Chapter 8: The Part after the Poppies (THE POPPIES)
Imagine Draco's surprise and chagrin when the Harry Potter, look-a-like, scarecrow fell over in a heap right beside the lion and Hermione in the middle of the poppy field.
Draco ran into field. Harry was out like a light, just like the other two. What in the world was going on now? He kicked at the scarecrow with the toe of his polished black shoes. Damn. He didn't want to touch the thing, so he looked up into the air and said, "Anytime you want to show your face and make it snow, Looney Lovegood, Good Witch of the Loonies, go right ahead!"
The good witch apparently didn't hear him, therefore, he shouted again: "Come out here, you stupid witch and make it snow immediately!" Still, nothing occurred.
This was not good. Wait a moment, Draco had a wand. He could bloody well make it snow just as easily as some loony witch from the north. He pulled out his wand and paused for a moment. Why could he do magic when Hermione apparently couldn't? And furthermore, why couldn't she perform magic? She performed magic in the beginning when she transfigured a bookshelf to fall on Umbridge, but later, when she tried the water spell to put out the scarecrow after he caught fire, it didn't work.
Walking over to a sleeping Hermione, he knelt beside her. She looked so peaceful when she was asleep. It was a nice change. He wasn't used to a silent and peaceful looking Granger. He took a chance and removed his bubble-head charm. Nothing happened. He still felt wide awake. He leaned over more and kissed her forehead. It felt the right thing to do, and he realized he might never get another chance.
Then he stood up, pointed toward the sky, and thought of what spell he should use. While thinking, he muttered, "I don't need you to show up and save the day, good witch Glenda. Apparently, poppies don't mean squat to me, since I'm still awake. Evil wizard Draco will save the effing day. You just stay hidden away. Now, what spell should I use?"
"I would use a simple weather charm," said a lilting voice behind him. Draco turned toward the voice.
"About time you finally showed up, Glenda or Looney, or whatever the hell your name is," Draco mumbled. "Now, make it snow."
"You were going to do it, so go on. You're as capable as I am," she urged. "And for your information, in the movie, the good witch doesn't show up to make it snow, it just does. The action is merely shown in a sort of floating bubble that goes across the screen."
"Apologies," he began, then, "Hey, wait a bloody moment, how do you know about the movie? Shouldn't this all be real to you?"
"It should, but I happen to know all about this spell, and the movie. I'm not really Glenda the good witch," she explained. She walked over to Harry and looked down. She smiled and said, "Harry's really very smart, you know, but he didn't figure in this part, I don't think. Also, he didn't figure in the appearance of the real Draco."
Draco pointed down at Harry. "Do you mean to tell me that's the real Pothead?"
"Certainly. He and I came up with this plan. Genius, huh?" she said.
Draco rolled his eyes. "He's a bloody brilliant mastermind! Why would he do this to his supposed best friend?" Draco rushed back over to Hermione and said, "She's distraught! She thinks she's in a spell gone wrong! What's the point of this?"
Luna smiled and approached Draco. "The point, Draco Malfoy, is to make Hermione see that she and Ron are all wrong for each other, and to let her see how very much she actually loves you."
"What, why, how?" he stammered. He glowered at her and expounded, "Potter isn't benevolent or smart enough to do that for Granger, and she doesn't love me, does she? I mean, she's dating the doddering, old, yellow-bellied lion there." He moved toward Ron, touched his face with the toe of his shoe, and added, "Please, for the love of all things evil, tell me that's not the real Weasel."
"Oh no," Luna expressed. "He's not real. Only you, I, Hermione and Harry are real. I'm the one that Hermione talked to the other day, about this movie and the comparisons, you know. I know you were listening. I saw you. She didn't, but I did. I notice a lot of things. Things that make me think. I went to Harry, and we came up with this plan. It was perfect, really, and you played into our hands perfectly. After I spelled Hermione's cat to bite you, I knew you were smart enough to make the comparisons to the movie as well, since you had just overheard her talking about it a few days before."
"You made that beast bite me!" Draco shouted.
"Of course. He's normally such a nice kitty," Luna said with a smile. "After that, you did everything as I suspected you would. Harry had doubts. He thought you wouldn't make the comparisons, but I knew you would think of the movie, and try to take her cat. Of course, we didn't expect Hermione to become so unglued about it, or so passionate, and we really didn't expect you to actually try to take the cat, but in retrospect, we should have."
Draco placed his hands on his hips. "What do you mean?"
"Well," she started, "Hermione felt betrayed by you, in a way, even though you had no clue that she liked you, so she went overboard, and overreacted. You, being the emotionally, stunted, immature person that you are, reacted as you would have when you were a child. You felt betrayed too, in your own way, so you reverted back to the 'bad boy' role. You both felt cornered. We simply had to intervene."
Draco took his hands from his hips and crossed his arms over his chest. "I am not immature." He would accept that he was, as she put it, 'emotionally stunted', but saying he was immature was a bit much. "What I don't understand is why would Harry want to help Hermione get with me? She's dating his other supposed best friend!"
"Oh, that," she said, with a wave of her hand. She walked over to Ron and looked down. "The real Ron Weasley is cheating on her. Harry found out. He's angry and feels betrayed on her part. He feels a bit betrayed by her, too, because she didn't tell Ron that her feelings had changed. Harry knows that Hermione doesn't want to hurt Ron, and that Ron doesn't have the courage to tell Hermione the truth, so he's intervening. It's something he does. He always feels as if he knows what's best for everyone. It's one of his most endearing traits."
She walked back over to Harry. "He's really quite handsome, isn't he?"
Draco felt bile rise in his throat. "I don't feel qualified to answer that question."
"Because he's a man, and you're a man, and you aren't secure enough in your manhood?" she asked.
"NO!" he spouted. "It's because he's Potter and as far as I'm concern he's a bloody wart on the backside of society! He's…Potter! I can say a man is handsome if he is."
"Really? Who do you think is handsome?" Luna asked with a smile. "Give me one name."
Draco tapped his finger to his cheek and said, "Okay, I always thought that Oliver Wood chap was a bit dashing. By the way, he wasn't real, was he, because I hid him in the woodsman's cottage?"
"No, totally fake," she sang. "And I agree, very handsome. You have good taste, Draco. Now, what should we do about this? We probably should wake Harry first. I knew the poppies would make him go to sleep, too. We didn't count on you being here, but when we discovered that you were, perhaps he felt assured that you would wake them all up incase I couldn't."
"How did he know I could do magic? Hermione can't do magic, for some reason," Draco relayed.
Luna frowned slightly and said, "She can. She did at first, which we didn't expect. She tried to make a bookshelf fall on the witch of the west."
Draco laughed. "I know. Now that was bloody brilliant, that was."
"Yes, it was a bit of a lark," she said, smiling now. "But you know, with her wand, she could have figured out a way out of here, so I had to do a simple charm to disable her wand. It was easy, really."
Draco regarded the woman for a moment and said, "You really are quite smart. I forget that you were in Ravenclaw. You should work for me."
"No," she said, waving her hand. "I only use my brains for good, and you undoubtedly would want me to use it for bad." She bent down to Harry again and concluded, "In addition, if I wasn't at the Ministry, I wouldn't get to see Harry all the time."
Draco pulled her back up. "Tell me something, Looney, I mean, sorry, Luna." She smiled at him. "How do you know all of this will work? It's a bit drastic, isn't it? And, how do you really know Granger, you know, loves me?"
She cocked her head to the side and said, "Oh, I see, you feel a bit insecure, and you want me to tell you something to convince you that Hermione really loves you, right?"
"She more or less acted as if she hated me when she found out I was the real Draco, and not the blasted tin man," Draco replied.
"Have a seat." Luna pointed to a fallen tree beside the poppy field. Draco sat down. Luna walked up to him and pointed her wand at him.
He cowered in fear and said, "What the hell, Looney? Are you going to hex me?"
She smiled, placed her hand on his shoulder, and said, "For the record, it hurts my feelings when people call me that, so please call me Luna. Also, you need to learn to trust people. Perhaps you should ask 'The Wizard of Because' for some trust, instead of a heart, although you could do with a dash of both. I merely was going to perform a simple remembrance charm on you, to let you see a memory of something I noticed one time with you and Hermione, before the recent difficulties, and when you weren't yelling at each other."
"Oh," he said softly. "Again, apologies, for calling you, you know, that name. I hate it when people call me 'Ferret'."
"I would never do that," she reminded him.
He felt ashamed. Perhaps he should ask the wizard for a dash of humility as well. "I know, and you've never shown me anything but kindness, Luna, so I'm truly sorry."
"Apology accepted, Draco," she said steadily. "Now, what memory should I show you? Oh, I have a good one. Here goes!"
Hermione walked out of the office of Muggle Relations with Luna Lovegood, on their way to a meeting, when she spied Draco Malfoy sitting on the corner of a pretty witch's desk. He had just told the woman a funny anecdote, but just as the other witch began to laugh, he popped off the desk and followed closely behind the real person he wanted to see.
She was pretending to ignore him, which he found endearing. She was smiling, because she knew he was following her. "Hello Lovegood, Granger. Nice day outside, isn't it?" he remarked.
"It's raining," Hermione chirped, without looking at him. Luna walked slightly ahead of the pair.
Draco said, "I love the rain. It's wet and cold. Reminds me of my dear old dad and my lovely mother."
She turned to look at him, gave him a funny look, turned back around to walk forward, and ran right into a man who was walking toward them. The man hurried past without apologizing, or helping her as she stumbled.
Draco reached out for her, took her arms, steadied her, and then shouted down the hallway, "Watch where you're going you stupid, bloody wanker!"
Hermione gasped and said, "Draco, that's the Minister of Magic!"
"And your point?" he asked. Then he smiled. She tried not to smile in return, but she failed, because a smile came through.
She shook her head and sighed. "I'm late for a meeting. Why are you always here at the Ministry? You don't work here."
"No, but my tax dollars pay for all of your salaries. I want to make sure I'm getting my money's worth," he retorted.
She raised her eyebrows and hummed. "Hmm, is that why you were flirting with that pretty little witch? Because you pay her salary?"
"I wasn't flirting with her," he denied. He was waiting for Hermione to show up, but he could hardly tell her that. He made it a point to try to see her everyday.
She made it a point to go out of her way to try to see him everyday. He didn't know that, but she did. "It looked to me as if you were flirting. You were telling her that same funny story that you told my coworker and me the other day." She stopped walking and leaned against the wall.
"And when I regaled that story to you two, which one was the recipient of my flirting?" He smirked and raised an eyebrow in question.
"Definitely Jonathon. I could see a spark between you two." She laughed. Luna, who was farther up the hallway, stopped walking as well and turned to watch the pair with interest.
He leaned forward and placed a hand on the wall, by her head. "Jonathon's a handsome bloke, but I hardly think I was flirting with him, either."
"Duly noted," she teased. "You weren't flirting with the pretty girl just now, and you weren't flirting with us the other day."
He leaned even closer. "I will only admit to not flirting with the witch today or with that fellow, Jonathon. You can take that as you may." He smiled, leaned away, and folded his arms in front of him.
She blushed. "I'm late," she said, pointing down the hall. He pointed too and nodded. She turned away from him and ran down the hall and called to Luna to wait for her. She smiled the whole way there.
Draco looked up at Luna and said, "She smiled. She smiled at the implication that I was flirting with her. She loves me, or at the very least, likes me. She does."
"She did," Luna agreed. "Then you tried to kill her cat."
"I'll fix this, I will!" Draco stood up and said, "Get lost, good witch. You aren't in this scene, except in a damn bubble that floats along the screen. I'll take care of things from here. I need to wake the stupid scarecrow, aka, Potter the pea brain, make it snow, and then I have to get back in my tin suit, so I can go to the Sapphire City with my compatriots."
"Good to see that you're on board, Draco," she said. "Go easy on Harry, by the way. He meant well."
Draco cocked his head toward the sleeping Potter and said, "You really like the git, don't you? He's single, you know."
"Oh," she laughed, turning scarlet. "It's nothing like that. We're just friends."
"Right, and Granger and I are just enemies, so what's your point?" Draco said, less than convinced. He might have to make a request of the wizard on Luna's behalf, even if it did concern scarhead the scarecrow.
He woke Harry first. Harry sat up, rubbed his eyes, and said, "I was beginning to wonder if you would catch on that I shouldn't have fallen asleep, Malfoy."
"Go to Hades and back, Potter," Draco spat. "By the way, Luna told me everything. If you wanted to tell Granger about Weasel's cheating, and you wanted to get her and me together, there were more intelligent ways to go about it."
Harry stood up and stretched. He shrugged and said, "I know, but Luna was so passionate about this plan, and I guess I wanted to make her happy." He seemed embarrassed by his admission, so he hastily added, "And I wanted to help Hermione and I guess, even you, Ferret."
He would give Potter that one for free, even if he did hate being called that name. He said, "Do something constructive, Potter, and make it snow, won't you?" He changed his black, designer suit, back into a comfortable, faux tin suit, sat on the ground beside Hermione, pulled her partially into his lap, and said, "We're ready."
Harry smiled, and then made it snow.
