Word Count: 2,171
Rating: G
Category: AU, Humour, Romance
Notes: Written for HP Rarities 2010 Fest.  Many thanks to Ayla Pascal for her help and betaing!
Summary: It’s Draco’s birthday, and Luna gets him something special.
Pairing: Luna Lovegood/Draco Malfoy
Warnings: None
Dedications: Icarusinwax
Completed Date: May 15, 2010

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Draco’s twenty-fifth birthday was just around the corner.

He had a great job (he was the Arithmancy professor at Hogwarts), a good house (aside from the manor and his rooms at Hogwarts, he had a lovely Victorian-style mansion in Dorset), and a wonderful girlfriend (who was also his colleague as the Care of Magical Creatures professor) who was the one and only Luna Lovegood.

Every day, his life was always hopping with unpredictable students in his classes. He was constantly amused by the interesting answers his students gave him on their Arithmancy problems, and he alternated between amused and frustrated at how the younger generations seemed incapable of following instructions on their exams. One time, he specifically wrote out a true and false exam, where the students would only have to circle A or B. Unfortunately, he had a student circle “C” for the entire exam, and Draco didn’t know whether he should cry or laugh. Instead, he focused his attention on the good part of teaching, and so aside from a few morons in his classes, he generally enjoyed his job.

Then there were his homes. Luckily, there was nothing for him to really complain or discuss about. His house elves took care of the manor and the mansion, and the Hogwarts’ house elves took care of his rooms at Hogwarts. As long as his residences were nice and clean, nothing else mattered.

Well, one more thing mattered, and that was Luna. After the war, with the Malfoy name ruined, Draco had been in a slump. He couldn’t seem to get himself out of bed in the morning. But that all changed when a chance meeting had brought him to Luna.

He’d been in the Three Broomsticks, hiding in a corner as he tried to ignore all the hostile looks from the other wizarding folks. He’d just come from a job interview, a job he knew he had no chance of getting within the first minute of his interview, and he was rather furious, frustrated, and flummoxed as what to do next. Draco glared at the shot of firewhiskey sitting on the table in front of him. He’d been so busy concentrating on the shot glass that he didn’t even notice he had company until someone’s cheery voice said, “Is there something invisible on the shot glass? A secret message that will tell us the answer to the mystery of life? Or better yet, why Nargles are so shy?”

Startled by his unwelcomed companion, Draco gaped unattractively at a rather beaming Luna Lovegood. Her silvery-grey eyes met his steely ones, and Draco had to close his own to keep the sparkles from blinding him. Looking away from those eyes, he looked at her dirty blonde hair, plaited neatly into a fat braid, and her interesting ensemble of clothes. He remembered Pansy showing him a doll donned in some Native American costume, complete with a feathered headband. Luna reminded him of that doll as he looked at the beige-coloured robes that had colourful beads and feathers. Luna didn’t have the feathered headband, but it didn’t take much imagination for Draco to mentally draw one on her head.

He then scowled as he mentally kicked himself. “Go away, Loony Lovegood. What I stare at or think about is none of your business.” He was glad his mother wasn’t with him because he would have just received an earful from her for being incredibly rude. But he didn’t care if he was rude. He wanted to be alone, and he didn’t want someone like Luna to bother him.

She didn’t go away. Instead, Luna sat down and began prattling on about a multitude of topics. Draco narrowed his eyes; she was either deaf or playing dumb. He’d decided on both as his head had begun to spin from the randomness of her one-sided conversation, and he was having a difficult time keeping up with her.

Thankfully, she finally said, “It was really enlightening to have this discussion about magical creatures, Draco. Perhaps, next time we’ll discuss about the complexities of Arithmancy? I really loved that class, too, but the Hogwarts curriculum is lacking a bit in that department, so I feel like I was quite cheated from learning the intricacies of the subject.”

Draco nodded mutely, wondering how she knew that Arithmancy was his favourite subject. Before he could ask, she stood up and barged on, “I’ve got to run now. I’ll see you here again, next week? Same time? Farewell until then!” She walked off, the feathers on her costume fluttering and the beads clanking.

Gobsmacked, Draco stayed at the Three Broomsticks for another two hours until he was able to force himself to leave.

Since then, Draco came to the conclusion that Luna was a force to be reckoned with. In fact, somehow, despite his initial plan to ignore her assumption of them meeting again in a week, Draco found himself at the Three Broomsticks exactly a week later. Luna, as promised, showed up, and since then, he’d not been able to get rid of her.

Luna’s bright personality and her interesting perspectives on something simple like sweets to something complex like why the universe exist all gave Draco the encouragement to do something more with his life instead of wallowing in self-pity and alcohol. Not at first, though. In the beginning, he’d tried to snipe his way away from Luna by insulting her to make her hate him. It hadn’t worked. She’d seemed impervious to any of his snarky comments; in fact, she’d even twisted his comments and used it to discuss her favourite topic ever: the existence of Nargles.

One time, he’d said to her, “Are you colour-blind? Why are your robes pink and green — neon pink and green?”

Her response was, “Nargles like these colours. I wear them in hopes to attract them to me, and I think it works! I think one almost came to me, but because I was in Diagon Alley, the crowds and the noises scared the poor thing away.”

She was eccentric, but she’d wormed her way into his heart. Six months after their first meeting, Luna gave him a mind-blowing kiss that caused him to see fireworks and other sparkly objects that Luna loved. A year later, they moved in with each other, and both started on their mastery programmes. She did a thesis in the extinction level of magical creatures, and he a thesis on the differences between Eastern and Western Arithmancy. Two years later, they finished and got hired to work at Hogwarts. Now, five years after their first meeting, Draco was blissfully happy with his career and with his love life.

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His birthday fell on a Sunday this year. Because it was the weekend, instead of waking up in his rooms at Hogwarts, he woke up in his bedroom in his mansion at Dorset. Blearily, he rubbed his eyes, and he looked at the empty spot next to him. He found it odd. Normally, Luna would never wake up before him, but today, she did, and it was a bit unnerving. He touched the rumpled area, and he felt that it was still slightly warm. Just as he threw the blanket off of him, intending to run to the loo to do his business, the door swung open, and Luna walked in carrying a big box.

“Happy Birthday, Draco!” she announced in her clear, sing-song voice. Still in her nightgown with her dressing gown over it, Luna carefully walked towards the bed, her arms wrapped protectively over the box. It was a pretty box. It was wrapped neatly in silver wrapping, and there was a huge pink bow at the top. Draco had to wonder why the bow had to be pink. Of all the colours, why pink?

Luna set the garish box in his lap, and she eagerly climbed into the bed next to him, giving him a passionate kiss. The kiss was so good that Draco almost forgot about the present in his lap. But Luna broke it and backed off. She grinned at him, her eyes twinkling with mirth and said, “Before you open this, I want you to guess what’s in here.”

Draco raised an eyebrow. “Can you give me a hint?”

“Nope. No hints. That will take the fun out of this game.”

Looking carefully at the box, Draco’s magical instincts told him that the box was spelled to keep something alive in here. Alive. He blanched and hoped Luna didn’t get him a ferret. “A . . . cat?”

“Nope.”

“A . . . snake?”

“Not even close.”

“Please, not a ferret.”

Luna giggled. “Of course not. I would never get you that — although those are cute.”

Draco exhaled loudly. “They may be cute, but I don’t want them near me.” Pressing an ear against the box, Draco strained to hear some sort of a noise that would give him a clue. It was silent. “A rabbit?”

A soft smirk came on her face. “Not a rabbit.”

Just then he heard a whimpering sound from the box. Draco looked at Luna. “Don’t tell me you’ve got a child in here,” he half-joked. An indignant “ruff-ruff” sound came from the box. “A dog?”

Luna’s face emitted joy. “Yes, but which one?”

Groaning, Draco whined, “Lunaaaaa. Don’t make me guess all those breeds of dog!”

“But, darling,” Luna said with an innocent look. “There aren’t that many wizarding breeds of dog.”

“Oh, well, that makes it better. I thought you’d have got me a Muggle dog.”

“No, of course not. You know I wouldn’t want a Muggle dog with us. It’d scare away the Nargles since Muggle dogs have different aura compared to a wizarding dog. Now, guess!”

“A crup?” Draco asked. “Is that the breed?”

“Yes! You did it! Now, open it.”

A crup? Draco had to admit, he was a bit surprised. True, Luna was a big animal lover, but he’d never been much into animals before. When he was younger, he’d always wanted a pet, but he wasn’t allowed to have one because of the mess they would make and all the responsibility it took to raise an animal. Sure, his father raised two crups, but it was his father’s, not his. The crups were off-limit, and Draco always thought that was unfair. Now, that he was older, the idea of having a pet never really hit him, especially since his experience with the “bouncing ferret” left him quite traumatised.

Taking a deep breath, he carefully undid the pink bow and unwrapped the silver paper. The top flap automatically popped opened, and an adorable puppy poked its head out and licked Draco’s cheek. “Oi!” Draco exclaimed in surprise, making Luna’s pearly laughter ring out in the room.

The puppy barked happily, and Draco carefully took it out of the box. He held it away from his face, and he studied the crup.

“Isn’t it cute?” Luna asked, reaching out to scratched its head. “It’s a girl.”

A girl? Draco set the puppy down on his bed, and he watched it stretch and wriggle her body. The puppy had a nice colouring. It was chocolate brown with white paws. Draco held out a hand towards her, and she sniffed at it. When it looked like she was satisfied by his smell, she bumped her head into his hand, and Draco automatically began to pet her.

“She’s controllable in Muggle-inhabited area — Hermione and Harry helped me with that — and I got the licence for her from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creature. The only thing she needs now is a name. Well, a name from you.”

“Pardon?”

“See,” Luna explained happily, “I named her ‘Padraig’.”

“Padraig? Isn’t that a guy’s–”

“Yes, but that was before I was told it was a girl. So like I said, she has a name from me, but she needs a name from you unless you want to call her Padraig.”

“And confuse everyone around her?” Draco drawled out with a frown. “No. She’s not going to be Padraig. I was thinking ‘Eydie’. It means ‘rich gift’, and she is a rich gift in a sense that . . . well . . . it’s . . . ” Draco blushed as he tried to find the words to explain his sudden moments of sentimentalism. “It’s from you. And because it’s you . . . that makes this little crup even more special.”

Luna answered him by hugging and kissing him. “Eydie it is, love.”

Draco kissed her back, and amidst the box, the wrapping, the bow, and Eydie, Luna straddled him and deepened the kiss. As Eydie barked and demanded for their attention, Draco tuned out the barking for a few minutes as he wrapped his arms around her slender waist.

With his fantastic job, his marvellous homes, his tremendously fabulous girlfriend, and now a brilliant new puppy in his life, Draco couldn’t have asked for a better birthday.