1Chapter Three.
"Where to?" Draco asked, looking around the street as if someone would see him standing there with me and make judgements. Or maybe he was just looking for which building to head to next, I couldn't tell and I never asked.
"If we keep going this way down this alley, we'll run into Wise Wizardry. It's a drug store, they'll have medical stuff there." I said, walking down the alley.
"How do you know that? I mean, know your way around Hogsmeade?" Draco asked, rushing to keep up with me.
"You've been coming to Hogsmeade longer than I have, Draco." I said, walking backward just because I felt like it. Or maybe it was so I could keep looking at Draco, I'm not entirely sure anymore.
"What ARE you doing?" Draco asked, smiling while he tried to figure out why I was walking backwards.
"Walking backwards." I answered simply. People always thought that I was just dumb. That I never understood what they really meant by their questions. I've always understood, I just wanted them to ask the right questions, and then I'd give them the answers they were looking for. But usually they just shrugged off my answers and went back to ignoring me without asking another question.
"Why are you walking backwards?" Draco asked, laughing a little. I had never heard him laugh before. It was a childish, sweet laugh. I would never have placed Draco with that kind of laugh, never.
I stopped walking and just stared at him. I turned my head sideways. "I don't know, really. I just felt like walking backward." I grinned and started walking again. Draco surprised me.
"Alright then..." And he started walking backward as well! And he was laughing louder. All I could do was grin and think 'he's having fun... he's really having fun...'
"Oh, here's the store, Draco." I said, stopping as we walked past a store with only shards of glass left for windows.
"I'll go first to make sure it's safe..." Draco said in a protective tone. That also surprised me. Draco walked up to the door, wand extended, and tried to turn the doorknob. "Dammit! It's locked!" he called to me, I could barely see him through all the falling snow.
I rolled my eyes, smiled at him as I walked up next to him, and hopped up through the broken window onto the display platform and into the store. I walked quickly around to the door and unlocked it so Draco could get in. The look on his face was priceless.
"Yes, well... there's that." He said quietly. I hadn't realized how close we had been standing. I could feel his body heat, unless I was just imagining it. He was several inches taller than me, so I had to look up into his eyes. Next thing I knew, he started to lean toward my face, and just stood there, knowing what would happen. Then my eyes grew wide, and I came back to reality. I turned my head away, and looked down to the floor.
"I love Neville." I whispered, not knowing if Draco heard me through the wind or not. But Draco kept leaning. I hadn't realized, but his whole body was leaning. No, not leaning, falling. He hit the ground with a smack, and I screamed as I saw a green and black dart in the back of his neck. "Draco!" I yelled, dropping to my knees next to him. He was still conscious, but I knew he'd pass out in just a few minutes. I had seen that kind of dart before. It wasn't deadly, but if you let it knock you out, you'd be out for days. How could I have been so stupid? To think Draco was actually going to kiss me. I was such an idiot. I wasn't aware of it right away, but tears started rolling down my face. Not because Draco had been hurt, no I knew he'd be ok. But because I was so dumb, and I LET myself be so dumb.
"Luna, you idiot." I said aloud, dragging Draco farther into the center of the store where there was no wind. I turned him over, and dropped down beside him again.
"It's going to be ok, Draco. Everything's going to be ok." I said in as much of a calm voice as I could manage. He looked up at me, and smiled a weak smile. I dug into my duffle, and pulled out a heavy cloak to keep him warm.
"Luna..." He whispered. "Can I tell you something?"
"You can tell me when we get back to the castle. I need to keep you awake right now..." I said quickly, shifting my eyes around the store.
"Just... please?" Draco asked, his eyes burning into mine.
"Ok, what?" I asked, a bit irritated, which is one emotion most people never see from me.
"Lean in closer..." He whispered, closing his eyes slowly and opening them again.
I sighed, and obeyed. My face was right overtop of him, bits and strands of my hair that had come loose fell around my face. Draco raised a hand to push them away, and pulled my face down closer to his. Then it happened. I closed my eyes, and our lips met. His warm soft lips locked with mine as he brushed his tongue over my bottom lip, requesting permission. Then an image of Neville flashed into my head, and I pulled away with a gasp.
"No... I love Neville..." I said quietly. I stood up without even looking back at Draco, and ran to one side of the store where I was fairly sure the correct potion would be to counteract with the potion inside that dart. I didn't even think about what had just happened, I was focusing an looking over a shelf of brightly colored potions for a bright yellow one. It was so dark, so hard to see anything except for the few potions which glowed. Then something next to the shelf caught my eye, a shelf full of muggle devices, one of them being a flashlight.
I remember seeing those when my mum had taken me to London shopping for muggle clothes. We had to stop at a gas station, because we had taken a car instead of brooms, and mum let me figure out everything inside the station. We didn't get any shopping done that day, but I was so happy because I got to play with muggle-things.
I picked up the heavy yellow light, and clicked a black button on the side. Bright light flashed across the room, and I smiled. I shown the contraption at the shelf of potions, and found the bottle full of yellow liquid in an instant. I rushed back to Draco so fast, that when I dropped down beside him, I was still sliding across the floor. I scurried back to his side again, and twisted the cork off the potion bottle. I slipped the cork in my pocket for future use (I used to make jewelry out of corks and caps), and placed my hand on Draco's face, his skin was cold.
"I'm sorry, Luna..." Draco said, reaching his hand up from under the cloak to place it on top of mine.
"It's ok." I smiled. "You have to take this now..." I said, propping him up on my legs. That was not an easy task, I had grown taller but my strength hadn't changed much. I handed him the bottle, and he took slow gulps until it was all gone.
"Thank you..." He said, letting the bottle fall beside him. I could tell he felt stronger again, he was looking around the room and he skin was turning pinker. "What... what happened?" He asked, feeling the back of his neck. His eyes grew wide as his hand brushed over the dart.
"No, don't pull it out. If you do that, it will release poison. You'll just have to leave it in until we get back to the castle and the professors can take a look." I said, taking his hand from his neck and holding it between my own small hands. He was so cold. If I was allowed, I was have started a warming fire, but we weren't allowed to do magic. Then the memory of what had just happened moments ago filled my mind, and I turned my eyes away from his.
"Luna-" Draco started in an apologizing voice, trying to catch my eyes.
"Nothing happened, Draco." I said sternly, and got to my feet. He was strong enough to hold himself up again. I picked up my duffle, and walked back to the side of the store with the potions. I dumped them all into the bag, hoping the corks were placed tight enough so they wouldn't spill. Then I moved over to the shelf with the muggle devices again, and dumped things like drew-scrivers and more flashlights, and weird paddles with bouncing balls tied with string to them. I wasn't sure what exactly they were for, but I figured they served some kind of purpose. Draco had gotten up, and was over at the other side of the store, slowly putting supplies in his duffle. I know because I turned around about ever five minutes to look at him, and then went back to putting stuff like gauzes and alcohol, and iodine, and just about everything else on the shelves in my bag. I wasn't sure what half the stuff was for, and I was stunned at how much the store looked like a muggle drug store my mum and I had gone to when Leelu was sick.
Then something hit me. No, something REALLY hit me. I looked down to see what had fallen. My eyes grew so wide, they could have fallen right out of my head. Laying on the floor at my feet was... was... was a stretched out condom. I looked around, and my eyes fell on Draco. He was blowing one up just then. When I realized what had happened, I started laughing so hard that I almost fell down. Then I did fall down. Another condom zoomed across the ceiling, and I heard footsteps walking over toward me. Draco sat down Indian style next to me, and started laughing with me. I would be that we sat there just laughing for at least five minutes. I was surprised at how comfortable I was there with Draco. We just sat there, forgetting everything that was happening in the world, blowing up condoms and laughing. I knew if I even mentioned a condom to Neville, his face would turn bright red and then he'd probably faint. I can't imagine what he'd do if he seen me blowing up an entire box of them just for a laugh.
Draco's eyes turned into cute little slants when he smiled, and all of his teeth were visible. He had dimples that I doubt many people had ever seen, and his hair always fell around his face in the exact same way.
"Well, well, well... what is this?" Hermione and Lee had snuck in the store without us seeing them. Hermione looked angry, and Lee looked like he was trying his hardest to hold in laughter.
"We were just..." Draco stood up, brushed himself off, and then helped me up. Who'd have thought that he had manners?
"...Just wasting time playing childish inappropriate games?" Hermione eyed me. She never really liked me much. Now that I think about it, I don't remember ever saying a word to her after the war started. I don't suppose I liked her much either.
"Ease up, Granger. Just because of everything what's happened, it doesn't mean we need to be angry little snails all the time." Draco said, pushing his hair out of his face with one hand. I loved it when he did that.
"Draco, you're such a-" Hermione took out her wand and pointed it at Draco before Lee spoke up.
"Whoa whoa whoa, it's not worth it Hermione. No magic." Lee had quickly taken her wand out of her hand. I only then did I realize that I was still holding Draco's hand from when he helped me up, and even more of a surprise, he was holding mine.
Hermione eyed me and Draco both evilly, and then her eyes fell on our hands. An evil grin fell across her face as I dropped Draco's hand and crossed my arms. "I hope you know that I'm telling Neville about this." She said in an ultimatum kind of way.
"Go ahead. He knows I love him." I said, almost uncertain. Draco was just standing there, trying to stay out of the conversation.
Hermione had stalked out of the store after a few minutes of silence. Lee didn't follow her. His eyes watched her leave, and then looked back at us and at all the stretched out condoms lying around. "You guys mind if I stick with you until we leave?" He asked. I noticed he still had five duffle bags swung over his shoulder.
"Sure you can." I smiled, and moved forward. I opened one of his duffles, and put the rest of his in the one.
"Oh. I didn't think of that." He said, smiling. He looked around my back and snickered as he pulled a condom off my coat.