Chapter 7

"I can't believe her. She actually said hello to you?"

Draco was trying his hardest not to laugh at Pansy's complete mortification, which was due to the fact Luna had skipped around the corner, acknowledged they were there and said, without stopping, "Hello, Draco!". Draco offered a small smile and nod in return, but Pansy, still feeling that Luna was nothing but weird, was making an abomination out of the exchange of pleasantries.

"Who does she think she is?" she continued, turning around constantly as if expecting to see the girl in question listening intently to what she had to say. "Someone needs to show her her rightful place."

"Give it a rest, Pansy," Draco grumbled, getting tired of her ongoing appalled act every time Luna so much as acknowledged him. Pansy rolled her eyes.

"I don't know what's gotten into you Draco, but it's got to stop. You've already got people messing you around because of your dad, do you really think acting like this is gonna make it any easier?"

Draco froze in his step, staring at her with the most dead pan expression she'd ever seen, yet his eyes were ice cold.

"What?" Pansy asked after a few seconds of death-glare had gone by. Draco shook his head in disbelief, before walking away in the opposite direction, not feeling so hungry for lunch anymore.

Pansy stood staring at him for a second, mortified, before realising she'd upset one of the very few people that put up with her. On this recognition, she started to run after him, but became alarmingly aggravated as she laid eyes on none other than Luna, who was leaning out one of the windows with a small but ugly looking bird sitting on her finger. As if it sensed Pansy's rage, the bird flew away, and Luna turned around to look straight at Pansy as if she knew.

"Well if it isn't Loony," Pansy spat, advancing on the girl in question with her hands on her hips. Luna looked up at her with an expression that annoyed Pansy; it showed no fear, only expectation and disappointment.

"Don't look at me like that, freak! If you dare use that look on me again, I'll hex you into next centur-"

"Pansy!"

The girl turned around to see the source of the angry voice came from Draco, storming towards her with a look of disbelief.

"Um, I was-"

"Save your breath," Draco spat, before bravely adding, "You alright, Luna?"

"Quite well, thank you," she smiled. Draco nodded at her, before fixing Pansy in a glare and walking off. Luna happily skipped in the opposite direction, leaving Pansy fuming where she stood. Both the blonde's turned at either end of the corridor, meeting each other's eyes. Draco felt butterflies erupt in his stomach as the tiny smile he had grown to love so much grew on Luna's lips, lighting up her pretty face. He smiled back, and was sure he could see a small blush on Luna's porcelain skin, matching his own heated cheeks. As she blinked her heavy eyelids over her glassy eyes and walked away, Draco felt his heart beat urgently, as he his breath had caught the whole time he was looking at her. He sighed happily, continuing to walk the way he was going, not a second going by without Luna on his mind.

"Well that's it for today!" Hagrid's happy voice boomed to his Care of Magical Creatures class. "We'll be comin' ter the end of this topic soon, so I want you ter study hard. But not too hard, mind!"

The class beamed at him, before walking up the hill to return to the castle. Draco started to go the same way when he realised Luna wasn't following suit; she was walking the other way, into the forest. Concerned, Draco dropped back to follow her, running a little to catch up. When she heard his quickened footsteps, Luna turned round and smiled at him.

"Hello, Draco!"

"Hey," Draco replied, feeling silly that he was greeting her when he was with her literally seconds ago. "What are you doing down here?" he asked.

"I'm searching for plimpies," Luna explained. "They usually stay in the water, but Daddy says in areas like this they are known to get up and wonder the grounds, too."

"I see..." Draco said, confused but also happy for her strangeness. "Want some company?"

"That'd be lovely," Luna smiled. Draco picked up his speed slightly so he was properly next to her, and a wave of heat rushed to his face as his hand brushed against Luna's. At the contact, the two turned to look at each other, the silence suddenly seeming very loud. Draco swallowed hard, dismissing his anxiety, before taking Luna's hand into his own, relief overcoming him when she held back.

"Thank you for standing up for me again earlier, Draco," Luna said. "It's nice knowing someone's there for you."

"No problem," Draco smiled, feeling a little proud that he had managed to make Luna feel that someone was there for her, as he had found her there for him. He looked at her out the corner of his eye, and smiled at her intense concentration on searching the grounds, looking for the plimpies. He never thought he could feel this way so strongly for a person like Luna, but as soon as she properly stepped into his life he was flooded with many surprises.

"Luna... can I tell you something?" Draco asked, before he could get himself worked up by thinking about what he wanted to say to her. She turned to look at him, giving him her full attention as she always did. Draco froze for a second. In being this close to her, he couldn't help but appreciate how beautiful she really was, without even having to try; her smooth, clear skin that looked so pale and delicate he wondered if it would bruise under his touch. Her impossibly long, dirty blonde hair spiralled wonderfully in comparison to her strangeness, and suited her so well, though it would look shockingly terrible on anyone else. But the most beautiful thing about her were her doe-like eyes; at a glance, they were silvery grey, not unlike his, but Draco noticed how there were also flecks of blue in her eyes, and they had a quality that made them bright and dreamy at the same time. He also noticed that although her eyes were often distracted, when Draco was talking to her she generally focused solely on him, and her expression never became irritated when it took him a long time to say something.

"Luna... I-"

He was cut off when Luna gasped, looking over his shoulder. Draco looked around and saw a glimpse of white disappearing further into the forest, behind a cluster of trees. Luna immediately went to follow it, with Draco close behind, confused at what the big shock was about.

As they drew closer to where the mysterious creature was, Luna slowed down, approaching the place with a lot of caution to make sure she didn't shock whatever it was. This made Draco assume she knew what it was and followed suit, in case it turned out to be something lethal. When she got round to the opening behind the trees, Luna gasped again; standing in front of her was a white, full grown unicorn, chewing on the fruit of a bush.

"I've never seen a real one before..." Luna whispered. Unfortunately for Draco, he had, only when he had seen one it was dead, and its blood was being consumed by supposedly Voldemort.

Draco became very alarmed when Luna came out of her hiding place to approach the unicorn. He came out too, but kept a safe distance, standing well behind Luna.

"Hello there," Luna said kindly. When she stood in front of it, she bowed, knowing you had to show respect. It reminded Draco of the hippogriffs, and was grateful Luna knew what she was doing. The unicorn bowed back, and Luna smiled, stroking the side of the creatures face.

"You're very pretty," Luna said, and the unicorn brushed gratefully against Luna's arm in thanks. Draco smiled. "Would you like to say hello, Draco?" Luna asked, turning to him. He immediately felt anxious, but felt that he should; it would make Luna happy, and he'd never actually scene or touched a live unicorn before, so he reasoned it would be quite a cool thing to have a claim to.

He nodded, and cautiously went to join Luna, looking nervously into the unicorn's eyes. Although it was happy towards Luna, it seemed cold towards him, and Draco frowned in confusion. He looked to Luna, who was still stroking the unicorn, and reached his hand out to do the same. At this, the animal growled, and its front hooves began to stomp with fury.

"What's it doing?" Draco panicked, withdrawing his hand immediately.

"Step away, quickly," Luna said, the dreaminess gone momentarily from her voice, backing away herself and pulling on Draco's arm as he seemed frozen with fear. Despite Luna's best efforts, they hadn't moved quickly enough, and the unicorn thrashed in rage, advancing angrily on Draco with its tail swishing wildly and its legs pounding into the ground. As it reached him, the animal stood on its back legs, showing him his inferiority to the unicorn, and went to strike at him.

Draco jumped out of the way of the unicorn's attack, but it was too quick for him and quickly recuperated, going in for another attempt. However, Luna intercepted, seeing Draco was basically cornered and wouldn't escape in time. She pulled him towards her, and in doing so he was behind her, so when the unicorn blindly struck towards where it thought Draco was, it hit Luna instead.

The girl was kicked hard in the stomach and flung into a tree, hitting her head and knocking her out. The horse ran away on seeing that it had in fact attacked the person that was nice to it, not the one that it took as a threat. Draco stared at her in shock for a second, unable to quite believe what he was seeing. It was like a spinoff of one of his bad dreams.

The tears pricking at his eyes brought him back to reality, and he dropped to Luna's side, propping her up against the tree and feeling sick with guilt and horror when her head fell limply to the side, as her neck along with the rest of her body was currently not functioning.

"...Luna?" Draco said hopefully, clinging with all he had to the possibility that his voice might bring her round. When she did nothing, he tried saying her name again, and again, until he was basically screaming in her face. When nothing happened, he broke down, crying against her shoulder.

"Draco?" A voice said suddenly from behind him, shocking him. He turned around to see Hagrid staring at him in terror.

"I didn't do this!" Draco said through his tears, unable to stop despite the embarrassment of being seen. "She was protecting me! There was a unicorn, and... I know that sounds like the beginning of a lie, but it's true," Draco said, fading into helplessness. When Hagrid didn't say anything, he repeated quietly, "I didn't do this."

He looked at Luna, and back at the hysterical Draco, before nodding.

"It's alright, I believe you," he said, a tone of acceptance present in his voice. Draco was grateful. "We need ter get 'er up to the hospital wing though. You should come too, tell Madam Pomfrey what happened."

Draco nodded, standing away from Luna so Hagrid could pick her up. On realising he was going to be walking through the castle, Draco stopped himself from crying, desperately wiping away his tears and not looking at Luna. He may not have physically done anything to her, but he knew it was his fault... he knew he was going to end up hurting her one way or another.

But despite this, he wasn't going to run away from her. Not now. He avoided the judging eyes of the students as they walked towards the hospital wing, keeping his eyes on the floor all the time. He decided he would see her as frequently as possible, and make sure he was the first person she saw when she woke up so he could tell her he was sorry.

He soon realised as people continued to stare and whisper as they walked past that dealing with everyone else while Luna was in hospital was what the real task was going to be; it would take a whole lot of persuasion to make people believe what really happened was true. He was Draco Malfoy; horrible, spiteful, hateful Draco Malfoy, who wasn't deserving of having his complete opposite in danger for him.