herumtreiber

Title: Here there be dragons
Author:

herumtreiber
Team: Aurors
Characters: Draco/Harry, Luna
Rating: R
Warnings: Suggestion
Word count: 100x8
Challenge: #242 - Ridiculous or Riddikulus
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or related characters. I don't make money writing this drabble.
Summary: Draco seeks Luna's help to cope with fear.
Notes: For

dracoharry100 and JMDC's Challenge #73, embrace, easy.

"Are you ready for the new term?" drawled Draco whilst he fastidiously adjusted Harry's tie.

"I'm fine!" grumbled the brunet.

Draco walked towards the bench, calling over his shoulder, "DADA teachers should embrace pulchritude; remember Lockhart?"

Harry muttered, "That's ridiculous."

He smiled easily at the students who rushed into the classroom. "Today we'll learn how to fight boggarts."

Callista Spebbington, a Ravenclaw girl that reminded Harry of Hermione, raised her hand.

"Miss Spebbington?"

Harry realised that she wasn't looking at him but at his fiancé. "What form does your boggart take, Professor Malfoy?"

Draco paled. "Sorry, I have to go."

Harry stared dolefully at the ham.

"Trouble in paradise?" said Luna dreamily.

"Something like that." Harry's fork angrily stabbed the poor ham as if it had insulted him.

"Where's your fiancé, the Potions Master?" Luna said, playing with her bean necklace.

Harry cringed. "Could you refer to him as Draco?"

"Why?"

"Feels like I'm marrying Snape," growled Harry, "nothing wrong with that, but—"

Draco swooped into the Great Hall, his robes billowing. He sat beside Harry.

"Are you going to tell me?"

"What?" Draco busied himself with the meal.

"The form your boggart takes?"

"Oops, have to go now."

"Lovegood…"

"Yes, Draco?" Luna batted away Draco's hand. Ignoring his scowl, she explained patiently, "That book bites. You have to coo to it before it'll open."

Draco shook his head and drawled, "Do all CoMC teachers enjoy having biting books?"

"What do you want it for?" asked Luna, frowning at the blond as he paced back and forth; his robes billowing up a storm. She rolled her eyes and said, "Do all Potions Masters have to wear billowing robes?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Luna," said Draco sharply. "For your information, I need your book so I can finally face my boggart."

Having cooed to the book, Draco read intently, his stomach grumbling occasionally.

Luna peered over his shoulder, their hair shining like a cascade of melted snow. She absently plucked a grape from her necklace.

"What is your boggart?"

"A dragon." Draco explained. ""Found one over the Manor when I was learning to fly a broom. I may have, accidentally of course, poked its ribs."

"It scared you?"

"Yes," said Draco, "and please… don't eat your jewellery. It's distracting."

"Want one?"

Draco took the plum grape and wiggled his eyebrows. "Do you have a sausage bracelet?"

"Sorry, the Jarvey ate it."

Luna stabbed her wand at a box full of wriggling worms. "Conquered your fear yet?"

"No, I keep imagining the roaring dragon."

He glanced at the box. "What do you want with those?"

"I use them to lure the bloggitweels," said Luna breezily.

"And those are?"

"Blue, paunchy amphibians. They have this crazed look, and webbed fingers just like frogs."

Draco shuddered at the mental image. "What do they do?"

Luna swished her wand, making the box do somersaults in the air. "Just hang around, they're invisible you know. You should tell Harry about your fear."

"He'd laugh."

"Harry won't."

Harry guffawed. "You're afraid of your namesake?"

Draco glared at him. "Should've never listened to Lovegood."

"That's why you've been cooing to that book?" Harry laughed, and Draco thwacked him upside the head.

"I was trying to conquer my fear!"

"I reckoned it was a new potion book that wouldn't give up its secrets otherwise." Harry blinked owlishly at the irate blond, lit by the sconces of the DADA classroom.

Draco captured Harry's lips in a kiss.

"Mmmh, should get you angry more often."

"Indeed," drawled Draco, "going to shag you through the desk for this."

"Looking forward to it."

On the way to the dungeons, Draco mumbled, "Merlin, I forgot the wormwood in Harry's classroom!"

Opening the door, Draco peeked inside. Harry wasn't there. He made his way to the desk but his knee knocked over the heavy trunk with the boggart inside. It opened, allowing it to break free.

Draco was taken aback when it became the beast that had attacked him.

He remembered Luna describing her weird animal as the dragon reared up to the ceiling and swooped down towards him, its wings unfurling and its mouth breathing fire.

"Riddikulus!"

He laughed at the tiny, paunchy dragon.