Rainbow Fragments

Light Purple

Blaise Zabini wandered vaguely through the grounds of Hogwarts, no real object or destination in mind, just taking the precious opportunity to have some time to himself. It was a cold winter's day, the ground covered in snow and the sky threatening to bring more, and most of the residents of Hogwarts were inside the castle, doing what they could to keep warm.

But the dark, slender young Slytherin, wrapped in a thick, expensive winter cloak, seemed unperturbed by the weather. As he was walking, Blaise came across a pretty blonde girl that he only vaguely recalled seeing before, sitting in the snow and reading a book, but looking up every few moments as though she were waiting for something.

"Hello," Blaise called as he neared her. "What are you doing out here?" he asked, unwillingly curious. "It's the middle of winter, or hadn't you heard?"

"You're out here," the blonde observed tartly. "Now would you please be quiet? I'm trying to find an Ice Vaugle."

"A what?" Blaise asked, trying and failing to inject some of his trademark scorn into his voice. Somehow, he found the blonde girl, with her daydreamy blue eyes and little-girl-lost expression impossible to be mean to.

"An Ice Vaugle," the girl repeated, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "They're more common in the Nordic lands, of course, but apparently sometimes small clans of them migrate to England."

Looking for some clue as to who the mystifying blonde girl might be, Blaise looked down at the girl's scarf, only to find that instead of the traditional house scarf, the girl wore a rather pretty scarf in a shade of light purple, that Blaise now realised accented her eyes quite nicely.

Having nothing better or more pressing to do, and rather curious as to the mystery blonde's identity, Blaise sat down beside her, before asking, "Do you mind if I join you?"

"You can if you want," the blonde answered, a shy tone creeping into her voice. "But I warn you, we probably won't see any Vaugles if there's more than one of us. They're really shy."

"I consider myself warned," Blaise answered, still not having the slightest idea who or what a Vaugle was. "I'm Blaise, by the way," he introduced himself, extending a hand. "Blaise Zabini."

"Yes, I've heard of you. You're a Slytherin, aren't you?" the blonde commented. They sat in silence for a few moments, before the blonde exclaimed, "Oh!" and said, "My name's Luna, Luna Lovegood."

'That explains what a Vaugle is,' Blaise thought to himself. He knew Luna by reputation, if not by sight. Any even moderately observant person in the castle did.

But for some reason, even though Blaise now knew that he was sitting in the snow, in the company of Hogwarts' resident laughingstock, looking for a creature that in all probability did not exist, he didn't want to leave the girl - Luna, that is - just yet. To take his mind off this slightly worrying revelation, he asked Luna, "What happened to your school scarf?"

Luna looked down at her neck, as though surprised to hear that she wasn't wearing her school scarf. "Oh," she said quietly, "it went missing. One of the girls in my dorm probably took it. It'll turn back up eventually, though."

They sat in companionable silence for a moment, before Luna turned to him and asked, "Why are you here?"

"I have nothing better to do. And it can't be much fun for you to sit out here all on your own," Blaise answered, mildly surprised to hear himself say anything so unguarded and honest. "Why didn't you ask a friend to come out here with you?"

"No-one would have wanted to come," Luna answered simply, without sadness or embarrassment, toying with the ends of her light purple scarf as she did so.

Struck by how beautiful she looked, her blonde hair shining like a halo and her pale skin made almost luminescent by the surrounding snow, her clear, silvery eyes appearing slightly bemused as she looked at him, as though not quite sure what to expect; Blaise leaned toward her and, with seemingly no interaction between his body and his brain, brushed the lightest of kisses against her rose-coloured lips, which were turning slightly purple with the cold.

She pulled away from him, her clear eyes darkening with confusion. "What did you do that for?" she asked.

"Because," Blaise answered, breathless from cold and shock and wonder, "you're beautiful."

Luna blinked once in surprise before saying, with a simple joy lighting her voice, "Thank you." She said these two words with no contrived coyness, no edge of seduction, with none of the games that other girls Blaise had known would have played had he dared be so sincere and unwary with them as he had just been with her. She paused a moment before saying, "No-one's ever told me that before."

"Well, they should," Blaise declared softly," because it's true."

They lapsed into silence at this point, neither one exactly sure what to say to the other. They remained this way, each of them content just to be in the other's company, until several minutes later, when Luna shivered with the cold. Noticing this, Blaise removed his cloak, and wrapped it around her. "Here," he said, "take this."

"But now you'll be cold," she protested, concern reflected in her eyes.

"I don't mind," Blaise lied, though he was already beginning to shiver.

"You'll freeze to death," Luna argued. "Can't we work out a way to share it, or something?"

This was not, a part of Blaise's mind registered, Luna's way of flirting with him, but rather an honest solution to their disagreement. "Alright," Blaise agreed, not at all disappointed at having been provided with an excuse to be nearer to her, as he moved closer.

Sitting so close that their hips were touching, his shoulder slotted behind hers, Blaise removed his cloak from her and, grinning, wrapped it around them both. "Better?" he asked.

"Much," she agreed, tightening her light purple scarf around her neck and picking up the book she had been reading before he had disturbed her, opening it to a page marked with a hair ribbon the same shade of purple as her scarf.

"What are you reading?" Blaise asked curiously.

"The Tales of the Brothers Grimm," Luna answered.

"Aren't you a little old for fairy tales?" Blaise responded, some of his old disdain returning to his voice.

"Have you ever read a real fairy tale?" she returned. "They weren't originally quaint little tales for children, you know. Although admittedly by the time of the Brothers Grimm they were a little more sanitised."

"Really?" asked Blaise, interested in spite of himself. "Alright, Miss Luna, prove it." He picked up her book and moved it so that they could both see the pages, before saying, "Read me a fairy tale."

Luna smiled serenely at him. "Alright," she agreed softly, removing the light purple hair ribbon from the book's pages and placing it in her lap before turning back to the beginning of the story she had been reading and clearing her throat, ready to begin. "The tale of Briar Rose," she began, softly but clearly. "Once upon a time..."

~*~*~

Half an hour later, the sky was beginning to darken as Blaise sat with his arms around Luna's tiny waist and her head resting on her shoulder as he listened to the conclusion of her tale.

"...and they all lived happily ever after," she finished, replacing the light purple ribbon and closing the book. "What did you think?" she asked.

"It was...nice," he answered, and was rewarded with a smile from her. "It's beginning to get dark," he pointed out, reluctantly. "We really should be heading inside."

"Oh." Luna's face fell. "But...we haven't seen a Vaugle yet!"

"You can look again tomorrow," Blaise suggested gently. "What is a Vaugle, anyway?" he asked. "What does it look like?"

"No-one knows," she answered with a shrug. "No-one's ever seen one before. They could be invisible."

"Do you mean to tell me, Miss Luna, that we've been sitting out here all afternoon looking for a creature that doesn't exist?"

"They might," she argued softly. "No-one's ever proved that they don't. And no-one forced you to join me. You offered."

"You may have a point there," Blaise conceded. "But...why say that you were looking for something that you knew you wouldn't find?"

"Why help someone search for something you've never heard of?" she replied. "I know what other people think of me, you know. I'm not deaf and I'm not stupid. But, truth be told, I have encouraged the rumour somewhat. Being thought odd is an extraordinarily useful thing sometimes. It allows you to do and say what you want without fear of having people's opinions of you change for the worse."

"But doesn't it get lonely?" Blaise asked. "I mean..." He stopped, not knowing quite how to continue.

"Not really," Luna answered, apparently not noticing. "I've never really known any different." She paused. "You're right," she said. "It is getting dark."

Blaise took this as a hint and stood, offering her his hand and pulling her to her feet. They walked close together as they made their way back to the castle, each content to be silent in each other's company. When they reached the front doors of the castle, Blaise turned to face Luna. "I had a really nice time this afternoon, Luna," he said, leaning over and tucking a piece of her long, blonde hair behind her ear. "Thanks." He smiled, and held the door open for her.

Luna hesitated. "What's wrong?" Blaise asked.

"It's nothing," she assured him. "Just that, when we go back inside, this will all end, won't it? And I'm not sure that I'm ready for it to end just yet."

Blaise looked at her, smiling. Then he stepped forward, gathering her into his arms, and kissed her, gently, but with far more passion than in their chaste kiss earlier that day. He broke the kiss, then leaned over to whisper in her ear. "And they all lived happily ever after."