Nargles

Draco Malfoy stood in the corner of the Great Hall. It was the night of the Winter Formal, and he was scheduled—by McGonagall of course—to help with the decorations. At the moment, he was watching Hogwarts students from various houses set up trees, streamers, mistletoe, etc.

Draco, on the other hand, did not want anything to do with the decorating, so he just stayed along the edge of the room, hoping no one noticed that he wasn't actually contributing. Although he had to admit, the Hall was looking pretty darn good. There was tinsel hung around the walls in rows, wreathes along every door and in the corners of the room, mistletoe hung occasionally over fireplaces that were placed there by magic, and a giant tree off in the corner by the entrance. The tree was covered in glittering ornaments and garland and seemed to glow by itself.

Along a couple of refreshment tables, there were lights, and there was an assortment of sweets. Cookies, cakes, pies, ice cream, anything you can name, was on the tables, and the Hall was filled with the delicious smell coming off of each of them.

But still, as great as it was looking, Draco wanted nothing more than to just get away from this Hall, and sleep for the night. There was no way he was coming to the Formal that night, and he imagined that he wasn't invited anyway, being a former death eater and all. The school still hadn't fully accepted him back, even though he proved himself to be truly remorseful for all the pain he had caused. They still blew him off and treated him like a piece of trash.

The only person in the school who Draco thought didn't judge him, was probably Luna "Loony" Lovegood. She, of course, was just as crazy as ever, and didn't respond to the criticism that she still got from those certain girls who stole her shoes and schoolwork. Luna, of course, blamed it on some crazy creature that she believed in, but everyone knew better than to believe that.

Then, the subject of his current thoughts, entered the room. She was wearing a blue t-shirt and black sweatpants, and had bare feet—no surprise there. She had a dreamy look in her large, blue eyes and was smiling slightly. When she entered, one of the students who was working on the decorations—a Hufflepuff, Draco recognized—went over to her and handed her a handful of garland, tinsel, and mistletoe and pointed to the places that he wanted each one hung. Luna happily nodded and walked over to where she was to hang the tinsel.

Draco watched as she used her wand to guide the tinsel to a high place on the wall and secure it. He examined her while she worked. She had her platinum blonde hair down, and it fell just past her shoulders in loose waves. Her eyebrows were scrunched together in concentration, and she held her want delicately in her right hand. She worked slowly, making sure that each piece of décor was in its perfect place before moving on to the next one.

He was so caught up in watching her, that he didn't even notice when she was right in front of him.

"Hello, Draco," she said in her dreamy voice, startling him. "It's a lovely set up isn't it?"

"Huh, what?" He said, sounding utterly undignified. "Oh yeah, it's pretty nice I guess."

"You seem in a better mood than usual, the wrackspurts aren't anywhere around her are they?" She asked, blue eyes wide and innocent.

"Wrackspurts?"

"Yes, you know the creatures that float into your brain through your ears and make your brain go fuzzy. Surely you've heard of them!"

Draco shook his head. Luna sure was loony.

"Anyway, I don't want to seem rude but I'm afraid that you're standing in the way of where I need to hang up this garland," She said.

"Oh," Draco said, quickly moving. Luna nodded her head in thanks and started to attach the garland to the wall with her wand. Just as Draco turned to walk away, she spoke again.

"Are you planning on going to the Formal tonight? I heard it's supposed to be quite spectacular." She said.

"Oh, no," He said. "I'm not really into that kind of thing."

He actually did like dances. Especially the winter ones, as winter was his favorite season. He loved the snow and the cold, and drinking hot cocoa by the fire, and Christmas most of all. Not that he would ever tell anyone that. No need for anyone to think that Draco Malfoy was a softie.

"Oh that's really too bad," Luna said. "I heard that there's going to be real falling snow and everything."

Draco just nodded and listened to her talk.

"You know, when I was little, my father used to take me out in the snow to look for Snowgarbles. They're little creatures that live in the snow, and they like to cover up footprints after you walk through it. They like to make sure that the snow is clear, you see, because they value the winter. They're okay with the other seasons, of course, but winter is their favorite."

"I believe I met one before, when I was about three or four. They're really quite nice, despite what some people might think. A lot of people think that their vicious because they sometimes trip them while they're walking through the snow. They don't mean to do that though, they're just really busy, because there are a lot of people who walk in the snow. But some people don't believe in them at all, can you imagine?" Luna shook her head and worked at hanging another piece of garland.

Draco sighed. Luna sure had a vivid imagination. Draco didn't think she was crazy per se, but he thought that she might suffer from hallucinations, or just dreams. He highly doubted that there was such a thing as Snowgarble.

Just then, the Hufflepuff who was talking to Luna earlier ran over with a handful of ornaments.

"Hey, Luna! These were left over from the tree decoration box, and we were wondering if you could find something to do with them." He said.

Luna smiled brightly. "Of course! I could suspend them in the air without their hooks, and make them shimmer! And of course Draco here will be helping me."

Draco looked at Luna in shock. Helping with all this was exactly what he was trying to avoid. Luna, obviously not sensing this, just smiled at him as the Hufflepuff walked away. Once he was gone, Luna handed Draco all the rest of the garland.

"Draco, can you please hang all these up for me?" She asked, her eyes big and pleading.

Draco sighed. Not those eyes. He could never resist the puppy dog eye look, and Luna's big blue eyes just amplified the effect.

"Alright," he said.

"Great! So just like I've been showing you, hang them up with your wand and add a little shimmer to them." She said, and then she skipped to the middle of the room where she did a spell on an ornament to make it float in the air.

Draco shook his head and pulled out his wand. Doing the spell that he hoped was the one Luna had used, he sent the garland up to the ceiling and hung it against the wall, and did the same with all the other pieces, until it was done. Once he was finished, he stood back to admire his handiwork. It was perfect, except for one piece, a little up the wall wasn't hung correctly. He tried a spell, but the darned thing wouldn't budge, so he grabbed a double sided ladder and put it by the wall. Climbing up the ladder, he fixed the garland and was about to climb back down, when he felt the ladder shake slightly, signaling someone climbing up.

Looking down, he saw it was Luna, carrying something in her hand. Once she reached the top, she smiled warmly at him, and he found it somehow taking his breath away. Who would've thought, Loony Lovegood was actually somewhat… pretty.

Caught up in looking at her, he didn't notice when she had hung something above them, and was staring at him with an intense look. He furrowed his eyebrows, confused.

"You know, you shouldn't stare so much, because someday someone could get highly offended by that," she said matter-of-factly.

"I… uh… I wasn't staring!" Draco spluttered, though Luna saw exactly what he was trying to do.

"It's okay if you were, Draco," She said. "And you better be careful of your shoes."

Draco looked down at his feet. His shoes looked fine to him. He looked back up at Luna, puzzled.

"What?"

"I said, you'd better be careful of your shoes. The Nargles might take them."

"Nargles?"

Luna smiled and pointed above their heads, as if that solved everything. Looking up, Draco saw that there was mistletoe hanging right above their heads. He was confused for a minute, but then it hit him. He was under the mistletoe with Luna Lovegood. He looked at Luna in shock, but the shock quickly melted into a different feeling he couldn't quite describe. Looking at her, he realized that she was a lot prettier than he thought she was, and that she didn't need make up to make herself look that way. The dim lighting in the room made her hair look shinier than usual, and lighter. Her eyes were big, blue, and sparkling, and seemed like they stared right into his soul. Her lips were parted in a small smile.

Before Draco could comprehend what he was doing—or rather care enough to—he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. They were soft, and warm, and tasted like cinnamon, as if she had eaten one of the desserts that were on the tables, though Draco had the feeling that she hadn't. She was kissing him back, which was a good sign, and Draco found himself to be kind of happy.

They pulled away, and Draco was in kind of a dazed state, and Luna was chuckling quietly at him. And once again, for the who knows how many times that night, Draco did something unexpected.

"Luna, do you want to go to the Formal with me?"

She smiled.

"I would love too."