Big Bad Malfoy

Who's afraid of the big bad Malfoy?

Luna was skipping down the hallway. It wasn't long before curfew, but she wanted to spend all the time she could out of her House before she had to settle in for another night in front of the fireplace, curled up in a chair. She didn't mind the chair, really, but she did feel a little odd since Draco had sounded so sad when she told him about her sleeping arrangements. It was time to resolve that particular issue.

With her time in the Library for research she had been studying about how to protect herself within the drawn curtains of her bed so no one could cast spells on her or sneak up with nefarious intent. She had neglected her essay for Snape while she was on this mission, but she was almost ready to try out her plans to guard herself in her bed. She was able to block sound from being heard outside the boundary of her spell, and she thought she could successfully cast wards against others' spells. She had been elated to find a spell to make her less noticeable. Not that she got noticed that much, anyway. But it made her able to escape the attention of those around her. Other people could be right there in the room and never cast a glance her way. She was missing something, though, she just knew it.

As she pondered this last piece of the puzzle she headed toward the kitchens. She had made a poultice for Snarky, one of the house-elves that had been kind to her, to ward away the Stinging Beezles that were known to populate potato patches. She was almost to the kitchen when she came across Snarky in the hallway. The elf was immobile, with a look of abject terror on her face, and she was literally quaking with fear.

"Snarky, what's wrong?" Luna asked worriedly.

"Oh, Miss Luna! Snarky was told to go to the Owlery to get a message, but Snarky is aff-f-f-fraid," the elf wailed.

"Snarky, don't be afraid. Is it the birds you're scared of?"

"Nnnnoooo . . . ."

"Well, are you afraid of the tower because it's high up? Are you afraid of heights?"

"Nnnooo . . . ."

"What are you afraid of, then?"

This questioning proved to be too much for the panicked elf. She threw herself at Luna's legs, wailing miserably and loudly. Snarky gripped her so tightly that Luna was afraid the distraught elf would knock her off balance and they would both tumble to the ground.

"Snarky, Snarky, calm down. I'll help you. I'll go for you and get the message."

"Oh, noooo! Snarky cannot let Miss Luna go. Snarky doesn't want anything to h-h-happen to Miss Luna."

"Snarky, I'm not afraid. I can go to the Owlery and get the message. I can take care of it for you. And here...I made you that poultice to keep you safe from the Stinging Beezles. You haven't had any trouble with them, have you?"

"No, miss. Thank you, miss. Snarky is very lucky to know Miss Luna. Miss Luna is very brave. Snarky is not as brave as Dobby. Not as brave as Miss Luna. They are not scared. Snarky will learn to be brave, too. But t-t-tonight, please, miss, please take the message for Snarky."

"Of course, I told you I would. Here, take the poultice and rub it on your hands before you go to bed and it should ward off any pesky Beezles, okay?" Snarky took the proffered jar and nodded up at Luna, still unsettled. Luna smiled at the elf in reassurance, and in parting she called back, "Don't worry, it'll all be fine."

Luna turned around and skipped back along the corridor, now headed towards the Owlery. She did hope she would be able to take care of this whole business before curfew, but she had already given her word so she supposed she would just have to bear the consequences. It wasn't until she reached the top of the tower and saw the majestic white owl that was waiting impatiently with a scroll tied to its foot that she started to question this errand she had undertaken.

"Oh my, you are a handsome one, aren't you?" she cood to the bird, who hooted at her as if annoyed at being kept waiting. "You arrived after mail call; your message must be very important," Luna said matter-of-factly. She untied the scroll and tried to hand the owl a treat, but the bird had already taken flight. Shrugging, Luna turned her attention to the scroll, and suddenly she understood what Snarky had been so upset about. She had said she wasn't as brave as Dobby, and Luna had thought nothing of it at the time, but Dobby had been the Malfoys' house-elf for many years before Harry Potter freed him. Dobby, she knew, had been treated very shabbily at the hands of the Malfoys. And this parchment was intended for none other than the young master Draco Malfoy. Luna laughed at herself and her predicament. She had assumed it was some sort of post for the Headmaster or some professor, a person with enough authority to warrant such an unconventional late-night message delivery. She hadn't thought it would be another student. A Slytherin, no less. She didn't even know exactly where the Slytherin common room was. And besides that, she wasn't sure what to think about paying a late-night visit to Master Malfoy.

Before spending time with Draco she hadn't really cared what people's impressions of her were. After all, if her mother, the very foundation of her life, could be stolen from her without a moment's notice, she certainly wasn't concerned with trivialities like what Lavender Brown thought was appropriate for ladies' hairstyles or anything else. It had all seemed so inconsequential when life itself was such a fragile thing. But the tenuous beginnings of relationships were fragile too. At the time that the other students were forming friendships, Luna was content in her own company. If she hadn't been so cavalier about allowing distance to grow between her and the other students, she wouldn't be the butt of all of their jokes. If she had tried to blend in, she could have. She wouldn't have changed herself, she wouldn't have had to. But she could have reached out to her peers more instead of being content in her dreaming. But why was she questioning herself now? And whose standards was she trying to meet? Luna realized she was unsure that Draco would be willing to be involved with someone who didn't fit in. He was from a prestigious and unforgiving family and this thought had brought her to question herself.

Their time together in the empty classroom had been wonderful. He had done exactly the right things to make Luna feel that he truly cared about her. Still she wanted to remain cautious. She'd enjoyed her thoughts of Draco and feelings towards him very much. That was one reason she was a little afraid to trust him with that much of herself. She suffered from some recently developing and thoroughly unwelcome doubts. But did she doubt Draco or herself? Luna was a free spirit but she was also a pragmatist. She knew that feeling as she had about Draco carried inherent risk of disappointment. There were ways in which she could lose Draco's favor. She could lose him for one reason or another, and she knew already that she would be gutted by the loss. It was only natural to examine her situation and consider the possibilities.

Ravenclaw sensibility asserted itself, and she resolved that stagnating in indecision was useless. She would either trust him and accept him and let him close to her heart; or she wouldn't. Once she had decided, there'd be nothing man nor Merlin himself would be able to do to dissuade her. A decided Lovegood was not one to trifle with. Whether or not his family liked her, she was a force to be reckoned with. She would simply put paid to their misgivings or they could stuff it.

And now she, Looney Lovegood, would search out Draco in his own House in front of all of his friends and housemates. She would soon know whether he had been genuinely nice to her or there was some other reason for his attention. If he really wanted to be with her, it would be evident by how he responded to her appearing unbidden in front of everyone who knew him best. Luna smiled in anticipation; this could be a very interesting night yet.

Draco was sprawled in a chair in front of the fire in the Slytherin common room, staring unblinking into the fire. He wondered if Luna was curled up in a chair just like this in her own dorm. Luna. He had really enjoyed spending time with her. And snogging with her. He had meant it when he'd told her he wanted to spend time with her. But now he almost wished he'd never said it. He'd been a sloppy git after their stolen moments, thinking about how he could spend more time with her. Maybe he could ask her up to the Astronomy Tower to look at the stars. Maybe he could ask her to the Yule Ball, even though it was still months away.

He could picture her with her hair down, dressed elegantly and with her pale shoulders bare. She even knew how to dance, he remembered. He imagined them dancing together, her tiny hand in his. They would make a handsome couple. She would look stunning with him at his parents' New Year's Eve ball. In an instant his spine felt as if it was made of ice and his heart of smoke that drifted away from his chest and left him hollow. What was he thinking? He couldn't take Luna around his parents, around his father. He wouldn't put her through that. His father was unbearable to Draco...he couldn't imagine how cruel he would be to Luna. At the thought of gentle Luna feeling Lucius' wrath and Draco not being able to save her that pain, he knew he couldn't keep her. And if he couldn't keep her, he thought in despair, then it would be cruel of him to carry on with her. He couldn't have a casual relationship with her; she was inexperienced, and any attention he showed her she would take as true. He couldn't play it off and not let her see how he felt either. Even if he could stand to torture himself by spending time with her while knowing he couldn't stay with her, he couldn't stand to put Luna through that. He had to turn back into the meticulous and merciless Malfoy he'd been trained to be.

Luna skipped down a set of stairs on the way towards Professor Snape's classroom. She knew he was the Head of Slytherin, so it stood to reason he would have his classes near their dorm. She had Draco's scroll tucked safely inside her robes, but she planned to have it visible in her hand when Draco first saw her. Maybe then he wouldn't think she was deranged and following him like a love-struck loony bird. Looking ahead, she saw three girls with green emblems on their robes all huddled together and gossiping. Luna knew from experience that their conspiratorial glances and fervent whispering did not bode well for her safe passage. She concentrated on her expression, relaxing her face so as not to show any emotion and gazing off so she could see her path in her peripheral vision, knowing she would appear to be dreamy and oblivious. She would have to ask them for directions, she thought sadly. There was no one else around, and there wasn't likely to be. She couldn't roam the damp dungeons all night.

"Lost, Lovegood?" the middle girl asked. She was taller than Luna, with an overwhelming amount of freckles and two flat brown braids trailing behind her. Luna had the sudden image of the braids styled up on top of her head to look like demon's horns. It would certainly match the girl's nasty expression.

The giggle that escaped Luna's lips just made her seem more inane to the other girls. "Yes, I am. Can you tell me how to find the Slytherin common room?" Two of the girls laughed at her then. She was expecting it, of course.

"Sure," answered the girl on the left. She was the shortest of the girls and her black hair was cut short like a pixie cut. "Just keep going down this hallway and take the third right you come to."

"No, it's the second left, Mary. You'll have the poor girl stumbling straight into Professor Snape's private quarters," said the braided girl, with a smile like the cat who'd got the cream.

"Maybe he could tell me the way to the common room," Luna said in the most unconcerned of voices as she started to step forward again.

"You don't know what you're asking for. You shouldn't be here," said the third girl, who had been looking on silently with bit of a frown.

"Maybe not. But I'm here. There's nothing for it now," Luna answered. "But if you can't help me . . . ." Luna fell silent, leaving a pregnant pause, and then continued on walking past the girls. Once she had passed them she heard, "Take your first right and it'll be seventeen paces down on your left. There's no portrait to mark it. But you won't be able to enter unless you're a Slytherin. I'm sure you won't find a Slytherin who will give you the password."

It was the very thing that had worried Luna, but it couldn't be helped. "Thank you," she called back over her shoulder. She didn't turn to look, but from the warning tone in which the instructions were given she thought it must be the blond girl on the right who had spoken; the same one who had warned her.

"Dungeons are treacherous places for Ravenclaws, you know," she heard one of them say in a sing-song voice. That had to be the sugary-sweet voice of the pixie called Mary. Luna ignored the jab and kept on.

There was a short flight of stairs down, probably six or seven steps, and then maybe ten yards to a hallway that turned off to the right. Just as she reached the first step there was a murmur behind her. She didn't hear the words; they seemed to come from more than one voice because they were spoken at the exact same moment. But one of them, she was sure, was Glisseo, and the other, she was sure, was Descendo.

A/N Snarky is so named in tribute to EchoLynn