| 𝙇𝙪𝙣𝙖 |

Harry gained more confidence after a moment, and picked up Draco's hand again and held it, who looked momentarily surprised but pleased.

No, it looked like Luna and Ginny wouldn't be the only ones with news tonight. That news.

"I- yeah, we may be hanging out together a bit, and what about it?" Harry said kind of defensively. "Well, we all knew, we thought, you two were sworn enemies," said Ginny, "and you've just walked in on us announcing that me and Luna are dating."

"First of all, we were sworn enemies, or so I- I thought." Harry blushed. "Second of all, OH. MY. GOSH. I knew it all along, from when you guys were holding hands in the forest and stuff." "Well, you were right."

"I- I should go," said Draco quietly, looking a bit flustered, and, while he was as drained as paper a moment ago, was now getting redder by the second.

"Oh, er, alright" said Harry. "You can stay and, er, hang out for a bit if you want, though, Draco."

Luna registered that he, for (presumably) the first time, had called Draco 'Draco', instead of Malfoy. The others seemed to notice this, too, because they all looked around at eachother and the two boys in wonder, who looked thoroughly embarrased by this point.

"Ehm, n-no, it's alright, er- catch you later potter."

Ok, what was happening?! Luna was feeling flustered as Draco stepped out of the portrait hole into the corridor beyond.

"Well, this evening has come out nicely" Ron said, apparently in an attempt to loosen the tension in the room. Luna put her hand on her forehead and laughed with the others.

"Luna you can stay the night here if you want." "Ehm, no, that's ok Gin, I better be getting back to Ravenclaw tower." Luna just wanted some quiet reflecting time at the moment. She squeezed Ginny's hand. "See you by Hagrid's tomorrow for Care of Magical Creatures class." "Yeah. Yeah you too."

***

Luna awoke with a start. She had had another nightmare... suddenly she was glad she hadn't spent the night at Gryffindor Tower with Ginny and them- she knew Ginny got worried about her easily. Yes, thinking about Ginny made her calmer, imagining her sweet flowery-scented hair, her face pressed into it...

"Luna, the other girls and I have to skip our first lesson today for a chorus meeting, so, see you later, maybe at lunch?" said one of her roommates. Luna nodded and half smiled
"Ok. See you. Have fun at choir practice."

***

Luna met Ginny in a corridor without the others. She said they had already gone down to breakfast and that she had told them not to wait. "You ok, Lu Lu? You seem a little... down." "Oh- oh yeah, I'm fine Ginny!" "Oh c'mon Luna, I know you better than that" she whispered. "I've just had some trouble sleeping, that's all." "nightmares?" Luna sighed. "Just a bit, I guess, yeah."

"I'm sorry Luna, but you know you can tell me anything, right?" "Yeah, I'm sorry." "Don't be" replied Ginny, grasping her hand and walking to breakfast, not caring what people thought of it.

As they walked into the Great Hall, still holding hands, Hermione spotted them and waved them over. "I heard from a seventh year that apparently Hagrid is showing is something freaky in class today." "Really? What? Oh, I really hope it's a nargleumff" said Luna, thinking of the posters her dad hung on their walls. "Wha- ? nevermind" sighed Hermione. "And I dunno what it is, I'm just telling you what I heard." Hermione shrugged. "Guess we'll see, or that plucky seventh year's just bluffing" said Ron. "Ron, I don't think he was bluffing." said Hermione, exasperated.

They started lightly bickering. Luna explained all about nargleumffs to Ginny for the rest of breakfast, who looked amused. Ginny really got her, Luna thought.

***

"We Fell in Love in October," by Girl in Red, started playing through Luna's headset as she walked down the lawn to Hagrid's hut for their apparently freaky Care of Magical Creatures class that day.

Luna absent-mindedly hummed along to the song, which made Ginny look up at her, smiling, seeming to know which song she was listening to. Luna hadn't even realized she was humming.

Today's class Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were together as usual, but Slytherin was sharing the class as well that day, making it quite large actually.

"What is that?" Lavender Brown, a Gryffindor girl, exclaimed loudly. The class looked as they neared Hagrid's hut, to what she was pointing at. There were five tables in front of Hagrid's house that had things that looked like Venus fly trap plants. The class watched as a fly flew past one, and instead of just eating it like a normal plant of that type, it spurted a pink jelly-looking liquid at the fly, and then caught it in its mouth, licking its lips.

Luna was intrigued, and, well, slightly grossed out.

"Ah, me class has arrived. Mighty good, mighty good..." Hagrid had come bustling his way up from the direction of the lake. "Now, I'll bet none of you lot 'ave ever seen these fellows before!" The whole class shook their heads or looked blank back at Hagrid. None of them had ever seen this before, he was right, not even Hermione, who was biting her lip.

"They're called, Garblers. Now, today we're going to be collectin' the jelly-like stuff from inside em' by sticking a pole near their mouths an' catchin' the jelly in a jar. I use the stuff for healin' other magical creatures an' the like."

The whole class looked as apprehensive as Luna felt, which was very.

They were told to partner up, grab a pole and a jar that wer by Hagrid's hut's front door, and pick a Garbler to collect jelly from. Somehow Harry ended up with Draco, with Pansy Parkinson, another Slytherin who was known to have a crush on Draco, sulking off to the side, and pairing up with Blaise Zabini. She was eying Harry scornfully and... was that jealousy Luna saw??

"Gin, partners?" "Of course!" The two girls grabbed their supplies, and ended up picking the Garbler that they had watched spurt pink jelly in the beginning of the class.

It turned our that the things each spurted different colored jelly. Harry and Draco got red, Hermione and Ron Light blue, Pansy and Zabini purple, Lavender and Parvati, her best friend, also a gryffinfor, dark blue, Neville, who was with a Ravenclaw boy, Anthony Goldstein, got yellow, and so on.

Hagrid walked around cheerily, watching their progress, and then got one of his own to work on collecting jelly from, which spurted green jelly. One gooey hour later, most of the students were covered in jelly that had missed the jar, and Ginny had been hit in the face by some twice. Luna had gotten a couple of blasts of the jelly stuff as well.

"Well, that sure was a bloody blast," joked Ron. "Ron, what is it with you and dad jokes today?" He raised his eyebrows and then laughed along with some other people.

"Well, er, good lesson today, folks. Just, er, clean up before you go to your next lesson, 'cause this stuff, er, migh' not be good for your skin if ya leave it on too long. It's powerful, see, mostly works on animals an' magical creatures, like." The class looked slightly alarmed. "My Gran won't like it if I die by way of a Garbler!" Exclaimed Neville quite loudly, which made the whole class laugh.

"Sorry you had to be with potter, Draco" Zabini fake-whispered to Draco. "Yeah, Draco" Pansy purred, a maliciously desperate look in her eyes, however her voice sounded very relaxed, "I know you would much rather have worked with me if given the choice. right? she added a little snappishly.

"Hah- yeah-" he caught Harry's eye, which was giving him a look. "I'm going to be late for my next class." And with that he headed off, leaving Harry looking exasperated and slightly sad, and Pansy and Zabini looking confused.

Ginny leaned over and whispered in Luna's ear: "Hey, Lu Lu, wanna see something cool?" Luna heard the playful slyness in Ginny's voice. She responded, "Is it cooler than this lesson?"

"Hmmm, I think I would just call this lesson interesting. It's definitely super cool though." she smirked.

"I would love to see it then." Then, instead of heading back up to the castle like everyone else was starting to do, Ginny led Luna off towards the lake.

Who cares if I miss second period? Who cares if I am blissfully terrified? Nothing matters except that I'm with Ginny.

word count: 1465

yayy finally updated! hope you liked thiss. Not my favorite chapter, but it's ok. Sending you all my love. xoxo

-rue