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It had become somewhat of a ritual for the pair of them. Ever since second year, at least once during the week before Winter Hols, Draco would find his way down to the kitchens, and, at some point in the night, Luna Lovegood would join him.
He had no idea how she always seemed to know when it was that he was there. Maybe she just visited the elves every night and he just managed to be there at least once at the same time. Either way, he was glad for the company of his cousin.
They never spoke. Not just in the “we don't want to fight and have nothing better to say to each other” kind of way, but in the way that everyone always had expectations of them during the day and they didn’t necessarily want that in their secret night excursions.
The first year they had met, the house elves had made them each a mug of warm honeyed milk and set biscuits on the table between them. The next year, it was hot-chocolate and sweets. The third year they met in the Kitchens, Luna had instead insisted they make their own biscuits; Draco had sipped tea while she made a mess of the elves’ meticulously cleaned kitchens. The year after that, Draco had joined her in the mess making.
This year, Draco hadn’t known if he would be able to get to their meet up. There were benefits to being on Umbridge’s Inquisitorial Squad, but it meant he was under her close watch as well. It was a trick getting down to the Kitchens without being spotted by one of her spies in the portraits lining the corridors.
He did manage it, though, and found Luna there already half way through cracking the eggs for their biscuits. He washed his hands and took up his place beside her, whisking together the flour and spices she had chosen for their treat that year.
One of the elves, he never could remember which was which, set a cup of tea at his elbow and he thanked it, quietly.
It didn’t take ten minutes for them to finish the dough. Luna then took out a bag of biscuit forms from somewhere and motioned for Draco to carry their bowl of unbaked treats over to the near end of one of the tables.
This was new. Formerly they had just rolled out the dough and put it in the ovens to bake. He had no idea where she even managed to find biscuit forms, he knew for a fact that all of the sweet shops and tea houses in Hogsmeade would have used spells if they wanted their biscuits in other shapes, and the Lovegood’s rarely explored the Muggle world.
Luna floured the tabletop and set the forms down off to the side. Draco plopped the dough out of the bowl and used a quick charm to flatten it out evenly. He picked out a star form and began cutting out his biscuits. Luna chose some other shape he truly could not identify and did the same.
-
They sat together a while, after all was said and done for the night, sipping their tea and brushing stray crumbs off of their jumpers. Draco looked around, knew their time together was limited, not only for the night but in that they only had one of these meetings left in toto. They had one year left.
Luna stood, sent her plate and teacup over to the wash basin, and left the Kitchens; still not a word spoken between them.
Draco sighed. “Happy Christmas, Cousin.”