"First years over here!" Hagrid called in his loud booming voice, over the racket that was being produced by the older years. Draco jumped out of the carriage and walked over to the Thestral-drawn carts that took you up to the castle. Since the war, Draco was able to see the Thestrals now, but, then again, nearly every student-not counting the first years-could see them now thanks to the battle at the end of last year. Of course, some still couldn't see them as the cowards had left the castle at the first sign of danger and never experienced the sight of death as Draco had first-hand himself. He sat on one of the seats in the cart and waited for it to fill up. A couple of 5th year girls came in and every time they looked at Draco, or Draco looked at them, they'd giggle and blush. But he didn't look at them much; one, because he didn't want them to be constantly giggling; two, because he was purposely turning his nose away from the scent that wasn't as inviting as Ginny's and three; he was busy watching as Harry's gang of Luna, Ginny, Hermione, Ron and Neville made their way towards the carriage.

Only one seat was left in Draco's carriage by the time that they were only a couple of feet away from it, and, coincidentally, the space was next to him. Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Neville and Ron were all in a small huddle whispering conspiratorially amongst themselves as they occasionally snuck glances in Draco's direction. He was aware of what they were doing, after all, he was facing them and his hearing had developed greatly, although they weren't aware of it and so didn't know that he was actually listening in on their conversation.

"Well one of us has to get in that carriage. We all know the next one won't come unless that one leaves, and that won't happen unless that one is full." Ron whispered to his five friends, making it clear in his voice that he wasn't going to sacrifice himself to go sit next to the enemy he's had for 8 years. Draco scoffed in his seat and rolled his eyes; 'I'm not that bad, am I? It's only a 10 minute journey anyway.' He thought to himself distractedly. 'Anyone but Weaslette.'

"N-Not me. I may have come into my Gryffindor courage, but Malfoy still unnerves me." Neville stuttered slightly, but made it clear that he wasn't going to be so easily persuaded into sitting next to the ex-death eater.

"Well as no one else has said it, I guess I'll have to." Harry sighed. "I don't mind taking the seat. What?" He said at his friends bewildered looks. "His mother did lie to save me. Maybe Malfoy has changed." 'You have no idea Potter.'Draco thought to himself.

"Well he certainly looks like he has, doesn't he? A lot more defined and aware of things, not to mention handsome. Of course, with the changes that he's been through, I'm not surprised." Luna said dreamily as she gazed in Draco's direction. To Draco, she had a knowing sound and look to her as she looked at him, but he was quite nervous as to whether she actually knew or, she was just being loony like her nickname suggests. To her friends, that's exactly what she sounded like: loony. They didn't pay much attention to what she said though because most things that she said didn't really make much sense to them, as she sometimes spoke vaguely or in riddles that no one could seem to understand, and the other times, people just thought she was speaking nonsense. Everyone in their huddle turned their heads to look at Draco and before they could see that he was spying on him, Draco turned his head to look at the girls who only seemed to just giggle louder much to his annoyance. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that they were all giving him unsure looks and after a few seconds, they turned back, letting Draco continue to watch them without being noticed. They were looking at her with the same looks that they looked at Draco with but she still seemed unfazed. Again, to Draco, she seemed to have an unrecognized or secretive knowledge about her and he felt drawn to it. 'Could she be my mate?' He found himself thinking. 'No, she doesn't fit with the prophecy. Besides, I shouldn't even be asking myself that. I know it's Ginny.' Nevertheless, he suddenly found himself wanting it to be Lovegood to sit next to him so he could see if his suspicions of somehow knowing were correct. "If no one else will, I don't mind taking the seat. I think it'd be rather insightful to sit next to him; I'd like to know about his family's secrets."

"You are probably the only person on this planet that wants to know about the Malfoy's Luna." Ron told her bluntly, and, for once, Draco couldn't help but find himself agreeing with him. It's true; no one did want to know about the Malfoy's because of their Death Eater past and their Pureblood beliefs. He was almost touched that someone wanted to know about his family because they weren't all that bad, but he was now convinced that there was only one secret that she wanted to know, and that was about his Veela past. He was sure that he wouldn't exactly know how to handle the questions that she might ask because, truth be told, he was wondering the same thing. It was only enough-and a recent re-discovery-for him that he even knew that he was a Veela and since then he didn't really know anything about the past Veelas' in his family apart from only two generations back. Luna only shrugged, unaffected by Ron's blunt words and this only made Draco admire the Lovegood girl even more.

"Is anyone else willing to put aside their feeling for only a couple of minutes just to take the seat?" Harry asked sounding tired.

"Ginny!" Hermione chirped happily, as she nudged her friend in the side. They turned their expectant gazes over to the little redhead next to Hermione who was momentarily rendered speechless.

"No, no! Not me!" Ginny blurted out loudly once she managed to gain her speech back, giving Malfoy a wary look.

"But he likes you Ginny." Hermione whispered under her breath, as she turned to face her, loud enough for her to hear and no one else.

"He DOESN'T like me!" Ginny stressed under her breath as well so that the boys didn't hear her.

"Well from what you told me, it sounds like it's a matter of more than liking you. Sounds like love." Hermione insisted teasingly. 'Ah, so the Weaslette was unable to keep her mouth shut.'

Sounds like he's gone insane!" Ginny protested.

"Look, if he really is just mental and not telling the truth, what's the problem in sitting next to him for 10 minutes?"

"You weren't there!"

"Oh come on, it wasn't like he ra-" At Ginny's insistent look Hermione cut herself off. "Don't be so melodramatic Ginny."

"What?! I'm not!"

"So you just forgot to tell me that he...raped you?" Hermione asked disbelievingly. "Well that's the most mental lie I've ever heard. Maybe you can share that suite in the insane ward at St Mungo's with Malfoy." Draco was furious. 'It was nowhere near rape!' He wanted to yell until his voice was hoarse and only when that happened would he call St Mungo's and personally arrange for Ginny to get a check-up.

"I'm not going crazy! It was almost rape!"

"Mmhmm, yeah, sure Gin; because when some tells you that they love you against your will, it's classified as rape. He didn't do anything." 'At least Granger isn't so stupid as to think that was what happened.'

"Whatever, I'm still not ever sitting next to him."

"But from what it sounds like, he's able to stand you. I'm not being insulted for 10 minutes straight." Ginny turned back around to face the rest of the group who were all-with the exception of Luna-giving her and Hermione weird looks because of their whispered argument.

"Well, 'Mione said that she's not going to and I, my brother and Neville have already made it clear that we're not going anywhere near him. So, it's either you or you." Ginny stated pointing to Luna and then to Harry.

'Lovegood, Lovegood, Lovegood, Lovegood,' Draco mentally chanted. He tapped his foot on the floor to the beat of his chanting, his nose was scrunched up, eyes shut tightly and the fingers on both of his hands were crossed as superstition to wishing that he had developed since being a young boy. He was aware that the girls must've been staring at him and maybe Harry's gang too because of the hairs standing up on the back of his neck, but that didn't stop or falter his wishing. 'Lovegood, Lovegood. Oh, fuck it! Luna, Luna, Luna, Luna. Luna Lovegood, Luna Lovegood.' He continued to chant until he felt the presence of someone next to him and the jolt of the carriage as someone sat down next to him. Slowly he opened an eye and let out a big sigh of relief as he thanked the Fates for letting him have his way for once. Draco saw her turn her head to look at him and smiled which he returned with as much feeling as she was putting into hers, much to the disappointment of the others in the carriage who he only sneered at when they smiled at him. Behind her, he could see the next carriage pull up and the rest of her friends pile into that one, laughing and chatting happily as if they were thankful that they were all together-as if Luna didn't sacrifice the carriage ride up to the castle with her friends so that they could all be together. Not that she minded though, she was happy to have a chance to talk to the Half-Veela.

"Hello Draco." She whispered so quietly that no normal wizard could've heard what she said. She was testing him-not that he knew-to see if his hearing was as improved as all the books about Veelas' had said.

"Luna." Draco responded not seeming to struggle with hearing what she just said. She grinned wider, happy knowing that the books were obviously true. "You know about me, don't you? I heard you talking to them; I can tell you know."

"It's easy to tell a Veela when you see one if you know what you're looking for." Luna replied just as quietly as she did before, careful not to let the nature of his identity be heard by the others in the carriage.

"How do you know what to look for?"

"My Mother was part Veela. She died when I was a young girl, but I remember her and Father spoke about her a lot. There were lots of books around the house about Veelas' too and I've read all of them."

"So you're a-a...you know, part Veela then?" Draco asked cautiously.

Luna shook her head, not angry or offended. "The gene didn't pass on to me. My children might have it though, we can always hope, can't we?"

"I wouldn't hope for them to be cursed with being part Veela. It's not...pleasant. I almost died on the train."

"Who is your mate then, or don't you know yet?" She asked. Draco tried to say, 'It's that Blood Traitor Ginny Weasley.' but he found that he couldn't force the words from his mouth. He tried rephrasing it, tried taking out parts like 'Weasley' and 'Blood Traitor', tried using 'Ginevra' instead of 'Ginny' but found that, that didn't work either. He tried saying other words to see if it was just him, but realised that he could say anything except that his mate was Ginny.

"I-I can't say her name." He said confused as he put a hand over his Adam's apple and tried once again to say it, but to no avail. "I haven't had a problem saying it since-actually I've never said it aloud. I can think it, but I can't say it."

"Illusions are tricky to understand." Luna replied cryptically. Draco took a moment to think about, trying to understand that secretive knowledge that he believed that she possessed, but he found that he just couldn't.

"I don't understand. What do you mean?"

"I mean, you can think lies but believe it's the truth, you can say the truth but believe it's lies." Draco so badly wanted to understand the younger Ravenclaw, but he decided that her words were too cryptic for a Slytherin like him, even if he was the cleverest of them. He left it at that for the rest of the carriage ride and they mostly travelled in silence apart from the occasionally questions from the inquisitive Ravenclaw. He trusted her by the end of it, although he felt like he needed a book on Luna to understand what exactly she was on about half the time, and if he couldn't have Blaise helping him, he was content with having Luna help him.

However, even though he trusted her, his Slytherin instincts told him that she was keeping something. When he asked her about it, she replied either vaguely or not at all. Therefore, eventually, he stopped asking her but he still had the nagging feeling that he really needed to know what she did.

A/N-So here's the next chapter! Had to get it up today otherwise I'd be procrastinating all weekend with the essay that's due on Monday.

So, Draco still believes that Ginny is his mate. Oh how wrong he is! Luna seems to know that too, but poor Malfoy doesn't understand. Get some sense Draco!