The Whimsical and the Worried

Chapter 2

The first night back at Hogwarts was extremely awkward for Draco. Once he had gotten off the train leaving behind the meandering Luna as quickly as possible, he found himself once again struggling to find somewhere to sit, this time in the great hall.
He refused to have such an ordeal as it was on the train and so obstinately sat somewhere with a little space on the Slytherin table. The people around him could move away from him. He didn't bloody well care. But it wasn't up to him to have to sit somewhere diplomatic. It was up to them to move.
The two people closest did give him a few side way glances but weren't crass enough to actually get up and leave, although the girl to his right, he would swear, was very slowly inching further away from him throughout dinner and the sorting.
Otherwise he kept to himself keeping his head down but not fully letting go of his arrogant persona. He tried to take some enjoyment from the obvious notoriety and attention he was drawing.
At one point in the dinner he noticed his blonde acquaintance on the train come in. She was later than everyone else. He wondered what she could possibly have been doing to have taken so long and had to stop himself from shaking his head at her.
She was looking all around but not at any people, more like at the tiles on the floor and then the ceiling and the decorations on the tables.
Strange girl.
But eventually she did seem to notice one of her friends at the Gryffindor table. Weaslette. The red headed, hot tempered Potter fanatic. Draco almost rolled his eyes. Of course Luna would be friends with someone like that. She was part of the Harry Potter fan club herself Draco reminded himself.
The Weaslette happily waved at Luna and Luna waved back with a cheerful smile upon her face. She then slowly made her way to the Ravenclaw table and seemed to say a few greetings and then took some food onto her plate.
Draco finished his meal as quickly as  possible and left as soon as it seemed acceptable for the comfort of his room.
The whole being feared thing could be fun he had to admit... but it did get a little uncomfortable after too long.
He sat in his room that night and tried to read, and to empty his head of all the horrible thoughts that came to him so easily these days.
The strange blonde girl with radish earrings that he'd shared his compartment with gave some distraction from these thoughts and so he let himself muse over her for a while.
The next week or so of class things got a little better, but not a lot.
He'd obviously made clear his intentions, for lack of better words, of how he was planning to take on this 'new role' as ostracised bad boy. He hardly spoke in classes and kept to himself as much as possible, though already he was getting a bit lonely, not actually being the quiet type.
On the positive side it had given him a lot more time for reading.
What a simple luxury it was just to be able to read a book and not be worrying about any horrible tasks or if his mother was safe, if he was safe... Although the worry wasn't fully gone. He worried about his mother often and would also wake from very real seeming nightmares almost nightly.
He'd found a few spots in the school grounds outside that he really liked and that allowed him some peace away from the stares of his peers to just read.
One he had found was right near the forbidden forest. Not fully in it, but nobody seemed to even like hanging near it too much other than Draco.
And it was true he'd have to admit that after the war the forest did seem that much darker. However he reminded himself that he'd seen a lot worse things than any centaur.
So when he had found this rather stunning dark and twisty tree right at the edge he had decided it was a perfect sitting place for when he wanted to get away; and this was what Draco wanted at this particular moment and therefore was heading towards the beautiful tree at around noon on a Sunday.
However as he made his way towards this dark tree, his shoes making a satisfying smushing sound as he walked on the lightly damp earth, his eye was directed to something utterly not dark and inconspicuous. It was a Blonde Girl.
She stood out like a sore thumb in front of the dark forest, her being like a bloody beam of light to look at. A sunflower in a field of violets. 
She was wearing much too bright clothing, definitely not the school uniform, and her hair was as light as Draco's if not a little more honey coloured than his own; Even her pale skin seemed to have a glow about it again, but unlike on the train there was no light reflecting on her.
He wondered how she was still glowing on this damp and dreary day momentarily, but then he came to his senses and thought about turning around. Alas he had looked up and noticed her too late. She'd seen him.
"Hello Draco" she said cheerfully but seemingly as perplexed as he was at seeing him there.
Draco took a deep inhalation. He'd be needing it as no doubt he was about to have a strange and perplexing conversation or time as Luna was involved.
"What are you doing here?" Draco asked without answering her hello, not bothering with any niceties.
"Well I'm sitting" she said obviously, as if it were a dumb question he was asking as he could obviously see she was sitting. Draco grunted in annoyance.
"I meant what are you doing at my tree?" he asked annoyed at having to clarify. He was sure she knew what he meant and was beginning to suspect some of her dreamy nativity was put on.
"Your tree?" Luna asked her eyebrows raised.
"Well I've never seen you here before" she answered in a tone, that if you didn't know who Luna Lovegood was, you may have construed as having sassy undertones.
Draco looked at her dumbfounded. Wasn't she meant to be all rainbows and imaginary creatures, why was she sounding so forthright? It was his tree she was sitting under anyway!
"Well I've never seen you here before!" Draco said indignant.
"Well I've been coming here for years Draco Malfoy, and besides a tree can't be owned" she said in her own version of indigence.
Who would have thought it, after all this time and the way to rile up Lovegood was simply to claim a tree as yours Draco thought interested and slightly amused.
And who would have thought Lovegood actually had a bit more of a backbone than he ever would have thought.
"Is that right?" Draco asked in a disbelieving tone with a bit of a smirk.
"Yes it is" She replied though back to more of her normal wispy tone.
Draco looked at the witch in front of him very intrigued. She looked back at him without a hint of fright or abashment.
And suddenly Draco realised he was rather enjoying their little banter. After all it had been quite a while since he'd had a conversation with anyone other than his professors. He couldn't help but be slightly entertained by the girl.
Draco shifted the book he was holding into his left hand and then fidgeted for something in his pocket. Luna didn't interrupt him, she simply watched.
She watched also as he came forward much closer to her but then sidestepped her a little, after having taken a moment to look down at her sitting form and given a bit of a cheeky smirk in her direction.
And then he began to carve something into the tree. It was a pocket knife that he had found in his pocket. When he stepped back and it was revealed to Luna just what he was doing a mark was made.
D.M.
"There we go, this settles it" He said obviously pleased with himself. His smug smirk and folded arms gave the impression of someone who'd just made an airtight argument.
Luna gawked. Her mouth wide open as she looked at the marking of his initials.
"Do you think you can just take whatever you want Draco Malfoy?" she asked after a second.
The words were more cutting than Draco had expected, although said in her dreamy and melodic way. It was as though it wasn't just an observation of the moment but of him himself and the person he was. She was stupidly philosophical in her speaking sometimes Draco realised.
He frowned at her and then replied
"Yes".