From these letters I write, you may surmise
That I am a coward born, and a liar bred.
Truth is my constant companion and yet-
Sometimes it slides through my fingers like water.
I bring you a truth, wrapped in silken thread.
You make me want to be a better person than I am.
A difficult truth, that. For I have my flaws,
In them, a wise person sees strength.
Transformation, transfiguration -
Shattering the chrysalis that hides me.
It is the smart move, although
Not necessarily the wise one.
Draco smiled a toothy smile at the letter, as he folded it and sealed it. A coward born - Draco didn't know really whether he was brave or a coward. Untested, he thought, green as the newsprung grass.
He put the essence of sandalwood on the letter, smirking at the perfect picture of Potty and Weasel sniffing that singular scent. Draco would bet they didn't even know who used that scent. So much the better. An amuse bouche, watching the Gryffindors hunt. At times, it almost seemed refreshing - their innocence, and their blind certainty that they could catch who was writing the letters.
Draco moved through the castle like an errant gust of wind, to and fro, dancing through passageways and meandering purposefully upstairs. It was a style of movement designed to throw off tails, or - if they were exceptionally clever - to catch them in the act. Draco was up early anyway, the extra time was merely good exercise to build an appetite before breakfast.
Entering the Owlry, Draco found the first school owl he could find - but chose in the end the fourth, giving it an owl treat (of utmost quality, Draco never saw the need to have shoddy things) and the letter both.
On Draco's way down to the Great Hall (He was still early), he felt an odd tug of wind, as if the wind, ever playful, had decided to tug on his sleeve. Whimsically - almost - Draco followed it (as he was running early anyway, it would hardly matter). Up and down the steps it led, and Draco was intrigued - his mind turning to whether this was natural or magical... The slight tug - the wind on his hair, giving his back a slight push - led towards a shadowy alcove.
Eyes alight, Draco stepped into the near-darkness.
"Ah, Draco, there you are." Luna Lovegood proclaimed. "I was wondering when you'd appear."
Of all the myriad explanations Draco Malfoy had had, a student - a Ravenclaw student - Looney Luna Lovegood was not one of them. Draco Malfoy looked at her expressionessly, though managing to convey an openness that said I'm listening.
"I know your secret." Luna Lovegood said, with an appalling (yet, somehow expected) lack of tact.
His mind scrambling through options, Draco parried, scoffing, "Well, Miss Lovegood, you know my deepest, darkest secret. Congratulations." Draco managed a dark leer, his eyes pretending to drift downwards on her body (Draco let his eyelids close halfway, allowing him to maintain vision on her face).
Luna responded with silvery laughter, her head tilted upward as if she hadn't a care for the young Malfoy doing something while her eyes weren't watching him. After a moment, Lovegood lowered her head, giving Draco Malfoy a glimpse of serious blue eyes. "No, I hardly think knowing your darkest secret would make me want to talk with you. It's probably something simply dreadful, isn't it?"
Draco Malfoy smirked at her, neither confirming or denying. Subtly, he pulled his wand into his hand, keeping the entire process (and his hand) hidden behind a fold of his robe. It had taken days of practice to get the move right, Draco Malfoy remembered with something approaching chagrin at how often he'd complained about it being impossible (as opposed to 'it's not quite working').
"I know the secret you hold closest to your heart," Luna Lovegood said with a thin smile, her actinic eyes filled with the cold emptiness of space. They pierced through the blackness of his robe, as she said, "The secret you'd kill to protect."
Draco Malfoy had to stop himself from flinching. Luna... was right. Not that Draco had known that before she'd said it - he was entirely thinking about damage control, and that meant memory modification, or (less capably) possibly some sort of bind that would prevent her from telling. "Do you now." Draco said flatly, as Luna's eyes narrowed - Draco could practically see the words He's taking me seriously now painted on Luna's expressive face. "What do you want?" Draco asked calmly, because Malfoys were trained to always be calm, even (or perhaps especially) when a peer was discussing blackmail and expensive terms.
And then Luna Lovegood said something that Draco Malfoy had never expected to hear - not from her, not from anyone, really. "I want us to be friends." She said straightly, with an almost Gryffindor 'blunt force applied to the truth' manner.
Draco Malfoy just looked at her, his expression blank - behind it, he scrambled, trying to come up with exactly what this play even was. Draco hated to be caught so flatfooted, but such a baldfaced lie wasn't a Slytherin's forte.
"Don't Slytherins become friends by sharing secrets?" Luna Lovegood said almost carelessly, with an effortless nonchalance that entirely belied what Draco Malfoy knew she knew he'd been thinking about. Not killing her (the situation wasn't nearly that dire)- but memory modification was serious business.
"Yesss..." Draco Malfoy drawled, saying slowly, "That implies you have a secret of equal value, Ravenclaw." He straightened, managing to almost look haughty - as if he wasn't dying to hear what Luna Lovegood would consider a secret of dire import. Because Draco Malfoy remembered this one. She'd been the talk of the Slytherin Common Room for an entire week as a first year. It had taken a bit of bribery, and more than one solid application of his silver tongue, for Draco to get the entire story - this was the girl who had convinced Severus Snape to give her private Potions Lessons. According to his godfather (who had actually seemed a dash abashed to admit it), the slip of a Ravenclaw girl had devised a potion that would scrub all the cauldrons in less than a minute - and she promised Severus Snape that she'd give it to all the students, unless he could see his way to giving her some Private Lessons in the art of Potion-Making. Draco Malfoy had noticed Snape's eyes sharpening with a healthy respect for the young student - and so it wasn't all that surprising that Snape had agreed. For all he could be impossible sometimes, he liked to reward exceptionally clever students.
"I do." Luna Lovegood said baldly, "A secret that I'd kill to protect."
Draco Malfoy looked around them, noticing for the first time the air of quietude that the alcove possessed. "Silencing spell?" Draco rapped.
Luna nodded. "A moment then," Draco Malfoy said, casting a few more spells to keep the peace - one that would discourage strays from stumbling in.
"All these magical creatues that I love to talk of?" Luna Lovegood said, "They're all real."
Draco Malfoy's eyes widened a miniscule fraction, "But you made them up." he said, his voice reeking of certainty.
Luna Lovegood suddenly wore a smile that Draco Malfoy knew very well - it was the smile of someone with a particularly delicious secret. "That doesn't mean that they aren't real."
Draco Malfoy looked at her, at the girl who must have liked to be discarded, ignored, considered worthless. At the slip of a girl who suddenly sounded like she had depths that Draco Malfoy couldn't think of a Slytherin student that had. "Explain." Draco Malfoy said.
"Once there was a small girl who liked to tell stories. She'd devise all sorts of imaginary creatures, often invisible." Luna Lovegood stopped and looked directly at Draco Malfoy, "Unlike most little girls, someone was listening. It turns out that sylphs like the stories that I tell."
Draco's response was a low whistle. Sylphs, air elementals, were rare as hen's teeth - and attracting them by telling them stories? Yet, Draco Malfoy could hear that there was a missing piece of the puzzle, as his grey eyes locked on Luna's actinic blues again.
"It turns out that sylphs also like to play pretend." Luna Lovegood said. "I don't think you've been formally introduced."
Draco Malfoy found himself struggling to hold back an oath, as a crumple-horned snorkack manifested on top of his shoulders, resting most of it's weight on the floor. It was nearly as tall as he was.
"This is Jerome." Luna Lovegood said as if it was perfectly usual to have 'able to manifest on command' creatures at ones disposal. "You may meet the rest of them later, if you like."
Draco Malfoy managed a strangled chuckle, "I imagine it would be pretty crowded with them all here."
Luna Lovegood nodded, saying, "So, Friends?"
Draco blinked at her bluntness, still half suspecting it was a trap (but if so, he now had enough on her to completely wreck the illusion she had deliberately spun at school). "What exactly do you want out of friendship?"
Luna Lovegood said, "Well, ordinarily, I'd say I want what you want - but I doubt you've given the matter much thought, have you?" Those piercing blue eyes seemed to tear Draco Malfoy's heart out, weigh and measure it precisely, and then put it back inside him in moments. "A different perspective. Aid when necessary -" Draco Malfoy frowned at that one, "And as prudent, naturally."
"You're right that this is how Slytherins forge alliances," Draco Malfoy began, "but you're hopeless at being subtle." Draco Malfoy's mouth wrinkled with a bit-back smile.
"Who better to learn from than a Slytherin?" Luna Lovegood said, and Draco Malfoy smiled the first true smile that he'd worn outside of Malfoy Manor in he-couldn't-remember-how-long.
"Friends then." Draco Malfoy said, still grinning.
"I think I'll call you my invisible dragon." Luna Lovegood said.
"Pardon?" Draco Malfoy said in a bit of confusion (Draco Malfoy thought that was likely to be a state he'd get used to, being friends with this particular Ravenclaw).
"Oh, it's a code name." Luna Lovegood said, "Because you aren't anything like what you pretend to be." At Draco's mouth starting to move, Luna interrupted like a assassin wielding a stiletto into someone's side - the same studied nonchalance. "I'm not either, you know."
"I'm beginning to figure that one out, thanks." Draco Malfoy said with some chagrin. "What should I call you?"
"Di." Luna said, "You can call me Di - it's short for Diana, you know."
"The goddess of the moon," Draco Malfoy said nodding.
"And you know it'll drive Blaise crazy trying to figure out who I am." Luna said with an amused smile, and Draco responded with one of his own.
[a/n: Finally, finally, finally! Luna appears! This is one of those chapters that got me wanting to write this.
Apologies for slowness, writing the poetry for this story is HARD. I want it to be at least decent, even if Draco is rubbish at this whole romance business.
More reviews mean more motivation for me to write. So review early and often!]