There was yet another collective gasp. The old man on the podium turned his beady black eyes on Draco.
"Is this true?" Draco hesitated, glancing at Luna, who continued to smile at the old man, before turning back and nodding. The old man then turned to Luna and nodded.
"Very well, Ms. Lovegood. Do proceed." Luna's smile continued to stay, and Draco wondered if it ever hurt her face, or if her lips were simply stuck like that.
"Very well, thank you," she said, "I think it would be best to tell you what happened while I was at the manor, should I? There are certain things I know Draco wouldn't want me to tell you, since he made me promise not to tell anyone, but I think the situation calls for it, don't you?" This question was appointed to Draco, who gave her a slight, weak glare.
"You'd better not, Lovegood," he growled lowly, though several people caught it.
"You'll thank me later, Draco," she assured him, smiling. Always bloody smiling. Draco continued to glare before letting out a breath, too tired to be a sigh, and ducking his head once again. Luna smiled and turned back to the old man, taking this as a cue to move on.
"Alright," she started again, "I'll start at when I first came to the manor. A few Death-eaters caught me and brought me there, and it wasn't very pleasant, you know. There certainly was a large amount of blood…"
Luna's bare feet touched the floor lightly. A man in a skull mask and dark black robes had a painfully tight grip on her right arm, and the other to her left held on to her wand. In front of her stood a woman she instantly recognized; Bellatrix Lestrange. Her dark hair was curled and piled atop her head in a crazy pony tail, her face white and black makeup smudged a bit around her merciless black eyes. Bellatrix smiled crookedly at the younger girl, stepping a bit closer.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't that old coot's daughter… Loony, was it?"
"Luna," she answered shortly. Her smile wasn't present at the moment, her eyes a little more acute than usual. Bellatrix cackled before running a few skeletal fingers along the side of Luna's face.
"Right," she drew out, fiddling with a lock of her hair before dropping it and smirking, "Now what fun we'll have with you, eh? Where's Harry Potter?"
"I haven't the slightest idea," Luna answered breezily, smiling a bit at the mention of her friend. Bellatrix's smile dropped a bit, her eyes hardening. She pointed her crooked wand in the girl's face, so close Luna had to cross her eyes to look at it.
"Don't toy with me, girl," she snapped, "and what are you so happy about? Wipe that smile off your face!" Instead, Luna's smile widened slightly, and she looked away at the walls, which had a few family pictures of unknown people on them as she responded to the obviously rhetorical question.
"Harry is our hope," she said, turning back to Bellatrix, still smiling, "Nothing you can do can take that away. Harry will win. I don't know where he is, but wherever he is, I'm certain he's finding a way to take down You-Know-Who. And he'll do it, too." Bellatrix snarled and began to raise her wand.
"Why you stupid, arrogant little-"
"Bell!" The woman turned, as did Luna, to see a woman with long, straight dark hair with streaks of white in it standing with her arms crossed. She was shaking slightly, but her face was stern.
"Please, have a little more self control," she whispered harshly, "I will not have any more blood on my carpet." Bellatrix snarled and walked up to her, standing inches from her. She leaned forward to that her lips brushed the other woman's ear.
"Like you have a choice." The other woman was still, and Bellatrix turned to the Death- eaters holding Luna and jutted her chin out at them sharply.
"Take her to the cellar. Give the wand to Draco, and when you find him, tell him to give the prisoners their food."
"Bella-" the other woman warned, and Luna pretended not to listen as the Death-eater gripping her arm began to shove her past, down a hall in front of her.
"We're in a war, Cissy. It's about time you realized you can't protect your little Drakey anymore. Of course, being you, you never could." The voices of the two witches faded as The Death-eater lead her- well, more dragged her- towards a door at the end of the hall. Once he opened it, he lit the tip of his wand and began to follow her down a set of rickety stairs.
The other Death-eater with her wand had disappeared already. At the bottom of the stairs, the Death-eater unlocked an iron gate and shoved her inside before slamming it shut and locking it again. Without a word, he went back up the stairs, taking the sickly light of his lumos and leaving her in pitch black.
"And in all this time, Ms. Lovegood," the old man began, "Did you ever actually see Mr. Draco?" Luna smiled and rose up a bit on her feet before dropping back down.
"Oh yes, I was just getting to that."
Luna sat in the dark for who knows how long. Olivander was nice, but he was old and hurt, so he wasn't much comfort. At the moment he was asleep under a thin, torn blanket. Luna sat wondering about her father and friends when suddenly she heard a creak and rose. A faint light lead her back to the iron gate and she spotted someone just as they closed the gate behind them.. His eyes lifted and met hers, and it was only then that Luna recognized the person as Draco Malfoy.
He looked a lot worse than when she'd last saw him; they hadn't known each other very well while at Hogwarts other than when she occasionally saw him in the hall, or he jeered at her with his friends.
"In all that time at Hogwarts, did Mr. Malfoy ever physically assault or attempt to harm you in any way?" the old man interrupted again. Luna blinked.
"No, I would have remembered if he did something like that," she said simply, and went on.
His face was extremely pale, even more so in the poor blue light from his wand, and he looked almost twice as skinny as she'd last seen him; his suit fit on him loosely, and his usually nice, oiled blonde hair was in slight disarray. His silver eyes were slightly darkened and had a haunted look to them. Luna tilted her head at him.
"Hello, Draco Malfoy." His eyes widened at the sight of her.
"Loony Love- er, Luna Lovegood. They got you too…" Luna tilted her head again.
"You don't seem very happy about it." Draco shook his head, as if shaking away his shock, and gave a small snarl, though it was lacking from what it was usually when they were in school.
"You think I would be?" he hissed. Luna gave a small shrug, her eyes straying from him to the walls.
"That woman Bellatrix seemed very happy about it." Draco's face twisted in disgust.
"Yeah, well she's insane." He seemed about to say something else, but refrained. Luna turned back to him and smiled.
"I'm not crazy like her, Draco. You know that. But neither are you." Draco scoffed again, avoiding her eyes. He set the silver tray holding two bowls of what looked like slosh in them on the ground and swiftly turned.
"You don't know anything about me, Lovegood." He started for the gate and was halfway out when Luna called out to him.
"No, but I would very much like to." Draco paused before continuing, the blue light snapping out into pitch black again and the iron gate slamming shut.
I would appreciate reviews and critiques.