Disclaimer: I. Don't. Own.
Written for ink-stained dreams' 'Grimmification Competition' over on the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges Forum. I was given the pairing: Harry/Luna and I had to make it darker. Hope you like it!
After the war, that was when he started drinking. The Firewhiskey is like a Chimera, tearing through him and destroying the kind, brave, caring man who used to stand in his place. It turns him into a monster, huge and looming above her in their dark flat.
She doesn't remember exactly when it was that he started hitting her. All she knows it that it has been a very, very long time since she has felt happy at home.
...
'Where are you? Bloody hell, WHERE ARE YOU?'
He is back. She instinctively curls up on the bed where she has been sitting, waiting for him to find her.
He enters the room, and that is when he sees her.
'Come here. I said, come here, bitch!'
She gets up off the bed and moves towards him; she has learnt that it is easier to obey him when he is like this.
'Why are you here? Why are you still here?' he says as he shakes her, harshly.
'I'm – I'm here because I love you.' she says in an almost inaudible, quivering voice.
'What?'
'I still love you, Harry. Because somewhere, deep down, you are still Harry. The man I fell in love with is still there.'
He hits her then, and she should have known. She should have known not to say the l-word; that always sets him off. Once he has started, he can't stop again, so he just keeps punching her. It is easier than facing the truth.
...
When she wakes up, she goes to the mirror to check how many Concealing Charms she needs. She almost gasps; it looks like she's been run over by a train. Then again, she should be used to it by now.
But someone else gasps, right behind her, and it's like ice-water being poured down her back.
'Oh God, Luna. I'm – I'm so s-sorry. I- I can't help it, really I c-can't. I just can't s-stop.'
The tears are pouring down his face, but she knows that tonight they will be long forgotten, and he will be crazed and violent again.
She doesn't know why she doesn't tell someone, or just leave. All she knows is that it has been a very, very long time since she has said the word 'Nargles'.
Please review! :)