Just like Brothers

Chapter 96

"Hey, Luna, what're you up to?" Draco asked, stopping infront of the girl who was sitting in the middle of the empty corridor.

She opened her blue eyes and looked up at him, "oh, hello, Draco, I was just performing a ritual to keep away the wrackspurts. Join me?" 

Draco shrugged and put his bag down, bending to sit besides her.

"Just put your arms out like this," Luna said, lifting her arms over her head, "and sway them back and forth while I chant."

Draco did as she asked, cringing slightly.

"Your aura is clouded," Luna said, inspecting Draco, "what's the matter?"

"Nothing," Draco sighed.

She gave him a look but smiled, "that's ok, you don't need to tell me. I just hope you feel better soon. Clouded auras make me sad."

"I'm sorry," Draco whispered.

Luna closed her eyes and continued to chant.

"She loves you very much, you know that?" Luna said after a couple minutes.

Draco opened his eyes and looked at her curiously, "who?"

"Your mum of course. That's why you're sad? Right?"

"How'd you know?" Draco asked with wide eyes.

"The voices," Luna said serenely, "do you want to share? I've found that it makes you feel better sometimes."

A silence fell between them, not uncomfortable nor comfortable, just existing as Draco's brain scrambled to make a decision.

"Today's her birthday," he spoke after a moment.

"Her birthday?" Luna confirmed.

Draco nodded.

"Come on," she smiled, jumping to her feet, holding out a hand to help him up.

"Where are we going?" Draco asked, accepted her help off the ground.

"It's your mum's birthday!" Luna exclaimed, "we mustn't leave it uncelebrated! Come on! Come on!" She tugged on his arm, leading him down the twisting halls.

The ended up in the kitchens, Luna speaking to the house elves and Draco gasping for breath.

"They're going to let us use this part of the kitchen," Luna said, grabbing Draco's hand and leading him to the back left corner of the vast room.

"Luna?" Draco asked.

"Yes?" She turned around to look at him.

"What're we doing here?"

"We're going to bake a cake!"

"A cake?"

"Yes! A cake. For your mum's birthday, it's a tradition I have. Every year on my mum's birthday I bake a cake to celebrate for her. It makes me happy and I want to share this with you. What's your mum's favorite flavor?"

"Chocolate," Draco said a ghost of a smile on his lips, "she always insisted that it was vanilla because it was more dignified."

"A chocolate cake it is," Luna declared, pulling various tools and ingredients from shelves and cabinets.

"So you do this every year on your mum's birthday?" Draco asked, leaning against the counter.

"Oh, much more than that," Luna said rifling through various papers, "I come here whenever I'm feeling down, I like to bake you see, and these—" she held out the papers, "—are all the recipes I've created. I leave them here for anyone to use, sometimes other people leave theirs too. I want to make a Hogwarts cookbook but I only have a handful of pages so far...Ah! Here it is! Chocolate cake!" She pulled out a piece of parchment and handed it to Draco, "that's our recipe for the day!"