Disclaimer: This applies to the whole story. Any recognizable Harry Potter characters, objects, events, places, scenes, quotes, et cetera do not belong to me. They belong to the wonderful JK Rowling and her associates. I am not making any profit through this piece and no trademark or copyright violation is intended. This story was made purely for the sake of my own amusement.
Summary: Luna wakes to find herself in a situation where she feels she needs to save a life. Set after the Battle in the Department of Mysteries in OotP. Entry for Sabrina Weasley-Potter's "To Be or Not To Be Competition" in the HPFC forums.
A/N: Challenge on Megsy'42s Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges forum.
Sabrina Weasley-Potter's "To Be or Not To Be Competition": As some of you may know, Shakespeare's "To Be or Not To Be" takes place when Hamlet is thinking about taking his life. For this competition, write a one-shot (preferably less than 2,000 words) about a character thinking about committing suicide and how someone else convinced them not to. Pick two numbers from 1-60 for your characters and up to three from 1-100 for prompts. The pairing does not have to be a romantic one! They can simply be friends or acquaintances or family! The sentence "to be or not to be" should be mentioned at some point, and nothing M-rated please!
My characters were Draco Malfoy and Luna Lovegood, and the prompt I used was 'courage'. Took longer than I expected to write; I'm really not the best with dialog so this was good practice.
Story is 940 words.
"Bad things are not the worst thing that can happen to us. Nothing is the worst thing that can happen to us." – Richard Bach
Broken Glass
The sound of glass breaking and someone cursing profusely awoke Luna in the middle of the night. Curious, she slid from her rumpled hospital bed where Madame Pomfrey had insisted she stay the night despite feeling fine. She followed the noises to the Hospital Wing supply room where she discovered the door to be ajar and a very distraught someone to be rifling through its contents.
Draco Malfoy was standing before an open cupboard that contained hundreds of medical potions. A vial that had contained a sickly yellow liquid lay shattered at his bare feet. He was currently reading the label of a particularly large potion. Seeming satisfied with its ingredients or potency, he lifted it from the shelf pulling its stopper.
Luna spoke before he could bring it to his lips. "I don't think you should do it."
He jumped, the beaker slipping from his grip as he whipped out his wand, aiming in the direction of her heart. The container smashed, splattering its contents across the cobbles. His eyes were red from what she suspected to have been the result of crying.
"What do you know, Loony?"
She didn't mind the name, understanding that she had startled him and he was upset. "I know that you're probably scared and think you have no one to turn to."
His eyes widened, the tremor in his hand becoming more pronounced. "You know nothing! My father is in Azkaban because of Potter. Do you know what the Dark Lord is going to do to me? I'm going to be killed as bloody retribution for my father's failure!" He scoffed, panic constricting his voice. "Oh, but no, to just kill me would be too easy; it would be considered too quick a punishment by the Dark Lord's terms. He'll probably cast curse after curse until my body is unrecognizable…" He fell quiet looking away, muttering something under his breath.
She blinked, curious. "Pardon?"
"I said, then… then he'll cast the Cruciatus Curse until I'm on the brink of insanity before he puts me down without a second thought."
"Oh, I'm sure he'll think it through," Luna said pleasantly.
She could tell that she may have pushed him too far when he closed the gap between them, not even noticing the glass and scathing liquid he stepped through. His wand pressed into her throat. "I should fucking kill you," Draco hissed, breath coming in heaves. "Why are you even here, trying to talk me out of suicide? It's not like you even care or know me at all."
"You woke me up when you broke that first glass," Luna said evenly. "Plus, I very much doubt that if you were seriously going to commit suicide. You wouldn't have left the door open to the storage room, or at least put up a silencing charm. I think you wanted someone to stop you, especially Madam Pomfrey." She shrugged her small shoulders at his hateful glare. "That's just my opinion."
He refused to meet her gaze. "My life was meant to be simple. Attend Hogwarts, receive top marks, impress my father, be the perfect pureblood heir, and find the perfect pureblood wife… I very much doubt any of that will actually happen now that the Dark Lord has revealed himself."
"Whether it's meant to be or not to be, I don't believe that giving up is the way you should end your life."
"I'm not giving up," he snarled, his wand digging further into her neck. "And why shouldn't I die by my own terms? It's my life I have to live."
She nodded, "Yes, but it's also your life that will influence others either way."
"Like whom?" he sneered.
"Well, for one, it would influence your mother's."
"Do not bring my mother into this—" he seethed.
"You would be surprised what a mother would do for her young."
"Like you would know anything about what a mother would do for her child! If I'm not mistaken, you live with only your crackpot fool of a father—"
"If you must know, I saw my mother die when I was little," Luna said, eyes glinting dangerously.
He seemed to actually be listening to her intently now. "I… What happened to her?"
"She was experimenting with a spell she had created and something went wrong. Just as it was going out of control, she noticed that I was at the door." Luna sighed. "She managed to get a shield up in time to protect me, but she forgot about herself in that moment."
He was taken aback, mouth trying to distinguish words his mind could not find. It took a few moments of silence before his arm relaxed, dropping his wand from her throat. "I'm sorry for your loss."
She smiled. "It's alright. I came to terms with her accident a long time ago."
"No, it's not alright," he said firmly. "I've been selfish."
Her light dreamer's eyes glowed in his direction. "All you need is a bit of courage," she replied.
He scoffed. "I'm not a bloody Gryffindor, Lovegood."
"I never said you were." Luna's head tilted to the left thoughtfully. "I think you've mistaken 'courage' and 'fearless' to mean the same thing. I would consider you to be an idiot if you were fearless when facing someone like the Dark Lord. No, to have courage is to face your fears in spite of them."
He took a few raking breaths, taking into consideration the explanation she had just offered him.
Meeting his stormy eyes, she smiled gaily. No thanks were said aloud, for it was all understood there in the quiet between them.
A/N: Please take some time to review and let me know what you think!
~Lira Veralily