A/N: Here you have it, people - entry number 4! :D

Gryffindor FTW! :P

A massive thanks go to Jay (msllamalover), my fabulous beta and characterisation whiz! :D

The character I was assigned was Luna Lovegood, and the character I chose to pair her with was Draco Malfoy.

I never, ever thought I'd write that sentence, but there you have it. This takes place when Draco was in 7th year, and Luna was in 6th, after the Golden Trio left Hogwarts. Let's just delve right in and hope it goes well... Enjoy! :)

The first time, he was in the forest, seeking an escape. He never dreamed that he could find it, though. Especially not with her.

"Is he the first person that you've seen die?"

Draco jumped. He'd come here to be alone, to get away from everyone and everything and every thought he simply didn't seem to able to tune out when he was back there, where it had happened, where everything had started to go wrong...Couldn't he even have that? After everything, was it really too much to ask? He didn't recognise the quiet, dreamy voice, but as he turned to glare at the intruder, and tell them to just get lost, he found he did recognise the face.

"What did you say, Loony?" He asked, mustering up some of his usual sneering bravado. The kind that normally made people wary, and decide to leave him the hell alone.

However, instead of looking hurt, or offended, Luna simply tilted her head sympathetically.

"Oh dear," she murmured in her airy, musical voice. "Did a Wrackspurt get you?" She moved closer, clearly not discouraged by his scorn, a fact which both annoyed and confused him. Why didn't she just leave, like everyone else would have, and let him suffer in peace? And what in Merlin's name was a wrackspurt? He was right to sneer - this girl was strange.

He moved pointedly away from her as she sank gracefully onto the fprest floor next to him, and brushed imaginary dirt off his robes where they had connected briefly with her own. Anything to just make her go, already! But she didn't even appear to notice. Instead, she half-reached out to one of the huge black horses in the clearing, as though to pat it, or something equally ridiculous, and spoke to him again.

"I asked if Professor Dumbledore was the only person you've seen die." Draco felt his insides curl up at the sound of that name - shrinking away from all the pain and trouble it had caused him, and how badly he'd hoped the old wizard would live, despite everything...But Luna seemed oblivious. She just carried on talking, explaining her question.

"The Thestrals...you can see them now." She gestured in the direction of the massive winged creatures, her voice calm and flowing, simply stating the facts. "They only appear to those who have seen death, you know - my mum died when I was little, so I've been able to see them for a while. Beautiful, aren't they?"

Draco felt his ears prick and his eyebrows rise ever so slightly as she revealed that piece of information. Her attention was still turned towards the Thestral nearest her, her eyes full of the same dreamy wonderment as always, and he used it as an opportunity to study her face slyly. Was she really so okay with her situation? Draco was practically an adult, and the image of the Headmaster's body, broken and hanging in mid-air still haunted his dreams. How could someone witness something as horrible as death so young, and be so...alright with it?

And yet, she did seem alright. There was no pain etched across her features. Instead, there was only peace - a perfect, endless peace that Draco could feel himself long for. An escape from the nightmares, a haven in the cruel reality that had become - perhaps had always been - his life. He craved that peace. More than anything, he wanted it. So if talking to this girl could give him even the slightest inkling of how to get it...

And suddenly, unfathomably, Draco found himself opening up to her.

"No," he muttered quietly, his eyes flickering from her face to the ground, and Luna turned back to him. He glanced upwards once more, and saw a mild surprise spread across her features.

"Really? I think they're lovely...they have quite a bad reputation, you know, but-"

"No, I meant Dumble-" Draco paused, unable to say it. He took a deep breath. "I've seen more than one person die, that's all," he finished shortly. Charity Burbage's face flashed into his mind, her fear clear as Nagini slithered towards her...Draco felt his body shudder involuntarily, and saw understanding grace Luna's face. Losing his nerve however, and unable to quell his rapidly growing desire to change the subject - even if it meant losing his only chance at finding a recluse from his emotions - he jutted out his chin and answered her other question.

"Lovely isn't exactly the word I'd use to describe them though," he said, voice once more full of scorn, the corners of his mouth turning down in disdain as one came nearer. "Awful looking beasts, if you ask me."

Luna shrugged easily. "Things aren't always what they seem to be, I've found." She turned her body to face him, and Draco was struck by the simple honesty in her next words.

"Like you, for example." She gazed at him directly. "I know lots of people that think you're awful, and you can be, on the outside." He felt the shock register on his face before it registered in his brain. He certainly wasn't used to people talking to him like that - so openly, and without fear. And Lovegood, of all people! What did she know about him?

Luna carried on talking, undeterred, in the same fluid, unabashed manner she always had. "But really, I think you could probably be quite lovely too, underneath. If you wanted to be. I think you're just scared to show people the real you in case they still didn't like you - that really would be awful for you, wouldn't it?"

Apparently, she knew more than he thought. How had she done that? It was like she'd just reached into his soul and pulled out the very essence of his being, in a way that no-one else had ever been able to...or maybe had just never tried to.

So many people had been willing to take him at face value, that after a while, Draco had started to become that person. The person his parents wanted him to be, the person who people like Crabbe and Goyle expected him to be... Was it possible there was someone who he could be himself with? Admit he was frightened to? Show his weaknesses, his fears, and still have them around?

"I..." he started, wanting nothing more than to try it - to pour himself out to this whimsical girl, and see how she reacted. "I guess..."

Luna smiled gently, her large, silvery eyes fixed on his grey ones.

"I guess you really are just as Loony as they say, aren't you Lovegood?" He bottled, allowing a familiar smirk to fall into place. After all, Malfoys were strong. Yet as a flash of emotion marred her face, Draco felt another urge to retract his words, to admit he was weak...but he couldn't. He had a role to play.

And as Luna fixed him with a small, sad smile, Draco almost believed that she understood that.

"I suppose I am, really." She paused, her eyes distant, yet somehow piercing at the same time. "But I imagine it's far better to just be yourself than to have to be someone normal, isn't it?"

He could only look at her, and once more she displayed that captivating intuition she seemed to possess as she murmured, "Goodbye, Draco."

Because he had to leave here. Leave her. This wasn't right, no matter how he looked at it. Something strange was happening, something he didn't understand, something he wasn't sure he wanted to.

But it was too late. A change, even if only a tiny one, had already taken place. The facade was breaking - while he should have carried on, sweeping away from her without another word, or a backwards glance, he couldn't.

"Goodbye." Their eyes locked momentarily, and something - some brief moment of understanding, of...kinship? - flickered between them, before he turned on his heel and disappeared into the trees.

XXX

The second time was in the Owlery, late one night when he assumed everyone else would have been in bed. But not her. And this time, he recognised the voice.

"You shouldn't really be wandering around alone this late, you know - Nargles are more active at night, and they're known to steal things from unsuspecting people. There's safety in numbers."

He turned from where he'd been watching his Eagle-Owl fly off to face her, her long silvery hair shining in the moonlight, and offered her a half-smile, half-smirk.

"Oh really? So what are you doing walking around by yourself, then?"

She smiled back at him. "Hunting for them, of course. They aren't a very well-known species, and I'm hoping to get enough information about them to write a new article for dad's magazine." She spoke as though it was the most obvious thing in the world - like it was strange not to walk around hunting Nargles in the dead of night - and Draco couldn't help it. He let out a quiet laugh, only thinking afterwards about how it might offend her - he knew she took her father's work very seriously, and he hadn't exactly been nice about it in the past...

But he needn't have worried. Luna, as always, reacted in her own way. She laughed along with him, and Draco was surprised by how pleasant the sound was - compared to the deep, thick snorts of Crabbe and Goyle, hers was airy and attractive, much like the rest of her personality. After a few seconds, their laughter trailed off, and Luna smiled again.

"So...what are you doing up here?"

Draco hesitated, then shrugged. "I was just...writing to my mother. I don't really get to hear from her much anymore." It was true - now that the Dark Lord had taken over Malfoy Manor, he'd found that his mother wrote less and less frequently, and he missed it. Missed her.

"You miss her." She said it quietly - a statement, not a question, once again displaying her apparent ability to read his mind. She wasn't like anyone he'd ever met before. It fascinated him how she was able to see things, even when they were veiled behind layers of deceit. She saw him. And he couldn't deny; he liked it.

"Yes," he murmured, nodding. And then he fixed his eyes on hers, and spoke more gently than he ever remembered speaking to anyone in his life. "Do you...miss your mother?"

Luna blinked for a moment, before slowly nodding. "Sometimes; it would be nice if I could talk to her at all, even if it wasn't very often." Draco scruntinized her face carefully - maybe her life wasn't as peaceful as he'd first guessed. But then she shrugged softly. "I've gotten used to being alone, though - so most of the time, it isn't that bad."

Draco suppressed the unfamiliar urge to comfort someone - he didn't move to hug her, like his instinct bid him, but instead contemplated her logic silently. He missed his mother, of course he did, and he would love for things to return to the way they had been. But to be alone, too, had its appeal. Nobody to please, nobody to prove himself to...if he could be completely free from judgement and fear of it, like Luna seemed to be...

"I..." This time, he didn't let the hesitation crush him - she had opened up, and so could he. "I wish I could be alone, sometimes."

Luna was still for a moment, studying him, and then ducked her head. "Well, I should probably leave you then..." She turned towards the staircase, and he nearly kicked himself.

"No!" he exclaimed. He should have said 'free', not 'alone' - the last thing he found he wanted was for her to go, and leave him trapped inside the cage that was his body; not when he was so sure now that she held - was - the key that could set his soul free.

Hearing his voice, Luna stopped and turned back to face him, an indecipherable look on her face. Draco took a deep breath, and then offered her a tentative smile.

"I mean...maybe you should teach me how to hunt Nargles. You know, just in case one tries to attack me on the way back to my common-room or something." He shrugged, trying for nonchalance, although he could feel the desperate need for her not to go.

And maybe Luna could see it, because after a few seconds she smiled warmly back, and nodded. "Alright," she agreed, moving closer to him, and Draco's smile stretched more widely across his face. "It's really fairly simple..."

XXX

After that, they met up nearly every night, away from the pressures and the prying eyes and the parts they had to play. When it was just them, together, they were different. They were friends. They were free.

"Well of course they don't like you," she teased, nudging him playfully as they sat side by side in the Owlery. "You're Draco Malfoy around them, not just Draco, like you are with me." A giggle escaped her lips as he scowled.

"Still," he muttered stubbornly, before he gave in and grinned at her good-humour. "Do they have to swarm about like I'm going to attack you if I so much as glance at you in the corridor? I thought they knew we were...friends now, even if they don't want to accept it." He folded his arms childishly across his chest, but again, she just rolled her eyes and nudged him gently out of it. Just like she had nudged him out from behind his mask of Malfoy, to reveal the Draco he kept underneath.

After a few minutes of sitting in comfortable silence, Luna broached a subject that was always fairly touchy with them...the idea of him showing that Draco to the rest of the school.

"Well, maybe if you just found a way to get to know them, and let them get to know you...You'd be really good as a part of Dumbledore's Army, you know, it's-"

He felt himself flinch at the mention of that name and the memories it dredged up in his mind, and Luna cut off abruptly. There were a few brief seconds of a different silence, and then she spoke again, her animated voice suddenly sweet and remorseful.

"I'm sorry I said that, Draco," she murmured softly, placing her hand on his arm.

He found himself trying to put the mask back in place, and use the bravado that protected him from having to deal with the emotions that were so strong inside him. "Said what?" He tried, breezily, but his hand crept along to hers and intertwined with it, squeezing gently. Betraying vulnerability.

"You know what I'm talking about...you don't like hearing his name, do you?" Again, her simple honesty pierced straight through to his soul. He didn't answer her, and she squeezed his hand back.

"Draco..." Still, she spoke in whispers, but her voice had taken on a strong, sincere edge, like she was about to say something of vital importance. Even so, he couldn't bring himself to meet her gaze. She waited for a bit, and then, evidently, decided to go on regardless.

"I've let go of what happened, Draco...last year, I mean." With his eyes firmly trained on the floor, she couldn't see his reaction, but if he had been looking at her, Draco knew she would have seen a spark of hope flare inside them. Did she really mean that? Could she really dismiss that part of his life, without judging him? He found himself listening with more fervour as she went on. "So many people in life make up their mind about me before they really know me, that...I try never to do it to anyone else."

She paused, and he could feel her gaze burning intently into the side of his face; could guess what she wanted. Slowly, finally, he allowed his gaze to lock with hers, and she gave him a small smile.

"I've seen a side to you that I don't think anyone else sees. That's the part I care about."

Draco took a second to process what she was saying. She was right, of course - she had seen a side to him that he'd never shown to anyone else before, a side of him that he'd kept hidden away behind a layer of mocking and pride. But then - why her? What was it that had made him open up to her so fully, so completely, and show her the real him?

Deep down, he knew he already knew the answer to that question - he'd known it since the first day she'd spoken to him in the forest, and they'd shared that first brief flash of something. So, with every bone in his body urging him to tell her, he took a deep breath and opened his mouth.

"Luna...that side, that part of me, well...you're the only person that's ever let me show it."

And then, without even thinking about it, he slowly, slowly leaned his body into hers, their hands still intertwined in his lap. Her eyes widened as she realised what he was doing, and then fluttered closed, the corners of the sweet mouth turning upwards as though in anticipation of what she knew was to come. Taking another deep breath - something he seemed to do a lot these days, he noticed - Draco shut his own eyes too, and then finally, torturously brushed his mouth against her own.

It was magnetism - he felt his own body drawn inexplicably closer to hers, his hands moving to tangle in her sleek, silvery hair as his lips pressed more firmly against hers, and their mouths opened, deepening the kiss.

It was electricity - she made a hum of contentment low in her throat at the sparks their mouths, their tongues were creating, like a raging fire was on the precipice of beginning in the infinitesimal gap between their bodies.

It was a law unto itself, a force of nature like no other. Draco couldn't find any other way to describe the feeling that fusing his mouth with hers created in him, because above all - above the undeniable magnetism, above the sizzling electricity - that was how it felt to be kissing Luna. Natural. Easy. Like as long as he clung onto her, he was free.

A/N: Hope I did them justice, reviews are love! :D