Chapter 2
Cho's Revelations
Luna groaned and stretched out idly. Her body felt lazy, heavy, relaxed, and a little sore. Her eyes fluttered open and she yawned. Rubbing her hand across her eyes she rolled over a tiny smile playing across her lips as the events of the night before came rushing back to her.
She sat up quickly clutching the bed covers to her chest. Where was Draco? He was definitely not in the room. She ran her hand over his side of the bed which was still crumpled from his body, it was cold. He had left ages ago.
Hot tears stung her eyes. He had left, he had just got up and left without saying good bye. Without saying anything. Angrily she wiped her tears away. What had she expected from someone like Draco Malfoy?
Something. She had expected something.
She had expected him to still be there when she woke up.
She felt sick, she felt cheap and dirty.
He had used her. She had let him.
It was all her own fault she thought bending over the side of the bed to retrieve her clothes from the floor, she had let herself get carried away. She had been the one to allow herself to believe he really wanted her rather than just using her for a quick release.
But it hadn't been quick. It…no….he, had been amazing! Sure she had no comparison; but she had never in her life believed she could feel those kind of things. That the passion she read about in books really and truly existed. She hadn't ever thought it possible for one person to have you feeling that incredible, that wonderful, that special.
Even now when she was thinking about him her body reacted to her memories.
She would always have those, no-one could take them away from her. Her memories were her own.
She flushed when she remembered how her body had responded to his touch, to his lips. How her entire system had sky rocketed when she was with him, feeling his skin hot and slick against her own.
Had she really done those things? Had she really begged him to keep going, to never stop touching her?
No-one need know what a total fool she was, she thought dragging her top over her messy hair and shoving it out of her face.
Taking deep breaths she yanked open the door and strode down the corridor, hurrying down the stairs towards the fireplace before anyone could see her. Luna could hear people moving around near her, she couldn't talk to anyone right now. She didn't trust herself not to break down and sob her heart out for being such an idiot.
If they saw her they would know something was wrong and she couldn't cope with that right now. She needed the sanctuary of the floo network.
No-one need know that in one night she had fallen for Draco Malfoy.
The last week of the summer holiday's dawned bright and cheerful, a direct contrast to the new disposition of Luna Lovegood. Her blue eyes once bright and dreamy had turned dull and disinterested in the world around her; and the rosebud mouth that always had a tiny smile tugging at the corners was downcast with chapped lips from all the absent minded chewing.
She was depressed, she had been depressed since the party. She only had herself to blame, it was she who had let herself hope that he would owl or visit her.
Each day she had waited patiently for some sort of message from Draco. Each day she had been disappointed. Each day she had sunk more into her depression and each day she had hurt a little bit more.
Luna sat at the breakfast table swirling her cereal absently. Her usual dreamy gaze was gone; and now she just sat and dazedly stared into space remembering.
That night with Draco had meant something to her. It had been special to her.
She had never thought that Draco Malfoy would be her first kiss, let alone the first boy she gave herself to. And she had, she had given herself to Draco, fully and completely. The only problem Luna had was that she had given him a lot more than he had realised, Draco hadn't just taken her body, but her heart as well.
Was it possible to get so attached to someone after one night? Or was it just her being a fool?
Luna felt the tears beginning to well in her eyes threatening to fall at any second as they had been doing so often lately. Why did she hurt inside so much?
Running a hand through her hair she pushed herself up from the table leaving her breakfast untouched, and wandered into the front room sinking down onto the sofa and closing her eyes.
Once she had enjoyed peace and quiet. Now it seemed to hammer against her skull, hurting her ears with the force of it. She needed someone to talk to, or something to distract her and capture her attention, to stop her thoughts straying to Draco.
A light tapping on the window made her look up. A small owl fluttered around the window tapping at the glass hooting loudly for such a small thing. Luna rose and opened the window to allow the owl access to the house excitement building inside her. He had finally written! Draco had finally written to her!
The owl fluttered around her head hooting madly before landing on the back of the sofa. Luna untied the letter attached to his leg and unrolled it with shaking hands.
Dear Luna,
How has your holiday been? I hope it's been fun for you. I've just come back from a skiing trip with my parents, I don't suppose you've ever been skiing have you? It's such fun!
The reason I'm writing is that I've just arrived at The Burrow with Harry and he, Ron, Ginny and I thought that it would be fun if you joined us! We can leave for the train station together in September ready for school.
Do say you'll come Luna. Mrs Weasley says you can come straight away. Just send Pig back with your answer.
Hoping to see you soon
With Love
Hermione
Xxxx
P.S. And Ginny xxxx
P.P.S. Ron and Harry say Hi.
P.P.P.S. Hi Luna, It's Fred and George, we don't really want to say anything but this is really annoying Hermione! Ha ha!
Luna sighed heavily, disappointment flooded her. She had thought…she had been stupid enough to think that it was Draco.
Taking a piece of parchment from the desk in the corner of the room she scribbled a hasty reply saying that she would love to come and spend the rest of the holidays with them. It could be just the distraction that she needed. Giving Pig a treat she took him back to the window and watched as he flew off into the sky.
Luna headed to the stairs preparing to go and pack her things. She dragged her feet as her heart was dragging in her chest.
Life at The Burrow had been a good distraction. She enjoyed spending time with the Weasley's. It was nice to have friends around her and talk and laugh as if nothing was bothering her. She didn't even have the opportunity to cry herself to sleep as she had back home, she was bunking with Ginny and Hermione. Even though Hermione usually fell straight to sleep once she was in bed Ginny didn't, and the two would curl up on one bed and gossip in hushed voices until the early hours of the morning.
Today they were all sat out in the Weasley's garden listening to Fred and George telling them about their joke shop. She glanced around the group of laughing, smiling faces and felt at peace; she felt happier than she had for weeks. But it was still there, deep in her heart where she tried to ignore it. The pain. The pain of Draco.
Still inside her ready to creep up on her like a big, black thunder cloud when she was least expecting it was a lost, desolated feeling that swamped her system and plunged her into a depressed state of mind.
She didn't like to be still, she liked to be doing something, if she was active the chance of Draco popping into her mind was less, although he still did it. He turned up when he wasn't supposed to, his face, his body, his touch.
She groaned inwardly. She needed to forget. Surely she had hung on to him for long enough? She had left specific instructions with her father to forward any messages on to her, to report any visitors immediately. She had received no news.
But she still allowed a small hope to burn in the pit of her stomach.
Turning her face to the weak rays of the sun she spotted something she had failed to notice before. Ron wasn't listen to his brothers story he was busily engaged with something much more pressing. Hermione.
Luna raised her eyebrows slightly. Ron and Hermione? That would be nice. They would be well suited to each other.
She shot a glance up at Ginny, as she had thought Ginny was wrapped up in watching Harry. Ginny had already told her that she still liked Harry a lot.
Luna Lovegood saw things that others did not, she was a watcher; mostly because no-one bothered to give her the time of day. Until Draco. Shaking her head slightly to clear it she tried to focus more on what Fred was saying.
"It's shame that mother caught us experimenting on that neighbours kid isn't it, George? I mean the way she carried on just because he grew a tail! You'd think we'd poisoned him or something!"
"I thought that as well. It's not like we did it on purpose is it, Fred? It was an experiment, things go wrong when you experiment don't they? Shame mum found out though."
"You know what else is a shame?" Luna piped up from her position at Ginny's feet. Fred shook his head and everyone turned to her with interest. "When you sit down your thighs puff up to twice their normal size. That's a shame."
Ron hurriedly tried to disguise his laugh as a cough and Harry bit the inside of his mouth so hard he tasted blood.
"Yeah, your right, Luna. That is a shame as well." George didn't manage to keep a straight face but grinned stupidly at her.
Smiling serenely at him she allowed her eyes to glaze over as she went back to her thoughts of Ron.
She found it easy to read people, especially when they were unaware that they were being observed as Ron was now. He had it bad for Hermione, it was all over his face when he looked at her. Somehow Hermione had missed it. She wasn't even aware that he was watching her now. Luna frowned, did that mean that Hermione didn't like Ron? She would watch and see. She was patient, she would find out soon enough.
Luna hadn't noticed anything from Harry that indicated he felt more than friendly feelings towards Ginny either. Of course that didn't mean anything. Boys were much more difficult to read than girls, they hid all their feelings and emotions away from themselves never mind other people.
But Ginny's eyes were easy to read. Every time she saw Harry her face would light up and her eyes had the habit of sparkling, drinking him in whenever he was near to her. Luna had seen for herself the way Ginny looked at Harry when he spoke; as if he was the only person in the world, she hung on his every word. But Luna had the feeling that Harry hadn't noticed. Boys could be blind sometimes.
Her forehead creased slightly, she was the last person to criticise others for being blind! What had she done a few weeks ago? Gone to bed with Draco Malfoy because she had blinded herself to reality and saw only what she wanted to see.
At the end of the week Luna, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were all packed up on the platform at Kings Cross ready to board the train.
Fred and George had come to see them off just to rub it in to Ron that they weren't going back to school.
Luna stood in amongst them all hugging and kissing Mrs Weasley good bye but she wasn't paying attention. She was too busy trying to search the platform for Draco. But she couldn't see him; she couldn't see his father either, he must already be on the train.
She found herself shoved towards the train doors and climbing the steps jostled between Ron and Ginny. She wandered down the corridor after Ron who was mumbling about finding an empty compartment.
"Hi, Neville. How was your holiday?" Ron asked, entering a compartment occupied only by Neville Longbottom.
"Oh hi Ron, hi everyone. It was fine. Nothing too exciting. Nice to have a break though. What did you lot get up to?"
"Well Hermione strapped wooden planks to her feet and went sliding down a hill covered in snow." Ron informed him, taking a seat opposite Neville.
"She did what?" Neville frowned, looking from Ron to Hermione.
"Well anyone can make it sound stupid when they say it like that." She retorted, taking a seat by the window and pulling out a copy of The Daily Prophet from her bag.
Luna sank down next to Neville, opposite Hermione and decided to stay out of the conversation by opening her copy of The Quibbler, but she wasn't really reading it, just hiding behind it while she allowed her thoughts to stray to Draco.
Maybe he couldn't have contacted her over the summer, perhaps he was away? What would he do when she saw him again? What would he say to her?
She found she was both excited and terrified at the prospect of seeing him again.
The door to the compartment slid open and Luna's head snapped up quickly her eyes hopeful. But it wasn't Draco, it was Cho Chang.
"Hi Luna, I've been looking all over for you." Cho told her smiling warmly.
"Hello Cho, how was your summer?" Luna asked serenely.
Cho smiled her eyes focused directly on Luna's face. Luna guessed correctly that she didn't want to have to look at Harry if she could help it. "Just great. I've been over in Paris actually. It was amazing." Cho informed her.
"I love Paris. I went there with my parents a few years ago. Where did you go? What did you see?" Hermione intercepted the conversation eagerly.
Hermione and Cho chatted about Paris for a while. Luna noticed Neville and Ginny smiling and nodding, faking interest. Ron was ignoring them busily searching through his chocolate frog cards and Harry looked as if he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole.
Luna had heard things hadn't been too good between Cho and Harry. But she didn't know exactly what had happened. Suddenly she realised that Cho was talking to her. "Sorry, what did you say?"
Cho smiled, "I said, I meant to say good bye to you at the party, but I didn't want to disturb you. Besides, I hear you didn't leave until the following morning." She raised a knowing eyebrow at Luna.
Luna felt her face turning hot.
Ginny was no longer having to fake interest. "What? What's this?" She looked from Cho to Luna and back again.
Cho looked surprised. "Didn't you tell them?"
"Tell us what?" Ginny was on the edge of the seat, now hardly containing her excitement.
Cho giggled. "You didn't tell your friends you spent the entire party looked up in a bedroom with Draco Malfoy?"
Luna thought she was going to die. Everyone was looking at her. She could feel the shock, the surprise, the disbelief bouncing around the compartment.
Ginny blinked a few times before saying, "excuse me?"
"Oh yes," Cho informed her nodding her head energetically. "And Draco was spotted in the hallway in his boxer shorts."
Luna felt her cheeks burning. There was nothing she could do. No where to go. All she could do was sit there until Cho had finished.
"Boxer shorts?" Hermione's voice sounded strangled as she stared hard at Luna, willing her to say something to take away the horrendous things Cho was saying.
"Plus I have it on good authority that neither of them left until the following morning." Cho added grinning.
"The following morning?" Ginny hissed, leaning as far towards Luna as she could possibly go without falling off her seat.
Cho called an answer to her friend shouting to her from down the hallway. "The girls are calling me. I'll see you later, Luna. I'll have all the juicy details from you then. Bye everyone." Waving she exited the compartment completely unaware that she had left total mortification and incredulity in her wake.
Luna wished she could just sink into oblivion and never seen anyone else ever again. They were all sat there staring at her. Her friends, with looks ranging from disbelief, to uncertainty to betrayal. She couldn't explain to them about Draco. What could she say? It didn't even make sense to her. But they were waiting, they were her friends and they were waiting for her to explain to them what had gone on.
"It's a mistake." She managed to squeak, the one person to believe her would be Ginny. She knew that as sure as she knew her own name, Ginny knew her, she knew that she wouldn't do anything to hurt the people sitting around her.
She had done it, but there was no reason for them to know that; she didn't need to tell them, they didn't need to feel betrayed by her. Not when they had been so good to her. They were the only friends she had ever had.
