Hope you're liking the story! Here, we see a side of Draco that no one has seen. Luna also finds out a huge secret...

Chapter 6

Day 3

Draco made his way down the stairs and to the path outside the house. He gazed around as the early morning sun shone over the vast horizon. He surprisingly had a good night's sleep, since he conjured a rather comfortable bed, not a cot, in the living room half of the circular room inside. He decided to be out of the elements this time.

Going to his spot in the grass, he realized that he hasn't seen Luna since yesterday after he saw her dancing around her house. She seemed drunk on something. Or she was just herself.

Where was that blasted girl?

No matter. Why should he care about where she was or what she was up to? She literally danced to her own beat, and didn't have the slightest care about what other people think. She was a free spirit.

Draco felt a tinge of jealously grip his heart. He wished that he could be that free, and not confined in his depressed life.

He thought back to when he came around the house and saw her dancing around her yard, flailing around like some crazy twirling bird or fairy, humming a different tune than what he heard before. He stared at her, noticing how carefree she was. Doesn't she have a clue that she was in the presence of a Death Eater, and that her father was in the worst possible prison on earth, most likely awaiting death? It made him grit his teeth.

Were the Death Eaters, the Dark Lord, or even his parents, worrying about where he was, now that he has been gone for over two days? He looked around the yellow plains again. He surpassed trying to figure out where in the blazes this was because it would result in innocent people getting hurt. He didn't want that, especially if it was his doing.

He plopped down on the ground. He had to fend for himself yesterday, and just this morning, not bothering to touch the food in the house, but conjuring up his favorite dishes, just to put himself into a somewhat better mood. He looked forward to when he would be able to fend for himself when he moved out of the manor, after he graduates from Hogwarts. But he wouldn't be completely free. The Dark Mark ruined that for him.

He sighed in irritation and raked a hand through his hair. He thought back again to Luna dancing around her yard, and remembered the picture of her mother, which he had looked at last night and this morning for some time. The two females definitely resembled each other. Luna's long blond hair and triangular face, and her form, were similar to her mother's. And he even noticed the feminine curves that her mother had in the picture.

Draco felt heat creep up his neck. He shook his head, displacing the blonde hair over his brow. He is not going to allow himself to think that Luna Lovegood is actually pretty. No way.

Suddenly, he saw movement near the forest in the distance. Quickly leaping to his feet, he pulled out his wand toward the form, thinking it an animal of some sort. It was too far away for him to take any action, so he waited until it was to the small tree half-way between the house and the forest. Then he saw long blond hair. He relaxed. It was only Luna.

She was skipping, making her hair bounce behind her. He put his wand away as she came closer. He stared at her in slight disgust at her appearance. She stood in front of him, a smile on her dirt-stained face, and her hair was full of twigs, leaves, and dirt. She also smelled of… toad slime. He felt his breakfast come up a bit. How on earth did he think this girl as pretty?

"Hello, Draco," she said in her light, airy voice.

"Where've you been?" he demanded, holding the side of his hand to his nose.

"Looking for crumple-horned snorkacks."

His brows furrowed. "For what?"

She walked passed him, and he had to step away from the putrid fume that she radiated. "Crumple-horned snorkacks," she said matter-of-factually. "They are cat-like creatures who make a loud shriek when they know a friend is nearby. My father and I would go out and look for them. Sometimes we would be gone weeks on end."

He stared at her. Weeks on end? She was a loony girl, for sure. He knew magical creatures—he read book after book of them during the summers when he was a lad, sitting in the manor's massive library, looking at the pictures of every creature he could find—there was no such thing as a crumple-horned snorkack.

"There's no such thing," he said, hand still to his nose.

She pulled a twig out of her hair and found a small black spider on it, which made Draco jump a little. "Oh, there is. I heard one last night. But unfortunately, I couldn't catch it since it was scared off by a snake." She looked up at him since he was a goo head taller than her. "And how are you doing, Draco?"

His brows furrowed, and said sarcastically, "Dandy."

He walked on, passed Luna, back to her house. He looked back and noticed that she started twirling again. He grunted. There she goes again. He was to the front door when he heard a loud "Ow!" He turned and found Luna on the ground, and clutching her foot in her hands. Nasty… she went out with no shoes!

Turning the door handle, he heard her squeal in pain again. He huffed. He looked back and saw that her foot was noticeably black and blue.

He's not nice to a lot of people. People aren't nice to him, so why bother? But Luna was nice to him. Mainly because she was terribly naïve, but still…

He turned and stalked down the steps and down the path until he was next to Luna. He grimaced. Her foot was worse than what he saw from the door. Her pale, dirty skin on her foot was splotched with black, blue, red, purple, and some was even yellow. He's never seen such a colorful foot. He saw her gazing at it with a dreamy expression.

"Beautiful colors, aren't they?" she asked.

"What'd you do?"

"I tripped over that rock." She pointed to a rock near to her right, next to the path. She moved her foot, and another "Ow!" escaped her lips.

"Don't move it, you numbskull," he said and knelt down on one knee, his wand now out. He pointed it to her foot. "Episky!"

Cracks sounded, and Luna gasped at the pain, and the color drained from her foot, leaving her pale, dirty skin in its wake. She stared at it in awe as he put away his wand and stood up.

"Thank you, Draco Malfoy," she said, moving her healed foot around.

"Just Draco," he said, and began to walk back to the house.

"You know," she said, pulling her legs up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, "you're a pretty nice person for being a Death Eater."

He stopped mid-step, his heart leaping to his throat. He glared back at her. "What did you say?"

"I said, 'You know, you're a pretty nice person for being a Death Eater.'"

He walked back to her and stared down at her, a deep crease in his forehead. His heart started to race. Someone knew he was a Death Eater?!

"What makes you think I'm a Death Eater?" he asked.

She nodded nonchalantly. "I heard Harry, Ron, and Hermione talking about it one day at lunch about a month ago."

"Of course Potter would suspect it…" he growled, painfully remembering the clock tower and Dumbledore's murder. He met her blue-gray eyes. "And you're not afraid of me?"

She shook her head. "Why would I be? You're just one of my fellow classmates. There's no reason to have ill feelings towards you."

He couldn't believe this. Fury suddenly surged inside of him, causing his fists to clench, and a vain to pop out at his temple. "But I bullied your friends! I bullied everyone! I was commanded to torture people!" He snarled at her, "I was chosen to be a Death Eater because of what my father did to all of you and what you and your friends did in the Ministry! I was commanded to kill Dumbledore!" he shouted, not sure why he revealed that to her.

Luna stayed perfectly calm as Draco yelled at her. "But you didn't kill him."

"How do you bloomin' know?" he spat. "He's dead, isn't he?"

"Harry told me the whole story… the tower… Professor Snape… and I even witnessed Serious Black being killed." She paused a moment as he had his back turned to her, hot tears searing his eyes. "It's not your fault."

Draco stayed silent as he glared at the ground in front of him. He took deep breaths, attempting to calm himself. "I didn't kill him… I'm a coward."

"No, it just means you're good."

He let out a sad, strained chuckle. "Good… bad… who knows what I am anymore?"

He heard Luna stand up, and saw her walk passed him. "I think I'll go make some pudding." She said, and skipped on to her house.

Draco continued to take deep breaths to suppress the tight pinching in his chest. "Did that really just happen?" he muttered, and rubbed his forehead. "Why the devil did I just say all that to her of all people?"

He stood there for several minutes and stared off at the horizon. His stomach pricked him. Blast, his constant appetite. Maybe this pudding that Luna mentioned wouldn't be that bad. After all, the food she's made for him before was quite good for food made without magic.

Draco waited a few minutes longer, allowing his emotions to calm, and his mind to clear of the horrible memories of the Dark Lord forcibly and painfully branding him with the Dark Mark, and the memories of the clock tower. But they came back still.

Sighing in frustration and defeat, he walked to the house. He knocked on the door and Luna told him to come in. He walked in and found a slew of sticks, twigs, and leaves on the floor. Bewildered, he followed the train into the kitchen area, up to Luna's bare feet. He stopped.

Her hair was clean, free of the debris once in it, and shined a white-gold as the morning sun hit the waves and kinks. Her body turned a bit, and he noticed that she was wearing a purple sweater that hugged every part of her torso, and jeans that hugged her legs like a second skin. His eyes traveled up her slender and curvy legs to her rounded hips, to her tiny waist… and then to her very much rounded bust. His gaze flicked to her face in half-view. Her skin was porcelain smooth, not a speck of dirt or infirmity on it. The sun shown on it, making certain parts shine.

Heat traveled up Draco's neck to his temple. He struggled to swallow as he watched her body move as she stirred something in a wooden bowl. He took a sharp intake of breath and fled the kitchen, running out the door and down the steps.

What in Merlin's name was he thinking? And noticing? And about her?

He stopped in the grass, heart pounding, and noticing the plate he left there from the day before. He didn't hear Luna ask him as he left if he wanted some pudding.