The Babysitter (Dramione Fanfiction)

The Letter

Theo breathed in a huge sigh upon seeing that the library was not decorated with puke green anymore. Lovegood and some of his house-elves had been working on covering up the mess first with a coat of white, before the interior designer started her artistic magic and painted whatever the hell she wanted.

Luna had been working for a week already and those days merely consisted of painting everything white. She clearly underestimated the vastness of the Nott Manor, and had been amusingly disgruntled when she begrudgingly admitted it would take more than a month to finish painting the library. Theo, on the other hand, was thrilled with the news.

Now, it was a Wednesday and it meant she would be in his library once more. Theo had already painstakingly explained to his secretary to cancel any plans in the afternoons of Wednesdays and Fridays to foresee the renovation of the Nott library. Simply put, his secretary - a twiggy, lovely witch - eyed him in confusion but obliged nonetheless. Theo had conveniently left the detail that perhaps it was because he wanted to see Luna Lovegood in his home. It gave his stomach some strange somersaults just thinking about it once more.

Rolling his eyes, he saw the said blonde perched on the sill of one of the high windows in the library, already starting to paint the ceiling with a coat of black. She was currently wearing a loose, white shirt, with understandable paint splashes everywhere. Her Muggle, denim pants were also not spared, and there was a particularly huge, black blob on her right knee. Her hair was held up in a bun by a paintbrush, exposing her odd ensemble of butterbeer cork necklace and radish earrings.

"You're back early," Luna said in greeting, eyes still glued on the spot she was painting.

His house-elves, a good ten of them, stopped painting to look at him and give him eager, deep bows. With a wave of dismissal from their master, they all popped away, leaving him and Luna alone. She finally looked at him in question, probably wondering why the house-elves were gone and consequently making her job more difficult today.

"I have some matters to attend to," he explained, waving his 'business props' of folders and papers. "They can be a little... noisy."

"Don't rich people like you have studies for business matters like that?" she asked, her voice soft and floaty. Luna climbed down the stairs and ditched her paintbrush to grab a treacle tart from a tray.

Theo gave a good-measured shrug. "My study's a mess," he said. "Also, I'm trying to avoid my stepmother and I know she'd steer clear off the library when she's afraid some paint would soil her perfectly manicured nails."

He then marched on one of the spared desks and sat on it. Most of the desks and bookshelves were covered with white cloth to spare them from any aberrant paints. Theo suggested before that she should just wave her bloody wand to conjure some protective barrier to preserve millions of books in the library. Luna, however, was not amused with his idea and even reminded him that she was the interior designer between the two of them.

Luna grabbed a small teacup and leaned against the closest bookshelf. That was when Theo noticed that she was barefoot, prompting him to frown.

"Where are your shoes?" he demanded. "The floor is freezing."

She shrugged, a small, dreamy smile on her face. "I work best when barefoot," she explained, wriggling her toes. "The cold doesn't bother me anyway."

"No wonder people called you 'Loony'," he muttered under his breath.

"I heard that," she sang his way, striding closer and settling on a chair two desks away from him.

Sighing, he merely brandished out his wand and pointed it at her feet. Luna flinched a little, and he faltered, but when she didn't pull out her own wand and pointed it at him, he finally muttered a warming spell. It was only after when he thought that perhaps she didn't bring her own wand. It was a stupid decision, especially if she always ventured in a house that held dark secrets that rivalled the Malfoy Manor.