Flower Petals

-30-

Luna was waiting for Draco in the clearing where he buried the rabbit. He came walking behind her, ignoring that she even existed, throwing a wand that was not his to the ground. He stood with his hands in his dark jacket pockets, staring at the ground. 

She had fallen asleep where he left her, against a tree looking over the hills. They reminded her of her mother and her home, the sounds of wind chimes and the smell of her father's tea. The sun had set and Luna watched as the sun crept sleepily over the mountains far away, she imagined that she was home in her room watch her light catchers throw the sun against her bedroom walls, hearing her father sing jolly tunes, she fell asleep dreaming about home. 

He sat next to her, letting out a deep breath. Luna sleepily she put her head on his left shoulder. Draco patted her head, sighing fixing her hair with his hand. 

"Luna love..." he whispered "I think i'm a monster." Draco hoped she was asleep, he didn't want to argue, he just wanted to wallow in her company. 

"You're not a monster." she whispered back against his neck. 

He was exhausted, leaning his head back against the tree, dropping his hand from her head. Draco looked at her from the bottom corner of his eyes, and then to the moon that lay on the mountains in front of them. Her skin glowed like the moonlight, and her eyes were speckled with stars. Draco put down his baggage in front of her, letting go of the fear and the hate he'd carried all today, he stopped replaying the ministers eyes close, or his mothers clawing, he just focused on the moon that lay warm against him, and the moon in the sky.

"I think you don't know me like you think you do love." Luna didn't move, other then shifting her head on Draco, leaving a cold spot, so that he could clearly hear her, speaking against his neck and collar. She whispered to him, in a sleepy and soft voice

"You like marmalade on your toast, the orange kind like Pansy Parkinson used to make in the morning." Draco smiled, and then seized, because Pansy would never make it again. "You take your tea with nothing in it." Luna lifted her right hand and out in on Draco's suit pant leg.

"You love bunnies, and meadows, and the smell of greenhouses. Your favorite color is purple, like the royal kind." Draco placed his hand on top of hers. The air was cold and biting, but where they touched they were warm. "And i know this because in all the time I've talked and you've stayed silent you've let little things slip. I know you've always wanted a brother, you love lemon bars and hate too much frosting on your cake." Luna separated his fingers, spreading them so that Draco could intertwine his fingers into her hand, engulfing hers completely. 

"I killed a man Luna." she still didn't move. Draco snaked his hand around them, resting he right hand on her neck, pulling her closer, becoming suddenly silent again. " I killed him and he dropped to the floor like a cast of what he was.." Draco's voice broke, and his eyes grew teary "..like his life meant nothing but how he died. And I did that. Me." He squeezed her hand Luna took a deep breath in, lifting her head off her shoulder to look at him. Draco's hand dropped from her neck. 

"Draco, do we blame a dog bread to fight for killing another dog." She spoke pointedly, not sounding at all like herself, looking at him with anew fire in her eyes.

"That is not the same, i just..I saw his wand, he was going to- "

"well then, would we blame a dog for biting a man who was going to kill him" Draco silenced himself, looking away from her. Luna crawled in front of him, taking his head into her hands and staring him down. "Draco Malfoy you look at me." she demanded. 

He was gentle with her, he wanted to throw her off of him, to push her and to scream and to cry, and yet he sat silently. Draco felt in awe of her gentility and her fragility, she was the strongest person he had ever met, and yet when they were alone he felt afraid to touch her with his poisonous hands.