Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters, events, and/or locations affiliated with Harry Potter that appear in this story. No copyright intended.

Chapter 1: Knock on the Door

There it was.

Draco stared at the tall, crooked looking building in the distance. Sighing heavily, he started trudging through the long grass towards the bizarre structure, dragging his trunk lazily behind him. The feeling of absolute dread swelling up inside of him was becoming nearly impossible to ignore.

What would people think if they ever found out what he was doing? They would think he'd gone mad, that's what they'd think. Absolutely mad. Bonkers. Lacking of any sanity whatsoever.

He groaned, cringing as he thought about what he was about to do. He still found it very hard to believe that it had come down to this.

After stopping several times to argue silently with himself (and to heave his trunk out of little furrows in the ground that he swore existed for the sole purpose of irritating him further), he reached the house. It seemed to be leaning in different directions, and looked as if it might topple over at any second. There was a strange brick path leading up to the front door, painted in many bright colors. Unfamiliar plant life surrounded the front of the house, some of the plants seeming almost alive seeing as they snapped at the vacant air around them. Crystal ornaments were dangling from small trees even though it wasn't even close to Christmas time. Draco noticed that the front door was about six feet tall, very narrow, and painted a darkish purple. The door's handle was square instead of round, and it seemed to be made of some strange substance that reminded Draco of hardened jelly.

Yes, this was definitely Luna's house.

Clearing his throat and trying desperately to wipe the sneer off of his face, he knocked.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Luna Lovegood was sitting alone in her bedroom, knitting some oversized socks for the gnomes she'd seen playing around about a mile from her house. The clocks hanging on her multi colored walls ticked loudly, echoing through the empty house.

Luna sighed, trying to concentrate on her knitting. The silence that had recently settled over the Lovegood residence hung like a thick fog in the air, threatening to suffocate her at any minute. Her ears, despite her many attempts to talk them out of doing so, were straining for sounds that would never come. She listened for the sound of her father's voice calling her down to breakfast, the sound of him typing away on his little typewriter that was ten times smaller than an average one. Though she knew that she would never hear those sounds again, her stubborn ears still listened for them.

Luna, setting down her knitting, gazed outside of her window and spotted the two tombstones in their backyard. One looked rather worn, while the other looked brand new. Luna had spent a week carving that tombstone herself. She blamed the wrackspurts for taking her so long to carve it, but she knew it was because she hadn't been quite ready to put that stone into the ground.

Luna stared blankly out the window, her mind wandering off as it often did. She wasn't thinking about anything in particular, but just the sight of the tombstones caused her eyes to water slightly.

"Don't cry now" Luna told herself softly. "It won't do you any good to cry."

Luna was a little taken back at the sound of her own voice. She quieted instantly, as if it had been a sin to break the mournful silence.

The seemingly eternal lack of sound was once again broken when she heard a knock at the door.

"Who could that be?" she said out loud, talking to nobody in particular. She ran down the winding staircase and through the kitchen to the front door. When she flung open the door she was half hoping to see her father standing there with ticklish cheese like he used to bring home every weekend, but instead it was a blond haired wizard with silver eyes, staring up at her.

"Hello Draco Malfoy" she said in her usual airy voice, trying not to show her disappointment.

"Looney" Draco said stiffly.

There was an awkward silence during which Luna stared curiously at her visitor, her mind filled with a thousand questions.

Draco was sweating now, at a complete loss of words. What was he supposed to say? How had he gotten into this mess? And why the hell was she staring at him like that? He was starting to feel extremely uncomfortable and decided that he couldn't let the awkwardness continue any longer.

"Listen I know this is really weird and all, but-"

"Oh it's not weird, it's actually exceptionally ordinary aside from the fact that you've never visited me before" Luna said. Draco was now red in the face. "Why is it that you're here Draco? If you've come for some mistletoe we've got some growing in the back, next to the rongo plants."

"Rongo plants? What the bloody hell is a rongo plant?" Draco said, his usual sneer returning.

"They're little orange wheat plants. People use them to ward off Wrackspurts, though it doesn't work very well-"

"I'm not here to buy your imaginary wrackspot plants" Draco sniffed impatiently.

"Wrackspurt" Luna corrected. "And they're not imaginary. I can come show them to you if you'd like."

Draco took in a deep breath, trying his best to keep a calm composure.

"Listen, I just need to…it'll take a while to explain."

Luna took a moment to look him over, noticing quickly that he wasn't exactly a picture of health. His face, unusually thin and even paler than usual, reminded Luna of an albino threstral. There were dark circles under his tired looking eyes, which were starting to resemble empty voids.

Something was definitely wrong. They'd never been friends, Luna hadn't been naïve enough to think so, but could always tell when something was wrong with him. It was like she just knew that something was off.

Luna felt a pang of pity shoot through her chest as she looked over him again. This poor, miserable creature had turned up on her doorstep, and she had no right to do anything other than cheer him up as best as she could.

"Come inside" she said cheerfully, inviting him in.

Draco stepped into the house cautiously, looking around as he entered. She laughed, seeing as he seemed to be both confused and in awe of his surroundings. It was as if he'd never seen doorknob ornaments! Luna's mother had loved to hang them from the ceiling and Luna always kept them up.

She led him into the small kitchen area, which was cluttered with misshapen teapots and plates. "Excuse the mess. You can leave your trunk wherever you like. Why don't you sit down" Luna said. Draco took a seat at the table, trying not to stare at the peculiar interior decorations.

"Would you like some purple raspberries?" she asked, offering him a basket full of them. "I picked them this morning."

"Sure" Draco said, slowly reaching for one. Luna watched him as he examined them suspiciously before eating a few.

"Well, about why I came…I need a place to stay. I don't know if this would be temporary or not but, I was wondering if I could stay here."

There was an awkward pause before Draco added, "But only if that's alright with you and your dad."

There was another awkward silence, during which Luna blinked a little too quickly and stared ahead blankly, as if she had forgotten he was there. Draco shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

Draco continued to stare at her, wondering what she would say. For a moment he feared that she might go off on him. What kind of person just showed up at the house of a person they had ruthlessly taunted for six years and casually asked to take up residence with them? Though it was very hard to picture Luna being mad at anyone, he feared it none the less. What if she said no? Then what would he do? Where would he go?

As much as he hated it (the very thought of it was frustrating beyond belief), he needed Luna to say yes to him. He contemplated getting on his knees to beg, but decided to keep what little dignity he had left.

He watched as a smile appeared on Luna's face, her eyes lighting up immediately. He started to feel relief wash over him like a soothing wave.

Luna simply smiled at Draco. Maybe she wouldn't have to spend the days alone anymore. Thrilled at the idea of having a companion to share her home with, Luna wanted to sing.

"Oh of course it'll be alright Draco! You can stay as long as you want!"

"Thank God" Draco whispered to himself before forcing himself to smile back at Luna.

"Just be careful not to stray too far away from the house when you go on walks, the gnomes don't always like strangers, especially when they haven't received their monthly socks. I'm not quite done knitting them yet."

Draco only stared at her. Luna, as usual, ignored his stares.

She used a levitation spell to make his trunk float up the stairs. "I can show you to your room if you want."

Draco followed her up the winding staircase into the second story of the house. There were only three rooms. One was Luna's, the other was boarded up because it had been her parents' room and it pained her to go in there, and the last was a spare bedroom. The trunk floated inside the spare bedroom and Luna and Draco followed it. "This one is yours" Luna said. She watched Draco walk around and stare at the green room. Real tree branches decorated the ceiling. When Luna and her parents had painted and decorated the room, Luna had wanted it to feel like a forest. There was even a little waterfall in the corner. "It's green, like Slytherin, so you might feel more at home" she said cheerfully. He turned to look at her.

"Thanks Looney. I'll just, um, start unpacking." Luna beamed at him. He certainly wouldn't have been her first choice in company, but surely it couldn't be too bad. Maybe he could help her bring the socks over to the gnomes tomorrow.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXx

Draco felt uneasy. Luna was watching him unpack his things. He wanted to tell her to get out of the room and leave him alone, but he couldn't. He didn't want to be rude. Usually, he wouldn't care about being rude to Looney Lovegood, but he was staying in her house and he didn't want to make her mad. But when he came to think of it, he'd never seen Luna mad at all. Even when he used to call her names at school, she would only smile back and say something ridiculous.

"So why do you need a place to stay? I thought you lived in a fancy manor" Luna said. Draco felt a sharp pang of sadness in his chest. He didn't want to talk about it. He'd been dreading that question and he had been hoping that Luna wouldn't ask it. He thought about lying to her, but when he looked up into her sparkling blue eyes, he found that he couldn't bring himself to lie to her.

"The house is still mine but…I don't know, I guess I couldn't stand the thought of being alone in such a huge place" he answered.

"Alone?"

Draco swallowed hard, trying hard not to let any tears fall. He wasn't going to cry in front of her. "Recently…umm….my parents…they kind of….they're gone" he stuttered. He refused to use the word 'dead'. Saying it made it feel too real.

To his surprise, Luna kneeled next to him and took his hand.

"I'm sorry…my father is gone too. Actually it was last month. I suppose it was rather sudden. He never really did look both ways when he crossed the streets…." and she stopped and seemed to be staring into the distance, as if she wasn't all together there.

He felt something. Pity.

Without even meaning to, he gave her hand a small squeeze, rubbing his thumb into her palm. He wanted to say something to her, he-

Wait, this was Looney. What the hell was he doing?

He snatched his hand away from hers. It took every ounce of self control in him not to snap at her.

"Well…umm…I've got to change now. My clothes I mean. So, could you just…you know…"

"Oh of course" Luna said, letting go of his hand and quickly backing out of the room. But before she exited the room, she stopped to steal another glance at him. Draco noticed.

"Is there something you needed?" he snarled. "I'm not gonna let you watch-"

"Oh sorry. It's just…maybe it'll be nice having you here."

"Nice?" Draco scoffed. He couldn't picture a stay with Luna, especially for an indefinite period of time, to be anything close to nice. A few words that more accurately described his expectations popped into his mind, but decided not to share them.

"Yah. Neither of us have to be alone anymore."

"Yah..." Draco said, his voice drifting off before he could finish his thought.

And with that, Luna closed the door behind her as she left, leaving Draco alone with unsettling thoughts and a growing curiosity concerning wrackspurts.