I don't really know why I wrote this but I had a spiffy time doing so ( : I hope you guys enjoy it and I unfortunately do not own a thing. But know what I would own with my lovely reader's help? Reviews ( :
"You know, I always wondered what you look like when you smile." Luna admitted bluntly. Draco Malfoy's head snapped up to look at her.
"I smile, Lovegood. You're barking." He continued to browse through the books in front of them.
"No, I'm speaking, Draco. Dogs, and Nifflers, and sometimes Bringles if you make them angry enough, bark." She told him simply, brushing her fingers across the pages to turn them.
"Listen to you! You're a raving lunatic." Draco scoffed but didn't stand.
"Be that as it may, you've yet to up and walk away, which makes me think that you're enjoying my company." Luna paused, reading a line in the book before her and quickly scribbled something down on a piece of parchment.
"I just need to finish this assignment. It's not my fault all the other tables were taken." Draco picked up another book. "What is this?" He turned over the heavy, foreign looking book. Luna barely raised her bright eyes.
"My ancient runes text book." She answered in her rather breathy tone of voice and Malfoy flicked through the pages, always having been vaguely interested in the subject.
"Do you enjoy the class? I never took it." Draco peered down at the miniscule writing. "Bloody hell, how do you read this?" He squinted and brought the page closer to his face.
"Very carefully." Luna herself was wearing glasses, but her long blonde hair was falling into her face. "Don't you have an assignment to do?" She reminded him, adding another book to the growing stack in front of her.
"Why yes, I do. Are you alright?" Draco turned to look at Luna who kept shaking her head.
"My hair keeps getting in the way." She told him, looking back at the blonde she was sharing her table with.
"Don't you have something to tie it back with?" Draco asked curiously and she shook her head, no, this time. "Er, well here." He reached into his bag and pulled out a small silver box that was tied with a green ribbon. Undoing the bow with his fingers, Draco reached over to carefully pull Luna's hair back, tightly tying the ribbon around it to hold it in place.
"Thanks. Why, your smile is kind of nice." She observed. Draco clamped his mouth shut and tried to resume reading. "Why don't you do it more often?" Draco put his book back down.
"I don't have any reason to." He answered stiffly and Luna didn't press him for details. They worked in silence, the library slowly emptying around them.
"What is that?" She pointed to the silver box that was still sitting on the table amongst their stacks of literature.
"Mother's gift to the girlfriend she thinks exists." Luna raised a blonde eye brow and Draco felt some need to explain. "For months, she haunted me about a nice girl she knew for me. So eventually, just to quiet her, I told her I met someone. And since this someone and I have to stay at school for the Christmas holiday, she wanted to give her something nice."
"That was very kind of her." Luna commented, "May I look at it?" Draco shrugged.
"Why not?" He handed her the small box which revealed a flower made entirely of sea glass. "Ever since Father was killed, Mother spends quite a lot of time by the sea. She's fallen in love with these crafty pieces." He informed Luna who pulled the necklace out of the box.
"It's very unique. I've never seen anything like it."
"Kind of like you." Draco admitted before realizing what he had just said.
"I beg your pardon?" Luna froze in putting the necklace back and Draco was smiling nervously again. "Look! You're smiling again." Luna grinned as well.
"There's nothing special about my smile. Yours is kind of nice." Draco returned to his book, but Luna kept weighing the necklace in her hands, examining it.
"I've observed that you never smile sincerely. I mean you smirk, and sneer, but never a smile. I think this is filled with Sprikes." She brought the necklace up close to her face.
"A smile is nothing special if you're faking it. And I don't usually see a real reason to smile. What do Sprikes do?" Draco took the necklace from her hands and also inspected it. "Merlin, I must be tired." He yawned.
"They basically break down any type of inhibitions. They're something along the same lines of alcohol." She responded simply and Draco put the necklace on her.
"You wear Sprikes very well at least. I want you to keep this." Draco didn't know what it was about this Lovegood bird, but maybe it was her lack of false compliments or scathing remarks that made her so interesting. "You've observed me?"
Luna wrote something down on her parchment which was growing rather filled. "I observe people I find interesting. Much like you find me interesting."
"You're a legimens?" Draco asked in shock and she nodded, rolling up one piece of parchment and handing him another. "What's this?" He looked down at her neat scrawl.
"You didn't take any notes for you Transfiguration essay. These-" She gestured to the large stack she had formed. "Are for you, I marked the title and page numbers for the information you would need on Animagi. Good night Draco." Luna Lovegood was gone before Draco could vocalize a goodbye or thank you and he rather missed her presence.
"Morning Mate." Blaise Zabini greeted him glumly and Draco nodded his head vaguely. "Where were you last night?" Draco looked at the Ravenclaw table at Luna sitting alone. "Malfoy?" Blaise waved his tan hand in front of Draco's face.
"Erm, what? I had a paper for McGonagall." Draco replied, biting a piece of bacon and continued watching Luna. She didn't seem to want company, she was reading her ancient runes text while nibbling on some fruit. She had done him a big favor and he wasn't sure why. She was smiling that vague smile of hers though, her fingers gently tapping against a necklace. Draco stared, his necklace, the one he had given her. She was wearing it.
"Are you staring at Chang? She is rather fitty." Blaise commented, tearing off a piece of his sausage. Draco grunted and focused on the plate before him. Harry Potter tripped across the hall and many people snickered and Blaise looked expectantly at Draco.
"Erm, oaf." Draco muttered half heartedly, swinging his bag onto his bag onto his back before walking across the Great Hall, his steps slowing but not stopping behind Luna Lovegood.
"Hello Draco." She said airly without even turning her head and he craned his neck to look at her.
"Hey," He looked around at other students who seemed to be paying him no mind. "Luna." He hurried out and once out of eye and earshot of the rest of the student population, he wacked the side of his head angrily. "Stupid bloody sprikes." Luna walked out at that exact moment and Draco scowled, doing his best to escape this charm that Luna Lovegood must have cast on him, but half of him actually wanted to stay and chat. He blamed the sprikes.
"I swear on Merlin's wand, if you don't stop muttering to yourself then I'm going to kill you by asphyxiation." Nott threateningly waved a pillow and Draco pulled his own over his head, grumbling.
"I'm going for a walk." Draco announced more to himself than anything but swung his legs out of bed, pulling on his robe and taking off in no particular direction just a few minutes past midnight. His head was pounding and as was his stomach, he'd avoided the Great Hall and the library all day to rid himself of Lovegood. But that had resulted in his missing both lunch and dinner, and having to study in the common room, with many rather unruly first years talking and plotting as he remembered doing just a few years prior. But that did nothing to alleviate the headache, if anything it had worsened.
Desperate to escape his own thoughts, Draco continued to walk, his pace increasing as he climbed a tight and dizzying staircase, unaware of where it would bring him. A voice snapped him out of his musings and Draco looked around, hearing a voice asking him a question but he couldn't make it out, was this what a lack of eating and proper studying and sleeping did to him? "BUGGER THIS DAMN SCHOOL!" Draco exclaimed to nobody yet a door swung open a minute later to reveal a rather sleepy looking Luna Lovegood, his ribbon holding her braid in place. She looked more put together in pajamas than she did in their uniforms. "Luna." He sighed in relief but he didn't know what he was relieved for. "This is your common room?" he peered inside but the door shut as quickly as it had opened.
"Yes. Why are you shouting outside of it?" She asked simply and motioned for him to descend the staircase with her. "You could have owled me. It would have been much quieter." She told him rationally and Draco nodded.
"Er yes, that would have been the sensible decision, but in my defense I didn't know where I was. I'm in a rather foul mood. I had a very rotten day." He told her as they emerged on flat open hallways again.
"Really? Mine was quite pleasant. Not that you were asking." Luna replied, rather close to Draco's side but he didn't move away. He was trying to catch the interesting scent lingering on her.
"Well I'm glad one of us had a decent day. What made yours so, pleasant?" Draco felt like he was retching, pushing out these kind words to Luna Lovegood.
"Only nine people called me Looney today." She told him, yawning and stretching her arms above her head as they walked.
"Only nine? How many people normally do?" Draco asked in concern and mentally slapped himself.
"Usually? About ten, give or take on how many friends are with certain people." She explained logically and Draco suddenly felt like a stone had dropped into his stomach.
"I'm sorry, Luna. I'm one of those people aren't I?" She looked at him with those unnervingly bright eyes.
"Well you were, but today you weren't. It was a very nice change." She told him casually and Draco looked at her as they explored the school.
"Luna. Why are you being kind to me? Don't you hate the things I say about you?" Draco stopped the blonde Ravenclaw with his hand on her arm.
"Yes. Well it's not that I hate them, but I certainly do not like them." Draco waited quietly. "But words aren't always a reflection of the person who is saying them." She explained calmly and Draco knew she wasn't finished. "I see something you, Draco. Something good, that I don't think even you see in yourself." It was her eyes, Draco felt lost in Luna's bright blue eyes and felt himself turn his head to break the gaze.
"Sometimes I don't know about you Love-Luna." He stammered but Luna took it all in stride as she tickled a large green pear. Draco hadn't even realized how far they had walked.
"That's a very strange nickname. But I suppose it's a step up from Looney." She reasoned with a small smile, turning the green handle and Draco followed her into a grand room with outstandingly high ceilings. Looking around, Draco was surprised.
"Is this the kitchen?" Draco asked aloud and Luna nodded before reaching for an apron that was folded in a nearby cupboard, tying it around her waist, she began to move about the kitchen as if she had grown up there.
"If it wasn't then the founders had quite strange ideas about broom cupboard sizes." Draco didn't understand why Luna was suddenly so reasonable and...normal. Draco watched her cut up some pieces of meat for a few minutes, smiling as her braid flopped against her shoulder, his ribbon catching the light ever so often.
"Can I-" Draco stopped in confusion. He had asked a lot of things in the course of his life, but never if he could help. Unless it was his mother standing where Luna stood at that very moment. He had used to wash the vegetables she grew in her garden outside of the manor. So rather than awkwardly offering his assistance, Draco soundlessly joined her at the counter and picked up a carrot and rinsed it hesitantly, looking at Luna who's eyes had never left her own cutting board.
"Thank you, Draco." Luna smiled and the hair began to slide out of her braid, hanging in her face and something made Draco reach across and tuck the blonde hair behind her ear. His hand paused in midair and Luna turned to finally look at him.
"You have very interesting eyes. They're gray." Luna stated simply and Draco brought his hand to rest on her cheek, smiling at her soft skin.
"You have very pretty eyes. They're bright blue." Draco's heart was slamming into his chest like a Firebolt.
"You're smiling again. I wonder if it's Sprikes again." Luna said in a quiet voice.
"I wonder if it's you." Both Draco's heart and head were pounding as he brushed his lips against Luna's in an attempt to quiet them.
Oooooh what do we think? Shall I continue? Shall I leave it at a cliffie sort of? WHADDAYATHINK