It was time to face a supposedly insane and notoriously quick-tempered wizard who frightened most of the population of magical Britain. Again.

Chapter Two - Ribbons

Only things once again did not go as planned.

Luna moved to unlock and open her office door, revealing far too many eyes as curious partygoers joined in with the three people at her door to stare at her. She twisted her body to the side, intending on slipping out to take on the irritated wizard facing her. Only she didn't get very far before said wizard roughly pushed her back inside, growling something sarcastic and mean to the people watching.

The last thing she saw before her office door shut again was Percy and Hermione both reaching for the handle. Too late.

"Ah, ah, ah," the dark-eyed wizard mocked as he slammed the door. "Little Luna and I need a private chat."

Barty Crouch Jr. turned on his heel, his back leaning against the door as he ignored the knocks sounding on the other side.

He was pissed. That was evident even if Luna wasn't someone who, fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, knew the different tics and movements on his face well enough to catch it.

She knew his emotional swings better than anyone still living. A title she had never wanted to hold. It was the result of her time in locked away in the cellar of Malfoy Manor when the then current and exuberant Death Eater Barty Crouch Jr. had been the one to keep her alive and relatively unharmed. A stint of care that had come with a cost for them both.

Lying about the truth of what happened in the cellar had been surprisingly easy. Her friends hadn't suspected the real reason the Death Eater had sworn allegiance to their side. Sometimes she wished she had been more honest with them instead of hiding to focus on what she thought were more important things. If they knew...

He was obviously manipulating her and using their shared secret to his advantage. It was the only reason she had agreed to hire him on. Lying was easier these days; her friends hadn't suspected her real reasons at all. Which Luna supposed was working well for him since he was the one she selected to fill the open position at Quibbler Publishing. What Barty didn't know yet was that this arrangement would work in both of their favours. Eventually.

With hands shaking more than she liked, Luna turned her back to the dark wizard and moved to put a small basket filled with all sorts of brightly patterned ribbons on her desk. The original excuse for taking her pause when she had seen him darken the doorway of her beloved shop.

"Is this where you're hiding?"

That word. It bothered her and he knew it.

Luna looked over to see Barty leaning against the newly locked door, ignoring the frantic sets of knocks on the other side. Hermione could be heard the loudest as she ushered whoever else was crowded around the door back to the party and called over George Weasley to guard it.

Barty grinned as they listened from the inside and waggled his eyebrows. "Fiesty thing, that one is."

Another distraction. Luna tilted her head to one side and said nothing.

Now that she was feeling at least bold enough to really take a look at him, she could see how different he was.

His face was gaunter than she remembered. It made his sharp features poke out more and the intensified the look of his hawk-like, dark eyes. His hair was a bit longer and less smoothed back then it had been before and the stubble along his jaw was definitely new. He wasn't as unkempt as the madman she'd fist encountered years ago nor was he the polished and refined Pureblood, deadly in his power.

This was something altogether different.

She started to ask him what has changed, curiosity taking over all other emotions until she saw his face shift into his usual smirk. Half mocking, half leering it was a grin that unsettled her. Made her feel vulnerable again, as so often Barty had a knack of making her feel. Seeing the look of his face made her close her mouth again firmly.

She moved to the opposite side of the desk, hands fumbling for the basket of ribbon again. A piece of a memory surfaced reminding her that Barty wouldn't hurt her but that wouldn't stop him from playing with her emotions. Deep breaths. Center.

Continuing whatever game was currently amusing him, Barty unfolded and refolded his arms, the well-tailored look of his dark robes a contrast to his current appearance.

His eyes roamed over the details of her office, pausing at each bookshelf, table, succulent, decoration before finally, he inspected her now yellow desk from afar as if he was memorizing every inch. She stood stiff and still as Barty continued to survey her office, his gaze tracing the windowsill behind her desk and the collection of charms hanging from a copper branch off the ceiling.

At last, his eyes met hers, the smirk returning before he made a show of slowly trailing her body with his heated look until his gaze reached hers again. Heat filled her cheeks and in a desperate need to hide the growing blush, Luna ducked back down to where she was laying out specific ribbon spools on her desk.

"I'm not hiding. They need ribbons for the wrapping. Lavender is managing the gift wrapping station all alone so I better get these out to her before-" A loud scoff stopped her rambling before it even started.

It was a weak explanation. Luna knew that and knew that Barty did too. Anyone else might have let that sort of avoidant answer slide, but not him. Never him.

Luna ducked down her head to do anything other than look back at him as she waited for him. He would call her out on her answer. He always did. The wizard had a way of making her feeling fumbling and foolish like no else did. Luna hadn't quite figured out if that was a very bad thing or a possibly good thing yet.

With ease, Barty pushed himself away from the door, plucking an unseen bit of lint from his sleeve before flicking it away. He moved a few steps closer, his anger replaced by a casual air. This was a Barty back in control. Something about his demeanor calmed Luna, this was a side of him she knew well enough to navigate.

Barty spoke soft enough that she had to lean forward a bit to hear him properly. "You have staff for menial tasks like that, don't you? Merlin, you could even order me to do since I'm barely more than an apprentice here. You wanted to hide. Admit it."

Luna swerved around his original point instead, not ready to give in to his constant demands for her unwavering honesty around him again. "You aren't hired yet. You weren't even supposed to be here. I told you that we would meet tomorrow, after the party, to sign the papers." It was brazen to talk to the volatile wizard like this, she knew that but the words spilled out anyway.

As expected, her reply earned her another glare. Barty took another menacing step forward this time with a malicious smile returning to his thin lips. She stood still.

After a pause, Barty rolled his eyes and sighing a bit too dramatically when she didn't react. Another game they had played before. "I didn't appreciate your half-formed reply shot off through the Floo. So I came… tonight. Consider me early for my first shift, then." He then made a grand gesture of a mocking bow.

Luna kept silent, pressing her lips together to hold back any ill-thought-out reply.

It made his glare darker, his voice deeper. The next steps he took across her office brought him much too close to her. "I either work here officially or I'll stand outside your shop door and make sure no one ever wants to come in. You choose, little Luna."

It was in conversations like this that came up far too often with Barty that Luna wished she could be more like her other friends. She longed for the hot-headed reactions of Ginny or the quick retorts Hermione used. They never seemed to be as bothered as she felt when pushed. And Barty liked to push. He had since the first day she met him and continued to do so in this case, ramming right through normal social barriers as if they never existed for him.

He never seemed deterred by her strangeness and that bothered her most of all.

In recent years, she'd come to rely heavily on it. The odder she acted, the more she was left alone. No one pressed her for more, blaming it all on her eccentricities. A trick that worked back in her school days and even now, years later, as her friends and strangers alike saw her as Loony Lovegood. No one asked why she would run off for sudden trips to find creatures she wasn't sure if she believed in anymore. No one prodded when she rattled on about hidden magics instead of answering uncomfortable questions. Most of all, no one came to bother her at home or when her office door was shut as her pauses and time away from others all added to the oddness she used now as a shield.

Barty didn't seem to care about that. He hadn't in the Malfoy's cellar when she tried to make him go away by talking incessantly about the mating habits of crumple horned snorkacks. Or when she went dead silent, hoping her blank expression would deter his interest in her but each day he returned with a fresh supply of food and water and not a care in the world for her tricks to push him away.

Maybe it was because he was a known madman himself, but he never even acknowledged her oddness. He pushed. He prodded. He invaded. Despite it all, Luna found herself grateful for it, the twists in her gut he made her feel by focusing so closely on her at least felt like something. It broke through the numbness that took over more and more of her days.

"It's just ribbon," she said, hearing the uncertainty in her own reply. "I'm not hiding. Pausing to get some ribbon. Nothing more."

He scoffed. "You can tell yourself that all you like. It's shite. But go on lyin' if you want."

With that he took three wide steps forward, snatching several of the ribbon spools none too gently off the desk. "Come back out and play hostess, witch, before your dim-witted friends finally catch on that you aren't as well as you pretend to be."

As he pulled the door back open, Barty turned to offer her another cruel, twisted smile. "Three weeks at full-time hours should make the Ministry happy and get me access to my vaults and deeds. And then I'll make sure we never have to cross paths again."

The door shut again with a loud thud, cutting off the sounds of the party again. A breath she didn't realize was stuck inside her chest released.

Three weeks. Luna Lovegood knew enough about herself by now that she could get through nearly anything for three weeks.