"You're worse than a mudblood you freak." The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.

"You have a temper don't you. Maybe that's why all these Nargles are attracted to you." Luna said airily, completely disregarding Draco's words. She knew, how he didn't know, but she knew that he hadn't meant to say that.

"Nargles? What is this crap? My father would kill something if he heard I was speaking to the likes of you." Draco said this in a sort of insulting habitual way.

"You don't mean that. Here, would you like to wear my glasses? You can see the nargles and wrakspurts around everyone." She offered out to him a pair of glasses with red lenses. He had reached out to take them before realizing what he was doing.

"Stupid freak, I don't believe in all that crap you spurt about nargles and rak-whatevers." He shook his head, marveling at her stupidity.

"Then why are you still here?" Luna's questions, all they always did, cut straight to the point and Draco couldn't answer for a moment.

"We have to finish our divination project or I'll be put in detention. That's the only reason." He sneered to cover his moment of awkwardness, "I bet you'd just love for there to be another reason."

Luna cocked her head to the side and didn't answer for a moment looking down at the paper spread out between them. She fixed an error and leaned over towards him as she did so. "Maybe." Her voice had the slightest edge of 'of course I'm the one that would love that'.

As she leaned over the table towards him a lock of her blonde hair fell into his lap and Draco couldn't help but want to touch it. "What are you doing?" Luna's words made him release her hair quickly.

"What do you mean?" he asked haughtily. "I was pushing your hair out of my lap." Luna smiled in a sort of 'alright, if that's what you say' sort of way and went back to writing their paper.

"Oh." She said and looked at the paper again. "You have to write your favorite dream here. I already wrote mine." Draco leaned in a little despite himself. Then he sighed, "Yeah yeah, alright but I don't have a quill."

Luna looked amused and offered him hers. "You know you really should get rid of all those nargles. I hear that they make you forget things." Draco almost sniggered but for some reason he didn't find it as ridiculous as he had originally thought. Of course, they were still fake but it wasn't as stupid as he thought. He hated to admit it but I kind of made sense.

Sense? What the hell are you thinking Draco? He shook himself and took her quill. Favorite Dream? Umm… "Hey Loony-er Luna I uh…. Can't remember any of my dreams… can we do this tomorrow?"

"I told you nargles make you forget things." She said as if that explained everything. Then she started gathering up her things. Draco put the quill down and sat back against the library chair. He watched Luna gather her things. She pushed her hair behind her ear.

Y'know… she's kinda cute when she does that. Agh! Did I just think that? Draco cursed at himself quietly and Luna looked up. Her head was tilted to the side in a sort of demure naïve way, "Is something wrong?"

"No…" Draco said, trailing off. He knew she didn't believe him. "Just get out of here freak." Her said and looked away a little embarrassed.

"I was just about to. If you wanted me to be gone though wouldn't you have left first?" Ouch. Another straightforward question.

"I need to look something up." He said, making it up as he went along.

"Do you need any help?" Her question was like a death sentence. She knew he was lying.

"No!" He said, a little too sharply and a few of the students in the library looked around. Draco looked down. "I don't need help from someone like you."

That finally made her stop. "Oh… alright, I'll see you tomorrow. Come here around six, after dinner." With that she walked out of the room her hurt feelings not showing up in her usual airy walk that looked as though she was asleep.

"Damn… I need to learn how to talk." Draco rubbed his forehead sheepishly and a little out of character. Then he sighed. "I had better get to bed." He moved to stand and he caught sight of Luna's Divination book lying near him. She must have forgotten it when he rebuked her.

"I guess I'll go bring it to her." He said quietly and picked it up. The Ravenclaw dormitory wasn't too far from here so if he wanted to catch her he had to be fast. Damn, I hate running.

He ran down out of the library and the librarian shouted at him. "Yeah, yeah." He yelled back and he didn't even slow; after a bit he caught sight of Luna's white shawl as she walked ahead of her. He was about to open his mouth to shout at her when he heard a nervous voice saying, "Umm… Luna… can I um, talk to you for a bit?"

Luna cocked her head to the side and said, "Sure Nevil, what is it." Draco, always the eavesdropper, followed them silently. Nevil and Luna walked to a deserted Corridor. "What is it Nevil?"

"Umm… I was wondering if you'd like to go to the Yule Ball with me… I know you're probably going to say no but-" Nevil was saying.

"The Yule Ball? I thought no one would ask me. S-"

"No." Draco burst in the room without thinking. Both Nevil and Luna looked at him strange and he realized what he had done. "Er- umm… Luna you left your Divination book in the library. I thought you might want it so…" he trailed off as he noticed his babbling.

Nevil was staring… very hard. "What are you staring at?" Draco asked indignantly as Luna walked up to him.

"Oh, my book. Thank you for bringing it to me." Then she smiled a little, "I thought you were going to research something though." Draco looked away after shoving the book in her hands.

"Yeah well, I thought you were going to bed so I brought it before I finished researching." All this time Nevil had been sort of edging out of the hall. Since when had Luna been such good friends with Draco? "Umm… you can tell me your answer tomorrow… I just remembered that I promised Harry and Ron I'd play wizarding chess with them." Then Nevil was gone.

"That was the stupidest excuse ever." Draco noted as he was Nevil scurry from the room.

"Oh, don't be cruel to him. He's just nervous because you jinx him all the time." Luna said airily. She looked down at the book in her hands and said, "Oh yes, thank you for the book. I should probably let you finish your research."

She moved to leave and Draco suddenly was filled with a worry he hadn't felt before. He grabbed Luna's shoulder. She looked up at him, clearly confused, "Are- are you going to say yes to Longbottom?"

"No one else has asked me." She said fairly and shrugged. "What's wrong with me going with Nevil?"

"If someone else asked you would you still say yes to him?" he didn't know where he was going with this but…

"Depending on whom it was, maybe." She said, her airy voice somehow sounded slightly suspicious.

"Then go with me." The words, once out of his mouth sounded foolish and demanding and he blushed but looked her in the face. Luna had stopped and there was no quick retort this time. Her white cheeks were flushed.

"Draco?" her words were slightly shocked and slightly, maybe he was imagining it but, pleased? He looked into her eyes and didn't answer. "Why would you ask m-" Draco, still completely in awe of himself, took her face in his hands and kissed her.

Luna froze. She couldn't sort out if she liked it or not. Once Draco pulled away he looked down, his cheeks flushed and said, "Will you-" he sounded like he made himself say the next word "-please, come to the Yule Ball with me?"

Luna was still frozen but she managed a sort of, "Ah- I… I don't know… I'll tell you after we finish our Divination project." Then she edged out of the room.

The next night was awkward. Luna was polite but always seemed to be edging away from him. He decided to put his actual dream in the project.

He was walking around the halls of Hogwarts but no one was there. It seemed to be night. He kept seeing flashes of white in the corners of his eye and hearing a girlish laugh when he could see nothing. At one point the people returned and he was wearing Luna's glasses. Everyone had the translucent things flying in and out of their heads. At the time he remembered thinking that Luna had been right. Then he was in one of the dormitories that he didn't recognize. He was in the common room and Luna was sitting by the fireplace humming a quiet tune that sounded familiar. Then she turned and smiled at him demurely. "What are you doing in the Ravenclaw dormitory Draco?"

Draco stopped. That seemed like enough. No need to tell the rest of the dream. Luna looked over his dream and looked away swiftly. Draco wasn't sure but he thought he saw a slight blush to her cheeks. He looked over the paper again. "It's done." Luna made an affirmative sound. "So… are you going to give me your answer?"

"I- I don't think so. Nevil won't have anyone to go with."

Draco had an answer for that. "Just tell him to ask that Weasley girl in your year."

"Ginny?" Draco shrugged. "Well… still…"

"Just give me a straight answer ok? I can handle a no."

That seemed to settle things in her mind. She took a deep breath and said… "What happened in the rest of your dream?" She hadn't answered his question.

"I can't tell you until you answer."

Luna laughed and smiled with her head tilted to the side. "Then I guess you'll just have to come to the Ravenclaw dormitory tomorrow at four. You'll see the answer then." She turned to go.

"So it's a yes?" Draco asked as she turned. She looked back and smiled demurely before she was gone. "You'll see," was all he got.

"Come on… that's not fair."