A/N: Part two ! Thanks SO MUCH those who reviewed. I'm so glad you guys are curious about and/or enjoying this ! Your reviews gave me the push I needed to get started writing this following chapter not to long after the first (not that it made me post it right away, of course) which barely ever happens. So for that I thank you

Disclaimer: You know the drill. I'd have to get the rights as well as fight all of his other fans to be able to own Draco, and Luna is a free spirit. Needless to say, they are not mine.

Mistake, or Fate? :

"Do you have to stand so fucking near?" Not much of a polite person even when he was in a good mood, the Slytherin's tone was snappish.

Luna met his eyes innocently, and, cringing, he forced himself to look away. He didn't like the effect those eyes had on him. When she turned the full power of them on and stared into his similar but more clouded grey ones, it was like all brain activity was suddenly shut off, taken away.

He shook his head once, twice, to clear his thoughts, then resumed assembling the ingredients for the potion he was in the process of making, reading the directions from the slip of parchment given by Professor Snape. Luna watched, intensely, but quiet. The least he could be grateful for was that.

Merlin, was she ever distracting.

Keeping himself too busy to be able to think much about anything other than the potion on its way to being created, he didn't allow himself to ponder much on the situation he'd been put into. Doing so wouldn't get the job in need of doing done any sooner, nor any faster drive his newly announced but unwanted partner away. This didn't stop him from being aware of how close she still lingered, though. She hadn't answered his question from before, and though it had been asked rhetorically, he still found himself, despite himself, wondering why she hadn't replied. Would impatient waiting of one of her nonsensical, cryptic answers, turn out to be in vain?

If he wished for a response now, whatever reaction it may induce in him, it was entirely too obvious that he was going to have to insist on one.

"Move," he swivelled as he spoke, avoiding eye contact pointedly, their shoulders having just barely brushed when he'd turned himself around. The movement caused her to do exactly that which he'd intended; back up a few paces. A shudder ran through him at the contact they'd made, however brief it had been. "Are you deaf as well as stupid?" Quite a bit more nastily than necessary.

For the first time ever, though not skin to skin, they'd touched.

Luna didn't say anything, just continued to watch him work. She wasn't aware of the potion they were making. Draco had quite firmly decided that she wasn't even going to be allowed to try to help. This was rather patronizing, true. Had she attempted to, something would probably inevitably have gone wrong, anyway, but there must be other things with which she could help! Lately, most of the potions she tried to aid in the making of usually only resulted in colourful, messy explosions, but that didn't mean this couldn't change.

Seeing as she had nothing better to do, Luna sat herself down on a stool near the table upon which the potion was being made. Here she would be less in Draco's way—and he couldn't yell at her if she wasn't doing anything wrong, could he? Well... he could. But he wasn't going to, right? He wasn't as much of a jerk as that was he?

"You still haven't told me what potion we're making," she commented, thoughtfully. Then, a possible reason for this dawned on her. "Is this perhaps because you yourself do not know?"

Draco just about froze in his tracks at this, hands full with the ingredients that would be needed for the brew. He had thought that, even with her idiotic questions and observations, she wouldn't be able to get to him, but nonetheless turned to stare incredulously. Not unexpectedly, she stared straight back, full as usual of her characteristic nonchalance.

"You've got to be kidding," the second time today he'd uttered the phrase; although this time, it was directed at Luna, not Professor Snape.

Luna cocked her head to one side curiously, looking very immature and foolish doing so, in Draco's superior opinion. "But of course not, Draco." Her tone remained light, but one could tell that she was feeling energetic, not being put to any use or allowed to help with the potion the way she was. "I am perfectly serious! Do tell."

Draco refused to, however. He wasn't going to waste any of his precious time on this nut. Besides—they were in a room full of people, even younger as they may be. If he could help it, the Slytherin wasn't going to be caught talking to the girl any more than was necessary. How highly embarrassing it would be if anyone thought and then passed it on that he was being civil to her—much less that they were on speaking terms at all!

After that moment's pause, he shrugged the after effect of her question off, carrying on with what he was doing, refusing to give any answer. "Don't... talk," he told her, sharply, hoping that she would do as he asked. "Just sit there, Loony. It's not like I chose for us to be partners."

An indistinguishable look suddenly crossed her face at his words, making her expression even more difficult to read than it usually was, the roundness of her cheeks giving way to the angles of cheekbones as she drew a breath in. Draco wasn't sure, but he thought she might be hurt by his brusque orders, or annoyed, or resentful, or something of the sort. Well, whatever. It wasn't like he cared. She could begin crying right now—not that, in front of so many Slytherins, Loony would ever permit herself to do such a thing—and with this he would still be perfectly fine.

Good, he thought, as she quieted once more. If she's hurt, people can't possibly think I'm being nice to her. Then for my image's sake I won't have to go out of my way to hurt her even more.

It wasn't that he gave a damn about her feelings—because really, he absolutely did not. It just got tired, picking on the same person, all the time. Especially if said person barely reacted to the countless teases and taunts directed their way. Anyhow, Draco had his own things to do. He was a member of the Inquisitorial Squad, and with this role came much responsibility.

If it weren't for the new class supervising rule, he'd be attending to the things that lately had been making his life so busy.

Luna, having apparently taken his suggestions to heart, continued to say nothing. She busied herself, instead, with watching Draco work, all the while swinging her legs. This did not help Draco's concentration. He realized he could feel her gaze on him, and it prickled the back of his neck. Soon he noticed, too, that her white legs, which were still swinging, looked to be exceptionally long for a fourth year, even petite as she was.

This was only a passing observation, however. It was just difficult to keep his attention on mixing up the potion when she was, probably intentionally, blinding him with her too white legs. That was all.

"Stop it!" He demanded, after a little while. At the command, Luna ceased the leg swinging immediately, though he could imagined she must be asking herself why she should. Suddenly, the perhaps hurt look long gone, a bemused grin lit up her face, and Draco could tell she had made a discovery. Or, at least, that she thought she had made a discovery.

"Oh, I know!" She said. "The reason you haven't answered the question about the potion you're making, and have been being so grumpy, too; you've forgotten. You've got Nargles fluttering about in your head!"

Yes, because that was what had happened.

It was time to give the game up. If he ever wanted her to stop talking, anyway.

"I haven't forgotten, you idiotic girl. The ingredients and instructions are right here," and at this he waved the parchment he had been reading off of to know how to make the assigned potion at her, thoroughly annoyed.

"Well, what are they, then?"

Though a clever, sharp minded Ravenclaw, Luna was somehow still simultaneously too naive to guess what was to be expected: that Draco was not planning on letting her in on this information.

Instead, Draco simply walked away, leaving for a brief period to speak with the Professor. Of this Luna had no doubt. Whilst he was off doing so, she chanced a peek at the instruction sheet. It was her right to do so, after all; and, as usual, she was curious. What their assigned potion actually turned out to be, though, caused her to blink in surprise—though the shock was short lived. Luna was very good at coming to terms with new, even if startling, facts.

Something was off, however, about the guide to the composition of the Amortentia potion. Three tablespoons of this ingredient? No, no, no! To correctly form the brew, it must contain at least five more. Luna's mother had been an expert on potions, before she'd moved on to the spell experimentation that had cost the her her young life.

Luna trusted what had been her mother's wise, though also often wacky, judgement more than she did Draco's, or that of this sheet of paper, for that matter. However, wishing to avoid the angry lecture and conflict such an action would surely cause and get her from her partner, the fourth year resisted adding the amount of needed ingredient herself. Instead, nonchalantly, because it wasn't like she was doing anything wrong; she dipped her quill into its ink pot and leisurely changed the three tablespoons needed into eight.

Luna may not be entirely gifted when it came to Potions class, but she was well learned on the subject. She knew that adding more of this particular ingredient was only going to make the Amortentia being brewed all the more powerful. This wasn't what she was aiming for, necessarily—Draco was handsome, this was common knowledge—but she wasn't trying to get him to fall in love with her, even though she had changed the amount of one of the ingredients needed. She'd simply had a whim, and acted on it. If one was going to assemble such an influential potion, might as well knock the ball out of the park while doing so.

So it was that when Draco returned, looking just as if not more forlorn than he had before he'd gone once again to complain about his partnering to Professor Snape, he picked up where he'd left off with the potion. He quickly scanned the page, trying not to glance at Luna, who was sitting in the exact same position she had been five minutes earlier, and internally scolding himself for the way his eyes continued to be drawn to those pale legs. Nothing seemed different than it had since he'd briefly left. To assure himself that he begin to be able to keep control of his gaze, he turned away completely, still reading the parchment and wondering why his eyes couldn't seem to stay off of her. Adding the ingredient that came next, eight tablespoons of it, it was because of his preoccupied thoughts and turned back that he didn't notice when she stood and approached from behind, the only sound giving her approach away being the smacking of the gum she still chewed.

For a reason Draco couldn't fathom, the potion was beginning to look a little strange. Instead of the frothy bubbles that should be beginning to appear as the medley of ingredients were brought to a boil, the liquid looked rather thick, almost as viscous as if it were custard. Cursing at the strangeness of what was happening, Draco grabbed a wooden spoon and began to stir. The bottom of the potion looked to be in danger of burning. This wasn't right!

He turned to glare at the fourth year only to be shocked by their proximity and caught off guard by her innocent expression as she blinked up at him.

"I followed the exact directions," he growled at her, after recovering from his initial shock, grabbing her shoulders and giving her a few shakes. "You did something, didn't you? What'd you do, you Loon?"

Two things happened, then, within the span of seconds. The first was the Professor approaching, closing in on the two. Draco was upset, still shaking the wide eyed Luna, who was like a rag doll in his arms. Despite the way she was being treated, on the girl's face was rather an unexpected expression. Though slightly alarmed by the older Slytherin's behaviour, mostly she just looked animated by what was happening to her, exhilarated over the occurring excitement.

Luna was still being held tightly by the shoulders by Draco and brandished back and forth. She didn't really mind, but was indeed curious as to when he was going to stop, and how he'd known the sudden change in the potion had been due to her. Snape, all the while, continued coming closer, looking irritated that he was going to have to deal with the craziness between Luna and his own House's student. Barking out orders and rebuffs as he attempted pulling Draco away, he was not able to separate them before the Inquisitorial Squad member managed to give the younger girl one last, hard shove.

It just so happened that this, of all times, was the moment Luna had decided to blow a bubble. Rocked forward by the force of Draco's hands, the gum right away flew out of her mouth; and only to land directly into and then sink to the bottom of the cauldron full of defected Amortentia potion.

The next series of events passed in a blur. Something in the chewing gum seemed to be strongly reactive to the ingredients in the potion. Badly reactive, it was soon discovered. Luna, Professor Snape, and Draco all stopped what they were doing to stare at the still churning liquid in the pot, nervously anticipating whatever it was that would happen next. A loud rumble made itself heard as the potion, now a sickly brown colour, began rising in the cauldron. Something unpleasant was going to happen.

It was obvious enough that the contents of the cauldron would soon out begin to spew. The severity of the fashion in which this would happen was greatly underestimated, however, because none of the three stepped back and took cover the way they soon found out they ought have. The next moment, there was a loud explosion. Professor Snape soon found himself covered in hot Amortentia muck, from head to toe.

The soaked Professor's face quickly became even paler in pallor than it usually was, then. The Potions teacher could barely speak, he was trembling so violently with pain and especially rage. "D-d-d-" it wasn't difficult to guess what it was Professor Snape was next going to say.

"Detention. Both of you." Each syllable of every word was pronounced precisely. There was no way the Professor's orders were going to be questioned or misunderstood. "Thirty five points from Ravenclaw, twenty from Slytherin. Now get out of my sight."

A/N: So that was that ! Sorry for the cliffhanger, I just couldn't resist it :) Hope this was enjoyed. I don't know when I'll update next, but it shouldn't take more than three weeks (I hope). I'm not promising anything, but I assure you it will be worth the wait. Next chapter will be the last chapter ! If you're reading this right now, review. I'll update A LOT faster that way. If that is what you want, I recommend that you do!

xox Sacha