Luna Lovegood was skipping up to the owlery, a letter to her father clenched in her left hand. She was reporting to him how her OWL year was going so far. It was snowy outside, and wind and cold blew her hair around her face as she walked by window after window. The air became colder as she ascended higher and higher, her breath collecting into mist in front of her. And yet, she flounced upward, humming a tune that did not actually exist.
She opened the door to the Owlery and her eyes flicked open. The noise in her throat stopped.
Draco Malfoy was standing in the large windowsill of the owlery, hands holding the sides. He turned quickly as she entered. Tear tracks blemished his paler-than-usual face, his frame shaking.
"What are you doing here?" he said, shaking harder, his voice coming out in a croak.
Luna was still frozen to the spot, her large eyes even wider than usual. "What are you doing?"
His face contorted, lips trembling. "It doesn't matter. Just go away."
She stared at him. "Are you going to jump out of that window?"
He screamed at her, his voice cracking. "Just go away! LEAVE ME ALONE!"
She stared at him and he stared back, chest heaving, hiccuping violently. Finally, Draco turned away, towards the open window, face down and shaky sobs escaping his throat. He shuffled his feet carefully and Luna walked forward. She could hear him saying to himself, "I meant to lock the door. Why didn't I lock the door?"
Luna cocked her head and stopped halfway. "Why are you doing this?"
He snarled quietly, "I have nothing to say to you, freak."
For a minute, Luna watched his slim frame, poised against the outline of the white background of the grounds. She then slowly turned and collected an owl, tied the letter to the owl's leg and took it over to the window. She said softly "Excuse me."
He glanced down, an expression of shock and confusion on his face. He shuffled to the side and she squeezed her frame into the window and held the owl out. She made a soft hooting noise to it and it took off. She dropped her hands to the windowsill and watched it fly away. Draco was holding tight to the edge of the window, looking downwards fearfully. She stayed where she was.
"What's the deal with you?" Draco said in a soft, yet revolted voice.
In her dreamy, singsong voice, Luna responded, "Funny. I was going to ask the same, though much more articulately."
He made a scoffing noise and stared across the grounds. "You wouldn't understand."
"That's a stupid thing to assume," she said, nodding slowly.
He shot her a glare, his lip curling. "You don't know anything. You know that? You have no idea what I'm going through. You would never understand."
She said back briskly, "You have no idea whether or not I would understand."
He rolled his eyes. "Are you going to be here long? I have things to attend to."
Luna shrugged. "Probably. I have nothing else to do. My housemates were playing keep-away with my things. And it's nice up here."
He replied snottily, "Can you hear yourself?"
She nodded. "Yes. Quite well actually. No nargles distracting me."
Again, Draco stared at her, absolutely flabbergasted. He stared off.
Luna tipped her head up to look at him. From what she knew of him, this was completely out of character. He was a weak person but he did not try to show it ever. Luna thought he was weak with his small problems; she did not think he genuinely had anything to worry about.
Nothing this bad anyway.
He was rubbing his arm, over and over again, gasping softly. She pointed. "Are you going to jump out because your arm hurts?"
She knew it was not the truth of course and expected more nastiness, but Draco froze. "Yeah...Actually. Yes, that's partly why."
Suddenly, Luna made the connection. She understood. After the recent interview with Harry she had learned about Dark Marks, and she knew that Draco's father was in He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's inner circle. She connected the two and two.
"Is it hard... ?"
Draco trembled. "What?"
"What he has asked you to do?"
He gulped, his chest seizing violently once and then he slowly nodded, "Mmhmm..."
She stared at his shoes, nice black shiny shoes. Not shoes someone would wear if they had planned to die today.
She stayed silent, there being not much she could say anyway. After a minute or so of full, tense silence Draco sniffled. "He wants me to kill Dumbledore."
Luna's hands went cold and her eyes widened.
Draco shook his head. "But, I can't. The man is an old fool, but he is...he's not bad. He doesn't deserve to die. Who does? But if I fail, he'll kill me. He'll kill my mother, my father, and me. What can I do? I can't wait for him to kill us all. But I can't do it. I've tried so many ideas...and...and nothing. So I have to do this. Otherwise, we're all dead...Not only my family, but the school. Without that...that fool, the school is screwed, not just my parents."
He moved forward slightly. Without thinking, Luna's hand fluttered up to him and gripped his ankle softly. He froze and she could feel his leg tense. He looked down and he dropped one of his hands. He looked down at his feet, lip trembling.
She said softly, "It's okay."
He let out a little moan and began crying, shaking more violently than ever. Draco said, "No it's not. I don't want to die. I don't. I don't. But what choice do I have?"
"The choice to live."
He looked down at her. It was a simple answer and an obvious one too, but one that instilled a strength in them both. He nodded after a long time. "B-but then I have all those other choices..."
Luna looked up at him. "I'd rather live to make the right choice than die before I knew what it was in the first place."
For a long time no one said anything. Suddenly Draco shifted his leg so that Luna's hand slid down to the windowsill. She drew her hands close to herself and then Draco was clambering to sit down. He curled his legs up and draped his arms around them, his head hovering above his knees. In a soft, awe-struck voice, he said, "You think I can make the right decision?"
Luna nodded. "Even if you have your wand out and you have the words on your lips, I think you will always be able to change and make the right decision."
Draco's eyes locked with hers for a long time. Finally, he scooted forward and dropped into the owlery, landing on his feet like a cat. He stood and walked across the room and put his hand on the doorknob. Luna turned and saw him facing the door. He looked down at his feet. "Umm...L-lovegood?"
Luna stared at the back of his head. "Yes?"
"Thank you." He turned, facing her with his wand up, pointed at her face.
She blinked once. "Your welcome, Draco."
With another sniff, he said, "Obliviate!"
Some time later...
Luna was walking down the corridors, swinging a pair of her favorite shoes in her right hand. It was warm now and so she preferred to go barefoot. Suddenly, the shoes were ripped from her hands. She looked up to see a boy named Crabbe guffawing it. "I'd like those back."
He threw them to his pal Goyle and suddenly a third person entered the scene. Luna sighed as she stood between the two, who were throwing the shoes over her head.
"Accio shoes!"
The shoes flew from Crabbe's hands and landed in Draco Malfoy's. "Get going you two."
Crabbe and Goyle slumped off and Luna turned to Draco, expecting no better than the worse. She sighed and blinked. "Could I please have my shoes?"
Draco glanced over her shoulder and pushed the shoes into her hands. Her eyes widened with shock as he pushed past her and hurried off. She turned and watched him go.
Hmm. Maybe there was hope for some people after all. She shook her head. He sure seemed to be getting it together.
She wondered who had talked some sense into him.
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