Chapter 29

“I got it!” Draco exclaimed, jumping up suddenly from his seated position beneath the tree. Startled birds scattered as did the startled first years. Draco looked proudly at the gadget lying in his palm and waited for it to work its magic. He waited... and waited... still waiting...

“What the bloody he-“ Before he could finish his sentence, the small machine lit up and began to emit high pitched whirling noises. Draco fumbled with it, so surprised by the sudden change that he almost dropped it. He managed to keep a hold on it though and waited, unsure of what to do next.

As a test, Draco pointed the gadget at the next person who walked by. This person coincidently happened to be none other than Hermione Granger. The little remote-like object began to emit colourful images of flames and other hateful symbols. He took this as a sign that the wizard machine worked and with a small smirk of satisfaction, he headed up to the castle to find Harry or Luna.

The first person Draco ran into upon entering the castle was Blaise.

“Guess what, I figured it out,” Draco told him, happy and yet a little nervous about figuring out where his true feeling lay.

“Great. Now you can go choose between two girls once and for all,” Blaise said flatly.

“...What’s wrong with you?” Draco asked sensing a note of frustration in his friends voice.

“Nothing Draco,” Blaise sighed and walked past him.

Draco watched him leave, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Was it something he did? Draco decided that it was best to leave the matter be for the moment and instead continue on the search for Luna or Harry.

Speak of the devil and he arrives; Harry Potter came his way almost as soon as the thought ran through his mind. He was, of course, accompanied by his stupid sidekick, Weasly.

“Potter,” Draco spat, trying desperately to ignore the gentle flip flop in the pit of his stomach. He raised the device behind his back so that Harry wouldn’t see it.

Harry ignored him and Ron sent him a glare as they walked by. Images began popping from the device that were so obvious that Draco gave up on his attempt at secrecy and brought the wizard object out from behind his back so he could decipher the images more clearly.

From the device, pictures of hearts popped on after the other. A small bottle of what looked like wine but with a broken heart on the label was being poured into a glass. Surrounding this image were multiple hearts, some broken, some not. Draco narrowed his eyes, wondering desperately what the images meant. He quickly pulled a quill and parchment paper from his bag and scribbled a messy drawing of the images before they disappeared.

Draco had no idea what to make of it. As far as he could tell, this machine was trying to tell him that he was in love with Harry Potter but was... undecided? Maybe the wine bottle meant that he was going to become an alcoholic because of heartbreak... Draco stopped his mind from wandering, took a deep breath and told himself to calm down and not to let his imagination run wild.

Instead of standing there scaring himself half to death with possible predictions of a horrible future, Draco decided to try his luck at finding Luna. He figured she was probably either at the Great Hall or somewhere near the Ravenclaw common room so he headed in that direction.

Luna and Ashley, after stuffing their faces in chocolate ice cream and talking about their relationship problems, had decided to take a walk around the grounds. While they were out walking, Luna had noticed Draco getting very excited about some gadget thing that he was holding and let her curiosity get the better of her.

Ashley and Luna had followed him from the tree by the lake into the castle and watched quietly from behind a corner as Draco watched hearts emerge from his machine after pointing it at Harry. Luna felt her heart start to break all over again and tried to pull herself together. Maybe... maybe Draco wasn’t gay... maybe he just had brotherly feelings towards Harry...? Oh, who was she kidding? Even the machine could see that Draco loved Harry... more than he’d ever loved her.

“Luna?”

And to make things worse, here she was, caught eavesdropping. That’s just peachy.

“Hi Draco,” Luna’s attempt at acting nonchalant failed and she found her voice breaking in the middle of her sentence.

“You...You saw that didn’t you?” Draco asked her, his face falling.

All she could do was nod.

“It... it doesn’t mean anything! It could be wrong...”

Luna shrugged. She didn’t really believe it. Normally, she believed in everything but right now... right now she was crushed.

“Urm... let me just leave you two alone....” Ashley announced awkwardly, backing away from the dysfunctional couple.

Draco pointed the remote at her but hesitated, “...If you have any objections to this, tell me please.”

“I think that if you really loved me, you wouldn’t need a machine to help you figure that out,” Luna told him, looking him in the eye, “Do you love me, Draco?”

Without any hesitation, Draco nodded, “So much.”

Luna felt her eyes water and blinked rapidly, “Then why is it taking you so long to choose between me and Harry?”

“I don’t know...” Draco confessed, “It should be simple... I know I love you, and I’m certain that I never loved Harry before now but...”

“But what?”

“But after that meeting with Pansy a week or two ago... I’ve been having second thoughts about everything and it’s just so confusing! You wouldn’t believe how much I wish it could just go back to the way it was before,” Draco told her, seeing the walls break down in those beautiful blue eyes of hers.

“Oh Draco, it can go back to that, we just need to find out where these new feelings are coming from,” Luna decided before something struck her, “wait a second... did you say Pansy?”

Draco nodded.

“As in, you’re crazy, psychopath ex-girlfriend? That Pansy?”

Draco nodded again.

“....Did you ever once think that she might have anything to do with this? I mean, you did start feeling like this after a meeting with her. What did you two do in that meeting?” Luna asked, the pieces falling together.

“We just had a drink and talked a little,” Draco shrugged before realization came to his eyes, “The images...” he whispered, reaching for the parchment paper.

He gestured at the wine bottle that the device had showed, “Do you think that means anything? You’re smarter at these types of things than I am...”

Luna looked at it for a minute before nodding, “I think it represents... a love potion.”

“So... you think that a love potion is the reason I’ve been having feelings for Harry?” Draco asked, hoping against hope that it was.

Luna nodded, “almost certain,” She smiled. Her boyfriend wasn’t gay; she was so happy that it hurt.