Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to these characters or the plot references. I am just a fan writing a fictional story that I find entertaining (and hopefully you do too). No lawsuits, please and thanks.
Note: I originally wrote this on Tumblr blog. It was on the fly so it's a raw of a piece as you can probably get. Hope you enjoy it! R&R
She was looking forward to the holidays in spite of everyone leaving. Harry Potter had even offered to stay behind, but she knew he wasn't serious. Luna could see right through most of the people she spoke too. Harry Potter had the best intentions behind his offer, but he would never stay really. He wishes to be with the Weasley's as he had nobody else to return to.
Luna's father objected to her staying behind but she told him he had so much work to do in these times or terror with the Quibbler. It was his disappointment that he agreed, but promised they would meet for dinner down at Hogsmeade before Christmas.
Everyone was rushing around her to get their things and eat their last meal before they must leave early the next morning. Hermione and Ron quarreled around every corner and it was somewhat amusing, although she'd never smile at it. That would be rude.
"Luna!" Her name was called but she continued forward as though nothing happened. There were a few other people named Luna so she never responded to the cry on the first crooning. She waited, quite dreamily, until the voice revealed itself. More times than not it wasn't for her, so the practice prevented her from looking silly. Not that she didn't already, Luna was aware of the names people called her as she passed. Looney Lovegood. Looney wasn't such a terrible thing, though. She was in Ravenclaw so she knew she couldn't be that mad.
"Luna, wait up." The voice was clearer now and quite obviously Ginny Weasley's. Of everyone she befriended in Dumbledore's Army, Ginny was the one to get closest to her. Ginny's feet skidded her to a halt when Luna finally spun around on her toes in a witty sort of dance. Ginny nearly fell over but she was quick and balanced herself almost instantly.
"Hello." Luna sang, her focus on a set of Slytherin ties dangling from an unlit torch on the wall. She wondered whose it was and if they were one of the students frantically running the halls looking for it. Nargls were absolutely the cause, maybe she would hang around the hall and ask if anyone has lost their ties.
"You're staying behind, right?" Ginny knew right well that Luna wasn't going home that holiday but she forgave her second guessing. After all, Luna was odd. Nobody would rightfully make assumptions when it came to her. Luna was still fixated on the ties hanging on the wall. How long might they have been there?
"Luna?" She had waited to long to acknowledge the question at hand. Luna drug her big blues eyes away from the high wall and looked to Ginny. Her line lips curled into a kind smile as she nodded. A look of relief poured over her face. Ginny must have a favor, Luna concluded. Ginny wouldn't have a favor of her own, though. There would be a purpose behind it, which meant she wouldn't mind it so much.
"Word is that Malfoy isn't going home either this holiday. Would you mind keeping an eye on him if he is. Harry is going blistering mad. I told him to ask Neville but we all know how Neville is." Luna was listening but her eyes wandered again to the ties. She heard footsteps approaching and her attention was already slipping away. She again nodded her head before started to trot away from her friend. Ginny waited a moment, probably analyzing Luna's silence. When she figured that Luna agreed she headed on her way, probably back to Harry Potter. They were in love, you see. Luna found it quite adorable.
She was doing a bit of a figure eight in the corridor waiting for the other person to come into view. Nargls targeted the particularly absent minded, or at least Luna thought so. She admitted that her head was often elsewhere and she kept her attention only on things that she found extremely fascinating. At present it was the ties and Nargls. She honestly was on a mission to discover them properly.
She stopped dead in her tracks when there was a silent spell cast that sent the ties twirling to the ground. She skipped in a perfectly straight line to pick them up. Whoever cast it must own them, or at least know who did. She wouldn't mind asking them a few questions.
"Looney Lovegood - give me my ties." Draco Malfoy was the victim of the Nargls, was he? She had a teeth-revealing grin decorating her face. He was always the meanest to her which only mean she should be nicest to him, nicer than she was to anyone else.
"Draco Malfoy, what brings you here to this part of the castle?" She knew the answer but it was light conversation. It was part of her plan to be a kind person. A lot of people mistook her niceness as daftness. It was clearly the thought that came to Draco Malfoy's mind when her question was received.
"My ties? You have my ties. How did you get them? Did you put them up there? Do you know who I am?" She giggled, covering her mouth as she was taught to as a girl. She reached her arm out to Draco with the ties in hand, there were four of them, and waited for him to take them back. When he grasped them she found her grip still strong.
"Nargls took them from you, I suppose. I only just came across them on my evening stroll. I do that sometimes, so I can look for the work of Nargls. They're pesky creatures, you know." The two were keeping eye contact. Luna was the one to break it looking down at her hand grasping the ties fiercely. She shouldn't force him to stay and speak with her if he didn't want to. That would make her no kinder than Draco Malfoy. Her hand quickly let go and she shoved them into her jacket's pockets. She wriggled from side to side in his view before waddling away with a bounce in her step.
"It might have been Peeves, Looney. Did you consider that?" She always considered that, in fact a lot of people believed that was the case. He was an evil sort of poltergeist. She looked at him over her shoulder with a tiny bit of a frown just in time to hear the rest, "I'm not a absent minded or crazy. Why would they target me?"
A tiny dose of pepper sprinkled her heart as she noted Draco Malfoy was not scolding her for searching for nonexistent creatures. He was actually even admitting that they were real, but denying that they would target him. Luna approached him again, her mouth only open enough to take in deep breaths of happiness. Joy must have glistened in her eyes.
He flinched when she brushed his hair to the side. Luna couldn't recall a time and girl's touched Draco Malfoy without his permission. Especially those days, these ones where he patrolled the halls vigorously and angrily. He said he was being a typical 'Prefect' but she saw through it. Harry Potter did too. She chuckled softly.
"You've got a foggy head, Draco Malfoy. Nargls aren't blind to that, you see. Happy Christmas." She was ready to move again. Draco Malfoy was in her shadows and she was about to round the corner when she hear him jogging after her. As usual, she would wait until she knew he was going to address her directly. She was taken aback when he grabbed her wrist. A look of urgency was in his eyes.
"Yes?" Luna had a quizzical tone of voice but her eyes were locked on the ties again, hanging loosely around his neck. The Slytherin ties looked quite nice, actually. Perhaps she'd always been interested in them but she hadn't noticed until that night. Luna nodded to herself as Draco Malfoy mustered up the words he wished to say.
"Mistletoe." Luna found herself cooing as one appeared just above their heads. It wasn't uncommon for Hogwarts to spawn up these decorations around the corridors randomly. Draco Malfoy didn't look right away but when he did he became nervous. "Hogwarts is so festive, isn't it?" Her voice was cheery and animated. Again she was going to walk away, and again Draco found his thoughts as she moved.
"Kiss me." It was quick, as rushed as the helplessness that decorated his face. Luna Lovegood? Kissing? The thought was a foreign one to her. She had never been interested in guys, really, as she was always so focused on her school work and somewhat professional studies. She'd never been kissed. Would she do it right? She started to picture all of the times she saw Ginny kissing Dean Thomas, and Ron Weasley kissing Lavender Brown. She found herself beginning to feel a little panicked. Luna was frowning now, but entirely out of fear.
"Kiss me. Don't you know who I am?" Luna saw the joke in his words. He shrugged his shoulders and she rolled onto the tips of her toes. His hands found her arms and started tugging her back to him, which was made easy by her being lost in thought. All the times she was kind to him when he would insult in passing had paid off. Clearly he wasn't all that bad.
Then he pecked her lips gently. Luna's eyes were still open and she was unmoving. She questioned how this even came to be. Ginny had just asked her to keep an eye on him for Harry Potter. He was technically her enemy. She was absolutely mad, looney actually. As she said, though, being Looney wasn't always a bad thing.