The clouds overhead were dark, the steel colored and heavy sort that promise rain will be falling within only a matter of moments. They'd been like that off and on throughout the day, bringing thunder and lightning both. Nearly everyone was staying inside the castle, glad that the weather was hitting on a weekend, when they weren't required to go outside to get to classes. Draco could hardly blame them. If it weren't for a certain quirky fiancé, then he too would be indoors instead of standing in the middle of the empty quidditch pitch. His office, complete with a fire and hot tea, sounded wonderful – but not as wonderful as her voice.

"It's a beautiful day, today. Wouldn't you say, Draco?" Dreamy as ever, she stood behind him. "I know that the others don't appreciate it as much as we do, but…I think it's lovely all the same."

"Lovely is an interesting choice of word to describe it, dearest." His lips slid easily into a smile as he turned around to face her, now that she was here. "Now you…you are lovely."

She smiled too, her face lighting up, and he couldn't help but be thankful again that he was able to call her his. It never failed to raise questions, the relationship between the two of them. They came in less numbers now, and with less frequency, as the wizarding world adjusted to the transformation in the Malfoy heir but they were still there. How did it work? Was he rebelling against his parents still? Did Luna have him under the influence of a potion?

Did any of that even matter?

"I see that you got my message earlier. I hoped Kiwi had stayed on course today. Of course, she usually does… but sometimes she wanders." Luna tapped her thigh, nervous about something. "I think she's rather taken a liking to Zeus."

Draco had to bite his lip to avoid his smile widening. There was no telling how Luna would take that reaction. Kiwi, her beloved barn owl, probably wasn't supposed to 'take a liking' to his brown owl. "No reason to worry today; Zeus is out delivering a letter to Potter."

"Aren't you worried that he'll be bothered by the rain?" She sounded quite concerned, glancing up at the sky.

"You are aware that you're more concerned about my owl being bothered by being outside in this weather than you are about us being out in it?" He moved closer to her, put his arms around her. "He's probably already at Potter's, eating treats while he waits for the weather to clear."

"Good." Luna nodded definitively, her eyes sparkling suddenly. "I've got an idea."

"Oh?" She nodded and he bent forward, intending to kiss her. Just before their lips met, he paused. "What is it?"

Stepping on her tiptoes, she placed a quick kiss on his cheek. "You'll see in a moment!"

With a shake of his head, he watched her dart toward the changing rooms. It really was better to just wait for Luna's plans to play out rather than try to puzzle them out – especially when she was in her more cryptic moods. In any case, it was more fun.

Just as the rain finally began to fall, the witch reappeared. She was dressed in Slytherin robes now, the hood pulled up around her head. From what he could see of her jewelry, it had been charmed to appear green.

And the best part?

She was hissing.

Draco tried to hide his confusion by rubbing at one of his eyes, which proved to be quite the mistake. Luna started running toward him, though not in a straight line. She zigzagged across the ground in the pattern one would expect of a snake, her hissing breaking up every now and then as she pushed hair from her eyes. It wasn't until she was nearly upon him that he figured out what he was supposed to do, and with a sudden laugh, he took off.

They made it an entire lap around the pitch before the rain started to pick up in intensity, switching from a slight drizzle to a steadier fall. Still, Luna showed no signs of stopping the chase. Shaking his head, Draco decided that he wouldn't either.

The second lap was tougher to finish than the first, and the third was even worse. The fourth? Impossible. He made it halfway around before deciding to cut through the middle of the pitch, thinking that maybe they would be finished once Luna realized he was heading for the changing rooms.

He didn't even make it halfway across.

The hissing had stopped, making Draco slow down in a foolish attempt to figure out why. Worried that something had happened, he turned his head just in time to see Luna leaping at him and then they hit the ground together with a slight thud. Luna began laughing as soon as she caught her breath, and her good mood was contagious.

Draco rolled over and propped his head up with his elbow to look at Luna. She'd rolled over just before he had and was laying on her back, head pointing toward the sky. The rain on her skin made it look as though she had been crying, but happiness was practically radiating from her. Her eyes were closed, but fluttered open as he watched her. "That was beastly fun!" And she burst into laughter again at her pun.

"I…don't know quite what that was." He grinned. "But yes, it was fun."

She reached over and grabbed his hand. "I was the basilisk… you were Harry!"

"Oh, because that was supposed to be obvious?" He was sarcastic, but as usual, she didn't seem to notice. That was one of the many things that was great about Luna… She accepted Draco for himself. He had changed after the war, yes, but not completely. If he had, she wouldn't be there with him.

"I hissed, didn't I?!" Did she not realize that, generally speaking, all snakes hissed?

Did that matter?

"The marks humans leave are too often scars, Luna Lovegood." He moved over her, stared down at her, his gaze a mixture of harsh desire and tender affection. "That's not the case with you. You just leave bruises."

She laughed and reached up to pull his lips to hers, the robes she was wearing shifting then. She'd worn them tied tighter than necessary, in a fashion not technically designed for robes to be worn in, and so he hadn't noticed before that it was all that was keeping their skin apart. His fingers found the hem of it, felt the tiny stitching his mum had made the elf put in there. His initials.

Suddenly it didn't matter that it was raining, or that there was mud, or that the entirety of the student body and many of his fellow professors could see them. It just mattered that he had her with him, that she was willing to stay with him even after the torture his family had put her through.

Together, until the very end.

That's how they were meant to be.

a/n:

This was written for Round 8 of the Harry Potter Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition.
I write as Beater 1 for the Montrose Magpies.
The overall round setting was writing fluff...but with a slight twist.
My twist was a basilisk.
My prompts were;
- 1 (word); beastly
- 2 (word); transformation
- 15 (quote); "The marks humans leave are too often scars." - John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Big thanks to my fellow Magpies (Rayne and Firefly mainly, but Jordi too) for input, ideas, and beta work!