Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, it's world, or it's characters. All of those belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling, and anyone she had sold the rights to. That does not include me. I do not make any profit from this fanfiction, and no copyright infringement is intended. I only own this spin-off of her world, nothing else that is recognizable as the world or characters of Harry Potter.
He couldn't do this. It was impossible. How could the Dark Lord hope for him to do this? A sixteen-year-old boy! And while Draco was a proud Slytherin, pureblood heir to the Malfoy name… even he had to admit that Snape was probably right. Voldemort couldn't actually mean for him to do this, to kill Dumbledore; he just wanted to use Draco's failure as an excuse to kill them.
Draco couldn't let that happen. But what was he to do? He had tried the cursed necklace, he had tried the poisoned mead, yet all of his attempts were destroyed by the Immortal Prat, the Boy-Who-Just-Wouldn't-Die. Was it his fault that Potter had insanely fantastic luck? Or that Draco's was nonexistent?
He walked through the seventh floor corridor at just past midnight, making sure the coast was clear before he closed his eyes and paced in front of the Room of Requirement three times, thinking hard of what he needed. Crabbe and Goyle were asleep and he didn't bother waking them; the two noisy brutes would get him caught before they even made it to the right floor.
After the third time around Draco saw a door materialize in front of him, silver with gold and peach designs swirling around it. It was different from what he was used to and he frowned at it, pausing a moment. Then he heard footsteps echoing through the corridor and started.
"Those bloody kids won't know what coming to them, no they won't—"said a voice that distinctly belonged to Filch, most likely talking to his wretched cat Mrs. Norris. Draco grabbed the door handle and darted inside, shutting it quickly behind him. He hoped the door had disappeared as soon as he could get inside, but he could no longer hear the voices outside the door to tell. He did, however, hear another voice.
"I didn't expect you here." A pleasant voice said, reminding Draco much of songbirds, or ringing bells. His storm-grey eyes widened as he whipped around to see one Luna Lovegood looking at him from her perch on a window seat. Through his shock at finding a person in his room, he realized that the window seat was a new edition. Then, glancing around the room, he realized that it wasn't. He was in a completely different place altogether.
It looked much like the living room of a country home, with odd little knick-knacks spread throughout that reminded him much of the ones in Dumbledore's office. Through the window bright sunlight was showing through despite it being near midnight in the real world, and Draco could hear the soft pitter-patter of rain against the window pane now that he paid attention to it.
The room must have known Luna was there and simply opened the door for him instead of changing it any. Obviously one of Luna's requirements hadn't been to not let anyone else inside, he thought dryly. But that begged the question what she was doing in the Room of Requirement in the first place, and how to explain his own appearance there.
She was simply looking at him pleasantly, a small smile on her pale pink lips. She was as fair-skinned as Draco was, with the silvery-white blonde hair to match. He eyed her warily. Of course she knew of this room—she had been in Dumbledore's Army last year. But he was not pleased to find someone else using his space. What was he going to do if he didn't get this done in time?
That brought him back to his earlier decision… that he couldn't do it. Draco scowled at the witch, his own tumultuous feelings disguised through the layer of annoyance that he carefully plastered onto his face. Draco still had his pride, and it would never allow anyone—particularly friends of Potter's—see him in distress.
"What are you doing here, Loony?" He asked, filling his voice with as much disdain as possible as he stayed in his spot by the door. He wanted to leave, to go back to his dormitory and just try again the next day, but Filch was possibly still outside the room, and he couldn't risk getting caught and serving a detention. He needed all the time he could get to finish his task before the end of term.
"Oh, I'm just watching the rain." Luna said with a smile, seeming completely undisturbed by his rudeness. She gestured back out at the window, and Draco followed her gaze to the bright sky. He would have questioned the light on a normal day, but this was the Room of Requirement—it could make it snow puppies if she wanted it to. The sun made patterns in Luna's silky hair, and Draco found his eyes drawn to them before he tore his gaze away.
"You don't have to be here at midnight to watch the sky." He sneered, waiting for her to get the hint and leave, as almost anyone else would have, possibly excepting the Chosen Prick and his crew. They would have preferred to duel, and in his current mood Draco would be most willing to oblige to that.
"No, but it's more peaceful here. There's no one else to interrupt the Sendrals." She said in a dreamy voice, turning her face to look out the window again. Draco stared at her. Was she really insinuating that he was the one that should leave? Like hell he would do that! His task was a million times more important than anything Loony Lovegood could come up with.
"What the hell are Sendrals?" Draco asked instead with annoyance. They were probably some stupid magical bunnies that lived in rainbows and pranced around in fields of candy unicorn tears. The idiot, Draco thought scathingly. Well, she was in Ravenclaw, so she probably wasn't an idiot. But still… only an idiot or something who lived in a different universe could honestly believe anything that The Quibbler published.
Luna looked over at him and her eyes were bright and oddly… catching. "They live in the rain. There are some above your head right now." She told him seriously, and Draco instinctively looked up, as if he was going to see some little goblin-type creatures floating around in the air before he cursed himself for his stupidity when he saw nothing there. "Made you look." Luna said in an almost smug tone. "The Room of Requirement can't create creatures, silly." She told him, shaking her head as if he were the insane one.
Draco looked at her disbelievingly, completely and utterly shocked. This girl played a joke on him—the Slytherin Prince—and then called him silly? What was the world coming to? Him, the heir of Malfoy, being called silly! He stared at her, affronted and incredulous, and she just smiled at him knowingly.
Dear Merlin, somebody help him.