'Hey... I don't think he's in his bed.'

And whilst Harry had thought Ron had not heard him, he was not the only person in Hogwarts aware of Draco's absence from his bed.

In fact, although she was not completely conscious, Luna was very much aware that Draco was not in his dormitory because from where she was lying she could see him working on something. She blinked a couple of times to confirm she wasn't dreaming, thought about going back to sleep, decided that there were more interesting things afoot and got to her feet.

She knew Draco had heard her moving, she had seen his ears practically prick up at the sound of her walking towards him. Which was why she wasn't at all surprised when he began to speak to her without even looking up.

'You were already in here when I arrived. I saw no point in waking you.'

He was concentrating hard on the spell book in front of him, his eyes occasionally darting upwards at the huge cupboard he was facing. He could feel her studying him and after trying hard to ignore her stare he finally gave in and turned to look at her.

'You're awake now, the door is there.' He pointed in a direction over Luna's shoulder but instead of following where he was pointing, Luna kept her eyes fixed on Draco.

'Draco.. what...'

'No questions. That was the deal, Lovegood. Now for the love of Merlin, it's first thing in the morning, will you GET OUT!'

There was a slight weakness in his voice which Luna had never heard before. He was less vicious, more panic stricken as he marched towards her, his wand half raised as though he didn't quite know what he planned to do with it.

'If you don't-'

'I don't need to know anything vital. You don't have to tell me everything.'

She spoke so quickly that Draco's arm fell to his side.

'What?'

'If you talk to someone about your worries, they'll be easier to bear. It's just an idea, but I think it works. And I don't have to know any details. I could hel-'

'Is that what this is? The lunatic trying to convince herself she's not alone in her insanity. Well sorry to disappoint you, Loony, but I'm fine.' He strolled over to one of the many chairs in the room, picked up the nearest open book and started to pretend to read it.

And then a surprising thing happened.

Luna was silent.

And it looked every bit as though someone had just punched her in the face. It seemed that for once, a comment had actually offended her. When she finally spoke again to fill the horrific silence that had descended, it was much quieter than she had ever spoken before.

'I wasn't always like this. I was quite sane when I was younger.'

'I don't think there was ever a point in your life when you were 'quite sane', Luna.' Draco didn't have to look up to comment but Luna was back to not caring about what people thought.

'It was just after my mum died. I'd dream about her you see, and then I'd walk. I suppose I was trying to find her. And now I just sleep walk, so I wear shoes to bed, just to be prepared.'

Draco looked down at her feet and, just as she had said, on them were a dainty pair of silver pumps. She was dressed still in her alarmingly patterned pyjamas, a silvery-pink robe tied around her. Her hair looked as though it had once been tied in a plait although the thing with which it had been tied with had long since disappeared and long blonde trails of hair had escaped, flowing out in all directions.
It seemed that as he had been analysing Luna, she had been analysing him. Because as he made his judgement, she spoke again.

'You didn't sleep again, did you?' There was real concern in her voice, something which for some reason angered Draco. She had no right to be worried about him. He didn't need anyone to care about him, least of all Loony Lovegood.

Concern made him think about his own worries, his weaknesses and he couldn't afford to think about them.

But it was so difficult when he had no real desire to complete his mission.

He was a coward, he wanted the easy way out but for once, there wasn't one.

He sank to the floor, his elbows resting on his knees and his head in his hands, looking more childlike and immature than he ever had in his life. There was a tantalising moment when he was completely still and from where she was sitting, Luna held her breath. But then his shoulders began to heave and sobs broke through the silence.

Luna hesitantly shuffled towards him, stopping to sit next to him.

'I don't think you're fine, Draco.' She paused as he lifted his head, tears still dripping down his face. 'But that's alright, because I'm not fine either so we can be not fine together.'

Every thought crossing Draco's mind passed across his face one by one and Luna read them as easily as if they had been written down in front of her. In the end his selfish need for comfort won through and he made no complaint as Luna wiped away the remaining tears.

'Let's talk.'

And so they did. Luna did a majority of the talking, telling Draco about her mother and her times at some of the quidditch matches she had been to. She told him about every creature she could think of, with Draco butting in occasionally to tell her that no such thing existed. It wasn't long however before the responses stopped and Luna knew that she had succeeded in her real aim. Draco was sleeping. His expression was not peaceful but it was still and any sleep was better than no sleep at all.

Luna made as though to get up but a tight hold on her hand prevented her.

'I'll come back, I just need to get dressed.'

The hold released and Luna hurried away, returning five minutes later looking more presentable but no less ditzy. Draco watched her enter, closing his eyes only as she sat back in her place next to him.

'You can't leave until I say you can.' The spoilt side of Draco, caused by an overattentive mother emerged in his sleepy voice but Luna could see no reason for her to leave and so she nodded, pleased to finally feel of some use to someone.

The rest of the day was strange, with Draco dosing on and off and Luna calming the times when he was woken with her endless stream of useless chatter. They were no friends but for that one day there was a peace between the two opposing parties and so when late afternoon came, they left the room of requirement without the usual threats.

Luna closed the door behind her and turned just as, in a whirl of dark hair, Hermione flew towards her.

'Oh, hello Hermione. You're in a rush. Has something happened?'

Hermione barely turned to reply. 'Ron's been poisoned. He's in the hospital now.'

She continued down the corridor, so preoccupied with reaching her destination that she didn't notice Draco standing only a few paces away from Luna, his expression dark.

But Luna had noticed and any suspicions she had once had were now confirmed. Her eyes met his and it took less than a second for the peace to shatter, Draco to give her his most threatening stare and walk away at a speed just under running.

But Luna wasn't about to let anything slip that easily and, without a second thought for what people would think, she ran after him.

I know, I know.. it's taken so long to get this chapter up! I actually ended up rewriting it about four times because I couldn't get it just right...

One more thing as well... I've actually done some illustrations for some of the earlier chapters so if you want to see them, they're on my deviantart account which has the same username as my fanfiction.

And thank you again to all my wonderful reviewers! I am so happy that you liked it enough to recommend it. It made my day when I read that. If you don't mind, could you tell me which forum it was?