Author's Notes: For the slythindor100 advent challenge. Eighth year fic. Mostly pre-slash. Pretty random.

When Luna had announced, seemingly out of the blue (as always), that there were dangerous creatures currently lurking inside the school and threatening the students, Harry had, after barely a moment's thought, agreed to join her in hunting them down, which seemed to both surprise and please Luna.

"Why d'you want to go encouraging her? You know all these creepy crawlies she believes in are a load of bunk," Ron said.

Harry shrugged. "Well yeah. But that's not really the point, is it?"

He figured, if nothing else, it beat out spending the afternoon in the library buried neck-deep in Transfiguration books.

When it turned out that Luna was actually onto something genuine this time, no one could have been more surprised than Harry.

Well, no one apart from maybe Malfoy, given the circumstances.

Harry and Luna rounded the corner just in time to see what looked like hundreds of insects – no, at a second glance, tiny somewhat bat-like creatures with grasping claws – burst free from a sprig of mistletoe and descend upon Malfoy, who had apparently been loitering in the hallway (probably up to no good, suggested that niggling part of Harry's brain that could never be completely shut off when it came to Malfoy).

Malfoy shrieked as the tiny creatures swarmed around him, tearing at his clothes and congregating thickly around his pockets.

"What the –" Harry breathed.

"Nargles," Luna explained dismissively, as if Harry should already know this. She'd probably mentioned them before at some point. "They've amassed quite an army in the castle in the last few years, you know. I think they've a grand plan to band together and steal something much larger than they usually go after."

"Hey, do you think they're trying to steal Malfoy?" Harry asked, trying not to laugh. "Because actually, if that's all they're here for, someone should tell them they're welcome to just take him and go."

Of course, Harry's instincts wouldn't let him just stand back and watch a fellow student be attacked for long, even if it was Malfoy. While Luna repeatedly fired off some spell Harry had never heard of that seemed to specifically target the Nargles (Harry would have to pay more attention to the defence tips in the Quibbler from now on, it seemed), Harry had to resort to yanking the vicious little creatures off Malfoy by hand.

The Nargles really managed to do a number before they were chased off, though. Malfoy's robes were utterly ruined, and reddened scratches on his otherwise white skin could be seen through the gaping holes left in the cloth.

As if they were still tearing at him, Malfoy continued to hysterically bat at his clothing and generally jerk around like a badly co-ordinated marionette for several moments after the Nargles had all disappeared. Harry grabbed onto his shoulders to steady him and wondered whether he'd have to smack Malfoy across the face to snap him out of it. Harry sure hoped so.

Apparently Malfoy noticed that Harry Potter was actually touching him, though. There was a moment when Malfoy looked at him in surprise, and possibly (though Harry was most likely imagining it) a very tiny hint of appreciation. Then he seemed to recover himself.

"Get off me, Potter," he ordered, angrily shaking Harry's hands off his shoulders.

"Yeah, you're welcome," Harry said. "Git," he added under his breath.

Malfoy sneered. "You know, if you don't stop accosting me all over the place, copping a feel whenever you can manage it, people will start to talk."

Harry spluttered, wordless.

Malfoy levelled a glare at both Harry and Luna and then stalked off, clearly trying to look dignified despite the fact that the remainder of his robes were hanging off him in tatters. Staring after Malfoy's retreating back, Harry thought he looked ridiculous. So ridiculous, in fact, that Harry was having difficulty glancing away until Luna spoke.

"People already do, you know," Luna said dreamily.

"Er... all right..." Harry said absently, still half-focused on Malfoy. Then he realised he had no idea what Luna was actually talking about. "Hang on, who does what now?"

"People talk about the two of you," Luna said, indicating in the direction Malfoy had left.

Harry made a disgusted face at the thought of being paired together with Malfoy in any conversation. It was especially bad once his brain finally shifted fully back into gear and he recalled exactly what Malfoy had accused him of. "Wait, you don't mean... like... that?"

"Oh yes."

Harry decided he felt vaguely ill; there was a fluttering in his stomach almost like someone had loosed a Nargle or two in there.

"They don't say it to me, of course," said Luna, "but people often forget I'm there, you see, so I hear things. I think it took them a very long time to bring it up, actually. Somehow no one ever does seem to agree with me about these things. Imagine no one suspecting anything until that time you two ended up rolling around on the Quidditch pitch together a few years ago."

"Oi, that was a fight," Harry insisted.

Luna shrugged. "Otherwise known as 'misdirected sexual tension', according to Lisa Turpin. Oh, don't worry, most people still didn't really believe it until that whole stalking business."

Don't worry? Seriously?

Harry might've hoped that Luna was just dreaming it up, but... well, she'd been right about the Nargles, hadn't she? And about the Thestrals, and the Grey Lady, and... well, it seemed no matter how often he re-evaluated Luna, he just seemed to keep underestimating her. Not this time. This time Harry actually believed her. It was hardly the first time the population of Hogwarts had gone around saying mad things about him behind his back.

"So how many people have you heard talking about this, exactly?" Harry asked.

"Well there's a wager in Ravenclaw, so I suppose quite a few."

Merlin. "A wager?" Harry repeated sort of faintly.

"About when you and Draco Malfoy will finally be discovered kissing wildly in an empty classroom at the tail end of beating each other silly," Luna said, as if the idea were nothing unusual. "It's quite a large pool, you know. Even some of the Hufflepuffs have joined in. Perhaps you could even wager on yourself."

"What, and bet that it'll never happen?"

Luna laughed. "You'd get very good odds on that, I think, since no one believes that's possible. I think the very latest bet is for the train ride back to London after the Leaving Feast."

Harry had a sudden mental picture of himself shoving Malfoy bodily against a wall in an otherwise empty compartment. He blushed, immediately appalled with himself, and doubly so with what sounded like a large percentage of his fellow students for ultimately putting the thought in his head in the first place.

Determined to push it out of his mind (or preferably to scour his whole brain, just to be sure), Harry reminded Luna of the Nargles, many of which were still out there somewhere in the castle, probably waiting to pounce on some poor student that deserved it less than Malfoy. As he'd hoped, the hunt for the apparently-not-so-imaginary creatures distracted him quite well while it lasted.

If only the bizarre thoughts hadn't taken the opportunity to creep their way back in just as soon as Harry was kipped down for the night later in his dorm.

Harry dreamed about that damned Ravenclaw wager, with a dream version of Malfoy sending one of his cronies into Ravenclaw territory to lay a bet on his behalf, and then, being the Slytherin that he was, cheating to make sure he won.

But even if it was to fulfil a wager or not, dream-Harry didn't seem to mind being – as Malfoy himself had put it – 'accosted' in the halls under some blessedly Nargle-free mistletoe, especially since Malfoys lips were softer than he would have imagined... if he'd ever imagined the feel of Malfoy's lips, that was. Which he hadn't. Never. Not at all.

That was what Harry told himself over and over when he woke up in a tangle of sheets and immediately threw himself into a suspiciously cold shower, anyway.

He was never letting Luna put weird thoughts into his head again, he swore.

Not even if they turned out to be true.

~FIN~