Chapter Three – My Mood's Better Than Yours

Luna sat on the wall outside Hogwarts, swinging her legs happily. Today's earrings – flower power in bright pink dangled down from her ears, clashing with her pale yellow jumper. She jumped up as Malfoy approached her, and beamed.

"Hello Draco"

He nodded and looked around.

"Right they aren't here, so we'll go without them." He said briskly. "Come on."

"You can go but I'm not leaving until I see Ron and Harry."

Malfoy rolled his eyes.

"What a brilliant idea!" He said sarcastically, just as Harry came up to them, followed by Ron who looked like he would prefer to be in detention, than spend the day with Malfoy and Luna.

"Hi Luna!" Harry said enthusiastically. She smiled and began to speak, Malfoy watched the two of them jealously.

"Makes you sick." A disgusted voice commented. Malfoy swung around to see Ron looking at Harry and Luna gloomily.

"They aren't you know…a…thing?" Malfoy asked.

"No, but Harry likes her…" Ron clapped his hand over his mouth, wishing he hadn't spoken.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to tell anyone. Wouldn't want them to know I was hanging around with you lot." Malfoy sneered.

Ron gave him a dis-believing look.

'Come on let's get a carriage." He muttered and strode off. Malfoy followed reluctantly and Harry and Luna soon joined them.

"He's hungry, give him this."

"What if he bites my finger?"

"Don't be silly, I feed them all the time, it will be fine."

"Ok well if you're sure..."

"You would have thought they would be fat enough by now." Malfoy said, glaring out of the carriage window.

So what if Luna and Harry could both see those dumb horse things? They didn't have to go on about it.

After Malfoy's words, there was an awkward silence amongst them. Only the carriage wheels going round and the endless chatter from other students could be heard.

Luna jumped down from the carriage and beamed at the others.

"So where shall we go first?" She asked.

"Honeydukes." Ron said quickly.

Harry rolled his eyes, teasingly but nodded. Luna looked at Malfoy.

"Fine, let's go."

They made their way to the shop and entered.

"Hey look there's Seamus, I need to ask him something. Back in a bit." Harry said, spotting Seamus Finngigan in the crowd of students. He went over to him, leaving the others by the door.

"So…Luna do you like cockroach clusters?" Ron asked staring at the ground uncomftably. Luna carefully noted his pink ears, as she replied,

"No, but wait here I want to get something…" Luna said, beaming as she 'skipped' off.

Apparently Malfoy had also seen Ron's ears…

"Don't tell me you like Loony too?" He asked in dis-belief.

"No!" Ron said, his face changing colour to match his ears. "I was just making conversation. You don't think I want to be dragged to Hogsmeade with you and Loony? She's off her rocker, and by the looks of it Harry to, but he's my mate...I'm doing it for him."

Malfoy nodded slowly.

"Yeah…well…." He muttered and forced a smile as Luna hurried back, clutching a golden-wrapped slab of Honeydukes chocolate.

"Look!" She said, shoving it under their noses. "This is what the crumple horned snorckacks likes to eat. Me and Daddy are going to lure them out with it!"

"If you haven't found them yet, then how do you know the like it?" Ron asked bluntly.

"Didn't you read the latest Quibbler? We found the remains of a bar with the snorckacks teeth marks!"

"Oh please, can't you shut up about your crumply snails for one minute?"

Harry walked back over.

"What's going on?"

"Err Luna was just telling us about her...horned sand-snails…" Ron said.

"And Malfoy started being a prat." Luna finished for him. "Now let's go."

Bewildered, Harry shrugged and left the shop. The others followed.

"Can we go into Gladrags Wizarding Wear? I want to get some new earrings." Luna said, hovering outside the door.

"Sure" Harry said and they went in.

Luna went straight over to a stand, covered in funky earrings and began to browse, while Harry started looking at the quidditch robes. Malfoy and Ron sauntered off separately.

Luna fingered a pair of blue eagles delightedly, but caught sight of an even nicer pair of earrings. They were dark red coloured and in the shape of cherries. Luna immediately fell in love with them; she had been fond of the fruit all her life along with her mother, so they seemed like a good choice to her. She took them off the stand and went to pay.

Luna found Harry and Ron waiting for her outside. Ron was pulling a t-shirt over his head.

"Look what I've got! It's supposed to tell what mood you're in."

Luna and Harry looked at the plain white t-shirt. Slowly words began to appear, followed by a small picture of Ron looking confused.

"I'm excited but fed up. This wasn't my idea of a good weekend. Careful what you say to me." Luna read aloud and smiled. Harry laughed just as Malfoy came over to them, swinging a dark olive green bag in his hand. As they walked towards the Shrieking Shack, for no apparent reason Malfoy said,

"Guess what I've got, it's a…" He trailed off. "Weasley you're wearing my t-shirt !"

"No I'm not, I just bought it!"

Malfoy pulled a white t-shirt out of his bag and pulled it on over his robes, making him look rather stupid. Words began to appear, along with a picture of Malfoy smirking.

"Jealous and hatred tied in one. I'm having a bad day and I can be very touchy. Beware." Harry read and laughed again.

"Weasley how dare you buy the same shirt as me!"

"I got mine first!"

"Liar! Take it off. NOW!"

"I'm not going to do what you say!"

"NOW Weasley!"

"Why don't you take yours off? It looks ridiculous."

"What, you think yours doesn't?"

"My moods better than yours! Who are you jealous of anyway?"

"None of your business and actually my mood is better. Did you see the part on yours about how much of a DUNGBEETLE you are?"

Ron squinted down at his shirt for a moment then glared at Malfoy.

"You obviously haven't looked at yours then. It says I am a cruel heartless idiot and I love murdering people!"

"You are so pathetic Weasley! Isn't he pathetic Luna?"

Malfoy turned around to see a most horrific sight.

"Luna?" he said weakly, staring at the girl standing a little way away. Harry's hands lay on her shoulders; Luna's hair flew behind her in the breeze. Both were oblivious to Ron and Malfoy who were staring as Harry and Luna kissed.