Chapter two – you changed me
The next morning Draco walked to the Great Hall with Pansy Parkinson. She was telling Draco how excited she was for the last school year, knowing that Harry Potter would not come back.
"Everything is only about to get better. We will take over this school, Draco!" Pansy said. She had high expectations for Draco. He just had not told her that he, neither, would be returning for the last year at Hogwarts. Draco let Pansy talk all the way to the Great Hall while his own thoughts wandered somewhere they did not belong.
Her eyes.
Draco shook his head.
"Are you even listening Draco?" Pansy asked during breakfast. She had been talking constantly about Hermione Granger's hair. She said that it was hideous, but Draco knew that she was just jealous. Pansy thought she was better than everybody else. Draco had been like that too once, but he felt changed now. What exactly it was that had changed him, he was not aware of.
"No."
Pansy shut up and continued her meal. She was better quiet.
"Hey, Malfoy! That really crazy girl is starring you down!" Gregory Goyle said aloud from across the table. Draco turned his face, only to find a blushing Luna Lovegood looking at him from the Ravenclaw table. "Hey Looney, getting some eye candy huh?" Gregory laughed.
"Shut up, Goyle," Draco said. He let his fork fall out of his hand as he lost his appetite. He quickly arose from his chair and rushed out of the Great Hall. He was sick of all the people in there: those who hated him, those who was too afraid to do nothing but obey him, and those who knew who his father was and therefore never had spoken to him. That only classified all the students.
Draco went into a room that he rarely visited. It was a room full of books -he could almost hear it scream "knowledges, knowledges!" It pained his head to see so many words collected at one place.
"Draco, are you okay?" Draco heard Luna Lovegood say. He sighed. Could people never leave him alone?
"Yes, yes I am perfectly fine, thank you!" he replied with a voice full of anger. Fortunately Luna knew how to handle anger. She was such a positive person whom Draco had never seen mad.
"You do not seem fine. Are you sure something is not wrong?" Luna asked. She took place in a chair next to Draco.
Draco took a deep breath. Was he really about to share his thoughts with Luna Lovegood? Looney, the crazy one? Draco thought to himself that he was about to go insane, and was not himself at all.
"It is nothing you can help with. Just go back to your telescope!"
Luna arose from the chair and walked away in a slow tempo. Draco considered if he had been too mean to her. He did not like to see her sad.
"You all just think I am okay, don't you?" Luna asked, bringing Draco away from daydreaming.
"Excuse me?" He had not heard what she had just said.
"You all think I am alright. That I am doing just fine, and that I do not mind your little comments because I do not react on them, right? Well, you are wrong. I do not react because I have trained myself to be hurt on the inside, not the outside. I sometimes cry myself to sleep when life gets too hard, but nobody knows, because nobody cares!" Luna was all red in her face, but not from blushing. She was surprised by herself. She had no idea she had the ability of yelling at someone.
Draco sat in the chair, had his eyes wide open. He was surprised too. Never before had he seen Luna Lovegood with any other feeling than happiness. And for all that time she had been hiding what she really felt.
"Can I be nobody?" he all of a sudden asked. Luna looked at him in surprise. That was not the answer she had suspected.
"What do you mean?" Her voice was all calm now. She had full control over her temper now, and regretted letting herself lose it just a few minutes before.
"You said that nobody cares. And I care, so I must be nobody," Draco explained. Luna found herself considering if Draco just had said that or if it simply was a dream.
Draco saw Luna blush. He could not help but let a smile appear on his lips. He had no idea he could sound so cheesy.
"I am sorry about that," he said, "I do not know why I said that." Draco got up from the chair he had been seated on, and left the room. He felt Luna's eyes watch him as he left. That made his smile even bigger.