Hello, everyone! After months of not posting anything, inspiration struck back just as my schedule cleared up. This fic is for the Christmas Event Truce at The Golden Snitch forum, which all you should visit.
My school is Durmstrang and my house is Pirin. Prompts used: cigarette.
The hard stone floor was cold to her skin. She lamented then not dressing warmer during the train ride home —nevermind that she didn't arrive there— thinking that the Hogwarts Express's warmth and the company of her friends could keep the cold away.
Instead, the bite kept coming at her like a dementor sucking all happiness away. She hugged her knees and wiggled her toes, thanking Merlin for the pain in them because it meant she still hadn't lost mobility and sensation in them. The temperature in this room, this dungeon, was too low and Luna admitted she felt afraid.
Death Eaters could torture her, the Dark Lord could come and introduce himself, she could starve to death and still she was more afraid of dying of hypothermia.
The shivering was one thing, Luna reasoned, but the loss of sensation, the numbness and the apathy that came after that were what made her close her eyes and wish for Ginny, for Harry, for Ronald, for her dad to come and save her from this place... She wanted to be home, drinking hot cocoa with peppermint and opening gifts in front of the fire with her dad.
"Lovegood!" came the sudden whisper. "Up here!"
She struggled to move because her back hurt so much from the hard floor but she shifted enough to see Draco Malfoy standing at the top of the stairs. He was paler than he had been when the Snatchers brought her to his family home, and maybe he looked thinner too, Luna didn't remember well enough how he had been, but the grey eyes didn't lie. He was sad and Luna felt pity. It was hard to admit Draco's side was winning the war, but harder still to see how miserable that made him.
"Hi, Draco," she mustered enough strength to greet him, even though she loathed being captive in his home. "Is it Christmas already?"
"It is, Lovegood. Listen, there isn't much time," with a flourish of his wand the gate opened smoothly and soundlessly. "Someone will bring you food in the morning like usual, but I thought..."
He showed her rather than tell her. With him was a big bag that made Luna giggle.
"Are you Father Christmas?"
He stared at her as if she were loony —which she thought she was; it was better than to believe the confussion and poor judgement came from the cold— but smiled at the end. It was a sad, small smile that sent another kind of shivers through Luna. There was hope in Draco Malfoy's heart, and there was kindness in him as well.
"Just for today, Lovegood," Draco told her. From the bag, Draco handed her a wooden box with a plate of food inside. The sight of it made Luna forget the cold for a brief moment and she looked up to him.
"For me?"
"You deserve it."
He didn't say why and she didn't ask. The hot meal was waiting for her and she took bite after bite of honey-roasted carrots, cider roast turkey, potatoes and delicious parsnips with a little bit of honey mustard. Not even Hogwarts's food was like this and Luna savoured it all.
When she was done, Draco handed her a goblet of what looked like wine, but when their hands brushed as she took the goblet from him, he stiffened.
"You are freezing," he said and his words made Luna's body tremble again. The shivers came back but the hot meal in her belly let her smile.
"I'm good," she said but perhaps Draco saw through the lie because he let her take the goblet only to take off his cloak, his shoes and his socks, holding them out to her. Luna thought she saw tears in his eyes but Draco didn't cry. It was then that she realized he was brave too.
"Put them on, Lovegood."
"Won't you get in trouble?" she asked.
He shook his head and Luna saw he was already shivering and shifting his now bare feet.
Luna did as he suggested and put on the grey woollen socks, surely reinforced with warmth charms that left her sighing in relief. His cloak was warm too and it smelled of butterscotch and cigarette.
"I didn't know you smoked," she commented, trying to bring him out of his shell. The boy she knew from the halls of Hogwarts was not this sullen man in front of her. Still, better a bitter man who regretted his bad deeds than a happy but cruel boy who hurt others for pleasure.
Draco smirked bitterly and took out a cigarette from his trousers. "Sometimes."
"Thank you, Draco," she said and slowly (too slowly) lifted her hand and held his own for a few seconds before he stepped back and waved his wand to vanish the food and the wooden box. Luna's throat tingled with regret; she wished she could show the world Draco Malfoy's heart and here he was, erasing the evidence. The she saw that he still had the bag.
"I brought you a blanket," he told her, giving her the bag.
When she held it, she wanted to say the bag was warm enough to be her blanket every night, but then she touched the softest dark blue fleece she had ever touched.
"Ravenclaw," Draco said, pointing at the blanket. "I thought you would like it."
Luna did. She threw the blanket over her shoulders and looked at him.
"You are better than they are, Draco," she told him, watching how his eyes widened and his lower lip trembled. "You deserve to get out."
He nodded, more in thanks than in agreement. Perhaps he still hadn't made peace with himself. Perhaps he still needed to pay for his crimes, but Luna already thought of him as a good man.
"I need to go," he said, stepping back once more. His voice was almost tender.
"Thank you, Draco. Merry Christmas."
He smiled more easily this time. "Merry Christmas, Luna."
When he went up again, the cigarette was still in his hand.
When she went back to sit by the corner of the room, the cold was no longer unbearable.