Luna found herself with her back down on a splintering hard wood floor and him breathing heavy on her. When she kicked and threw her arms on him he surrendered. Scrambling away from her. Then he was gone just as quickly as he had appeared. Then was alone. Hard wood beneath her and the room was tar black. There was no definition in that darkness, no understanding, just panic. No wand. She was in a house, or at least what used to be one. It was half hallow and half in ruin. She stood and began to feel towards her escape. The debris around caused her move most deftly. She stumble three times before she found a crack of light. THe light turned out be to be a door. Once out she realized that she recognized this place, it was the Shrieking Shack. It was passed curfew and Hogwarts was a walk away. Luna walked and with each step her fear diminished. She walked with disregard to the cold and with clear avoidance of the patrols. It was an hour later she got to Hogwarts. Inside the was sternly lectured about the dangers of wandering the halls after dark. No one had noticed that Luna had left for the holidays. Nor did they notice the wetness on the cuffs of her pants and the dirt under nails. It was easy to over look Luna. She didn't tell them either. She took her secret to dorm and stripped down, curled under her blankets and tried not to think about her father. In the morning she poured over the prophet in an usual state of frenzy. She sent sent an owl to her father. The note did not say anything about the boy either. She kept his secret.
Two days later she received an owl from her father. With a casual letter written in shaken hand writing. He was simply grateful. Two weeks later Draco was back at Hogswarts. He and his entourage of muscle. He avoided her. He didn't look at her and frequently left the great hall when she entered. Once she'd stepped in front of him and he spat an insult at her. Luna wished him a good day.
Luna appeared in a half mussed state of sleep, but only in her physical sate. Mentally she was wide awake. It was late and she had come her on pure intuition. Using her replaced wand to sweep up lengths of stamineous hair that did not sit neatly into a high strung bun. With lengths spilling off her shoulders and over her face. She was in her pajamas, a long gauzy gown. Lips still full and pink from hard sleep, eyes with wide dark pupils adjusted to the low light. All the confirmation she needed was in the emergence of a the arched stone door way to the Room of Requirement. For what she required could not be produced out nothingness, could not be supplied by a conjuring of a magical imagination or born from the transfiguration of one object to something new and unfamiliar to its original shape. Tonight the entrance was provoked by the presents of a student of almost seventeen, an outsider and royalty in his own right. She'd passed this hall late in the evenings on a number of occasions, but without resolve. Her intentions were more pure that that of Ron, Hermoine or Harry. That is why she didn't tell them. It wasn't an investigation into his faults or suspicion to his character.
The room opened because it could provide her desire without denying him his own; without jeopardizing either. The flat of her hand on the rough green splintered oak and steel door. A push. The room innately changed to accommodate her despite the other's prior reservation. There is a subtle and low warmth that took its place, a small semblance in all things. To the careless observer nothing had spread on the door and she pushed it open. A low objective groan. Bare feet on cold stone, something she hadn't noticed.
The boy hadn't noticed her at first. Draco was bent and half devoured by the old umber cabinet. A suit that was black and tailored. That distinquished him from the other students in his six year. The white shock of his blonde hair was had artfully fallen out of place. He looked beautifully dangerous. Between teeth near undecipherable spells were cast, a white shower of sparks followed.
"Come on, " a desperate tone. The door clicked as it closed behind her he looked up. His head banging on the low shelf. A hand rubbed the sore spot and he rested back on his heels. He searched the room and found her. A moment of absolute disbelief. "What?" it was at first a startled question. That quickly turned into a cold threat. "How the hell did you get into here?"
Luna with a remarkable presence of serenity smiled to him. She didn't understand any of what what happening before her. None of the work he had been doing on the cabinet or the work he'd already done registered. It was appeared to her to be nothing more than large umber thing with perhaps some unknown potential.
"I've come here for you. " it was informative and matter of fact without accent, emphasis or intonation. As if it were a simple and obvious truth. "Of course, " Lips split into a compassionate, but empty smile.
"What?" befuddlement. That answer had been too straight forward for him to accept.
"I was looking for you, " she explained the science he already knew, because malicious intent had never occurred to her. "Is this what you've been doing? "
The door behind buckled down into the wall and then bleed into the stone. Until it and the stone became inseparable and indistinguishable. She surveyed him and recognized all things in their actuality to the best of her knowledge. Without the absurdity or obliquity of assumption or experience. Luna forgave Draco as if she had never noticed his surprise. Luna's finger tips, painted in opalescent coral and faint gray pointed stars knotted in a long twill of her hair. She closed the distance between them.
"It's ...It's " he slammed the door of the cabinet and stood red faced and breathing hard. "Get out of here, " his wand was drawn and pointed low. Stepping back he distanced himself from her.
Luna waited for him to be done speaking. She did not try to push back into conversation, she did not appear offended or defensive. Even when he drew his wand she did not waver. The ivory gort wand remained tangled in that mess of thick hair. Instead she leaned irresponsibly on the cabinet and it held her weight. A glance over the room and all the things it was filled with. What did he require with all this clutter? Or was it just this cabinet?
"You don't have to tell me if you don't wan to, but I wanted say thank you, "The polished veneer of the cabinet was explored with fingertips without a double nature. That languid and lazy stance said something about the trust she invested in him with out charge, without expectation. Even as he became near frantic and threatened her her demeanor remained unchanged. She saw something tempestuous in him and watched it, almost passively, come to fruit. "I tried to before," her eyes fell and she remembered how he avoided her in the halls.
"You wont tell anyone, anything you saw, I will kill you. " his wand was stretched out. His lips contorted into a frown. The typically bold and dogmatic Sytherin had become only recognizable on his corporeal distinction. "leave, now " His panic did not allow him to hear her clearly.
"Thank you, for bringing me to Hogsmeade." she said it anyway. Then set herself into motion walking towards him.
"Just go, " he begun to tremble. A half step back. She was gaining ground. Draco wished she never been kind to him. That she wouldn't expect his kindness ever again.
"I..." he didn't know what to say as she drew him closer
"I am leaving, " she spoke through her smile and it could be heard in her words. Her hand slipped over his lowering his wand. Now she stood so close almost feel that anxious heart beat. Feel that tremendous heat from eeked from him. He froze and gave her permission with out such intention. A slow breath and she took in the sanctuary of this place and wished he could to. She brushed her cheek on his, and felt the hard edge of his jaw and roughness of a neglected day proper shaving. "I wont tell, " she whispered to him.
Everything in Draco told him to step back. To distance himself, but he too found himself in a sharing a small sanctuary. She descended to stand grounded on her feet.
"Sleep always helped my Mum. The answer might come to you while you sleep, maybe that's just it. " her tone was again aimless. She looked back to the wall where the door had once been and found it again waiting for her. Luna let go of his hand and turned to leave. To leave him with cabinet. Knowing she had given her thanks.
