Chapter 3

The next morning, Luna didn’t eat in the Great Hall. She never ate in the Great Hall; it was too crowded and she never had anyone to sit with. Instead she always would skip down to the kitchens, ask the nice house elves for some breakfast and head out to the lake. There was a nice tree by the lake that she always sat in as she ate, watching the giant squid swim aimlessly around in the water. It was quite peaceful out there. That morning as she sat in her tree, she contemplated talking to Malfoy again. She’d recently found out that he was a different person when he wasn’t surrounded by his so-called friends. When it was just the two of them, Malfoy almost seemed nice. Luna took a bite of her toast and wondered if there might have been some Wrackspurts in her ears, making her brain fuzzy, at the time. She could remember everything clearly though, so she couldn’t blame Wrackspurts for Malfoy’s changed attitude. She finished up her breakfast and headed to class, putting aside thoughts on Malfoy until later.

Harry caught up to her as she passed the Great Hall, “Hey Luna,” he said.

“Hello Harry, it’s a nice day isn’t it?” She replied smiling.

He nodded, then looked back at the Great Hall, “Ron and Hermione were right behind me a second ago...” he said looking puzzled.

Luna just smiled, “well, you better go find them then.”

He nodded absentmindedly and walked back to the Great Hall. Luna continued walking to her dormitory to fetch her books but another voice stopped her.

“Hey! Loony! I want a word with you,” Malfoy called, causing her to stop in her tracks and turn to him. He grabbed her arm and began pulling her down the corridor. She followed willingly, seeing in his eyes that he wasn’t going to hurt her. Malfoy dragged her into a spare classroom and turned to her, dropping her arm.

“Yes?” She asked, smiling slightly.

He looked around suspiciously, double checking all the entrances to make sure no one would hear them. Then for added measure he put a silencing spell on the room. Luna watched him, amused that he was this paranoid about people seeing them together.

“I wanted to talk to you,” he said once he finally finished all the protective spells.

Luna raised an eyebrow, “and you couldn’t do that in the corridor?”

“There were people there!”

“Ah, I understand, you don’t want anyone knowing that you wanted to talk to me.”

He didn’t look her in the eye when he said, “that sounds worse than it is.”

“No, it sounds exactly like what it is, but it’s alright not many people want to talk to me... I’m surprised you do, even if you don’t want anyone to know.”

He cleared his throat, “well... I wanted to ask about your earrings.”

Luna giggled, “Nope, I’m not telling!”

Malfoy looked at her with a pleading gaze, “but I’ve been wondering about them all day! What is so special about them!?”

“Trust me, you’d be disappointed by the answer,” she assured him, still smiling slightly. She wondered why this was bugging him so much.

“I don’t care; I want you to tell me!” He demanded.

Luna looked at him with a knowing smile, “Sorry Malfoy, but you can’t get everything you want.”

He blinked, “why not? I always get what I want...”

“That’s just a better reason to not tell you.”

Draco was very frustrated at her, for some reason he really wanted to know the secret behind her earrings and her not telling him was seriously pissing him off, “you know Luna... I meant what I said, that prank I’ve been promising you is real.”

She could see in his eyes that he meant it and before she could respond he stomped off, leaving her to wonder what just happened. She couldn’t help but think about what he’d said and even though he had been threatening her, when she thought about it again the thing that stuck out most was he didn’t call her Loony... he called her Luna.