Pansy was pacing a track into the floor while twisting her apron into a wrinkled mess. She hadn't seen Draco for nearly a year and worried about his condition. His trial had been held early as an example to other students that had fought against the light. He had been sentenced and then put into the slave program before her trial had been held. She had felt fate had smiled down on her when Harry Potter had bought her once her slave training was finished.
Harry sat on the couch, nervously sipping a glass of Fire Whiskey. He felt the guilt of not being able to help Draco right away as keenly as Luna did. They had fought hard against the law, but many wanted to see those on the wrong side punished no matter the crimes. What had angered Harry and Luna the most was that many of the students they had gone to school with had been lumped in with the die-hard Death Eaters or were punished since their parents had died in the war. Pansy and Draco were among those that had received harsher sentences because their parents couldn't.
Since the Wizarding World had not seen reason, Harry and Luna, along with their considerable fortunes, had turned away from it. They were often asked to make donations to charities, but would only if the charity had been thorough researched and they decided that none of the money would ever benefit the slave law. As a result, only the orphanage that Harry helped to build saw any of their money.
They also declined all invitations to attend the various victory parties held in the months following the fall of Voldemort. They gave no interviews and it was near impossible to get a photograph of the two of them. Even their marriage had been quiet, with them venturing into the Muggle world to marry. There was a media storm when they had entered the Ministry to acquire Pansy. Funnily enough it was the fact that Luna and Harry had married unnoticed that was bigger news than the fact that two of the fiercest opponents to the slave law had bought a slave.
"Do you think he will be alright? I'm so terribly worried." Harry was worried as well. Luna had been nearly inconsolable when they were too late to buy Draco that Harry had feared for her safety. Her reaction to Draco's treatment had only confirmed his suspicions about her feelings for the blonde. Because of that, he was surprised that she thought getting married would be a good idea. It was a good thing they were good at keeping most of their secrets close to their hearts. Even Pansy didn't know everything.
"I'm sure it will be fine. He is stronger than we all think. Now he has a reason to continue living. Luna will be able to fix everything." Pansy was confused. Since being bought, she had noticed that Luna and Harry did not act like the typical married couple. They were not very affectionate, but she could see that they cared for one another, almost like a brother and sister. It seemed that they were not in love with each other, but they seemed alright with that.
Pansy jumped and Harry stood as the fire place roared to life and expelled Luna and Draco from the green flames. Harry rushed to help Luna keep Draco upright instead of tumbling to his face. He took Draco's other arm, making him flinch, and guided him to the couch. Pansy had covered her mouth in shock and a few tears were leaking from the corner of her eyes.
Draco, so disorientated from the floo travel while blind, was near panic as he was sat on the couch. Instantly he reacted by trying to drop to his knees despite his injured knee protesting again. "Masters." He bowed his head toward the floor and closed his useless eyes.
"Draco, you do not need to kneel. Please sit on the couch." Draco felt the soft hands that had been with him in the hospital take his own and help him to sit on the couch again. He was visibly trembling, but sat perched on the edge. "I must kneel as a sign of respect, Masters. Do you wish me to answer to Draco? Is that to be my new name?" Draco braced himself for the worst as he began to feel the tingles of angry magic radiating off of his new masters.
"I am sorry, Masters. What do you want of me?" Luna's rage was barely concealed, something Harry and Pansy had only seen a few times. Harry was nearing his breaking point, but needed to stay strong for Luna. Pansy looked like she was torn between crying and needing to hex someone or something. Draco sat perfectly still, expecting the worst for his disobedience.
Luna managed to get her magic under control and took Draco's hands. "It will be fine. Please leave Draco and me for a moment. Why don't you start dinner and we will be there in a while." Harry looked from Draco to Luna, gauging the situation. "Very well, love. Call if you need anything." Draco was surprised to hear two sets of footsteps leave the room. He was sure he had only felt two waves of uncontrollable magic.
"Draco, you are safe here. We will be calling you Draco. That is your name. Do you know who I am?" Luna rubbed gently over the backs of his hands, trying to calm him. She could feel his erratic pulse through his wrist. "I will answer to Draco. I do not know who you are." Luna didn't think he would remember, but she had hoped that he would think that she would find him. She leaned close to his ear, causing him to shiver at her breath ghosting across it. "I told you I would find you, Draco. I'm so sorry that it took so long."
"Don't you trust me, Draco? I always keep my promises." Draco looked into her bright blue eyes, drowning in the sea of calmness. "I do trust you, Luna. I can't say the same for everyone else. I will try to keep hopeful, but I feel everything is going to go badly. I don't want you to risk yourself for me. I'm not worth it."
"Luna!" Draco gasped, wide eyes looking wildly around. He gave her hands a squeeze and she let the tears fall. "I tried so hard to get to you, Draco. Harry and I protested fiercely against the new law, but we failed everyone. As a consequence, we were not able to purchase slaves for six months. By then you had been bought. I nearly killed Smith for what he had done to you. I'm sorry that I had to buy you to keep you safe."
Draco let out a breath he wasn't aware he had been holding and squeezed her hand tighter. He had been in love with Luna for ages, before the war ended. He didn't think that she would ever return the feelings, but had held onto his own love for her like a closely guarded treasure and it had kept him sane for many months. He wanted to tell her everything, but stopped as he felt the rings on her fingers.
"You are married?" Luna closed her eyes, wondering if this was the best time to talk about the subject. She would need to discuss everything with Harry first. Even Pansy was in the dark about their biggest secret. "I am. Harry and I married about 9 months ago." Luna's heart broke as Draco began pulling his hands out of hers. "I'm very happy for you, Master." Luna began crying in earnest, but Draco held his ground as the slave even though he wanted nothing more than to comfort her.
They were startled when someone came back into the room. "Dinner is ready, Luna. Shall I lead Draco into the kitchen?" Pansy looked between the crying face of Luna's and the defeated face of Draco, clearly confused by the turn of events. "That would be fine, Pansy. Thank you." Draco's eyebrows shot to his hairline at the mention of Pansy.
"Come, Draco. I will lead you to the table." She gently took his hand and led him to the kitchen where Harry was already sitting. "You may sit here. Harry is across from you and I will be sitting next to you. I will be back in a minute." Draco nodded and began feeling his way around the dishes in front of him. His former master had not allowed him to eat at a table, only on the floor in his cramped quarters.
"Draco, I hope that you will feel safe here. Luna can show you to your room after dinner. Did she explain everything to you?" Draco stared at what he hoped was his plate and fidgeted with his napkin. "Not everything, Master. Do I need to help with dinner? Serve you?" Draco made to get up, but was pushed back into his chair, presumably by Pansy.
Pansy and Harry exchanged confused looks. Luna should have explained everything to him. "Draco, you are only our slave on paper. In order to keep you safe, like we did with Pansy, we had to buy you. You are required to do nothing here. Pansy usually does the cooking just because her food is edible. Please do not call me master. You may call me Harry or even Potter." Draco felt Pansy rubbing soothing circles on his back, trying to calm him.
"I apologize, Harry." Draco paused, feeling off at calling Harry by his first name. "You wife and I had not got very far in our conversation." Harry wondered what they had talked about. "It's fine." Draco stiffened when Luna entered the kitchen and sat next to Harry. "I will let you two continue your conversation after dinner. I'm sure that Draco has all kinds of questions." Luna nodded at Harry, but said nothing. Draco had taken up staring blankly into his lap. Harry and Pansy shared nervous glances at the two, but nothing else was said during dinner.
Harry had offered to clean up the dinner after Luna had hastily excused herself and retreated to her room, leaving Pansy to show Draco to his room. Harry had been so sure that Luna and Draco would be happy to be reunited after all the heartache they both had been through. Unfortunately, it was obvious that something had happened while they were talking.
Harry was startled out of his thoughts when Pansy came back into the room. "Draco was most concerned that you and Luna were married. I believe that was the problem." Harry put the last dish away and then ran his hand over his face. He knew this would happen, and he wanted to share everything with Pansy, but needed to talk with Luna first. "I see. Otherwise, will he be alright here?"
Pansy had known that Draco would not be thrilled to find Luna had married Harry. Not only was Draco in love with her, but she had chosen his school enemy over him. "I think it will take a while to let go of some of the things he had been taught, but I'm sure I can help. Just don't get upset if he slips and calls you master or decides he needs to do some sort of chore. Luna needs to choose a cuff for him."
Harry glanced at the cuff adorning Pansy's wrist. It was more like a slim silver bracelet that declared the name of her master and the name that she was to be called. All slaves were given registration numbers, but it was their masters that had to give them names. Harry had chosen that one bracelet in particular to show that he was not going to be treating his slave like everyone else and had given her back her name, hoping to set an example.
"I am going to bed. I will find out what is going on with Luna. Thank you, Pansy." Harry stood and made his way to the top floor of the house. He and Luna had taken up the entire top floor, the only place that Pansy was not allowed to venture.
Harry entered the bedroom to find Luna sitting in her favorite chair and staring out into the dark night. "It's getting harder and harder to keep the secret. I know you love him." Luna allowed the tears to fall again. "He was so angry. I didn't think that he loved me back. But I suppose that you are in the same boat."
Harry let out a sigh, but nodded. "I think that now we have both of them here, we should tell them. We will need to keep up appearances, but in our home we can be ourselves." Luna nodded, but continued to stare out into the night. "I want to leave."
Harry crossed over to the window and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I know, but we can't. Sadly, our every move is watched because of what we believe. I'm sure there are people that follow us around, even in the Muggle world. We need to keep this going. I can't bear the thought of anything happening to Pansy or Draco because we acted too carelessly or without careful planning." Luna sighed in resignation.
