Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, it's world, or it's characters. All of those belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling, and anyone she had sold the rights to. That does not include me. I do not make any profit from this fanfiction, and no copyright infringement is intended. I only own this spin-off of her world, nothing else that is recognizable as the world or characters of Harry Potter.

He had let her leave. Draco let the Ravenclaw witch leave the Room of Requirement after she had seen that he had been using it to fix the Vanishing Cabinet that Fred and George Weasley had so helpfully revealed the existence of a year before.

Of course, Draco couldn't assume that she knew about the Vanishing Cabinet at all, with her dreamy, hardly-there attitude. She could have never even heard about it, as Draco wouldn't put it past her to ignore everything that didn't have to do with Wrackspurts or Nargles. Plus, even if she did know about it, there wasn't to say that she knew what it looked like, or really even understood what he had been doing with it…

But how could he have taken that chance?

His father would curse him into Merlin's beard if he knew what had just transpired. Draco grimly thanked Salazar that Lucius Malfoy was many miles away, and not due for a letter to his son anytime soon. Though he would have to lie to his mother in her next owl…

It didn't matter. What did matter was how to keep Loony silent now that she might know about him. At her earlier words, Draco had thought about what his family could do to her father and his newspaper if they needed to. Of course, his whole family's involvement would require telling them about the events, but Draco could do some damage himself if he wanted. The problem was, The Quibbler's reputation was already so horrible that there wasn't much more to say bad about that rubbish that hadn't already been said.

However, Draco did have power in Hogwarts itself. All of the Slytherins would back his play, and if he chose Loony Lovegood as a target, there wouldn't be an eyebrow raised as to the reason. He didn't need a reason to try and make people miserable.

He soon realized the flaw with that plan.

"What are you looking at?" His best mate, Blaise Zabini, asked with a light Italian accent over breakfast in the Great Hall the next day, following Draco's line of site to the Ravenclaw table. "Has someone caught your eye?"

Pansy Parkinson, who was sitting next to Draco and babbling some nonsense that Draco found very easy to ignore, immediately frowned. "Of course not." She said sharply, reaching her hand out to touch Draco's hair. "Right, Drakey?"

Draco brushed her hand away and stood up suddenly, annoyance plain in his features, and stalked over to the Ravenclaw table, followed after a few seconds by Crabbe and Goyle, staring at their food longingly but following the Slytherin Prince all the same.

"Oi, Loony." Draco called, and several students turned to look at the wizard approaching the blonde witch, who turned around after a moment, looking only mildly curious.

He could see Ginny Weasley stand up from the Gryffindor table out of the corner of his eye, but ignored her. "How's your father doing? Have they put him away in the loony-bin at Saint Mungo's for that ridiculous paper he prints? What's it called, The Quacker?" The Slytherin's laughed obediently, and Draco felt smug when he saw Luna's eyebrows crease, a small frown on her delicate features.

"The Quibbler." She replied calmly, holding up the magazine she was reading sideways as if certain he had actually gotten the name wrong. Surely she wasn't that stupid—on the other hand, maybe she knew what he was doing, and didn't want to play along. Well, he would make her. A mouse didn't just stand there when a kneazle was stalking it; it ran or fought. He wanted Luna to fight with him—why? Because he wanted some interaction; anything that would make her notice him. She hadn't looked at him a single time during breakfast, and Draco was pissed off. How could she just ignore him, of all people?

"Yeah, well that piece of rubbish is—" but he didn't get to finish his sentence because Ginny Weasley drew her wand, and Draco did as well, automatically—but it was Luna who fired a spell, a shielding charm separating the two and knocking them back a few feet.

"Detention!" A low voice said disapprovingly, and Professor Slughorn was standing by the scene, frowning at the three. Draco scowled, but put his wand away, as did the other two. Luna looked entirely unconcerned, but the Weaselette was livid, face nearly as red as her hair. "The three of you." Slughorn amended, and Draco was about to protest when he heard another voice.

"I'll take Miss Weasley, Horace. She is in my house, after all." Professor McGonnagal said stiffly, staring down her nose as Ginny, who didn't have the grace to look ashamed.

"Very well, very well." Professor Slughorn said, turning back to Draco and Luna. "Detention in the potions classroom at eight, and don't be late."

That hadn't gone exactly as intended.

A/N:

I do apologize for the very long delay—you can't imagine what was going on in my life. However, I do intend to finish this story, if anyone is still interested in reading it.