Stuck with Me [Harry Potter]

Chapter 7 - A Spark of Attraction

Day 4

Even though he cast several comforting spells on himself and his conjured bed, he still didn't get a good night's sleep. He avoided Luna like the plague after he saw her in the kitchen, not wanting those images of her... body... to come back to his mind.

It was driving him mad!

The day before, he walked off away from the house after Luna came out and handed him some vanilla pudding. Thankfully she left, and he was able to eat it in peace. After he finished, he eyed the forest that Luna made a hunting trip in. He decided to get away from Luna and her curves for a while, trudge up to the forest, and walk in. He was immediately met with a loud shriek that nearly toppled him over. Panicked, he ran back to the house, through the long grass, and slammed the door shut. Thankfully Luna was upstairs or somewhere. He decided to sit in the leather chair and read a random book about magical creatures that was lying on the table next to him. Anything to get his mind off that shriek and the girl. Luna came down, saw him reading, and went out the front door. He went to sleep before she came back.

He lay awake on his conjured bed, not able to sleep, staring up at the ceiling. He glanced out the window. The sun wasn't even up yet.

He got out of bed, made the bed disappear, and got his shoes and jacket on and left out the door into the cool air, casting the scourgify spell as he walked, making him feel clean and refreshed. He stopped at his usual spot. Images of Luna in the kitchen crept into his mind again.

"Stop it!" he demanded of himself. "You're a Death Eater! Not some slimy love-stuck boy!"

He threw off his jacket and unbuttoned the wrist buttons to his white dress shirt and pulled up the sleeve to reveal the dreaded Dark Mark.

"Pull yourself together," he ordered himself through gritted teeth. "Sometime or later, you'll be pulled from this place and be commanded to do another evil task. You have to be ready for it."

He stared at his skull and snake tattoo for a good while, trying to convince himself of the latter.

"What a beautiful tattoo," he heard, and all his insides jumped to see Luna staring at it. Where in the blazes did she come from?!

"Beautiful," he spat, and pulled his sleeve down, not bothering to button it. "It's evil."

"Evil things can still be beautiful," she said as he stared off into the lighting horizon. "The skull is my favorite part of the skeleton because it houses the most important part of the body—the brain. And snakes are considered to be one of nature's most gentle creatures but are only bad if their masters make them to be, just like any other creature. Actually, a large anaconda let me use his body as a pillow as I was in the forest."

He shuttered. "What?"

"They're gentle creatures."

Draco thought to the Dark Lord's anaconda Nagini. She was evil. But then, so was her master. He also thought... it made sense that Luna smelled of toad slime when she showed up after spending the night in the forest.

"What do you know?" he let out in an agitated tone.

"I know a lot about animals and magical creatures." She paused. "I also know that every Death Eater has the same tattoo on their left arm, of a skull and a snake, and when it moves, that is when Lord Voldemort is summoning them."

He stared at her in disbelief and demanded, "How in the blazes do you know that? Wait, let me guess—Potter told you?"

"No. My father. After he came back from your home beaten up, he told me of what he found out regarding Death Eaters."