It was evening. The students of Hogwarts were in the Great Hall, and like always, Draco Malfoy's eyes drifted toward the Ravenclaw table. They settled on a girl with wavy blonde hair and wide, surprised eyes. Orange earrings in the shape of what looked like little radishes hung from her ears. She was a year below Draco, so they did not have any classes together. The only time he had to observe her was during dinner in the Great Hall. This girl was Luna Lovegood, and she was fascinating. She was always gazing into the distance with a dreamy look in her eyes, while the other students kept out of her way. But Draco wondered what she thought about. He'd often see her talking to other students, and they'd look skeptical. But Draco wanted to hear what she had to say. He had never been so interested in someone before. His gaze grew more intense. He wanted to know more about Luna, and he wanted to know why she was so interesting to him.

"Draco?"

A shrill voice snapped Draco back into reality. Pansy Parkinson was sitting next to him with a frown on her tiny, squished face. Her eyes darted from Draco to the Ravenclaw table.

"Who were you looking at?" she snapped.

"Huh? Nobody! I wasn't looking at anyone," Draco said as convincingly as he could.

Pansy hesitated for a moment, but then she went back to arranging the peas on her plate. Draco felt relieved. Pansy was very jealous, and hated when Draco so much as glanced at another girl. Draco found this annoying. In fact, he couldn't even remember if he had ever officially made Pansy his girlfriend. Truthfully, he was getting tired of her always following him around.

"So Draco," Pansy began. "I heard that there isn't going to be another Hogsmeade trip in a while, because of the Christmas holidays, and I was thinking we could go to Madam Puddifoot's tomorrow. Wouldn't that be nice?"

"Madam Puddifoot's?" Draco said uneasily. Madam Puddifoot's Teashop was a cramped place full of lovesick couples. Draco remembered the last time he and Pansy had gone there. It hadn't been a fun experience.

"I don't know," he said. "I don't think I can make it."

"Do you have detention again?" Pansy said, pouting.

"Er. . ." Draco thought for a moment. That was a good excuse as any. "Actually, yeah, I do. With Flitwick. I . . . er . . . set Weasley's hair on fire."

Pansy started cackling, but then stopped abruptly. "Wait, when did that happen?"

Oh, oops. Draco thought. He came up with a lie on the spot: "You were in the bathroom," he said. "Too bad you missed it, eh?"

"Yeah," Pansy mumbled, looking rather upset. Draco didn't know if this was because she missed Weasley's head being aflame (which never happened), or because Draco couldn't go to the teashop with her.

"Sorry," Draco said half-heartedly.

The next morning, Draco woke up late and found that all of his fellow Slytherin fifth years were gone. This being the last Hogsmeade trip in a while, they had all probably wanted to stock up on Honeydukes candy and Zonko's merchandise. Draco didn't mind not going. He needed some time for himself, and anyway, he could always nick some stuff from Crabbe and Goyle if he needed to. Plus, he'd be getting tons of sweets for Christmas from his parents.

Draco got dressed and went to the Great Hall for breakfast. It was rather empty because it was so late. Afterwards he went to the library to catch up on Charms homework. He had been skipping out on it recently, and was on the verge of actually being given detention by Flitwick, not a fake one for reasons involving Ron Weasley, if he didn't finish it all.

Draco entered the library and was about to sit down when a certain someone caught his eye. Without thinking, he walked straight up to her and, a bit more forcefully than he'd have liked to, said, "Hi Luna."

Luna looked up. Draco couldn't tell if she was surprised to see him or not, considering her eyes were always widened in slight shock.

"Oh hello," Luna said softly. "Draco Malfoy, is it?"

"Er, yeah," Draco replied. Now he was getting nervous. What could've possessed him to actually go up and talk to Luna? "Um, so, why aren't you in Hogsmeade?"

"I wanted some alone time," Luna said, as calmly as ever. However, she was looking at Draco rather oddly. Draco should've realized that Luna most likely wouldn't want to talk to him. She was friends with Potter, who surely wouldn't have ever spoken highly of him; in fact, Potter probably said the exact opposite.

"Oh, er, that's cool," Draco said awkwardly.

Luna slid a book out of the shelf and sat down at a nearby table. Draco followed and sat down across from her. As Luna read quietly, Draco couldn't do much but stare at her. He couldn't think of anything else to say, so instead he gazed at the cascade of blonde hair which fell over half of her face, and the blue eyes that stared intently on the page before them.

"That's odd," Luna said suddenly. "There's nothing about Nargles in here."

"N-nargles?" Draco said curiously. He looked at the book Luna was holding. It was a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. "What are Nargles, exactly?"

Luna didn't say anything at first. Instead she looked Draco right in the eye, as if seeing if he was worthy enough to talk about Nargles to. The minute she looked at him, Draco forgot what he had even asked. He became lost in those big blue eyes, and he didn't ever want to find his way out.

"Nargles," Luna said, breaking Draco's focus, "are very interesting creatures. They live in mistletoe. Some people doubt their existence, but my daddy knows they're real. And so do I,
Luna added, as if daring Draco to contradict her. But he didn't.

"That sounds fascinating," Draco said. "I wonder why they aren't listed in the book."

"Are you being sarcastic?" Luna said, hurt.

"What? No! I meant it," Draco said. He couldn't stand to see Luna so sad. "Of course I meant it."

"You believe in Nargles, then?" said Luna, slowly getting up from the table to put her book back.

"I do now," Draco smiled. Luna hesitated, and then smiled back.

"You know," she said. "You're not too bad."

Draco's smiled faded as he followed Luna into a corner of the library. "Who said I'm bad? I bet it was Potter, wasn't it?"

"Harry?" Luna said. "Oh, he doesn't talk much about you."

"Then who?"

"No one told me anything about you. I make my own opinion on people. I don't judge people by what others say."

Draco felt nervous. "So . . . you thought I was a bad person?"

"Well, you do come across as a bit rude," Luna said softly. She moved a bit closer to Draco. "But now I know the real you."

"And?" Draco said.

"I like it." Then Luna leaned up and kissed Draco on the lips. It was great, wonderful, and all that Draco had wanted. Then Luna pulled away and smiled softly, and Draco smiled back.

"Oh look," Luna said quietly. She pointed up at the ceiling. There was a sprig of mistletoe hanging there, right above their heads.

Draco frowned. Had she only kissed him because of that?

Luna seemed to read his thoughts. "I didn't notice it before. Oh well . . . I sure hope the Nargles don't catch us," Luna said, and she kissed Draco again.