Selene is sorted into Gryffindor at the tender age of eleven. Her half-brother glares across the Great Hall to her place at the Lions' House Table, but the subtle gaze draws no attention from his Slytherin housemates or her new classmates. He knows very well that people can't be aware they know each other, as Selene is Abraxas Malfoy's only indiscretion. They did grow up together, regardless of the last name she had to adopt as her own (pure-blooded of course). She has suffered through Abril's etiquette lessons with faked patience and instinctive manners, owns her own white peacock (which struts around the manor grounds), and Lucius has always treated her as his little sister, regardless of her maternal parentage.
When she leaves the Great Hall for her dorms, trailing after a pair of Prefects, her blond haired brother manages to intercept her without being seen and guides her into an empty classroom with a hand on her lower back. Lucius doesn't need to grab her arm to force her somewhere, she knows better than to disobey.
Narcissa Black, her future sister-in-law, trails in behind them, closing and locking the door with spells her father taught them all. They haven't actually met before. Selene has been kept apart from the Malfoy family during public occasions, as the similarities are frighteningly obvious when brother and sister stand side by side. The blond hair and silver eyes are a dead giveaway.
"Selene, this is Narcissa Black. She will be your best friend during your years at school. Gryffindor is your house in name only, you belong with us."
Lucius leaves no room for protest (not that she is going to do something quite that stupid) and lets his sister and his betrothed have a few moments to get to know each other before he has to escort them to their dorms. They are in the same year, so it is easy to bond over the upcoming school years. At eleven, making friends is still possible for the girls, the isolation that comes with a life of 'acquaintances only' is still a few months away. Either way, they are bound together by Lucius, so there is little chance that the girls will separate any time in the near future.
The boy in question watches the two most important women in his life. He sighs in frustration. Selene has always been an embarrassment to their father, not because of who she is, but of the infidelity she represents. His mother is firmly in denial of anything concerning her stepdaughter, pretending that the girl's semi-permanent presence in the manor is the result of her son's need for a play-mate.
The twelve-year-old Lucius Malfoy knew his sister well enough to know she lacks the ambition required in Slytherin, but had prayed she would end up in the respectable Ravenclaw. His contingency plans were in place for scenarios like this, though, so he is content to watch the girls gossip until they start hiding yawns.
Watching Selene grow up is uneventful. Her upbringing taught her discretion, tact, and subtlety, so if she spends her time doing anything interesting, Lucius won't know anything of it.
Narcissa and the other blonde witch are still friends, though the warmth of their closeness is only visible when they are staying at Malfoy Manor during the holidays. Selene is an exceptional student when it comes to potions and charms, but fails most of the other subjects, and only manages three OWLs for the fifth year exams, two of which are Os.
This is the year Lucius presents her to Lord Voldemort. The charming and handsome young-looking man has his way with words, and she can tell her brother is hypnotized by the promise of power and the banishment of Muggle-borns from the magical society. He proudly displays a soul-leeching brand on his arm, and she loses any respect she had left for her brother.
The boy that had seemed so powerful to her eleven-year-old self is nothing more than a coward when he faces someone better than he is. She won't beat him in a duel, but at least her magic isn't being sucked through a link into a half-insane maniac with delusions of grandeur.
Despite this, she agrees to work with the half-blood maniac. It is not because of his ideals, or a way to protect her brother. Abraxas and Abril have taught her to be selfish, and she needs the money and resources The Dark Lord is offering for her projects.
The charismatic Tom Riddle takes her aside to discuss her projects for Charms and Potions and the ways he can use them to commit genocide. (He doesn't word it like that of course, but she knows very well that this man isn't even close to human, and monstrously psychotic is a better description for the red-eyed man-like thing.)
"Will you take my mark, Miss Selene," he asks respectfully and with a small smile.
It takes all of Abril's horrific lessons in manners and masks not to surrender to fits of laughter.
"Charms is my specialty, My Lord, and I pride myself on that. Your variation on the Protean Charm is genius, but I don't feel much for the soul-sucking addition. Name another price."
She copies his charming smile and waits to see if he'll throw the Cruciatus Curse Lucius promised her if she went out of line. The Gryffindor in her allows her to keep her silver eyes locked to his red without fear. She reminds herself of her mother, whom she only met once. Gryffindor stupidity is a genetic treat, she's sure of it.
The fact that she is enjoying this meeting makes it clear that she hasn't dealt with her childhood drama as much as she'd hoped. Her disregard for her own life and that of others a result of living with the family she wasn't allowed to acknowledge, being part of a Hogwarts House she wasn't allowed to spend any time with, and her love for the eccentric Xeno Lovegood. Xeno, while a Slytherin and a pure-blood, is a joke in the high society of the Malfoys, and her choice in men won't be appreciated by her brother or father when they find out.
Tom Riddle taps his fingers on the desk, one by one, considering the bastard child of one of his favorite servants. Abraxas' intelligence has nothing on his daughter's, and he wonders who her mother is. Her loyalty is his biggest problem right now.
Selene cares little for his cause. She will jump over to the highest bidder whenever one arrives. He needs some way to bind her to him.
Her quiet stare unnerves him. Fifteen-year-old children shouldn't be able to keep his gaze and not fidget in their chair like frightened rats.
He needs the girl. Voldemort doesn't have time for invention and creation while fighting a war. The solution comes to him easily.
"A marriage contract to a follower of my choice."
The young-looking half-blood waits patiently for her answer; quite sure he has just ensured her services. As the daughter to a Malfoy, legit or not, she has been raised to accept a condition such as this.
Selene doesn't disappoint.
For two full years, she spends all of her time at Hogwarts focusing on her projects. She delivers everything on the day of her dead-line, not a day sooner. She doesn't see the Dark Lord during that period, using Lucius as a post-owl instead.
On the day of her graduation, Avery, her unofficial betrothed, approaches her with the order to follow him to Voldemort and their subsequent marriage. Instead, she fades into the shadows and finds Xeno Lovegood, her boyfriend of four years, and elopes with the love of her life.
Voldemort is furious, but powerless. Xeno is a Slytherin and a Pure-blood, from an old if poor family. The young man is stuck with his head in the clouds and doesn't even realize he is speaking to the worst evil of the century. He can't understand why Selene loves the guy, but then, he never understood love anyway. Killing the idiot won't solve anything, so he bides his time and waits for the perfect punishment to come along.
Five years later, Selene is surprised to see a disheveled Severus Snape standing on the porch of her eccentric house. He is visibly shaken and grieve-stricken. They aren't exactly friends, but years in the service of the Dark Lord, brewing countless potions and being two of the few intelligent Death Eaters in his service, have brought them closer together. He still looks at her with distrust, like all the ones that know who she is and doesn't have the Dark Mark do. This is the reason he comes to her on this day.
They think her a traitor; think she is on Dumbledore's side. So when Snape comes to her and tells her of the prophecy that condemns his best friend's son, she lets him believe it. Riddle is getting more insane by the week, and she has Luna to think of now, just a few months old.
Selene sends the man to Dumbledore, instructs him on what to say and what to do to get through to the old man.
The moment the Death Eater disappears from her porch, she apparates to the ministry. Pretending that you belong somewhere allows a person to strut through unfamiliar halls in an area she is not allowed to access. Breaking in is a challenge, even with her skills in Charms. The puzzle of wards and alarms and spinning doors is a process she forces herself through with patience unfit for a Gryffindor.
Finding the Hall of Prophecy is a piece of cake, or a game of opening random doors until she finds her treasure. Living with Xeno gives her enough knowledge about interpreting these things, but getting the relevant one to play its recording without breaking it proves to be tricky.
She succeeds in her endeavor almost twenty-four hours after she commenced it. Her return home almost gets her splinched. Her thoughts are running rampant with the full prophecy. Yes, it applies to the Potter boy and the Longbottom boy, but September used to be the seventh month (sept meaning seven). Her Luna was born on the last day of September, just before midnight, and she is paralyzed with fear. Prophecies are not gender specific. Every single one of the predictions only mentions males, but a lot of them can apply to females as well.
She can count on one hand how many times she has really defied Lord Voldemort, but that's enough. The number is never less than three. Her refusal to take the Mark, her marriage to Xeno and the warning to the two potential children of the prophecy are some of her major transgressions, and she can name two or three more that would fit that line of the prophecy, if the others aren't worthy enough.
She is ripped from her thoughts by the screams of her baby girl in the house. It's not the normal crying, they are screams of pain.
Like the Gryffindor she always tried not to be, she rushes in and finds the charming Tom Riddle with her daughter in his arms, Xeno nowhere in sight. On her girl's lower back is a Dark Mark, bright angry red.
And he will mark him as his equal
"Severus is doubting his loyalty to me. He has nothing to lose but his life, ensuring his servitude is hard for me. You, on the other hand, have allowed yourself to become vulnerable."
With a smile, Voldemort disappears with a crack, leaving the stench of Dark Magic behind in the no longer cheery house. This is her punishment for every defiance, and she knows it.
Xeno comes home without a worry in the world, tells his wife that her boss came to babysit while he went out for more diapers. Selene loves him, she really does, but right now she wants to use him as her text subject for her many ongoing projects.
Luna is still sniffling with tears running down her cheeks, and Selene can only hope that one of the boys will be marked by that vile being as well, so her baby girl can escape the faith of the chosen one, but also that of life-long forced servitude to a maniac with most of his soul missing.
Regulus Black is her first stop to solve that problem. He disappears permanently, the locket she wanted in the possession of the Black's house-elf. No problem, she needs to figure out how to destroy it first.
When one of the Marauders, the mouse-like follower, gets captured and tortured, Selene can't believe her luck. Hope springs from her chest. She eagerly watches as Halloween turns into a night of hope for her little Luna, even if it damns the Potter boy.
Not long after Luna's ninth birthday, she is trying to find a way to track the other Horcruxes with the one she already has access to. The spell blows up in her face, and she knows no more.
Luna Lovegood loves her daddy and misses her mommy. She grows up in Malfoy manner, her Aunt and Uncle's house, while her daddy works during the week. Weekends are for hunting Nargles and Chupacabras, while weekdays are spent with Draco and Aunt Narcissa.
Draco doesn't like her, and Aunt can barely look at her without seeing her mother instead. Her last two years before she is off to Hogwarts are lonely and miserable, and at school it doesn't get much better.
She never undresses in front of the other girls in her dorm, deadly afraid they will see the snake tattoo curling around her lower spine. They steal her shoes and clothes, her books and quills, and Draco's nickname for her spreads like wild fire across the school. Soon, she is only addressed as Loony, and it takes until Christmas before the first person calls her Luna again. Her dad immediately goes off into another world, and she desperately tries to follow him into oblivion.
When Ginny Weasley lets it slip that she was possessed by Tom Riddle, the man who would become Voldemort, during their second year, Luna tells her own story.
How her mother was a Death Eater in all but name, how she is connected to the same Malfoys that gave Ginny the Diary, how the prophecy goes, and how it could be either her or Harry. They read Selene's diary together, and suddenly she has a best friend, bound by trust and secrets and shared pain.
It is either faith or a coincidence that makes Luna a part of Harry's growing group of friends. She never gathers the courage to tell him about her mom or her Mark, and Ginny never brings it up. Selene didn't care for the Potters, strangers, and Harry doesn't need to know what is written down about Pettigrew's betrayal and the night of Halloween, or Snape's role in it all. Knowing the prophecy won't change a thing. The Horcruxes aren't mentioned anywhere in the diary, because it was too important to write it down and let someone find it.
There is a certain pride Luna feels facing her uncle in the Hall of Prophecy, protecting something that could change not only Harry's future, but her own. Fighting her destiny by standing tall and proud with the people who should be her enemies, but are her only friends. The Mark on her back burns when Voldemort arrives in the atrium, and she thanks every spirit out there that he can't see her.
When she gets captured by the Death Eaters and taken back to Malfoy Manor, she is unimpressed. They lock her up with the Wandmaker in the dungeon, and that's it. Her time-outs were little better than this, the exception being the lack of three meals a day.
Voldemort never visits, maybe doesn't know she's in the dungeon, and that suits her just fine. Harry rescues her eventually, of course, and a few months later the war is over and the world is in repair.
But where Harry's scar stops burning, her Mark refuses to fade like the Dark Marks, and she wonders how much of her is bound to the dead Dark Lord, and how much of him in alive in her.