Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
AN: *peeks out of corner* Hi, I'm back. I haven't updated it what, 6, 8 months? Sorry 'bout that! I honestly have about 5 stories in my notebooks that are sitting and collecting dust because I never actually took time to develop the plot properly...
Anyways, this is for my friend Jakurin-Chan, Happy Christmas and Merry New Year! A Druna fic as promised. Yeah, I'm a bit late, I have a perfectly good explaination though! I was busy up until now I swear!
This wasn't where Draco wanted to be. He had to go back to Hogwarts to finish his education as per orders from his mother. If Draco had any say in this, he would be anywhere else but in the castle. If it were any other year, he would have agreed to go back but not now. Not after the war had just ended several months before. The terrible war that ripped the whole wizarding world apart, the war that made children hardened soldiers fighting for both sides, the war that had to be stopped by a mere teenager.
The worse part of the war other than the war itself was the aftermath. When all the glory had died down that the Dark Lord was vanquished by Harry Potter, the toll of all the deaths and destruction sunk in. Numerous families were broken, too many important buildings were in ruins; everything needed to be fixed. His own family was almost thrown into Azkaban with the other Death Eaters if Golden Boy Potter didn't appear at their trial to swear their allegiance to the light. Draco had no idea what he and Potter were now; acquaintances maybe, possibly just another person that Potter was too noble to leave to die; but never friends, there was too many years of hate to be friends.
One of the very first buildings to be fixed after the war was Hogwarts, fast enough that it was up and running for the next school year. Several seventh years had gone back to finish their final year thus becoming the eighth year; most of them muggleborns or half-bloods who had gone into hiding the year before and some of them purebloods coming back to make up for the year before. Draco was among the very few Slytherin eighth years that had come back and quite frankly he hated it. The war had done nothing but increase the stereotypes that revolved around Slytherins being the next Dark Lord.
Whispers followed him everywhere, students muttering about death eaters and dark wizards, wondering why they would even let dark wizards into Hogwarts. Slytherin house was closer than ever this year, since all the other houses decided to shun the entire house. Some tried to be supportive of the Slytherins, though the number of students who didn't consider Slytherins dark was sparse; small enough that Draco could count them with his fingers. The most unexpected person though was Luna Lovegood.
How could she not think he was dark when his very own family had kept her prisoner in their manor? She saw what his family had done when they were supporting Voldemort and yet she still defended him when he was being accused of being dark.
Speak of the devil; Luna sat in the chair across from him in the library. "You've got more wrackspurts than Harry."
Draco looked up from the book he had been reading before he had been sucked into thinking about the war again. "Hello Lovegood," Draco said civilly. Though he was still confused of the strange girl's actions, he wasn't about to push away one of the few allies at Hogwarts he had.
Luna stared at Draco for a long while before saying "Call me Luna," more seriously than he had ever heard her. It was quite different from her usual airy way of speaking.
"Hello Luna," Draco rectified. Saying her name stirred something in him, as if he was supposed to remember something; something important. He had felt that feeling a few times before; the first time when Luna had been dragged into his manor by a couple of Death Eaters, then again when Harry appeared with his face covered in boils making him unrecognizable. Both times, his senses were screaming at him that something was missing but he couldn't remember what. Draco growled in frustration.
"Draco," Luna started. There was that feeling again and he had no idea what was causing it. Frustrated, Draco hastily packed up his things and jumped out of his chair to leave. Or he would have if Luna hadn't grabbed on his wrist. "Draco stop," Luna said softly. Once again, he had that feeling again.
"What?" He snapped angrily. "Why is it that you are always making feel like I should know something but I don't? Tell me Luna, why is that you insist to side with me after all the crap I put you through last year?" He was met with wide grey eyes, shining with hope.
"You remember," she stated. Remembered what? So much for remembering if Draco didn't even know what he should be remembering in the first place.
Seeing his confusion, she took his arm and guided him down the corridors until they stopped at a very peculiar room. It was the Room of Requirement. Luna pulled Draco into the room that only had a couch and a pensieve. "I promised myself that you would learn the truth sometime this year. You deserve to know it." She walked toward the pensieve, placed her wand to her temple and pulled out her memories. She beckoned Draco to come closer to the pensieve before pulling him into the memory.
A fifth year Draco sat in an unused classroom, upset and apologizing profusely to Luna. "I'm so sorry; I didn't know you were part of Potter's group. I didn't want you to get in trouble. If I had known I wouldn't have told the others. Oh God, now you have to go through Umbridge's detentions—I am so sorry LuLu! Please, forgive me." He hid his face in his hand, ashamed of what he had done.
Luna placed a hand on his head, "It's okay Dray, you didn't know. What's done is done, no need for regret now." The memory changed again, this time Draco was fussing over Luna who had just come out of the hospital wing.
"Stupid Potter, does he ever think?" He looked over his girlfriend's bandages to make sure she was okay.
"Draco, it's not his fault, what would you do if you thought Professor Snape was being tortured by You-Know-Who?"
"He almost got you killed!" Draco yelled.
"I chose to go with him Draco, it was my choice to help him. He already has enough to deal with since his godfather just died and making him feel guilty about almost killing more people will only make it worse!" Luna was uncharacteristically angry. Draco took a step back, having not seen Luna like this before. "He's one of my first friends and I don't like how you always accuse him of everything that happens! Draco, grow up and put your childish rivalry behind please!" She turned around and left Draco gaping stupidly behind her.
Again the scene changed, this time to the beginning of Draco's sixth year. He was in the Room of Requirement with Luna. "Luna, he had me marked over the summer. I know you probably still hate me from last year but please Luna; I want you to remove my memories of our time together. He's already using my mother as blackmail, I don't want him to use you either. Please, I want to keep you safe. Do this for me and I'll never bother you again. I just need to know that you'll be safe."
Luna kissed Draco for the last time. "I don't hate you," she whispered before taking out her wand and obliviating her boyfriend.
Draco came out of the pensieve with tears in his eyes. He sat down on the couch to take in all of what happened. "All that trouble I put you through and I still couldn't protect you. You still ended up as a prisoner in my own manor," he moaned.
Soft hands took his own, squeezing softly. "But you did Dray, you managed to keep the Death Eaters from hurting me; I heard you arguing with your parents about it while I was a prisoner. You got punished for it but you kept me from being tortured. Then you protected Harry so I wouldn't lose a friend, because deep down you remembered how much I care for him. You kept me as safe as you could even if you couldn't remember."
Slender arms wrapped around Draco's shoulders. Draco hadn't been in her arms for so long, he had missed her. At that moment it didn't matter that he was disliked by a vast majority of the school or that his family was still struggling to fit into society again; all that mattered was that Luna was here, that she didn't hate him after all that happened and that she was safe; she had survived.
AN: So this is probably the only thing you're gonna get from me for a while. I don't know if I'm going to post anything for a while so don't wait for me! I'll try but no promises. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!