The Whimsical and the Worried

Chapter 6

Luna was wearing her school uniform. Draco let the thought slip that blue quite suited her.
She held too many things in her hands for her to be walking towards him as gracefully as she was. She should have dropped something but she didn't.
She held about three quills with all different colour feathers, a notebook, some parchment, three text books, one of them looked very tatty indeed.
Her wand was tucked behind her ear, as was common for her, and it revealed a colourful pink puff of an earring on a longish string. Utterly ridiculous, and yet somehow rather endearing.
She went to wave at Draco but realised she had her hands full and opted to come up to him and drop all of her belongings she held in her hands to the ground.
They didn't make as large of a sound as Draco's items being chucked there similarly had done.
She smiled at him again and then knelt down beside him, her feet nestled comfortably under her bum.
Draco was once again asking himself why in the name of Merlin he had accepted her offer of partnership on the darned Herbology Project.
"Hello Draco" she said sweetly as she settled herself.
"Lovely bright day isn't it?" she added looking up through the branches of the tree to the blue sky as he had just been doing. Somehow Draco always felt lost for words around her, people never commented on clear days to him anymore, she was too casual with him, she behaved as if they were friends.
"Yes Lovegood, almost as bright as those ridiculous furry earrings you're wearing" he quipped looking again at the strange things.
"Oh they're terrifically ridiculous aren't they?" she said reaching up to her ears to stroke the mentioned puffs, seemingly pleased with his comment and herself for owning such monstrosities.
Although Draco noted that pink didn't not suit her either, even though the only thing the earrings were matching were her pink cheeks and lips that had no doubt resulted from her carrying so many things all the way to his tree by herself. Silly girl.
"terrifically" Draco said in a droll tone. Luna smiled. It made Draco uncomfortable.
"So are you ready to actually do some work for this assignment? Because I'm not going to do all the hard stuff while you're off chasing imaginary creatures if that's what you were thinking" Draco said trying to keep some control of the situation.
"Draco" Luna said in a calm and unaffected tone. "Of course I wasn't going to leave this all to you. Besides I really like Herbology. What fun would that be?" she said looking at the boy before her.
He had dark circles under his grey eyes, and his hair was a little more disheveled than usual, but at least he seemed more present than he had done recently as she'd noted sometimes when she watched him in the great hall eating alone.
At least he was here and not in his head.
"Well good" Draco said folding his arms and leaning back against the tree.  If it weren't for those pesky two person spells to help with the growing of the plant then he would have been better off on his own, but unfortunately he needed her.
"good" Luna repeated his words but in her much more lively tone.
"So I actually did a little reading up about the Moondew" she went on. "That's the plant we were assigned, and it's really quite interesting" she said opening up her herbology book to the correct chapter.
"I know it's our plant" Draco told her annoyed. Obviously he knew he wasn't completely incompetent.
Luna just looked up and smiled at him again to show she'd heard and then went back to finding the page she wanted. Her shining blonde hair fell in front of her face like a curtain as as she looked down at the book.
Draco's arm jerked, he had a weird urge to brush the hair behind her ear. He shifted as he stifled the strange urge and looked at her as she searched the pages of the book questioningly.
Why did this girl have such a strange affect on him?
What was so different about her?
He didn't know, but there was something... and it wasn't just the strange earrings.
Once Luna found the part in the book she was looking for she put it down and told him all the things she'd read about the Moondew in the library previously.
Most of it wasn't actually useful for the caring of the plant, but Draco didn't interrupt her. She was quite sweet when she was excitedly telling him about it.
Once she was done however Draco said "well ok then, but now we better look for actual ways of getting a good mark with this. Look up which caring spells work best on it" he pointed at her book, delegating her actions.
"Oh yes, that might be a good idea" Luna laughed at herself for having forgotten the whole point of the assignment as she often did.
Many an assignment she had gotten back saying that 'although she was thorough and had a lot of information she'd gone off on a tangent and no longer had submitted the required information on the topic'.
"Quite silly of me" she said still laughing. "I think it will be good having you as my partner you know, you might keep me on the right track" she remarked grinning.
Draco's mouth twinged at the corner. It wasn't a smile. Definitely not. Well maybe a little one. He couldn't help it, the girl was amusing. And she was right after all, she did need him to keep her on track, she probably needed him to keep her in this dimension.
"You might be right. How you function without someone like me in your everyday life is confounding" Draco joked.
"Well let's leave it a mystery shall we?" Luna quipped back with a bit of a cheeky smile on her face. She had a quick wit and a very intriguing way about her. Everything she did seemed to be enticing Draco to want to find out more. It was as if she held a secret of his, that he himself didn't know yet.
He wanted to say 'no let's not leave it a mystery' but instead he just smirked at her.
Luna found something in her book about the care of a Moondew plant.
It wasn't one of the easier plants to care for.
It had to be watered once a week only, for it produced it's own water to a certain extent. However, if it was to grow into a healthy and fully blooming plant they would need to perform two person spell work on it twice a week. Talking to it was also meant to help.
Draco rolled his eyes at that last bit of information but Luna was steadfast on the idea.
"Don't you know that things grow better with a bit of love and affection Draco? really I don't know how you've gotten on with your everyday life without having known that" Luna told him gleefully using his words back at him.
Draco had faked a laugh in monotone to show he wasn't truly amused... however his stomach was churning again. What a bunch of hogwash. Love and affection? this girl lived in a fairytale land.
The Moondew was to be kept in the green house but brought out every now and again to try and get a bit of sun. It liked variety. Both cold damp areas and sunny bright areas would be needed for it to flourish.
When Luna read this aloud she also unhelpfully added "Just like us" referring to the human species. Draco got the idea that she didn't just mean sun and rain but was being more philosophical and symbolic again.
He'd never met someone who could be so philosophical and symbolic, and yet not come off as incredibly arrogant or snobbish, but she did it so eloquently, elegantly walking the line of curious whimsy and serious thought provoking moments.
The Moondew also had a connection with the moon cycles, as it's name would infer.
It was to be brought outside for the full moon and thrived best on water that had been left under the moons light the night before.
This project was going to be intensive, but Luna looked positively delighted. It made Draco think perhaps he shouldn't be so forlorn about the idea.
Draco would be the one to set out a plan for them. Luna would be hopeless at that. He would give her their schedule tomorrow, but for the time being they had to water and perform their first duo care spell on the plant.
The strange pair walked to the green house together and found their plant. It was just a little sprout at the moment. Luna thought it was very sweet, although it did look a little lopsided and slightly malnourished.
There was no moon water obviously, but they decided that Luna would put some water out in the courtyard in a bowl at night time so they would have some for next week.
They watered it with regular water and Luna told it, without fear of judgement from Draco, that it was a lovely plant and that she and Draco were going to care for it very well.
Draco couldn't believe the lack of concern she had for seeming like an odd ball. She hardly knew him after all, and surely what she did know of him would advise her against standing out as a possible victim of his, but no, not a care was given as she talked idly away to the plant, she even had the audacity to ask Draco if he wanted to say anything to it.
He'd just shaken his head and awkwardly stood behind her as she stroked the little plantlings leaves affectionately.
They had found a fairly easy level spell that would hopefully strengthen the plant in the herbology book.
The words were fairly simple:
"Strengthen, lengthen, stretch and flex,
May this plant not be vexed,
Grow strong and stable,
Solid and still,
Grow now plant and do our will"
They spoke the words together, their voices intertwined, the sweet meandering voice of Luna which went in it's own direction, and the lower deeper voice of Draco, which was much more steady and clear.
The spell ended with a puff of gold and silver dust circling the little plant, once the dust dissipated you could see the plant seemed a little less lopsided, and a little more green.
The spell worked perfectly.
They both were quite skilled at spell work and so together the spell worked easily. Their voices together somehow sounded very natural and right in a way. Suitable for this strengthening spell. Using magic with someone was a funny thing, sometimes two people's magic styles and personality could get in the way and be conflicting resulting in bad spell work, but this time the combination of the two students magic held a feeling of positivity and fitting nicely. It felt warm in the chest and left the spell casters feeling cheerful, although Draco soon shook it off.  After the spell was cast and the plant was watered it was time for the two to go their separate ways.
Luna whispered a kind goodbye to her new best friend, the moondew plant.
Draco for the millionth time that day rolled his eyes.
"Draco are you not even going to say goodbye?" she asked before they walked out the door.
Thank Merlin there weren't any other students in this greenhouse at the moment. They'd gotten lucky.
"No Luna I'm not, because I'm not a crazy person" Draco explained in a derisive tone.
Luna huffed but didn't push the matter.
"Well I'll see you tomorrow then when you're done with that schedule you're so set on having" Luna spoke teasingly.
Before he'd really spent any time around Luna he would have never thought she would tease so often, but she was rather probing when she wanted to be. She'd of course said, when discussing their assignment under Draco's tree, that they didn't really need a schedule and they could play it by ear, but Draco had insisted.
"I'll get it to you by mid-day" Draco said pointedly ignoring the poke, and then he wafted out of the room towards the library to get started without a look back at the girl who began to walk in the opposite direction hoping to meet up with her friend Ginny in the hall.