Malfoy watched as a small hunting party of twelve rode toward the forest, Zabini at the head of them.
"I'm surprised you're not going with'em." Crabbe said, coming up from behind, leaning against the wall as he picked at his teeth, "you usually love a good hunt."
"I have prior engagements." He said dismissively, "Marietta still isn't back, and there's been no word from our scouts."
"So…you're worried?" Crabbe asked stupidly.
"Yes, I'm worried, if Marietta is dead, then we've lost our informant in Dumbledore's army, if the scouts can't find them, then we'd be better off traipsing through the country side, hoping to run into them."
"Doesn't sound too bad." Crabbe said, "be good to get some air, maybe you'd gain some color with it."
Malfoy snorted, "I highly doubt that." He muttered, he stood up, "Well, since we're obviously not getting any news any time soon, I think I'll go into town.
"You going to go see that witch girl?" he asked.
Malfoy grimaced, he had been avoiding going to Luna's cottage for almost a week, not too keen in seeing the weird girl again, "maybe, maybe not, might go to the butcher."
"Why?" he asked, wrinkling his nose in disgust, "we don't have to make our own food."
"I heard he's an accomplished singer." Draco said, walking down the steps.
Draco stood outside Luna's cottage, a bottle of whiskey in his hand he hesitated at the door, he stared at it, wondering if it'd be worth knocking on the door, he still didn't know what possessed him to come back, was it the fact that she may be a witch? Therefore dangerous to be left on her own, or because she seemed so sincere in wanting to see him again, for whatever reason, he didn't know whether it would be worth it, especially since he was wasting time here when he could be looking for his missing contact, he sighed and raised his hand to knock on the door, hesitating.
"No ones home." Luna's dreamy voice said behind him, making him jump, he turned around, finding the young woman stroking his horses snout, she was dressed in a simple white dress and a blue cloak that rested on her shoulders, "hello," she said with a smile, "Were you looking for me?"
"No," he said, "well…yes…but…only because I didn't have any cups for this whiskey."
"I would think that a knight would have cups." She said, walking up to her door and unlocking it, humming a tune to herself as she did, "did the Nargles steal them?"
Malfoy walked in, the strong smell of musky herbs seemed to slap him in the face, "No," he said, "just…didn't have any on me…"
"Will you be staying for dinner? Or are you going to leave after your drink?" Luna asked, pulling two clay mugs out of the cabinet, they were painted in bright colors, making Malfoy's head hurt.
"I…might as well stay, already here." He grumbled, sitting down, "and what's that smell?"
"Oh, the Herbs are drying." She said, pointing up at the ceiling where clusters of herbs were hanging upside down, "Once they're dry I'll store them."
"Better be soon." He said, curling his lip in disgust, 'it smells horrible in here."
"I find the smell to be relaxing, besides, it drives the wrackspurts away." She took a deep breath and sighed in content.
He shook his head, "where were you?" he asked, changing the subject as he was not too keen to find out what a wrackspurt was, "you weren't in town, I would've seen you on my way here."
"I was back in the forest," she said, putting the mugs in front of him while he watched her, looking for a lie, " I was looking for marigold, it's good for open wounds, but they're not in bloom, couldn't find any, I do hope no one gets too seriously hurt any time soon, I wouldn't be able to help them."
He watched her, slowly pouring the whiskey into the cups, "I thought you said the other day that you didn't get visitors." He said suspiciously, "and yet people still come to you for healing?'
"Not all of them." She said, "many prefer an actual Healer, they don't exactly come to look for me unless they're desperate.'
"Then why pick the herbs at all? Surely most of them go bad before you can use them."
"Oh they do, that's why I'm hoping to plant some."
"But why bother at all?"
"Why bother helping me?" she asked, looking at him, "if someone needs my help, I'm going to try to help them, it's what my mum and my dad did, and I wouldn't live up to their memory if I didn't do the same."
Malfoy watched her, she had spoken with such a passion in her voice that it had made Malfoy see her in a different light for a few moments, he let out a sigh and said, "you're something else Loony." He muttered.
"Luna." She corrected in a sing-song voice, walking over to the cauldron, "anyways, I wanted to ask, have you ever seen a crumple horned snorkack?" she asked, "or perhaps a blibbering Humdinger in your travels?"
"A…what?"
"Crumple horned snorkack, they're very rare, said to live in Sweden."
"I've never been to Sweden, so I'd never have seen one." Malfoy said, "Where do you hear about these creatures?"
"Oh my father used to look for them," she said.
"So, did he ever find one?"
"No, but I'm sure they're out there."
"Sounds about as loony as you are." He said, picking up his mug and taking a drink, it burned his throat, though not unpleasant as it was slightly sweet and seemed to warm him up from the inside.
Luna picked up the bottle and took a quick sip before pouring some into the cauldron.
"Oi," Malfoy objected, 'that's mine!"
"Thank you." she sang, putting the bottle back on the table.
Malfoy grumbled and took another drink, smirking a little at the feeling, "you were right," he said, "the butcher makes an excellent whiskey."
"Did you hear him sing?" She asked curiously, 'he sings the most wonderful lullaby for his daughter."
"Didn't get to hear it." He said dismissively, having not cared about the singing at all.
"Maybe next time." She said, spooning some stew into a bowl and handing it to him, he took it with a polite 'thank you' and started eating, while Luna sat down, humming again.
"Aren't you going to eat?" he asked.
"Maybe later, it's still quite early." She said, resuming her humming, Malfoy tried to place the familiar tune, but couldn't quite pin it, he shook his head and started eating again, stopping only when he heard the sound of fast approaching hooves.
"Someone's coming." Luna said unnecessarily, looking out the window.
"Probably Crabbe," he said, standing up, "I'm sure he's bringing news," he stepped out and his eyes widened at what he saw, not Crabbe, but Nott, who was slumped forward on his horse, blood covered him and the panicking horse, who upon seeing Malfoy started to rear back.
"Whoa! Whoa! Calm down!" Malfoy shouted, grabbing the reins and pulling the horse down, attempting to calm it, once it was calm enough, he dragged Nott out of the saddle and laid him down, looking over the damage, the left side of his face was marred by deep scratches, his right arm had been reduced to bloody tatters and one leg was twisted at an odd angle, his armor was twisted and mangled in places, showing torn flesh underneath, as if something had tried to take a bite out of him, "Nott, what happened?" Malfoy asked the half-dazed man.
"W-wolves…" he whispered hoarsely, "Direwolves…ambushed…Zabini…"
Malfoy hefted him up, "Luna, can you help him?" he asked urgently.
She nodded and ran inside, clearing the table, "bring him here." She ordered as Malfoy staggered into the room and put Nott down, he screamed in pain at the jostling.
"I'm going to go find Zabini." He said, "You make sure he doesn't die!"
"Go." She said as she started pulling herbs and bandages out of different spots around her house, Malfoy ran outside, grabbing Notts axe from the side of his horse and jumped on his own, "Go Xavier!" he shouted, driving his heel into the horse's side, which urged the animal to take off into the forest, Malfoy thanked whatever Deity was watching over him that had urged him to bring his sword along that day, he drew it and looked around for any signs of where Zabini was, he found the sign in the form of Notts blood trail, leading deep into the forest, he followed it until he heard the screams and shouts of men and the snarling, barking growls of the Direwolves, he urged Xavier faster until he burst into a clearing, where a grisly sight befell him.
Zabini and three of the men he had left with in the morning stood with their backs to a tree, warding off four large Direwolves with their spears, not one of them were uninjured, claw and teeth marks covered most of them, Zabini himself had three long claw marks on the right side of his head leading up to his forehead, covering his right eye with blood, littering the ground around them were the rest of their party, mauled and being chewed on by several more direwolves, most were dead, except for one who was screaming in agony as two direwolves fought over him, trying to pull him away from each other, Malfoy hefted the axe in his hand and hurled it, catching one direwolf in the head, killing it, he charged forward, swinging his sword in an arc as he passed the second direwolf, lopping hits head off, he nudged Xavier into trampling the four wolves Surrounding Zabini before turning around, "you couldn't stay out of trouble for one day?" he asked Zabini angrily, swinging his blade at a wolf that was getting too close,
"How were we supposed to know they were coming?" he asked, throwing his spear and catching a Direwolf in the neck, he drew his saber, swinging at the wolves, all of whose attention were on the four survivors and the new comer, who jumped off his horse.
"Come on then!" Malfoy shouted, slapping Xavier on the rear and sending the horse galloping away, trampling two wolves in his mad dash.
The wolves snarled and charged, Malfoy slashed one straight through it's open mouth, cutting off the top part of it's head, and stabbing another through the chest, behind him Zabini was wrestling with one wolf, the blade of his saber the only thing keeping the wolf from ripping his throat out, the other three were struggling with the wolves, one had stabbed a wolf and had lost his spear when it jumped back, leaving him only with a knife, Malfoy turned on the spot and caught a wolf in the neck as it lunged for the defenseless man, just as the other two drove their spears through their own direwolves, when they turned, all the wolves were gone, most lying on the ground dead or dying, but one was at the fringe of the trees, watching them with yellow eyes before it turned tail and ran.
"Thank god you got here when you did," Zabini muttered, limping over to Malfoy, "they ambushed us…thirty minutes ago…our horses ran off, we were stranded…I saw Nott get away…but…there were wolves on his tail, when the wolves came back and he didn't…"
"He's being taken care of," Malfoy said, he pointed at the two spear wielding men, "Montague, Higgs, bring those here, we need to make a stretcher for this man." He motioned to the poor mauled man on the ground, still breathing with terror in his eyes, they did as he said, bringing the poles over as he took his cloak off and tied it to them, "come on, heft him up!" Draco ordered, and together they lifted him and laid him onto the make-shift stretcher, they grabbed the poles and hoisted him up between them, Malfoy stood in front of them, "follow me." he commanded, going back the way he came.
"The castle's the other way." Zabini said.
"It's also a twenty minute walk back," he retorted, "in that time this man could die, however, there is a capable healer just ten minutes this way."
"You're staking this mans life on a mere ten minutes?" the last man asked, Draco finally realized that it was Goyle, unrecognizable from the blood and dirt that covered him.
"Ten minutes could mean his life, and if we waste it getting to the castle, then we'd be better off killing him now, now hurry up, quicken the pace!"
Luna watched out the window, looking for any sign that Draco was returning, he had left almost thirty minutes ago, and depending on how far he had to go she might not see him for a while yet, but she had finished tending to Nott, the injured man was now resting in the corner of her cabin, his face and the stump of his arm swathed in bandages, and his leg was set, so now Luna had nothing to distract her from her thoughts, all she could do was watch the tree line and hope to god that Draco would emerge from it.
Her blood ran cold when only his horse returned, slowly cantering over to Nott's horse. There were only two reasons his horse would be here, he had sent it off so it wouldn't get hurt, or he had been dismounted and Xavier got spooked.
"He'll be fine." A hoarse voice muttered behind her, she looked over and saw Nott awake, his remaining eye open and looking at her, "he's a tough one…probably taking his time to look through the direwolves…find one that would make a good coat." He laughed, stopping suddenly with a grunt of pain as it jostled his wounds.
"You need to be still," Luna chastised him gently, "you're lucky to be alive."
"Lucky those wolves gave up their pursuit," he grumbled, "If they hadn't…"
"Enough talking." She ordered, "Try to rest."
Nott just nodded, closing his eye.
Luna looked back out the window again, seeing something rustling through the foliage, she bit her lip, waiting, she let out a small squeak of happiness when she saw Malfoy running out of the forest, four men carrying a stretcher behind him, she quickly ran outside.
"Luna!" he shouted, "he needs help!"
She looked at the man on the stretcher, "bring him inside." She said, running back in.
"You brought us to the Loony bin?" Zabini exclaimed angrily behind her, "he'd be better off dead!"
"Don't say that." Malfoy snarled," She knows what she's doing."
Luna quickly grabbed bandages and the herbs she needed, she pulled out several white towels and tossed them to Malfoy, "put these on his wounds, try to slow the bleeding a bit while I prepare the bandages and herbs.'
Malfoy did as he was told, having Goyle and Zabini hold the man down as he pressed down on the wounds, making him scream, "you two! Anything Luna needs you get." He shouted at Montague and Higgs, who simply nodded, Luna came over with a wet cloth, "let me see."
They pulled the towels away, showing the wounds, Luna started to quickly clean the wounds, "we may have to amputate his leg," she said, "it might be too damaged for me to save…"
"But you'll try," Zabini demanded, "You will won't you?"
"Of course I will, but it may be a waste of time," she quickly reached up and picked some dried Yarrow leaves and ground them up before softly applying the powder onto his wounds, he screamed in pain.
"You're hurting him!" Zabini snarled, pushing her back.
"The pain is necessary," she said calmly, fixing him with a pointed glare, "if you want him to live then he'll have to deal with the pain, if not, then you might as well take him outside to be buried.
Zabini said nothing, just stepped back, Luna went back to work, putting ground up yarrow into several different wounds, the poor man screamed every time, "Draco, go grab that bottle of whiskey, try to get him to drink it." She said, 'I'll pay you back. "She added hastily as she went to the table behind her, pulling out a clean needle and some threat, also grabbing a dried Comfrey plant and bringing it with her, she waited until Malfoy had poured half the bottle into the mans mouth, he drank it greedily,
"Thank you…." He croaked out, he looked at luna with shocking blue eyes, "y-you…you won't let me die…will you…?"
"Not if I can help it." She said lightly, wiping off the yarrow with a damp towel and applying the comfrey.
He screamed again, 'It hurts!" he screamed.
"Give him more of that whiskey." She told Malfoy, "the whole bottle if you have to!"
Malfoy complied, letting the man drink the rest of the bottle.
"Tell me a little about yourself," Luna said calmly as she quickly stitched his skin back together with expert fingers, "what's your name?'
"Marius…." He struggled out.
"That's a great name, strong name," she said, "who's your parents? Are they still alive""'
"Y-yes…m-my dads a shop keeper…" he took a shaky breath as she finished the stitches on his arm and got to work on his chest, "m-me mum was a merchants daughter…"
"Do you have any siblings?" she asked, looking at one wound on his stomach with hesitance, she looked at Malfoy and motioned him to hold him tighter, " go get another bottle of whiskey," she said softly to Higgs, he quickly took off out the cottage while Luna continued to work on the other wounds, leaving the one on his stomach.
"I…I have a brother…G-Gregory." He whispered, "it still hurts…god it hurts…"
"Don't worry, I sent someone to get something for the pain." She said kindly, "you'll have to put up with it for just a little while longer."
"I'm gonna lose my leg…" he said, tears flowing from his eyes, a panicked look entering them, "I'm going to lose my leg aren't I…please don't cut off my leg, please!"
"I won't if I can help it Marius," she said softly, putting her hand against his forehead, "go soak a towel in cold water, he's burning up." she told the Zabini, who nodded hesitantly and ran off, grabbing a towel as he went, "Marius, I need you to stay calm, can you do that for me?'
"I…I don't want to lose my leg," he said, hysteria creeping into his voice, "I…I don't want…I don't…I don't…please…I don't…"
"Marius please, calm down," she said lightly, softly patting his uninjured shoulder, "if you start panicking, there's not much I can do."
"I got something better then whiskey," the man she had sent off said, running in with a small bottle of Opium along with a whiskey bottle, "luckily the barkeeper had it for special purposes."
Luna hesitated, looking at the bottle, "poor a little bit into a mug, and then add the whiskey," she instructed.
"Why not just give it to him straight?"Goyle asked.
"Because Opium is highly addictive, too much of it and he'll have a dependency on it, so it's good to dilute it first, also, some pain will do him good, and will help me know if something goes wrong."
"It also tastes gross." Malfoy said as he took the mug from the soldier and tilted it so Marius could drink it, he drained the cup and in a few minutes his eyes started to droop.
"Okay…now we can sew this one shut." She said, gesturing to the stomach wound.
"Is it that bad?" Malfoy asked.
She nodded grimly, "the damage is very severe, I can sew it shut but if he moves at all while I'm doing it, it could potentially kill him, the Opium will keep him from feeling most of the pain, but it'll still be uncomfortable, I need all of you to hold him still."
The five men took positions, holding down Marius as Luna started to sew the wound shut, every now and then he gave a cry of pain and tried to move, Malfoy and the others did all they could to keep him from moving as Luna continued to sew the wound shut, after fifteen minutes Luna straightened up, "alright, let him go."
The men let go of Marius, and the boy let out a soft grunt as he turned slightly to look at Luna with droopy eyes, "is…is it over…" he asked weakly.
She nodded with a smile, "you were very brave Marius, let me treat your leg and then I'll let you sleep."
Malfoy sat outside on an upturned rain barrel, looking towards the castle, they had sent Goyle to notify the night guard what had happened and their arrangements for the night, once they had been patched up, Zabini and the others went out into the forest again, , with intentions of burying the dead men of the ill-fated hunting party, Malfoy had wanted to help, But Zabini had waved him off, "you've done enough for us today…you and that girl…get some rest." So here Malfoy was, sitting on the barrel, lost in thought.
"Are you alright Draco?" a soft voice asked, making Malfoy stir a little, he looked over at Luna, who was standing in the doorframe of her cottage, her white dress covered In blood and bits of herbs, her eyes were tired but satisfied.
"I'm fine," he said, looking at her, "are you alright?"
"Oh I'm quite fine, a little tired, but Nott should be stable enough to be moved tomorrow, I think Marius should stay here a little longer, his legs pretty bad.
He nodded, "I'll let them know…thank you, for all your help."
She smiled, "what kind of healer would I be if I had turned you away?" she asked, sitting next to him.
He looked back towards the forest, "you should probably get some sleep…" he muttered, "you've had a long day."
"And you haven't?"
"I'm used to it…never ending battles, always fighting, you get used to it."
Luna smiled, "well, as a healer, I say that you need to get some sleep for your health, you can sleep on the floor inside if you'd like, Nott has my bed, and Marius is still on the table."
"Why is Nott in your bed?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, starting to stand up, "I'll go get him out.'
'No, I put him there." She said, pulling him back down, "he needs it more then I do, besides, if I didn't give it to Nott, then I would've given it to Marius."
Malfoy sighed, "you're too nice for your own good Loony,"
"That was good for you and your friends." She said happily, "If I were mean, you wouldn't be walking away with Marius and Nott."
Malfoy shook his head, letting a soft chuckle out, "whatever you say Loony."
"Luna." She corrected, "my name is Luna, it always has been, and I rather quite like my name."
He didn't say anything, just continued to look into the forest, something had caught his eye, he slowly stood up as he heard a rustling in the foliage; a pair of yellow eyes were staring back, glaring at him, "Luna, get inside." He whispered.
"What?"
"Get inside now," he whispered fiercely as a lone wolf slinked out of the foliage, snarling at Malfoy, it's eyes were fixed on him, but they soon darted to Luna, who had stood up and had slowly started going towards the door, the wolf howled and charged at her.
"NO!" Malfoy snarled, running at the wolf as he drew his knife, he met it in the middle of the field, it slammed into him like a rampaging horse, knocking his breath out as it brought him to the ground, it snarled in his face, lunging for his throat, Malfoy got a hand into it's throat and pushed back, keeping it far enough away so that it's teeth weren't an issues, it's claws, however, continued to dig into his arms and chest, he looked to the side and realized his knife was too far away to be of any use, "you mangy mutt!" he growled, slowly pushing the wolf off him, he would be damned if he died lying on his back, he kicked the wolf in the stomach and sent it flying back, he jumped up, ignoring the stinging pain in his arms and charged at it again, this time he caught the wolf as it jumped at him and slammed it into the ground, the wolf snarled and threw it's head back, trying to bite Malfoy's shoulder, Malfoy punched it and sank his own teeth into wolfs ear, the wolf let out a sharp squeal of pain and struggled out of his grasp, and bounded away from Malfoy, growling softly, it's hackles raised; suddenly, it moved it's eyes towards Luna again, who was standing in her doorway, watching the fight, the wolf easily jumped round Malfoy and ran at Luna, who instantly slammed the door in it's face and held it closed as it rammed into the door again and again.
"I'm not done with you!" Malfoy snarled, jumping on top of the wolf and getting it into a strangle hold, he wish he had the wit to pick up his knife before coming after it, but he couldn't worry about that now, instead, he tightened his grip on it's throat, making it choke and gargle in pain as he cut off it's air supply, he held it there for several minutes until it's struggling slowly died down, and it's eyes glazed over, soon it went completely limp in Malfoy's arms and he let go of it, kicking it away with a deep breath.
"Draco…" Luna's muffled voice came through the door, "Is it over?"
"Y-yeah…" Malfoy muttered, Luna walked out, her eyes widened at Malfoy's wounds, "Malfoy, you're hurt!"
"Thanks for pointing that out, I hadn't noticed." Malfoy said sarcastically as Luna ran inside and quickly grabbed what was left of the bandages and herbs and ran outside, she ripped open his shirt, revealing several gouge marks, "none of these have to be stitched, but they're deep." She muttered as she started mopping up the blood and applying herbs, Malfoy just sat there, blushing slightly by her boldness, as she worked, several voices could be heard coming there way.
"It came this way!"
"how could you let it slip through your fingers Montague!"
"It's not my fault! The damn thing was fast and my leg is still hurt!"
"Whatever we need to…oh god Draco!"
Malfoy looked up and saw Zabini and his men running towards him, "about time you lot got back." He said weakly as Luna put Yarrow into his wounds, making him wince slightly, ignoring his pain he glared at them, "what took so long?"
"That last surviving wolf showed, up, tried to attack, we ran it off and tried to track it down…it got away from us."
"And came right to me." Malfoy finished bitterly, glaring at the dead wolf.
"There's no markings on it…how'd you kill it?" Montague asked after looking over the wolf.
"Crushed its wind pipe." He said, looking at the gray wolf, "lost my knife when it first tackled me, couldn't find it, so I did the next best thing…"
"You…wrestled a direwolf…" Higgs said in awe, 'and won…"
"He also took a chunk out of it's ear, look." Montague pointed at the ear Malfoy had bitten, they all looked at Malfoy in awe.
"It was trying to bite Me." he said defensively, 'Ow!" he exclaimed as Luna pressed more herbs into his wounds.
"Sorry," she mumbled as she started wrapping his arms and chest.
"Draco Malfoy, Wolf slayer," Higgs whispered, earning him a slap from Zabini.
"We all have that title after today Higgs," Zabini said dryly, but looked at the dead wolf, "but this wolf seemed to really hate you Malfoy, it tracked you down just to try and kill you."
"That or it saw two humans and thought 'fresh meat'." Malfoy grumbled.
"Still, what are the odds that this particular wolf would find you the same night you helped us kill its pack?"
"A million to one I reckon." Montague said, then his eyes widened, "wolfsbane."
"What?'
"Wolfsbane, he's the bane of the wolves."
"Sir Malfoy Wolfsbane." Higgs mused, "gots a bit of a ring to it doesn't it?"
"Sir Malfoy Wolfsbane, the protector of healers and injured soldiers everywhere!" Montague said, laughing, Malfoy just groaned.
"You two are awful," Malfoy complained, "I don't need a title as ridiculous as that."
I rather like it," Luna said with a smile, humming as she finished
"It does have a ring to it," Zabini agreed, looking at Malfoy with a smirk, he walked into the cottage and came back out with five mugs filled with what was left of the whiskey, he handed everyone one, and then raised his, "to Sir Malfoy Wolfsbane, protector of us all!"
"Here, here!" Higgs exclaimed, raising his mug before downing it.
Montague inclined his slightly and took a drink; Malfoy just placed his mug on the barrel.
"To Malfoy," Luna said dreamily from Malfoy's side, drinking the whiskey.
"All of you can sod off." Malfoy muttered, though a small smirk was creeping onto his lips.