Chapter 17

Draco woke with a start, he must have fallen asleep. Luna wasn’t on top of him anymore; instead she was sprawled across the ground a few feet away from him. He looked around, suddenly alert; they weren’t in the clearing with the Threstrals anymore. Panic flared up in his chest and he stood quickly. He shook Luna but she wouldn’t wake up.

“Luna? L-Luna, please wake up,” he said fearfully. They were even deeper in the forest than before and now it was dark. Draco didn’t even want to think about what horrible creatures might come out of hiding after the sun goes down.

Finally, Luna stirred, her eyelids fluttered open and she sat up, “Draco? What’s wrong?”

“Wh-where are we?” He asked nervously.

Luna stood as well and looked around, “um... how’d we get here? Weren’t we just in the Threstral clearing?”

“I-I don’t know... we were but... how’d we get here?” He asked, cursing his stutter. It only emerged when he was extremely nervous and he hated it.

Luna looked around nervously then something caught her eye. There was movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned quickly and screamed.

Draco shrieked and hid behind her. He didn’t even know what he was screaming at but if it was enough to scare Luna then it was enough to scare him.

Luna cowered away from the giant standing before her. It looked at her quizzically, it’s head tilted slightly to the side.

“You friend of Hermy?” It asked

“H-Hermy?” Luna questioned.

Draco peaked over her shoulder and screamed, seeing the giant standing before them. The giant jumped back, startled by the scream.

“Wait... do you mean Hermione?” Luna asked and the giant nodded eagerly.

“Hermy good friend,” it said, “or hagid?”

“Yes, we’re good friends with Hermione and Hagrid,” Luna told him.

Draco was still cowering behind Luna with his eyes squeezed shut.

“My name is Luna and this is Draco,” She introduced them.

“Me Grawp,” the giant said, looking at them with interest.

“Nice to meet you Grawp.”

“It nice to meet you too... why he scared?” Grawp asked, and before Luna could stop him, he picked Draco up.

Draco started screaming again and yelled, ‘Put me down!’ over and over again. Grawp just looked at him confused. Luna tried to hold back her laughter but a small giggle escaped; Draco looked like he was going to wet himself and Grawp looked like he made a new friend.

“Get me down from here! Let go of me you brute! My father will hear of this!” Draco yelled along with a few other obscenities. He still looked like he saw a ghost... or in this case a giant. Luna decided that he’d had enough.

“Grawp! Put Draco down please!”

Grawp’s gaze lingered on her for a moment before releasing his grip on Draco... while he was still in the air. Draco fell a few feet to the ground, landing in a heap of dry leaves and twigs. Luna ran over to him to check if he was okay.

“Draco, are you alright?”

He grimaced in pain but nodded. Luna looked over him in concern, hoping that nothing was broken. She saw blood seeping through his shirt by his shoulder and bit her lip worriedly.

“Draco, your shoulder...”

“It’s fine.”

Luna shook her head, “I need to get a better look at it.”

Draco shrugged then winced as the pain shot through him.

“Take off your shirt,” Luna said, “I need to see the wound.”

Draco tried to take his shirt off with one hand but couldn’t, “...I-I can’t... this arm won’t move and I’m having troubles getting it off with one hand...”

“You can’t move your arm?” Luna squeaked nervously.

He shook his head a glint of fear in his eyes. Luna needed to stay strong and tell him he’d be okay or he’d panic and make it worse. She tugged his shirt off, her eyes lingering on his stomach where she could clearly make out his six pack.

“Like what you see?” Draco smirked.

Luna rolled her eyes, “in your dreams.”

“Oh, it will be,” he said, waggling his eyebrows.

“Shut up, I’m trying to focus,” she told him, examining his shoulder.

“I’m sorry, is my body distracting you?” He asked smugly.

“Actually, it’s your annoying voice that’s distracting me. Now if you’ll kindly shut up, I might be able to fix your damned shoulder.”

Grawp was watching in awe as Luna looked at the deep gash in his shoulder. It could easily be fixed with magic but she wasn’t skilled enough in medical spells to attempt it without major risks. It would be better to wait until Madame Pomfry could take care of it back at the castle.

“Draco...”

“How is it?”

Luna decided to have a little fun, “It’s pretty bad...”

“How bad?” He asked the panic clear in his voice.

“I’m not sure if magic can fix this... you might need to have your arm removed...”

“What!?” He yelped.

“If you live that long... I can clearly see blood poisoning too.”

Draco’s face paled even more... if that was possible. He gulped and his whole body was shaking, “y-you can?”

Luna felt to guilty to keep the act up, “no, I’m just kidding. It can easily be fixed with magic but you’ll have to wait until we get back to the castle.

Relief flooded Draco’s face but was quickly replaced by anger, “why’d you say that? You scared me...”

“I know,” Luna giggled, “that’s the point.”

Draco looked like he was going to say something but a rustling in the bushes made them both freeze. Luna watched the bushes nervously, waiting for whatever it was to emerge.

Luna screamed.