Written as a prize for MJwritesOFFICIAL, for placing in a competition of mine.
Also written for the School of Prompts, for the word: treacherous.
Moon-Gazing
It was a Thursday night, but Draco couldn't wait for the evening before heading out for a drink. It had been a year since the war ended, and while the rest of the world was celebrating and healing, Draco was still waiting for his life to fall into place. He'd began working for the Ministry, but his job was menial. Unfulfilling. It was the kind of job he knew he could do hungover, and that was exactly how he planned to spend his Friday.
It was nearly midnight when he left the bar, taking a shortcut through the park to get back to his pokey flat. Central London was too busy to Apparate safely, at least in his current state.
He was lost in his own bitter thoughts when he became aware of another presence. A woman with long blonde hair was stood in the middle of the grass, a few meters in front of him, staring up at what he now saw was a full moon. He headed towards her, curious, wanting to know what was so fascinating about it.
"Luna Lovegood?" he called out as he got close enough to recognise her, confusion breaking its way into his voice.
"That's what they call me, yes," she replied, turning slowly to fix him with a look of mild amusement.
"What are you doing?" he asked her, swaying slightly as he focused too much on his thoughts and not enough on his actions.
"Looking at the moon," she replied, turning her attention back to the large, pale orb.
Draco fell silent for a moment, watching her.
"It doesn't have the answers, you know," he finally said.
"How do you know?" she replied.
"Because I've asked it. It lures you in with it's treacherous glow; it calms you with its tranquility and begs for your secrets. But it says nothing back." Draco was unsure if he was making any sense at all, but if there was sense to be made, he guessed Luna would be the one to find it.
"I don't think you're listening. What would you ask it, Draco, if you could?" she questioned him, eyeing him curiously.
"I would ask it how you save a life. I'd ask it how you build one back up again when it's been torn apart and shattered," he told her. His honesty not even surprising him.
"It'll tell you that," she began, taking a pause. "The moon is in love with the sun, and the two are locked in an eternal dance, never to be together. The moon dies each morning, but each night it fights. Each and every night it rises once more to light the way of the traveller and capture the child's imagination. The moon uses the light of the one thing it loves the most to do this. The moon uses its happiness, even if it doesn't know that happiness anymore - even if it seems an impossible goal."
Draco stood and took in her sobering words, his head swimming as it began to throb.
"What do you love, Draco?" she asked him, smiling a little, thinking her question innocent.
"I… I don't know," he told her, the situation unravelling faster than he could keep up.
Luna only smiled, the way he'd seen her do countless times before. "You can always send me an owl if you'd like me to help you find out," she said, before turning away.