Chapter One

Several months earlier…

Draco warily walked in the drawing room. His master sat in an armchair by the roaring fire. He walked slowly and knelt down at his feet. "My Lord wanted to see me?" he asked.

"Yes," the Dark Lord hissed at him, "I want you to tell me about the other students who escorted Potter to the Ministry."

"Er… Weasley and Granger went of course. I think Weasley sister was there with Longbottom and umm… Lovegood, sir."

"I want you to bring one of them to me. It shouldn't be too hard to get one of them alone. Bring them here. I'd like to ask them a few questions." His eyes glinted.

"Yes, of course, sir," the young Malfoy replied shakily.

"And don't forget your other task either, Draco." Draco nodded and left. He always hated speaking to the Dark Lord. It most likely had to do with his flippancy towards murder. He trudged around Malfoy Manor vaguely wondering which would be the easiest to trick into coming with him. He decided to search for his aunt who had promised to teach him Apparation and think about his dreaded tasks later.

There was a knock on the bedroom door. Luna stood up and spun around giggling towards the door. She pulled it open to reveal her father in deep violet robes and his yellow hat. "How's the packing?" he asked.

"It's coming, but I can't find my lucky yarn bracelet. You don't suppose the nargles could have taken it?"

"They are nasty little things, aren't they? I wanted to give you something before you left." He produced an oddly colored onion-like thing from his pocket. Luna's eyes got bigger in wonder. "It's a gurdyroot, very good for warding off gulping plimpies."

"Thank you, Daddy!" She squealed and flung her arms around his neck.

"Your robes and books are on the sofa downstairs. So is the new issue of the Quibbler. The article you helped me write on the Rotfang Conspiracy is on page five. It's magnificent!" He pushed her away to arm's length, smiling widely. "I'm gonna miss you tomorrow. Now finish packing."

She ran downstairs to grab her things and noticed her bracelet hanging from the chandelier. She laughed and jumped again and again trying to collect her lost item. A little golden snake acting as a candle holder on the chandelier came to life. It retrieved the bracelet and dropped it down to her from its metal jaws. "Thank you," she called to it. She blew it a kiss right before it became still again.

She raced back up the stairs books in hand. She tucked them into the far corner of her trunk and then laid the gurdyroot delicately on top. She jumped onto her bed and curled up hugging her pillow. It took hours for her energy to fade enough to allow sleep. She spent the night having slightly unpleasant dreams about being late to her first class because her shoes wouldn't stay on her feet.

Luna flooed to the platform the next morning at ten thirty. She wanted to find a compartment that she could have to herself. She didn't really want to sit alone, but she knew the only people who wouldn't hassle her with questions about the Ministry would be the people who had been there with her. She had really liked being with the DA. Some of them like Neville and Harry had been nice enough not to call her names when she spoke of the creatures and conspiracies her father had uncovered. Sure they didn't believe any of it, and they laughed most of the time, but she felt almost included around them. Almost.

She located a car devoid of other students but not without first bumping into some people would have rather not seen. She had hid in the corner of a hall when Malfoy had walked through. A couple of third year Hufflepuffs poked their heads out as he passed. Their jeers were pretty cutting. He just continued walking by her hiding place with an expression she'd never seen on them before. She actually pitied him. He wasn't his father, after all.

Soon students were swarming. Everyone who ventured to peek inside her door quickly ducked out when they saw her behind the new issue of the Quibbler. Harry and Neville came in and sat down. They started talking about OWL results and Quidditch. The topics bored her immensely.

Around lunch time, Hermione and Ron turned up. They weren't the only ones. Almost as soon as they arrived so did a second year carrying two beribboned scrolls with he handed over to Harry and Neville. The two left to go meet someone named Slughorn. Ron and Hermione looked rather uncomfortable just sitting there. They left to get food leaving Luna alone. She sighed and sprawled out over the seat, promptly falling asleep.

She dreamed of sitting in a small pond with swirling, crystal clear water. The pool sat in the middle of an extensive field of bright white daisies. Clouds were proceeding forwards across the sky, darkening the flowers below them. The darkness didn't seem able to penetrate the water, rather it illuminated in the gloom. Then a man stepped to the edge of the shadows. He was tall and draped in black. His face was oddly serpentine with his flat nose and brilliantly red eyes. Luna dreamed she was staring at his eyes, marveling at their shade of scarlet.

She awoke when Ron, Hermione, and Neville returned. She heard them whisper worriedly over their missing comrade while the four of them pulled on their robes. She spent the carriage ride in contented bliss thinking about the beautiful daisies with shining red petals.

Chapter Two

Draco had a plan. Last year Montague had gotten stuck in the Vanishing Cabinet. He had said that sometimes he could hear what was happening in Hogwarts, but other times he could hear people talking in a shop clearly in Knocturn Alley. Draco thought it was fascinating; an unguarded exit to the school was impossible to come by. He had entertained the idea of fixing it so he could leave the castle whenever he pleased. Over the summer, he had been thinking of how the pleasure of the outside world would bring some relief to his sure to be stressful year. He had been completely overcome with his idiocy of wanting to leave the school through the cabinet when he realized he could bring people to the school with it. And surely the house elves would know where it had been moved.

Starting tomorrow he would have free periods during the time he would have otherwise spent on stupid subjects like Care for Magical Creatures or Divination had he not dropped them. He would have plenty of time to find and repair the broken cabinet. His more difficult task seemed much easier now as long as he didn't dwell on what he had to do after the school was swarmed with Death Eaters.

He rolled over on his side in his dormitory bed. His new task would be all about timing. He would have to wait for an opportunity to get one of them alone. He'd have to be able to take them outside the Hogwarts boundary without anyone noticing. That would be difficult. He mused that he could subdue one during a Hogsmeade visit, but he got the impression that the Dark Lord didn't wanted to wait until their first Hogsmeade visit in October to "interview" which poor student he chose. One of them would mess up and wander off alone.

But none of them really mattered much that minute. Right then he just wanted a night of undisturbed, peaceful sleep. He hadn't had that simple luxury for a long time. It was hard to sleep fitfully in the same house as the Dark Lord and his giant serpent. He just wanted to rest without nightmares about being tortured or killed. Or both. Or watching other peopled be tortured or killed. Or both. Lucky for him, he slept all through the night. But not without being awoken in the early morning by a bright flash or green light hitting him in the chest. But perhaps shaking and sweating and well rested was better than being shaken and sweating and not well rested.

That same night…

"Luna!" one of her dorm mates hissed at her. "Weren't you listening? Professor Dumbledore said not to leave our dormitories! Especially in the current state of things! Are you insane?!?!"

"No, I'm not insane. Being insane could be fun though," she replied as she leapt out of the portrait hole. She flitted behind a tapestry by the portrait and down the flight of stairs it concealed. In the Entrance Hall she swiftly ran behind the Slytherin hourglass. She took out her wand and drew the Slytherin emblem on a stone. The wall shimmered out of existence silently. She stepped outside into a beautiful panorama of stars and darkness. She was just around the corner from the main doors. She followed the shadows of the castle to the edge of the lake and then skipped along the lakeside, under the mountain, and to the boathouse.

All of the little rowboats that the first years had arrived in were floating in the rippling water. She carefully stepped on the nearest boat and then the next boat out and the next until she was on the foremost boat. She sat down on a damp wooden bench in it and untied the rope connecting it to the others. She tapped its side with her wand and it started its voyage to the middle of the vast lake.

She dragged her fingers lazily through the liquid shimmering with moonlight. The ripples moved out in elegant ovals and lines from the tips of her fingers. She watched some of the lines struggle to continue on their course against the current. The poor ripples just weren't strong enough. She wished to curse the current that kept on going whatever direction it pleased. It didn't seem to care how many defenseless little ripples it had to push out of its way to meet its meaningless objective of flowing forwards. She made as many ripples as she could, hoping they would band together and make a dent in the stupid, overbearing current. But they didn't seem to take her wishes to heart. The boat stopped.

She stood up and stripped off her robes. She had a pair of close-fitting pants and a t-shirt underneath that wouldn't weigh her down in the water. She cast a bubble head charm on herself then slid gracefully into the black abyss beneath her. Igniting her wand threw the tiny particles of algae suspended around into sharp relief. She giggled and swished her arms around making the algae swirl like a miniature whirlpool. She stopped, feeling too much likeness to the current disrupting everything in her path. She gave a quick apology to the algae and then swam downward in a rush of adrenaline and weightlessness.

She swam in contented bliss for two hours. She rushed back to the surface, bursting the bubble around her head on impact with the cool air. She clambered back into the boat and instructed it to return to the boathouse with her wand.

She deeply enjoyed these underwater excursions. They were good for relieving stress and repairing her sometimes broken spirit. She'd been close to panic since the feast started. She could hardly concentrate on Dumbledore's withered hand; she was much more concerned about his scarlet eyes. Padma and Terry had them too. Even the pudding had watched her with blazing sanguine eyes. They watched her in the common room. That's why she left. She knew in her mind they couldn't follow her into the water. She wasn't afraid of the eyes. She just didn't like them observing her.

She scrambled quickly and quietly back to her dormitory and fell into a much more relaxed sleep. She dreamed about palm trees and stars and awoke feeling like she was brave enough to take on Snape in a duel.

A/N: The disclaimer I forgot reads as such: *ahem hem hmm ahmm* Not mine. I put the first two chapters together so that the dropdown thingy would read 3. Chapter Three instead of 4. Chapter Three. That annoys me to no end. Review please. I'm going to start typing again now. Merry Christmas guys!