Please Be There If I Remember

Chapter Thirty-Five: Gossip

Draco was walking to the Great Hall by himself when he saw Luna at the Ravenclaw table, alone and sitting there with a deeply crestfallen look on her face that made her appear older than she was. It was a stark contrast to her normally bright and cheery appearance, and Draco instantly wanted to know what was wrong.

Heads had turned slightly when he walked in, a few of the people from Hogsmeade who had seen him talking with Harry spreading rumours around like chocolate frogs to anyone who would listen. Surprisingly, not all of the theories weren't about Draco berating Harry or the like—although that was most of it—but Draco had even heard through a snide remark from Pansy that Draco was now trying to 'seduce' Potter and he had seen a few galleons being passed under tables at the remark.

Draco felt a part of him die inside a little, but he didn't show it on his face, stepping on Blaise's foot as hard as he could when the boy looked up from his food and winked at him with this devilish sort of grin that he wanted to smack right off his face before anyone saw.

Since he decided that his so-called reputation was probably ruined enough as it was and that he really couldn't care at the moment what people thought about him since he didn't even know most of their names yet—yes, it had been a few months already, but Draco was appallingly terrible at remembering them and he couldn't do it for the life of him, so he had given up trying a while ago—he decided he was going to do something.

He sighed imperceptibly, lifting his shoulders up and then exhaling down through his nose, before striding up to the Ravenclaw table and sitting down beside Luna, leaving chaos in his wake.

At first, very few people noticed except for the ones that were following his actions, but very soon words were spreading and whispers were resounding off the walls in the Great Hall.

"Oh, Draco!" Luna said, and the frown on her face disappeared into a smile. "What are you doing here?"

"Am I not allowed to sit with my favourite Ravenclaw?" Draco asked, acting affronted and sliding onto the bench, quickly shoving food on his plate in case someone dared try to move him.

"Well, I don't know about favourite," Luna said almost sadly, "but I guess there aren't any rules against it," she finished off in that airy tone.

"Luna," Draco said, exasperated. "First of all, you're the only Ravenclaw I know, and even if you weren't you'd still be my favourite." He paused. "I thought you didn't like people making assumptions."

"Oh," she said, chewing her lip. "I just thought—I don't know."

"Luna?" Draco asked, for the girl again had that look on her face. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, I'm dandy, just thinking about things. You know, Ravenclaw things and such."

Draco was usually good at letting things go, but this time just didn't seem right. "Are you sure? I would gladly beat up anyone for you. In fact, I need the defence practice with that bit—Umbridge teaching."

Luna laughed, and Draco relaxed at the sound. "No, it's alright. I'm glad you're sitting here. Although Harry's probably going to have a fit."

Already, the Ravenclaw table was glaring at him from where they were sitting far away from them, and the hall was in a conundrum at Draco's blatant defiance of the normal rules—he wasn't sure he ever remembered a Slytherin sitting at another table before, and he had no doubt that this would have been quite the sight.

"Harry?"

"Oh, I can feel him staring at us right now."

Draco blinked and turned in his seat to have the first look at the rest of the people in the Great Hall who were pointing at them with whispers whooshing through the room like a tidal wave. There, he saw Harry staring at them from across the Hufflepuff table with his mouth gaping open and a strange shock over his features.