"There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in proportion."
-Sir Francis Bacon, Of Beauty
•
Tom remained in his dormitory for the rest of the afternoon, attempting and failing to read several books about the Dark Arts. After he threw the same book down for the fifth time, the book huffed indignantly and scuttled under his bed to hide from him. He rolled his eyes and threw himself on his bed.
He pulled open the drawer of his nightstand and withdrew his diary. He flipped through it for a moment until he found a blank page, dipped his quill in ink and prepared to write. His quill hovered over the paper for several minutes, but he couldn't think of anything to write. Finally, he threw his diary back in the drawer, jumped off the bed, and kicked one of the legs of the bed. This only succeeded in making him curse loudly and hop up and down on one foot, clutching his toes in his hands.
He looked at his watch and saw it was nearly time for dinner. He exited his dormitory. As he made his way into the common room, a Slytherin girl he had spoken to maybe twice before came up to him. "Hi, Tom," she said.
"Hello," he said, and tried to brush past her, but she blocked his way.
"You know, you really don't need to go to that absurd Lovegood girl, if that's what you want," she said.
"What are you talking about?"
"There are plenty of girls in your own House – me included – who are more than willing to do you that favor," she continued.
"I've no idea what you're talking about," he spat, and once again tried to leave, but once again found her in his way. He rolled his eyes. "What do you want?"
She winked slyly at him. "It's all right, Tom. You can play dumb. Just remember what I said." She flounced off.
"Malfoy!" he roared.
The pale blonde popped up from the couch. "Yeah?"
"Have you been telling people something about me and Luna?" he growled through gritted teeth.
Malfoy snickered. "Only that you've been hanging around her for a good shag."
Tom roared in frustration and plunged his hand into his robes for his wand, but by the time he had it out, Malfoy had scampered away.
In an even worse mood than before, Tom stormed from the common room, nearly flattening a couple of second years on his way. Well, that's bloody wonderful. Now everyone thinks I'm shagging Luna.
He made it to the Great Hall with a scowl on his face. He piled food onto his plate and shoveled it down, not speaking to anyone. When he saw Luna get up from the Ravenclaw table to leave with her friends, he jumped up and waited for her in the Entrance Hall. As she was passing, he reached out and grabbed her arm.
She turned to look at him. "Hello, Tom."
"Luna, we need to talk."
Luna nodded to her friends to tell them to go ahead without her. When they were alone, Tom said, "Follow me."
He led her to the unused classroom by the Arithmancy room. Upon entering, Luna said, "Oh, dear. Nothing good ever happens in here."
"I stupidly swore to never hurt you again, remember?" When she nodded, he continued, "Malfoy's telling everyone that I'm just hanging around you to get into your pants."
Utterly nonplussed, Luna said, "Well, that's eloquent of you."
He clenched his hands into fists, fighting annoyance. "I'm serious, Luna."
A look of realization, shortly followed by disgust crossed her face. Her hands flew up to her mouth, and she squeaked, "Ew!"
Feeling oddly offended, Tom said, "What do you mean, 'ew?!'"
The disgust gave way to amusement. "Are you upset?"
"Yes, I'm upset! Most girls would kill to sleep with me," he cried.
"I'm not like most girls," she replied.
"You can say that again."
"And I'm not some sort of scarlet woman, Tom," she said.
He snorted. "Of course not. I bet you've never even been kissed before."
Her pale cheeks flushed pink. "What is it to you, anyway?" She stormed towards the door, but he caught her by the arm.
"Are you serious?" he continued viciously. "You've never been kissed before?" He burst out into malicious laughter.
"Well, I don't find it very funny."
He rolled his eyes. "Clearly. I, however, find it extremely amusing that you've never been kissed."
"Who says I haven't been kissed?" she said.
"You as much as admitted it," he sneered. "Why do you care so much? I've never seen you get upset about something so stupid before. Well, besides Blibbering Humdingers."
"Blibbering Humdingers aren't stupid!" she said shrilly. She collapsed onto the ground like a child. Tom noticed the way her lips formed a small pout.
"Calm down, Lovegood, honestly," Tom said, looking down at her. "You're throwing a tantrum."
Luna sighed, her face relaxed, and when she spoke, her voice had regained its usual dreamy quality. "I know. I've just been in an awful mood the last few days."
"Why?" he said.
"You," she said simply.
"What have I done?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
She shook her head. "I know you don't want to hear it Tom, but it's this whole thing about your father. It's just that it's all so wrong, and - "
"You're right, I don't want to hear it," Tom interrupted sullenly.
She huffed and blew a stray hair out of her face. "You're impossible."
"You like it," he sneered.
She stood up and stomped her foot. "I do not like it, Tom. It's quite possibly my least favorite of your many rather unappealing qualities."
"If you hate me so much, why do you hang around?" he snapped.
"The same could be asked of you," she said lightly.
They stared at each other for several minutes, each willing each other to be the first to look away. Finally, Tom cracked a wicked smile. "I can't believe you've never been kissed."
Luna crinkled her nose at him, which only made him laugh harder. She finally grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out of the classroom.
As they walked through the halls, they ran into Malfoy. Luna looked at him with distaste. "Despite what you seem so intent on believing, Tom is still not using me for physical gratification, Malfoy."
Tom snickered at the look on Malfoy's face, and added, "And by spreading rumors about me, you won't get any closer to getting 'physical gratification' from her, either."
Once again, Luna looked disgusted. "Ew!" she cried again.
Tom shot Malfoy a smug look before leading Luna away, leaving Malfoy looking extremely disconcerted.
•
January became February and the air steadily became less bitingly cold. The snow became frost once more. Othello still slept under the covers against Luna's warm body, but he no longer meowed complainingly every morning when she got up.
The week before Valentine's Day and the castle was annoyingly (in Tom's opinion) giddy. Valentine's Day was on a Monday, but the students had a Hogsmeade visit the Saturday before. Tom had never gone to Hogsmeade on the Valentine's weekend, though plenty of willing girls were around, and he didn't plan to this year either.
Tom sat at the Slytherin table for breakfast on Tuesday. As usual, his eyes had found Luna quickly in the crowd. He had noticed that more and more frequently anymore, his eyes kept jumping back up to look at her without seeming to consult his brain first.
He watched he watch her friends. That's usually what she does. She almost always watches them and rarely actually talks. She talks to me, though. Bloody hell, half the time I can't get her to shut up.
That Mudblood Litner must have said something funny...they're all laughing. Luna smiled, and Tom felt something in his stomach lurch. She really is sort of good-looking, if you ignore the way she dresses...especially when she smiles. Oh, hell, what am I doing? She's the biggest pain in the ass ever. This Valentine's Day shit must be getting to me.
He shook his head violently, as if attempting to make the rogue thought fly out of one of his ears. He stood up from the table, ignoring Nott, who had apparently been telling him a story the whole time and was now quite perturbed, and went into the Entrance Hall. He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms.
A few minutes later, Luna and her friends came out. Luna waved when she saw him, and her friends giggled behind their hands. She came over, her friends once again moving on ahead.
"How are you?" she asked cheerfully.
"Fine," he replied, sounding not fine at all.
She raised her eyebrows. "You don't sound fine. You sound angry."
"Bloody hell, Lovegood, I'm fine. When are you going to learn to not stick your nose where it doesn't belong?"
"My nose does belong there, you're my friend," she said as though that should be obvious.
"You're such a pain in the ass," he snapped, voicing his earlier observation.
"You hush up. Do you want to go outside to talk?"
"I don't want to go anywhere with you."
"All right, we can talk here."
"I don't want to talk to you at all!" he cried, his anger flaring.
She cocked her head. "Why not?"
"Because I don't like you!" he bellowed and attempted to storm off.
"Don't you dare walk away from me again!" she shouted.
He whirled around to look at her.
"This whole 'I'm so angry, I'm going to scream and then leave' thing is getting really old," she said.
He watched the color once again rise in her cheeks. I don't like her. I don't like her. But no matter how many times he repeated that mantra, he knew that he liked Luna more than for his own good, and he didn't like it one bit.
"What on earth provoked you this time?" asked Luna.
He made a valiant attempt at a scowl. "Isn't your existence provocation enough?"
"Stop it!" People who were leaving the Hall were now beginning to stare.
I don't like her. I don't like her at all. "Oh, give it up, Lovegood!"
She finally truly lost her temper for the first time in her life. She was utterly screaming now. "You are dispicable! I take back everything I said about you! You are heartless and you always were!"
"Shut up, Lovegood!" he shouted back.
"You'll never amount to anything real because you haven't got anything real in you!"
"I mean it!"
"You'll just be all alone! Admit it!" she screeched.
"Quit!"
"You might have all the power in the world, Tom - "
"Seriously, I'm warning you!"
" - but you'll just be all alone! You'll always be all - "
But she never finished her sentence, because Tom had leaned over and kissed her on the lips.
•
"A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous."
-Ingrid Bergman