.

"So," Luna repeats back at him. Her voice is soft and airy.

"Why…?" he says, trailing off. He's going to sound straight up rude by asking this, but he needs to know. Maybe she's just visiting.

"You're wondering why I'm here," Luna says softly.

"Er, yeah," Draco admits, turning to face her as they arrive.

They enter the dining hall, and it's nearly empty; there's a lot of staggered schedules and the trainers have lunch in small groups. They both pick up a lunch from the kitchen services and Draco leads Luna to his regular table off to the side.

Once they've sat down, Draco looks up at Luna. Is she going to answer the question?

Luna cuts up everything in her lunch before looking up at Draco. She cuts up the piece of chicken, and the asparagus, and Draco watches her, wondering if she'll scoop the mashed potatoes into little piles. She doesn't, though. Instead, she looks up at Draco with big, pale eyes.

"I've decided to study dragons," she says, putting down her knife and fork and giving Draco her full attention. His stomach drops; he really doesn't want to have to work with her. "At least for a little bit."

"Why's that?" Draco asks, tearing into his own meal.

"I want to focus on some of the more common creatures; the wrackspurts have calmed down in recent years."

Draco wonders what a 'wrackspurt' is, but honestly, from hearing about her at Hogwarts, he wouldn't be surprised if she made up creatures.

"And so dragons?" Draco asks, his mouth slightly full. She still hasn't started eating.

"They're quite majestic," she replies. "And Ronald put me in touch with his brother Charlie."

Ronald. Draco makes a little grunt, looking down at his food. She's right. They are majestic. Still, Draco doesn't really want to interact with her. He glances up into her pale eyes, and he's pretty sure he's seen her before.

It doesn't hit him until she finally starts digging into her food —

He had her locked up in his basement for a month.

Shit.

Draco can't do this. He can already feel the panic crawling up his throat.

God, all he wanted to do was study dragons. He doesn't want to think about the war, yet here's a glaring reminder about it and about how wrong he was.

"I —" Draco says, looking up but quickly looking down.

How can he even apologise for it?

"I forgave you a long time ago, you know," Luna whispers, placing her fork and knife down again.

Draco pauses, but doesn't look up at her.

"You were just a child," she continues. "I forgive you. It was a war."

"Really?" Draco asks, something bitter in his mouth.

"Really," Luna says.

Draco tries to take a deep breath, but he can't seem to get enough oxygen.

"And if I don't forgive myself for that?" he asks, gritting his teeth.

"Then you're only holding yourself back," she says. He sees her shrug out of his peripheral view. "No one's blaming you, Draco. It's okay. We're past that now. We're going to be coworkers, we should be civil with each other at least."

And Draco takes a deep breath.