The Ease In Which To Be Disarmed
Disclaimer: Not mine
Summary A challenge, A Magical Artefact, A few unthinkable romances. Boom! My Story. Enjoy!
Chapter One: The Ring of Dispell
Luna Lovegood hummed one of her favourite tunes, from a band she'd discovered over the summer holidays, as she traipsed into an empty compartment and seated herself, arranging her mass of cerise pink skirts delicately around her as she did so. Taking out a thick novel from her patched school bag and still humming, she slung her bag into the corner of her seat she was sat on in the train compartment and promptly screamed as the head of a dark haired boy appeared from nowhere.
"Shhhh!" the head hissed, making Luna stop screaming and instead go a deathly white parlour.
Although Luna Lovegood had seen many a strange thing in her time, the odd assortment of animals her father photographed and wrote about in his magazine, the quibbler, she had never encountered a floating, talking head before.
"You're a floating head" she observed randomly and quite serenely, feeling that now she had met the head, she might as well be polite to it.
The head rolled its eyes, shaking itself from side to side.
"Zabini?" came a voice from the doorway of the compartment and Luna glanced up, just in time to see a second detached head. One head was cool, two was just scary and so she did what any other teenage girl would have done if faced with two floating heads in their train compartment. She fainted.
"Is she alright?"
"I dunno. I didn't realise you had company Zabini"
"Well I wasn't expecting her; I guess she thought it was empty"
"Shocking, seeming as you were under your invisibility cape"
Luna slowly and groggily came to on the floor of the train compartment. The Hogwarts express had pulled out of kings cross and she could feel the momentum of the train travelling at high speed, making her feel slightly sick. She gradually pulled herself into a sitting position; helped by one of the two boys she seemed to be sharing a compartment with. He was a tall. Handsome blonde boy, who seemed very familiar to Luna, but she wasn't able to place his features just yet in her dazed state.
"You haven't happened to see two floating heads about have you?" she asked quickly and then glanced around and jumped as she recognized the second of the boys to be the first floating head. Only this time he had a body attached to him.
"Where did you find that?" she asked indicating to his torso and legs and he grinned.
"You're quite the amusing one aren't you" he laughed and Luna frowned.
"We were wearing invisibility cloaks" explained the blonde boy quickly and suddenly Luna's mind linked the previous half hours events and her lips formed a small "o" of understanding.
"Feeling slightly foolish?" grinned the dark haired boy and Luna shook her head.
"Nope. I never feel foolish" she answered and then continued at the look of surprise on the boy's faces.
"If I felt foolish after doing silly things then I should never feel anything but foolish as I only ever do silly things" she laughed and the blonde boy grinned.
"Your something different that's for sure" he commented and then the pair of them hauled her to her feet and seated her back on her chair.
Luna sat in silence as she watched the two boys sit opposite her and become more comfortable.
"Im Luna Lovegood by the way" she spoke up after a minute or two and the two boys exchanged glances.
"Nice to meet you Luna" spoke up the blonde boy after a second, extending his hand.
"Draco Malfoy" he added and Luna raised an eyebrow. It became a silent pact within that one look to ignore any preconceptions they might have of each other.
"Blaise Zabini" said the other boy, also shaking Luna's hand and smiling. His smile wasn't quite as disarming as Draco's, whose smile had made her blush.
After the introductions were through Draco turned to Blaise and produced a small canvas bag.
"Still on for the challenge this year?" he asked and Blaise nodded.
"As always" he replied, "what is it this year?"
Luna watched in amazement as Draco pulled a small shiny ring that gleamed and glittered in the sunlight that streamed through the compartment window. Luna gasped whilst Blaise looked slightly confused.
"Yeah great Malfoy. It'll really go with my dress and heels" he said sarcastically.
Draco turned to Luna who was staring in awe at the ring, which was made of battered silver and coated in various dulled gemstones.
"Well perhaps I should compete against Luna this year as she obviously knows what this is" he said softly and Luna glanced up at him.
"Compete?" she echoed and Draco shrugged.
"Every year Blaise here and I have a competition. We start off with a sum of money and we both have to try and increase the original sum by any means and who ever wins gets the prize. Last year Blaise decided the prize would be a rather spectacular Dynamite 600 Forbes broomstick and id like to thank him kindly for my new ride" he winked as Blaise frowned.
"And this year Draco bought his mum old jewellery" Blaise sulked and Luna laughed.
"Blaise, that's the ring of dispell" She explained and Blaise looked non plus-ed.
"The ring given to Lancelot by the lady of the lake in Camelot. It dispels enchantments and is possibly one of the rarest and most valuable magical artefacts in existence" she added, eying the ring, then Draco.
"Where did you get it?" she asked Draco, who was looking mighty pleased with himself.
"I found it" he said calmly.
"You found it?" Luna repeated in apprehension.
"Yes"
"Where?"
"Over the summer I acquired rather a lot of magical equipment from a shop in knock turn alley and inside one of them was the ring. It sparked my curiosity and so I researched it and found it to be rather valuable" he explained.
Luna felt faint. She was in the presence of one of the magical world greatest kept secrets. No one knew the whereabouts of this ring or who it belonged to, apart from now herself and the two Slytherin's.
"So then you two. Care to join the competition?" Draco was asking and Luna saw Blaise nod and shake Draco's hand.
She hesitated and then shook his hand as well; holding it just a second longer then necessary and catching his bright grey eyes that were glittering with excitement.
"One hundred galleons each. Three months. Meetings every two weeks to make comparisons and check everyone is keeping the rule, which is that at the end of three months, you can only count potential wealth in non object forms so no buying houses, vases or anything random like that. Only people based wealth for example quidditch teams etc okay?"
Blaise and Luna nodded and Draco pulled out a check book, signing off two cheques for one hundred galleons each and ripping them out, he handed them to Luna and Blaise.
Luna looked confused and Draco explained.
The prize creator also provides the money. If he or she wins overall, all money must be paid back, but if he or she loses, the other competitors get to keep their fortunes"
"Okay, thanks" Luna answered, folding up the check and slotting it into her bra, watched slyly by Draco, who couldn't help but find her appealing in an odd, chaotic way. Most of the girls he spent time with were always perfect. They had perfect manners, perfect outfits and social standing. It was refreshing to find a girl who didn't care what anyone else thought of her.
"I need to get changed" Blaise announced as he looked out of the window and saw Hogwarts approaching.
Luna checked her Scooby –doo watch and nodded.
"me too" she agreed, pulling her tank top over her head and unzipping her cerise skirts, so she stood therein just her underwear.
The two boys stared at her in compete shock as she dug in her bag for her uniform and slipped the short grey skirt and white shirt on. Blaise shrugged and pulled on his own uniform, but Draco stood almost transfixed as he watched her pull on a pair of stockings and buttoned her shirt.
"Owww!" he yelped and turned away from Luna quickly as Blaise jabbed him in the ribs.
"Stop staring" Blaise muttered and Draco blushed.
"I wasn't" he replied sharply and Blaise rolled his eyes.
"And im Merlin's granddaughter" he replied prissily and Draco looked him up and down.
"I knew you were into wearing mascara!" he grinned and Blaise blushed and thumped him, in outrage.
"You bastard!" he laughed, brushing past Draco and out into the train aisle.
Draco hurriedly pulled on his robes and dragged his hand through his hair. He glanced over at Luna who was currently slipping a tiny pair of onion shaped earrings through her ears and tying a long purple scarf round her neck. She caught his eye and smiled.
"You look really good in your uniform" she commented, disarming Draco in an instant and grinning.
"Er… thanks…" he murmured, shyly. Draco Malfoy, shy! He groaned to himself.
"c'mon" Luna called, slipping her fingers through is and pulling him out of the compartment and onto the platform at Hogsmede.