FIC - Hopelandic (Draco/Luna)
Title: Hopelandic
Rating: Teen to Adult
Warnings: Harsh language, implied sex
Canon: Not epilogue compliant
Summary: Draco gets a little inebriated for his 30th birthday and stumbles into a relationship that will redefine him over the next year.
Author's Notes: Hopelandic is a made-up language (created by the band Sigur Ros) which the sound of the word is a meaning and a story to each individual.
part 1
*~*~*
He stopped short at his office. There were glowing magical letters floating above the door that read ‘congratulations’. He was officially annoyed. Must be Tuesday.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Draco muttered.
“How come you didn’t tell me, Boss?” Miss Penshaw said, attempting to give him a hug.
Draco backed away so fast he tripped over his own feet and fell to his backside.
“There’s nothing to-“
“I need to speak with you. Now.”
Draco looked up to see who had spoken. Potter was standing over him in his Auror robes looking remarkably like an angry hornet.
“Bugger.” Draco sighed and got to his feet.
Potter took a deep breath. “Look-“
“No, you look, you poncy wanker,” Draco snapped, pointing a finger in the other man’s face. “I have had just about enough of this. I slept with her, but I’m not marrying her.”
Daisy Penshaw gasped. Potter started turning red in anger.
“She wouldn’t have me. I didn’t ask. It wasn’t like that. I don’t know where the sodding Prophet got that story, but that’s what it is - a story. Fiction! I didn’t ask her to marry me, and even if I had, she wouldn’t agree, so we’re all solid here, yeah? You don’t have to worry about my tainting Luna.”
“Who said you’d taint me,” a dreamy voice asked from behind him.
Draco spun around quickly. He smiled at her despite everything. Her long and wavy golden hair was loose and had flowers woven in it. They were pale blue and matched her flowered sundress and flip-flops. Even her toes were painted that powder blue color.
“You looked very pretty with your hair down,” he said before he could stop himself. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to speak to my fiancé,” she said playfully.
Draco’s eyes went wide.
“What? You think it bothered me - people thinking you’d have me? Decidedly not, but I do think we ought to think on how to proceed with the announcement that we are not due for impending nuptials. Though my first instinct was to retaliate by setting a pack of nifflers loose in the Prophet’s offices.”
Draco smiled. “I was thinking blast-ended skrewts or conjuring a gorgon. Medusa came to mind. I think all the reporters around there would look smashing as statues. We could put them in a park with lots of birds and sprinkle birdseed there every day.”
She laughed loudly at that. Draco found himself mesmerized by that laugh. It was not a polite snicker to be kind. It was a full-bodied belly chuckle. There was nothing false in that laugh, and he liked that very much.
“My office is right here,” he said, nodding his head that way.
They left Potter and his secretary staring.
“This is rather odd, isn’t it?”
Draco looked at her.
“I have no frame of reference since I am mostly odd, but this situation is odd for you, yes?”
“A bit, yeah," he agreed.
“I suppose you’ll want the Prophet to print a retraction? Well when I owled them this morning, I was informed that they have a strict ‘no retractions’ policy.”
“The bloody blighters!”
Luna blinked at him. Draco knew he could be dramatic. She probably was not used to that. Then again, she was friends with Potter. It was possible that she was.
“I’m terribly sorry, Draco. If I had not sat down at your table…”
She had probably trailed off because of the dark look on his face.
“I had a bloody good time on my birthday for the first time since I was fifteen, so don’t you dare say you wished it never happened.”
That enigmatic smile was back. “I wasn’t. It’s nice to know you weren’t regretting things as well.”
“Definitely not,” Draco snapped.
He was shocked because he actually meant that. He honestly did not want to take one minute of it back. Draco couldn’t even explain why. He’d sort of despised her and her friends in school. He still despised her friends. He was currently unclear on his feelings towards her. It did not make sense to him.
But he did like the fact that she did not treat him like a social pariah. She had a reason to.
“Why don’t you seem to mind this?" he asked. "You shouldn’t be pleased that people think I want you. You should be furious.”
“Well, that just shows how much you know about me.”
Draco considered. He did not know her. He never had. She was just a vague but huddled shape with a sad face he’d see in his nightmares about that time in his life when people were locked in the family dungeons. Was it pity?
No, that could not be it. Malfoys did not feel pity.
“Well, what should I know? After all, we will be married soon according to a certain media source not fit to wipe my arse.”
She giggled.
“What?”
“When you get annoyed, you get very descriptive in your insults. I never noticed that about you before now.”
“We aren’t talking about me,” he said in exasperation. “We’re talking about you.”
“You don’t want to know about me.”
“I asked, didn’t I?”
Draco was getting annoyed. Why was she being so resistant?
“All right then,” she said, holding out a hand. “Come on.”
________________________________________
There was the vague possibility that Draco would get into a bit of trouble for having left the Ministry in the middle of a work day, but he honestly did not care.
What he did care about was the fact that they had apparated to a wooded area and were now trudging through it while holding hands. He’d already asked her numerous times where they were and what they were doing. She just gave him what he was coming to call her secret smile in his head. It was that enigmatic dreamy grin of hers that suggested the universe told her things it did not tell him.
Draco suspected that might be true. He saw no wonder in the world. She seemed to see a great deal in it. She was pointing out several sorts of mushroom varieties. So much so that he was beginning to suspect she had a fungus fetish.
He froze when they entered a clearing.
Hippogryffs. A whole heard of them. Draco was fairly certain his hand began to sweat in hers. Not to mention the rest of him. What sort of a sadistic bitch would take him, of all people, to view a whole herd of hippogriffs?
“Is this a joke?”
“Why would it be?”
They stared at one another - her in dreamy confusion and him in glaring irritation.
“Oh," she said. "I’d forgotten. The attack, yes. Well, we’ll just have a quick lesson and you should be quite fine.”
“Lesson? Fine? I am not going out there with all of those beasts.”
“Of course you are, silly. We’re going riding.”
“Like hell!”
That outburst got several of the animals’ attention. Draco’s eyes went wide and he pulled Luna in front of him as a human shield.
“Stop being such a baby. Just do as I do and for Merlin’s sake, don’t insult any of them.”
“You’re insane if you think I am getting near any of them.”
Luna turned around and moved into his personal space. Draco was quite surprised when she grabbed the sides of his face and kissed him. Something in it was familiar. It jogged a memory of a kiss such as this whey they were tumbling into that bed in the room above Three Broomsticks. Draco tried to hold onto that, but she pushed him away gently.
“Be the man who asked me to dance on a whim. Fortune favors the bold, you know.”
He watched in nervousness and she walked into the clearing and bowed to the first one of the damned beasts that looked at her. Draco took his wand out, ready to stun things should there be any charging. The damned things did not charge. It bowed back to her and Luna approached it.
Draco watched her from the tree line. She had a way with the thing. She spoke softly to it, and petted its beak. Then she waved him out. Draco shook his head ‘no’ at her. She waved more vigorously.
He sighed and moved tentatively. They would find his trampled and clawed body months from now. He could see it already. Luna was motioning for him to bow. Though Draco felt a little ridiculous bowing to an animal, he did as she instructed. He felt as if the rest of the herd were watching him, knowing he’d insulted one of their kind before.
He breathed an audible sigh of relief when the beast he was bowing to bowed in return. Draco still approached cautiously.
“See, that wasn’t so terrible, was it?”
Draco glared at her as he ran a hand through the hippogryff’s feathers. She was insane. That was the only explanation, and perhaps he was a bit bent himself because he was following her on a merry chase.
“Let’s ride him now.”
Draco glared at her. “Let’s not and keep all our limbs.”
________________________________________
He was windswept as they entered his flat laughing. Draco had never been windswept off of the Quidditch pitch. He had also never been flying on anything save a broom. In a matter of days, he was changing. One drunken sexual encounter had warped his brain. He was laughing and doing things he would have never done before. All because of the woman currently with her arm around him.
They both stopped short at the assembly in his living area.
“Just so you know, I don’t give a rat’s arse who you’re shagging or marrying,” said a very annoyed looking Marcus Flint.
Draco knew he usually went where Astoria did, being very possessive, but this was a little ridiculous. He and Draco did not like one another. Marcus usually made an exception when the location was Draco’s.
But there he stood behind where Tori was sitting, Daphne next to her. Daphne - who was once again helping herself to his firewhisky. Pansy was looking pinched. Blaise had brought Hannah, and even Gregory Goyle was there pacing like a caged animal.
“Well, the gang’s all here,” Draco snapped sarcastically. “If this is an engagement party, I have to warn you all that we’re not getting married. Just hanging out and having fun.”
“What on earth is with your hair, Draco?” Pansy snapped.
“I was flying,” he announced proudly. “On a hippogriff.”
He almost wished he had a camera. The looks of confusion and bewilderment on his friends’ faces were deliciously amusing.
“That’s not Draco,” Blaise said. “Get him.”
Draco shouted and jumped back, reaching for his wand. He’d show them who was Draco around here. Luna had drawn hers from behind her ear.
“What the bloody hell is this? An intervention? I don’t need to be intervened, thank you!”
“Oh, stop it,” Hannah snapped. “All of you just stop it. That’s Draco. Did you see how quick he drew his wand? I told you lot he was not possessed.”
“Possessed?”
“I heard from a friend,” Pansy began. “That you’d left the Ministry early with Lovegood there. We were concerned.”
“How is Davis anyhow? Why isn’t she here? Too busy flogging her house-elves?”
Flint actually snickered until Astoria reached around and slapped his arm. He gave her a fiery look that always disturbed Draco. He did not need to know that Marcus Flint liked to be knocked around a little.
Draco shook his head and put that thought from his mind. Far, far from his mind.
“Were you planning an exorcism? A deprogramming?”
The looks on their faces said it all.
“You were,” he stared incredulously. “You pack of wankers.”
Draco could not believe this. He acted a little out of character and started having fun for once and everyone wanted to toss him in Mungo’s.
“Now… Draco…” Hannah said, raising her hands in surrender.
She was usually pretty good at calming any one of them within their group down. Except for Marcus. Astoria seemed to be the only one who could defuse him. However, Draco was beyond irritated now.
“I think you all need to leave.”
“Malfoy…” Daphne said.
“We’re going to have sex now,” Draco said, gesturing to Luna. “So unless you’d like to watch…”
Her eyes were huge at that comment. His so-called friends made hasty exits with promises of owling or flooing later. Draco shut the door behind them with a sigh.
“Sorry about them. They’re really very…”
He’d been turning back to her as he spoke. When he saw her, words failed him. She’d dropped her dress and wasn’t wearing stitch under it. Draco blinked. She’d been stomping around with him all day with no knickers on?
“What…”
“I thought you said we were going to have sex now?”
He swallowed loudly. That was certainly unexpected.
________________________________________
Draco was in a strange pattern. It had been a little over three weeks since he’d been to his own ‘intervention’ with all his Slytherin friends. He’d seen Luna most of those days at least once. He could now recall in detail what she looked like sans clothing. He didn’t remember the night of his birthday, but he had other memories. He could not figure out why he was doing this. It wasn’t like him.
And maybe that was the problem.
Being a good little Slytherin, no oxymoron intended, had never exactly made Draco’s life exactly livable for him, so perhaps it was time to redefine who Draco Orion Malfoy was. Spending time with someone who he’d formally considered beneath his notice had made Draco realize how unhappy he had been. He was too rigid, too trained. Like a poodle. Draco did not like poodles. He had never liked them. The realization that he might share qualities with one was quite disturbing.
He sighed when his door was flung open.
“I’ve been looking through the Prophet every day for weeks,” Blaise announced. “When are they going to print the sodding retraction?”
“Might be difficult since I never spoke to them and when Luna did she was told they do not print retractions.”
The look on Blaise’s face was hilarious, so Draco started chuckling.
“Do close your mouth, B. You look like a codfish.”
“What are you doing?”
Draco frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Is this another rebellion or do you honestly like her?”
“What sort of a question is that?” Draco snapped.
“Look, don’t get pissy, Princess. It’s a real question. I want to know if I need to get to know this woman. Actually, Hannah wants to know. She has all these plans.”
“Plans?”
“She wants Lovegood to feel welcome to the fold. She’s going to speak to Pans and Tori about shopping even. Now, I’m wondering if I need to tell her not to bother.”
“I don’t know.”
Blaise’s eyebrows went up.
“I don’t know what I’m doing. I know she’s different, and I like that. I know it irritates Potter and his chums, and that’s definitely a bonus. But I don’t actually care about that part. I was determined to spend the night of my birthday alone, but I spent it with her instead. I spent the day after with her. I cannot remember the last time I just had fun.”
Blaise was looking pinched.
“Please don’t be offended. You know I have fun with you and Hannah, but I feel like a fourth witch trying to be in the Weird Sisters. This is different.”
Blaise seemed to be considering. “I’ll tell Hannah to owl then.”
“I didn’t say-“
“Yes, you did. You call her Luna, and you’re happy. I haven’t seen you honestly happy since Hogwarts, you wanker. I won’t let you sabotage your own happiness this time. Even if the bird is a little off. You’re a hoop short of the Quidditch pitch yourself, so this could be interesting.”
“You just called me and my…” Draco didn’t know what word to use.
“Yes, Princess? Your what? Exactly? What should we call her? Your new friend? Friend with benefits? Girlfriend? Fiancée? I’m quite curious.”
“I don’t know,” Draco snapped. “She and I haven’t talked about it.”
“Well, maybe you should.”
“Well, maybe you should stay out of it,” Draco said, getting more irritated.
“Like you did when it was Hannah and I?”
“That’s different.”
“How? You would not allow me to ruin my own happiness. I see this the same way. Everyone you’ve ever dated has not been able to make you happy. It’s a damned miracle Pansy and Astoria are still your friends.”
“Just don’t.”
“Sorry, Princess. I warned you back in the day that your meddling would come back to haunt you. Be prepared to go on a double date with my wife, myself and your new girlfriend.”
“Don’t call her that.”
“You’d best talk to her… because that’s how I will be introducing her to people.”
“You right bastard,” Draco said in awe. “You’re going to use this as revenge for how I acted when you and Hannah started liking one another? You’re going to use Luna like that?”
“Ah ha!” Blaise shouted, pointing at Draco. “That tells me everything. If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t care what I did.”
Draco scowled.
“I suggest you speak to her. See you both soon, Princess.”
Blaise got up and left. When the shock wore off, Draco threw a hex at the door.
“Wanker.”
________________________________________
“Your owl seemed a bit… urgent,” Luna said as she did what she usually did in his flat when they weren’t in the bedroom. She was looking at all of his belongings and studying them. She picked some up, others she just leaned in to peer more closely at. “I have something to discuss as well, but do go first.”
“Yes, well, there’s an issue.”
“Go on,” she prompted when he did not speak for a long time.
“Blaise and Hannah want to go to dinner with us. Like a date. A four person date. A double. Yeah,” he said in a rush.
Luna turned to him suddenly, her eyes even more owlish than usual.
“I know. I’ll make our excuses. It’s not a tragedy. I just… I don’t…”
“Well, it makes what I need to say easier.”
Draco didn’t like the sound of that.
“Ginny is my best friend. Ginny Weasley.”
“Uh huh,” Draco said warily. Ginny Weasley was also Ginny Potter now.
“She trusts my judgment. Harry doesn’t. She wants us to have dinner at their house.”
Draco felt like he’d been hit with a stunner. “What?”
“It won’t be too terrible; I promise I’ll protect you from Harry and Ron.”
“Scarhead AND the redheaded gorilla?”
“Perhaps you could not call them that to their faces. Hermione and Neville might get offended.”
“Granger and Longbottom too?”
Draco was now debating. He absolutely did not want to do that, but if she actually asked him, he did not know if he could say no.
“Please.”
He was doomed. “Fine, but you will be called upon for the doubles thing and to go shopping with Hannah, Pansy and Astoria.”
She tensed.
“I couldn’t possibly… Didn’t you date Pansy Parkinson and Astoria Greengrass? “
“Yes.”
“I don’t think I could-“
“Look, I’m having dinner with three of the people I despised most in my youth. I’m having dinner with my childhood arch nemesis. I think you can do a bit of shopping with my best mate’s wife and my two exes. I think you’re getting the better deal. Hannah won’t allow Pansy or Tori to treat you with anything but respect.”
“Then I will go if it means so much to you, and I will make it understood that you are my guest for dinner with my friends and you are to be treated as such.”
Draco blinked. Were they really doing this?
“What should I call you?” he asked.
“I thought you’d been calling me Luna.”
“No, I mean… are you my…” Draco swallowed nervously. “Girlfriend? Is that what this is for us?”
“Do you want it to be?”
Did he want it to be? She was asking him. It was a strange feeling. Did he? Draco considered. He thought about all that Blaise had said.
“Yes, I do.”
“Then that’s settled,” she said smiling. “Now one more thing.”
He watched as Luna pulled something from her bag. Draco almost laughed when he saw what it was - a copy of the Quibbler. When he saw that the cover story was all about the Prophet’s no-retraction policy, he actually did laugh.
“I know that not as many people read the Quib or take it at all seriously, but I do hope you know that I am fighting in my own way.”
He was beginning to like her way. That was a startling discovery.
“Thank you,” Draco said, shocked again that he was meaning it.
Those two words together usually tasted like ashes on his tongue.
“Excellent. I’ll pick you up tomorrow at seven. We’ll be going to the Burrow.”
“Excuse me?”
“Dinner with Ginny’s family and my friends.”
“Her whole family?”
“Well, Molly Weasley will be cooking. I’m not entirely certain who all will be there.”
She could have been a rather smashing Slytherin with ambush tactics like this. His father was going to have a whole litter of kneazles when he found out about this. Draco was beginning to wonder what he was getting into with this one.
Not that he wanted out.
________________________________________
Draco glared at Pansy as she laughed riotously.
“You’re having dinner at the Weasley family home with Potter. Your parents are going to die, Draco. They’re also going to hex you. How did you allow yourself to get into this mess?”
“I like her, all right.”
“You know, this was cute when we were teenagers. But you need to stop getting into these messes. It’s unbecoming in a man of your years.”
“Oh, shut up. I need to know what to take over there.”
“What?”
“I still have manners. I need to bring a gift for the meal.”
“Well, I’d normally suggest a fancy dessert from that bakery in Hogsmeade or a bottle of wine from the Zabini stores, but they’d probably think you were trying to be snooty. Why don’t you get Hannah to help you bake some bikkies?”
“I don’t know how to bake.”
“Hence the getting Hannah to help you part of the plan, moron. They won’t be expecting that, I can assure you.”
Draco made a face. “Pansy, I am not doing it to put anyone off balance.”
“I don’t understand.”
“These are her friends, and damn my eyes, I am actually concerned about making a good impression.”
“Oh, that’s so sad,” then she seemed to realize what she had said and backtracked. “Look, darling, these people already know you. Well, they think they do, anyhow. The impression has been made already. I don’t feature you changing that with a tin of biscuits.”
Draco scowled at her.
“And what’s this Hannah keeps telling me about myself and Tori taking Lovegood shopping?”
“I do wish you’d refer to her as Luna.”
“Oh, my goddess,” Pansy said in horror.
“What is it now?”
“You actually like her.”
“I don’t know,” Draco replied.
“No, you do. I can see it. It’s written all over you. My gods. You should have just said, darling. We’ll help you. Of course we’ll help you. I’ll even be moderately nice.”
Draco chuckled. “Thanks, Pans.”
________________________________________
Draco was sure his eyes were just as wide as Luna’s when they arrived at the Burrow. He had a tin of the biscuits Hannah had helped him make clutched tightly in his hands. Perhaps he should have insisted they do a friendly gathering with his friends first so that she could be scared off before him and he would not have to be subjected to this. Draco had not been this nervous in years. He’d almost sooner face the Dark Lord again rather than Molly Weasley.
“Are you all right?” Luna asked, slipping a hand into his. “You look a bit pale. Well, more pale. We can go. I can make excuses.”
Draco straightened his spine. “No.”
“Good. Nice to know bravery is not restricted to Gryffindor alone. I know this won’t be easy for you, and I know it’s soon, but they’re worried about you. They don’t know you. I’ve told them they don’t. You aren’t who you used to be.”
Draco blinked at her. She was amazingly trusting. He was like he used to be. That had not changed. What had changed was his ability to hide it. Or perhaps he no longer had a desire to be a nasty git to her upon knowing her better.
Her hair was no longer stringy, but wild. Like spun gold, and it caught light like nothing he’d ever seen. Her eyes were not bug-like anymore. Just owlish and wide to take in as much as she possibly could. She was not loony and never had been - she saw the world through eyes no one else could comprehend.
Draco could hear people talking in another part of the house, but while they were alone in the foyer, he clasped her hand and brought it to his lips. His world was different. He was trying new things, and as resistant as he was, it was not boring. Draco was beginning to suspect he’d been bored for the last decade and that was half his problem.
“What was that for?” she asked softly, leaning closer.
“Just because,” he murmured, playing with a lock of her hair that was resting on her shoulder.
Someone cleared their throat, and Luna jumped in surprise. She tried to move away, but they weren’t doing anything wrong, so Draco gently put a hand on her arm to keep her near. He turned to look at the intruder to find Mr. Weasley looking at the both of them with a pleasant smile on his face.
“Ah, Luna, there you are. With your… friend. I thought I heard someone enter. Your father’s been wondering where you two were.”
Father? Draco knew his eyes now surpassed Luna’s in wideness.
“Hello, Mr. Malfoy.”
Draco almost froze from the ice, but he smiled politely and took the hand being offered to him.
“Please. Do call me Draco,” he replied, shaking the hand firmly and looking Mr. Weasley right in the eye.
A strange look passed over the other man’s face before he grinned. “Will do then.”
Draco willed himself into a state of calm as he was led through the mismatched house that could have fit into Malfoy Manor about a hundred times over. He willed himself into a state of calm. He needed to behave for Luna’s sake, and to do that he needed to be calm.
“Luna and her boyfriend are here finally."
Draco’s calm was severely damaged by that announcement.
________________________________________
Luna was yawning as they entered his flat. Draco had apparated them here. She had a small cottage in Hogsmeade. Their floos were already connected, but with how tired she seemed, Draco’s plan was to walk her up the stairs and put her to bed.
In the literal sense and not the sexual one.
Tonight had been horrific, but Draco was thinking he bore it well. The veiled insults were everywhere. It was like old times only no one hexed one another. There had been a few times when Draco had suspected Granger had kicked her husband under the table, but he could not be certain.
The crowning event of the evening had been when George Weasley had eaten one of the biscuits Draco had brought then pretended to die of poisoning. His mother and wife had hexed him for that. Draco could not help himself. He had laughed. Loudly.
Unfortunately that had freaked everyone else out - his laughing. Well, not Luna. She started laughing too. After that, the giggles dropped like flies. The only ones who had not been laughing were Scarhead and the gorilla.
Draco was all right with that.
He just removed her shoes before putting her on the bed.
“So tired,” she said between yawns. “Must floo home.”
“Nonsense, you’ll go out the wrong grate. Go to sleep. I’ll get you home after brekkie tomorrow.”
“Mmmmm.”
She was already asleep. They had stayed rather late at the Weasleys’. He was glad tomorrow was Sunday. His assistant did not know what to think. It was rare for him to not work through the weekend, but Draco had not done so in over a month. He changed into his pajamas and got into the bed. Luna unconsciously curled towards his warmth in her sleep.
Draco was wondering when in the hell he’d turned into such a sap because her doing that made him smile. A real smile too, not his nasty smirk.
Rating: Teen to Adult
Warnings: Harsh language, implied sex
Canon: Not epilogue compliant
Summary: Draco gets a little inebriated for his 30th birthday and stumbles into a relationship that will redefine him over the next year.
Author's Notes: Hopelandic is a made-up language (created by the band Sigur Ros) which the sound of the word is a meaning and a story to each individual.
part 1
*~*~*
He stopped short at his office. There were glowing magical letters floating above the door that read ‘congratulations’. He was officially annoyed. Must be Tuesday.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Draco muttered.
“How come you didn’t tell me, Boss?” Miss Penshaw said, attempting to give him a hug.
Draco backed away so fast he tripped over his own feet and fell to his backside.
“There’s nothing to-“
“I need to speak with you. Now.”
Draco looked up to see who had spoken. Potter was standing over him in his Auror robes looking remarkably like an angry hornet.
“Bugger.” Draco sighed and got to his feet.
Potter took a deep breath. “Look-“
“No, you look, you poncy wanker,” Draco snapped, pointing a finger in the other man’s face. “I have had just about enough of this. I slept with her, but I’m not marrying her.”
Daisy Penshaw gasped. Potter started turning red in anger.
“She wouldn’t have me. I didn’t ask. It wasn’t like that. I don’t know where the sodding Prophet got that story, but that’s what it is - a story. Fiction! I didn’t ask her to marry me, and even if I had, she wouldn’t agree, so we’re all solid here, yeah? You don’t have to worry about my tainting Luna.”
“Who said you’d taint me,” a dreamy voice asked from behind him.
Draco spun around quickly. He smiled at her despite everything. Her long and wavy golden hair was loose and had flowers woven in it. They were pale blue and matched her flowered sundress and flip-flops. Even her toes were painted that powder blue color.
“You looked very pretty with your hair down,” he said before he could stop himself. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to speak to my fiancé,” she said playfully.
Draco’s eyes went wide.
“What? You think it bothered me - people thinking you’d have me? Decidedly not, but I do think we ought to think on how to proceed with the announcement that we are not due for impending nuptials. Though my first instinct was to retaliate by setting a pack of nifflers loose in the Prophet’s offices.”
Draco smiled. “I was thinking blast-ended skrewts or conjuring a gorgon. Medusa came to mind. I think all the reporters around there would look smashing as statues. We could put them in a park with lots of birds and sprinkle birdseed there every day.”
She laughed loudly at that. Draco found himself mesmerized by that laugh. It was not a polite snicker to be kind. It was a full-bodied belly chuckle. There was nothing false in that laugh, and he liked that very much.
“My office is right here,” he said, nodding his head that way.
They left Potter and his secretary staring.
“This is rather odd, isn’t it?”
Draco looked at her.
“I have no frame of reference since I am mostly odd, but this situation is odd for you, yes?”
“A bit, yeah," he agreed.
“I suppose you’ll want the Prophet to print a retraction? Well when I owled them this morning, I was informed that they have a strict ‘no retractions’ policy.”
“The bloody blighters!”
Luna blinked at him. Draco knew he could be dramatic. She probably was not used to that. Then again, she was friends with Potter. It was possible that she was.
“I’m terribly sorry, Draco. If I had not sat down at your table…”
She had probably trailed off because of the dark look on his face.
“I had a bloody good time on my birthday for the first time since I was fifteen, so don’t you dare say you wished it never happened.”
That enigmatic smile was back. “I wasn’t. It’s nice to know you weren’t regretting things as well.”
“Definitely not,” Draco snapped.
He was shocked because he actually meant that. He honestly did not want to take one minute of it back. Draco couldn’t even explain why. He’d sort of despised her and her friends in school. He still despised her friends. He was currently unclear on his feelings towards her. It did not make sense to him.
But he did like the fact that she did not treat him like a social pariah. She had a reason to.
“Why don’t you seem to mind this?" he asked. "You shouldn’t be pleased that people think I want you. You should be furious.”
“Well, that just shows how much you know about me.”
Draco considered. He did not know her. He never had. She was just a vague but huddled shape with a sad face he’d see in his nightmares about that time in his life when people were locked in the family dungeons. Was it pity?
No, that could not be it. Malfoys did not feel pity.
“Well, what should I know? After all, we will be married soon according to a certain media source not fit to wipe my arse.”
She giggled.
“What?”
“When you get annoyed, you get very descriptive in your insults. I never noticed that about you before now.”
“We aren’t talking about me,” he said in exasperation. “We’re talking about you.”
“You don’t want to know about me.”
“I asked, didn’t I?”
Draco was getting annoyed. Why was she being so resistant?
“All right then,” she said, holding out a hand. “Come on.”
________________________________________
There was the vague possibility that Draco would get into a bit of trouble for having left the Ministry in the middle of a work day, but he honestly did not care.
What he did care about was the fact that they had apparated to a wooded area and were now trudging through it while holding hands. He’d already asked her numerous times where they were and what they were doing. She just gave him what he was coming to call her secret smile in his head. It was that enigmatic dreamy grin of hers that suggested the universe told her things it did not tell him.
Draco suspected that might be true. He saw no wonder in the world. She seemed to see a great deal in it. She was pointing out several sorts of mushroom varieties. So much so that he was beginning to suspect she had a fungus fetish.
He froze when they entered a clearing.
Hippogryffs. A whole heard of them. Draco was fairly certain his hand began to sweat in hers. Not to mention the rest of him. What sort of a sadistic bitch would take him, of all people, to view a whole herd of hippogriffs?
“Is this a joke?”
“Why would it be?”
They stared at one another - her in dreamy confusion and him in glaring irritation.
“Oh," she said. "I’d forgotten. The attack, yes. Well, we’ll just have a quick lesson and you should be quite fine.”
“Lesson? Fine? I am not going out there with all of those beasts.”
“Of course you are, silly. We’re going riding.”
“Like hell!”
That outburst got several of the animals’ attention. Draco’s eyes went wide and he pulled Luna in front of him as a human shield.
“Stop being such a baby. Just do as I do and for Merlin’s sake, don’t insult any of them.”
“You’re insane if you think I am getting near any of them.”
Luna turned around and moved into his personal space. Draco was quite surprised when she grabbed the sides of his face and kissed him. Something in it was familiar. It jogged a memory of a kiss such as this whey they were tumbling into that bed in the room above Three Broomsticks. Draco tried to hold onto that, but she pushed him away gently.
“Be the man who asked me to dance on a whim. Fortune favors the bold, you know.”
He watched in nervousness and she walked into the clearing and bowed to the first one of the damned beasts that looked at her. Draco took his wand out, ready to stun things should there be any charging. The damned things did not charge. It bowed back to her and Luna approached it.
Draco watched her from the tree line. She had a way with the thing. She spoke softly to it, and petted its beak. Then she waved him out. Draco shook his head ‘no’ at her. She waved more vigorously.
He sighed and moved tentatively. They would find his trampled and clawed body months from now. He could see it already. Luna was motioning for him to bow. Though Draco felt a little ridiculous bowing to an animal, he did as she instructed. He felt as if the rest of the herd were watching him, knowing he’d insulted one of their kind before.
He breathed an audible sigh of relief when the beast he was bowing to bowed in return. Draco still approached cautiously.
“See, that wasn’t so terrible, was it?”
Draco glared at her as he ran a hand through the hippogryff’s feathers. She was insane. That was the only explanation, and perhaps he was a bit bent himself because he was following her on a merry chase.
“Let’s ride him now.”
Draco glared at her. “Let’s not and keep all our limbs.”
________________________________________
He was windswept as they entered his flat laughing. Draco had never been windswept off of the Quidditch pitch. He had also never been flying on anything save a broom. In a matter of days, he was changing. One drunken sexual encounter had warped his brain. He was laughing and doing things he would have never done before. All because of the woman currently with her arm around him.
They both stopped short at the assembly in his living area.
“Just so you know, I don’t give a rat’s arse who you’re shagging or marrying,” said a very annoyed looking Marcus Flint.
Draco knew he usually went where Astoria did, being very possessive, but this was a little ridiculous. He and Draco did not like one another. Marcus usually made an exception when the location was Draco’s.
But there he stood behind where Tori was sitting, Daphne next to her. Daphne - who was once again helping herself to his firewhisky. Pansy was looking pinched. Blaise had brought Hannah, and even Gregory Goyle was there pacing like a caged animal.
“Well, the gang’s all here,” Draco snapped sarcastically. “If this is an engagement party, I have to warn you all that we’re not getting married. Just hanging out and having fun.”
“What on earth is with your hair, Draco?” Pansy snapped.
“I was flying,” he announced proudly. “On a hippogriff.”
He almost wished he had a camera. The looks of confusion and bewilderment on his friends’ faces were deliciously amusing.
“That’s not Draco,” Blaise said. “Get him.”
Draco shouted and jumped back, reaching for his wand. He’d show them who was Draco around here. Luna had drawn hers from behind her ear.
“What the bloody hell is this? An intervention? I don’t need to be intervened, thank you!”
“Oh, stop it,” Hannah snapped. “All of you just stop it. That’s Draco. Did you see how quick he drew his wand? I told you lot he was not possessed.”
“Possessed?”
“I heard from a friend,” Pansy began. “That you’d left the Ministry early with Lovegood there. We were concerned.”
“How is Davis anyhow? Why isn’t she here? Too busy flogging her house-elves?”
Flint actually snickered until Astoria reached around and slapped his arm. He gave her a fiery look that always disturbed Draco. He did not need to know that Marcus Flint liked to be knocked around a little.
Draco shook his head and put that thought from his mind. Far, far from his mind.
“Were you planning an exorcism? A deprogramming?”
The looks on their faces said it all.
“You were,” he stared incredulously. “You pack of wankers.”
Draco could not believe this. He acted a little out of character and started having fun for once and everyone wanted to toss him in Mungo’s.
“Now… Draco…” Hannah said, raising her hands in surrender.
She was usually pretty good at calming any one of them within their group down. Except for Marcus. Astoria seemed to be the only one who could defuse him. However, Draco was beyond irritated now.
“I think you all need to leave.”
“Malfoy…” Daphne said.
“We’re going to have sex now,” Draco said, gesturing to Luna. “So unless you’d like to watch…”
Her eyes were huge at that comment. His so-called friends made hasty exits with promises of owling or flooing later. Draco shut the door behind them with a sigh.
“Sorry about them. They’re really very…”
He’d been turning back to her as he spoke. When he saw her, words failed him. She’d dropped her dress and wasn’t wearing stitch under it. Draco blinked. She’d been stomping around with him all day with no knickers on?
“What…”
“I thought you said we were going to have sex now?”
He swallowed loudly. That was certainly unexpected.
________________________________________
Draco was in a strange pattern. It had been a little over three weeks since he’d been to his own ‘intervention’ with all his Slytherin friends. He’d seen Luna most of those days at least once. He could now recall in detail what she looked like sans clothing. He didn’t remember the night of his birthday, but he had other memories. He could not figure out why he was doing this. It wasn’t like him.
And maybe that was the problem.
Being a good little Slytherin, no oxymoron intended, had never exactly made Draco’s life exactly livable for him, so perhaps it was time to redefine who Draco Orion Malfoy was. Spending time with someone who he’d formally considered beneath his notice had made Draco realize how unhappy he had been. He was too rigid, too trained. Like a poodle. Draco did not like poodles. He had never liked them. The realization that he might share qualities with one was quite disturbing.
He sighed when his door was flung open.
“I’ve been looking through the Prophet every day for weeks,” Blaise announced. “When are they going to print the sodding retraction?”
“Might be difficult since I never spoke to them and when Luna did she was told they do not print retractions.”
The look on Blaise’s face was hilarious, so Draco started chuckling.
“Do close your mouth, B. You look like a codfish.”
“What are you doing?”
Draco frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Is this another rebellion or do you honestly like her?”
“What sort of a question is that?” Draco snapped.
“Look, don’t get pissy, Princess. It’s a real question. I want to know if I need to get to know this woman. Actually, Hannah wants to know. She has all these plans.”
“Plans?”
“She wants Lovegood to feel welcome to the fold. She’s going to speak to Pans and Tori about shopping even. Now, I’m wondering if I need to tell her not to bother.”
“I don’t know.”
Blaise’s eyebrows went up.
“I don’t know what I’m doing. I know she’s different, and I like that. I know it irritates Potter and his chums, and that’s definitely a bonus. But I don’t actually care about that part. I was determined to spend the night of my birthday alone, but I spent it with her instead. I spent the day after with her. I cannot remember the last time I just had fun.”
Blaise was looking pinched.
“Please don’t be offended. You know I have fun with you and Hannah, but I feel like a fourth witch trying to be in the Weird Sisters. This is different.”
Blaise seemed to be considering. “I’ll tell Hannah to owl then.”
“I didn’t say-“
“Yes, you did. You call her Luna, and you’re happy. I haven’t seen you honestly happy since Hogwarts, you wanker. I won’t let you sabotage your own happiness this time. Even if the bird is a little off. You’re a hoop short of the Quidditch pitch yourself, so this could be interesting.”
“You just called me and my…” Draco didn’t know what word to use.
“Yes, Princess? Your what? Exactly? What should we call her? Your new friend? Friend with benefits? Girlfriend? Fiancée? I’m quite curious.”
“I don’t know,” Draco snapped. “She and I haven’t talked about it.”
“Well, maybe you should.”
“Well, maybe you should stay out of it,” Draco said, getting more irritated.
“Like you did when it was Hannah and I?”
“That’s different.”
“How? You would not allow me to ruin my own happiness. I see this the same way. Everyone you’ve ever dated has not been able to make you happy. It’s a damned miracle Pansy and Astoria are still your friends.”
“Just don’t.”
“Sorry, Princess. I warned you back in the day that your meddling would come back to haunt you. Be prepared to go on a double date with my wife, myself and your new girlfriend.”
“Don’t call her that.”
“You’d best talk to her… because that’s how I will be introducing her to people.”
“You right bastard,” Draco said in awe. “You’re going to use this as revenge for how I acted when you and Hannah started liking one another? You’re going to use Luna like that?”
“Ah ha!” Blaise shouted, pointing at Draco. “That tells me everything. If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t care what I did.”
Draco scowled.
“I suggest you speak to her. See you both soon, Princess.”
Blaise got up and left. When the shock wore off, Draco threw a hex at the door.
“Wanker.”
________________________________________
“Your owl seemed a bit… urgent,” Luna said as she did what she usually did in his flat when they weren’t in the bedroom. She was looking at all of his belongings and studying them. She picked some up, others she just leaned in to peer more closely at. “I have something to discuss as well, but do go first.”
“Yes, well, there’s an issue.”
“Go on,” she prompted when he did not speak for a long time.
“Blaise and Hannah want to go to dinner with us. Like a date. A four person date. A double. Yeah,” he said in a rush.
Luna turned to him suddenly, her eyes even more owlish than usual.
“I know. I’ll make our excuses. It’s not a tragedy. I just… I don’t…”
“Well, it makes what I need to say easier.”
Draco didn’t like the sound of that.
“Ginny is my best friend. Ginny Weasley.”
“Uh huh,” Draco said warily. Ginny Weasley was also Ginny Potter now.
“She trusts my judgment. Harry doesn’t. She wants us to have dinner at their house.”
Draco felt like he’d been hit with a stunner. “What?”
“It won’t be too terrible; I promise I’ll protect you from Harry and Ron.”
“Scarhead AND the redheaded gorilla?”
“Perhaps you could not call them that to their faces. Hermione and Neville might get offended.”
“Granger and Longbottom too?”
Draco was now debating. He absolutely did not want to do that, but if she actually asked him, he did not know if he could say no.
“Please.”
He was doomed. “Fine, but you will be called upon for the doubles thing and to go shopping with Hannah, Pansy and Astoria.”
She tensed.
“I couldn’t possibly… Didn’t you date Pansy Parkinson and Astoria Greengrass? “
“Yes.”
“I don’t think I could-“
“Look, I’m having dinner with three of the people I despised most in my youth. I’m having dinner with my childhood arch nemesis. I think you can do a bit of shopping with my best mate’s wife and my two exes. I think you’re getting the better deal. Hannah won’t allow Pansy or Tori to treat you with anything but respect.”
“Then I will go if it means so much to you, and I will make it understood that you are my guest for dinner with my friends and you are to be treated as such.”
Draco blinked. Were they really doing this?
“What should I call you?” he asked.
“I thought you’d been calling me Luna.”
“No, I mean… are you my…” Draco swallowed nervously. “Girlfriend? Is that what this is for us?”
“Do you want it to be?”
Did he want it to be? She was asking him. It was a strange feeling. Did he? Draco considered. He thought about all that Blaise had said.
“Yes, I do.”
“Then that’s settled,” she said smiling. “Now one more thing.”
He watched as Luna pulled something from her bag. Draco almost laughed when he saw what it was - a copy of the Quibbler. When he saw that the cover story was all about the Prophet’s no-retraction policy, he actually did laugh.
“I know that not as many people read the Quib or take it at all seriously, but I do hope you know that I am fighting in my own way.”
He was beginning to like her way. That was a startling discovery.
“Thank you,” Draco said, shocked again that he was meaning it.
Those two words together usually tasted like ashes on his tongue.
“Excellent. I’ll pick you up tomorrow at seven. We’ll be going to the Burrow.”
“Excuse me?”
“Dinner with Ginny’s family and my friends.”
“Her whole family?”
“Well, Molly Weasley will be cooking. I’m not entirely certain who all will be there.”
She could have been a rather smashing Slytherin with ambush tactics like this. His father was going to have a whole litter of kneazles when he found out about this. Draco was beginning to wonder what he was getting into with this one.
Not that he wanted out.
________________________________________
Draco glared at Pansy as she laughed riotously.
“You’re having dinner at the Weasley family home with Potter. Your parents are going to die, Draco. They’re also going to hex you. How did you allow yourself to get into this mess?”
“I like her, all right.”
“You know, this was cute when we were teenagers. But you need to stop getting into these messes. It’s unbecoming in a man of your years.”
“Oh, shut up. I need to know what to take over there.”
“What?”
“I still have manners. I need to bring a gift for the meal.”
“Well, I’d normally suggest a fancy dessert from that bakery in Hogsmeade or a bottle of wine from the Zabini stores, but they’d probably think you were trying to be snooty. Why don’t you get Hannah to help you bake some bikkies?”
“I don’t know how to bake.”
“Hence the getting Hannah to help you part of the plan, moron. They won’t be expecting that, I can assure you.”
Draco made a face. “Pansy, I am not doing it to put anyone off balance.”
“I don’t understand.”
“These are her friends, and damn my eyes, I am actually concerned about making a good impression.”
“Oh, that’s so sad,” then she seemed to realize what she had said and backtracked. “Look, darling, these people already know you. Well, they think they do, anyhow. The impression has been made already. I don’t feature you changing that with a tin of biscuits.”
Draco scowled at her.
“And what’s this Hannah keeps telling me about myself and Tori taking Lovegood shopping?”
“I do wish you’d refer to her as Luna.”
“Oh, my goddess,” Pansy said in horror.
“What is it now?”
“You actually like her.”
“I don’t know,” Draco replied.
“No, you do. I can see it. It’s written all over you. My gods. You should have just said, darling. We’ll help you. Of course we’ll help you. I’ll even be moderately nice.”
Draco chuckled. “Thanks, Pans.”
________________________________________
Draco was sure his eyes were just as wide as Luna’s when they arrived at the Burrow. He had a tin of the biscuits Hannah had helped him make clutched tightly in his hands. Perhaps he should have insisted they do a friendly gathering with his friends first so that she could be scared off before him and he would not have to be subjected to this. Draco had not been this nervous in years. He’d almost sooner face the Dark Lord again rather than Molly Weasley.
“Are you all right?” Luna asked, slipping a hand into his. “You look a bit pale. Well, more pale. We can go. I can make excuses.”
Draco straightened his spine. “No.”
“Good. Nice to know bravery is not restricted to Gryffindor alone. I know this won’t be easy for you, and I know it’s soon, but they’re worried about you. They don’t know you. I’ve told them they don’t. You aren’t who you used to be.”
Draco blinked at her. She was amazingly trusting. He was like he used to be. That had not changed. What had changed was his ability to hide it. Or perhaps he no longer had a desire to be a nasty git to her upon knowing her better.
Her hair was no longer stringy, but wild. Like spun gold, and it caught light like nothing he’d ever seen. Her eyes were not bug-like anymore. Just owlish and wide to take in as much as she possibly could. She was not loony and never had been - she saw the world through eyes no one else could comprehend.
Draco could hear people talking in another part of the house, but while they were alone in the foyer, he clasped her hand and brought it to his lips. His world was different. He was trying new things, and as resistant as he was, it was not boring. Draco was beginning to suspect he’d been bored for the last decade and that was half his problem.
“What was that for?” she asked softly, leaning closer.
“Just because,” he murmured, playing with a lock of her hair that was resting on her shoulder.
Someone cleared their throat, and Luna jumped in surprise. She tried to move away, but they weren’t doing anything wrong, so Draco gently put a hand on her arm to keep her near. He turned to look at the intruder to find Mr. Weasley looking at the both of them with a pleasant smile on his face.
“Ah, Luna, there you are. With your… friend. I thought I heard someone enter. Your father’s been wondering where you two were.”
Father? Draco knew his eyes now surpassed Luna’s in wideness.
“Hello, Mr. Malfoy.”
Draco almost froze from the ice, but he smiled politely and took the hand being offered to him.
“Please. Do call me Draco,” he replied, shaking the hand firmly and looking Mr. Weasley right in the eye.
A strange look passed over the other man’s face before he grinned. “Will do then.”
Draco willed himself into a state of calm as he was led through the mismatched house that could have fit into Malfoy Manor about a hundred times over. He willed himself into a state of calm. He needed to behave for Luna’s sake, and to do that he needed to be calm.
“Luna and her boyfriend are here finally."
Draco’s calm was severely damaged by that announcement.
________________________________________
Luna was yawning as they entered his flat. Draco had apparated them here. She had a small cottage in Hogsmeade. Their floos were already connected, but with how tired she seemed, Draco’s plan was to walk her up the stairs and put her to bed.
In the literal sense and not the sexual one.
Tonight had been horrific, but Draco was thinking he bore it well. The veiled insults were everywhere. It was like old times only no one hexed one another. There had been a few times when Draco had suspected Granger had kicked her husband under the table, but he could not be certain.
The crowning event of the evening had been when George Weasley had eaten one of the biscuits Draco had brought then pretended to die of poisoning. His mother and wife had hexed him for that. Draco could not help himself. He had laughed. Loudly.
Unfortunately that had freaked everyone else out - his laughing. Well, not Luna. She started laughing too. After that, the giggles dropped like flies. The only ones who had not been laughing were Scarhead and the gorilla.
Draco was all right with that.
He just removed her shoes before putting her on the bed.
“So tired,” she said between yawns. “Must floo home.”
“Nonsense, you’ll go out the wrong grate. Go to sleep. I’ll get you home after brekkie tomorrow.”
“Mmmmm.”
She was already asleep. They had stayed rather late at the Weasleys’. He was glad tomorrow was Sunday. His assistant did not know what to think. It was rare for him to not work through the weekend, but Draco had not done so in over a month. He changed into his pajamas and got into the bed. Luna unconsciously curled towards his warmth in her sleep.
Draco was wondering when in the hell he’d turned into such a sap because her doing that made him smile. A real smile too, not his nasty smirk.