Summary: When let off from Azkaban on a second chance, Barty Crouch Jr becomes Xenophilius Lovegood's worst nightmare, back to haunt him and his daughter. In order to fulfil forgotten vows, an ex-murderer and a war heroine are brought together in unconventional circumstances, leading to an unexpected romance.

oOo

Tap, tap, tap.

It wasn't until the afternoon when Luna finally opened her eyes. The sun didn't appear to be shining anymore outside, and a mass of steely grey clouds had accumulated in the sky. It was getting later in the year now, and the promise of rain lingered in the air.

Tap, tap, tap.

Luna's head throbbed as her body grew accustomed to the feeling of being conscious. She pushed herself into a sitting position slowly, and rubbed her eyes with her fists.

Tap, tap, tap.

Was this what they called a hangover? She had never felt a headache like this—every nerve ending was pulsing and aching. Luna momentarily prayed that Barty would never ask her to drink like that again. Whilst the experience of actually being drunk had felt somewhat euphoric, the after effects certainly weren't worth it.

Tap, tap, tap.

What was that incessant tapping noise? Bracing herself for the impact of daylight streaming into her pupils, Luna shot a glance over at the large window.

Suddenly, her heart swooped with relief. Sat on the window ledge outside was the large owl, clutching an envelope in his beak. Luna temporarily forgot about her pounding hangover and dived away from the bed to wrench the window open. As soon as it was given entry, the owl hopped inside the bedroom, dropping the envelope on the floor by her feet. Luna scooped it up excitedly, and hurried back over to her bed.

As she was beginning to carefully tear open the envelope, the bird fluttered onto her bed and hooted up at her, clicking it's beak expectantly. "I don't have anything for you," she told the owl, trying to shoo it away. It pecked at her fingers gently, and Luna threw the envelope aside. "Oh, come on then," she muttered. "I'll take you to your cage."

The bird jumped onto her arm as she stood up, clutching at her skin with his talons, and she slowly tip-toed down the stairs to Barty's room. As she placed her free hand on the door handle, she hoped desperately that Barty hadn't been inside and discovered that the owl was gone.

Her heart gave another relieved lurch when she saw that the bedroom was indeed untouched. It was still as clean and neat as it had been since she had tidied it the day before. Feeling thankful, she crossed over to the window, and deposited the owl back inside it's cage, hurriedly padlocking it back up.

She smiled back down at the bird once it was safely locked up once again. It was like it had never even happened. As the owl began to dig into the owl seed that Luna had replaced the tray with yesterday, she left Barty's room and rushed back upstairs.

Tap, tap, tap.

Luna looked straight across to the window, and to her shock, she discovered that there was another, fist-sized owl fluttering around behind the glass. She ran across to the window and opened it once again, and the owl jumped inside, looking up at her proudly with an envelope in it's beak.

She recognised the tiny bird—it was Pidwigeon, Ron's owl. She stroked Pig's feathery head gently, and took the envelope from it's beak. Instead of nagging her for a treat, he decided to commence swooping around the room manically, tittering at the top of his tiny lungs.

Luna threw herself down on the end of the bed and studied both of the envelopes. After analysing the handwriting on each one, she knew that the one featuring small, neatly-joined script belonged to Ginny, and the second one boasted the tall, slanted handwriting of her father. Taking a deep breath, Luna chose to open the one that belonged to her father first.

Dear Luna,

You did not have to lie to me, sweet child. I know you are not as safe as you proclaim to be. Only a day before your letter arrived, The Weasley family arrived at our home in Ottery St. Catchpole. They wanted to know if you had returned home, as you had vanished from The Burrow during the night.

Please darling, give some sign as to where you are. I contemplated sending an owl to you before you had written to me, but I didn't want to risk putting you into unnecessary danger. I am no longer at our home in Ottery—at your request, I have left England and relocated.

Where are you, my darling? Please let someone know, so that you can be saved. You can join me out of the country—we will be safe, then. I promise you. If he has done anything to cause you harm then we can contact the Ministry at once, and he will be sentenced back to Azkaban.

I love you dearly,

Your father,

Xenophilius Lovegood

Luna's eyes sparkled with tears when she finished reading the letter. It was so sad for her to see just how worried her father was about her welfare. She automatically felt terrible for lying about her safety in her first letter—she should have known that the Weasleys would have made an impromptu visit to her family home. Some of her closest friends were staying there, and Molly would have been worrying desperately from the moment that she discovered an empty bed.

Her intention had been to ease her father's pain by lying to him about her safety, but she knew now that she had probably increased it. He would be sure that she was in danger now, particularly if she had felt the need to lie to him.

For the next several moments, she read and reread the letter several times, tracing her finger over the carefully written lines and letting her tears spill down her face. Her father was often difficult to live with, and he hadn't been as great at taking care of her as her mother had, but she did love him with all her heart, and she knew that he only wanted the best for her.

She wiped her eyes and nose with her sleeve, and carried both of the letters to the floor. She dug around in her rucksack until she found her writing supplies, and set to writing a prompt reply to her father. As she looked over at the hooting, happy owl that was whizzing around the bedroom at top speed, she inwardly thanked Ginny that she had sent Luna a letter. With Pig came the opportunity to send letters without using Barty's owl, and that filled her with so much relief.

Dear Daddy,

I'm so sorry I lied to you. I just wanted you not to worry about me, so that I wouldn't cause you any pain—but I know I may have made it worse for you.

I am safe, I promise you. I am with Barty Crouch, but I am safe. He keeps me comfortable in a nice bedroom, and he doesn't hurt me. He works at the Ministry and I am left to my own devices throughout the day.

I am glad you're staying out of the country. Please don't tell me where you are—it's safer for you if you keep it to yourself.

This may be my last letter for a while. I miss you so much. Please don't worry about me too much.

Love, Luna

Luna folded the reply to her father back up quickly before she could change her mind about what she had written to him. Giving her tear-streaked face another wipe with her sleeve, she moved onto the letter that was from Ginny. It was thicker, giving Luna the impression that it was probably a much longer letter.

She slid the letter out of the envelope, hoping that Ginny's words would provide her with a little more comfort.

Luna,

WILL YOU PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU'RE ALIVE?!

You stupid, stupid girl! I can't believe you just vanished from the Burrow in the middle of the night with no word of warning! We are all beside ourselves, wondering if you're okay or not. There was absolutely no trace of you in Percy's room when we went up to look for you the next day, so we're all expecting the worst! We've searched for miles around the Burrow looking for you—we even went to your father.

Oh Luna, he told us everything. He explained about this Vow thing, and the connection to Barty Crouch Jr. As you can imagine, Harry is really, really angry about the whole thing. He's already had a meeting with Kingsley, trying to get the Azkaban release revoked, because of the Carrows and Barty especially, so this is just adding more fuel to his cauldron.

After we figured out that you have probably been kidnapped by Barty, Dad made some enquiries about Barty Crouch at the Ministry. I don't know whether you're aware or not, but he's working there now, and some guy called John Dawlish is a WatchWizard for him. Dad didn't tell Dawlish about the Vow, but he talked about you, and Dawlish seems to be aware of the connection between you, and mentioned the Vow. He said that the Ministry can't act unless you were taken against your will. We asked if he had seen you on his visits to the Crouch house, but he said no. He wouldn't give us an address for him, either.

Were you taken against your will? Did he kidnap you, Luna? You can tell us, you know you can. We can help you put an end to this immediately if he did!

However, now that we know he works at the Ministry, everyone is going to do everything they can. Obviously, Dad is there all the time, he's going to keep an eye out, and we wrote to Percy and he said that he would do what he could too, seeing as he's working with Kingsley nowadays. Harry and Hermione are spending a lot of time there too, so they're going to do what they can. You might be wondering about Ron—he's decided to put off his Auror training to help George out with the shop.

Bill and Fleur have offered their services too. They're going down there this week—they have to register their marriage seeing as they had no time to do it last year, so they're going to the Administration Department, or something like that. They might be able to ask about him and see what he's getting up to.

Please try not to worry too much. I won't let you in on a lot through a letter, in case I put you in danger—but Hermione thinks she might have come up with a great plan, which we are going to put into action as soon as possible. Even though we don't know where you are, Dad is pretty sure that the Crouch family lived north of London. Someone in his department visited Crouch Senior about twenty years ago, and even though he doesn't remember where it was, he said it was definitely a Black household before it belonged to the Crouches. Harry is pretty sure that there will be records of all the houses that belonged to the Blacks at Grimmauld Place, so he's going down there this week to dig them out and see if he can find an address for a house passed to the Crouch family.

I hope to Merlin he hasn't hurt you, or I swear I will kill him!

So, we're staying on top of things. As you can see, I've sent Pig with this letter. Ron isn't that fond of him anyway, and to be honest, I think you need him more right now. If there is an owl wherever you're staying, I'm pretty sure you won't be allowed to use it, so Pig can be of service. He's small enough to hide up your jumper, too.

Stay strong and try to write to me as often as you can.

All my love,

Ginny and family

Luna was breathing heavily by the end of Ginny's letter. She hadn't been wrong in thinking that Ginny and the rest of the Weasleys would be worrying about her. It was just the type of wonderful, caring people that they were. Whilst she did initially panic about the prospect of her friends poking around the Ministry for further information on Barty, she decided to put it to the back of her mind for now. Surely her friends wouldn't be stupid enough to rush up to Barty and start accusing him of things.

But even though she was absolutely sure they wouldn't go about it that way, she couldn't help but feel that something bad was going to happen.

Pig's hooting brought Luna's attention back to the moment, and she looked over at the bird, which was hopping around her on the floor. "I'll have something for you to send back in a minute," she assured the bird. She glanced at the clock on the wall, which read that it was two o' clock. Barty would be home by four, and she was sure that he would be expecting her to prepare dinner again.

Scanning over the letter from Ginny one more time, she grabbed another sheet of parchment and dipped her quill in the ink, preparing to write a letter to her best friend. She did her best to keep the letter short, as Pig was becoming impatient. She assured Ginny that she was perfectly safe and there was nothing dreadful to worry about, she apologised for causing them all such a great deal of worry, and told her that she had decided to willingly accompany Barty back to his house. Before folding the letter up and sealing it in an envelope, she added a final note to insist that Ginny only sent Pig with letters through the day, to ensure that Barty wouldn't find out she was communicating with people.

Finally, Luna had two envelopes in front of her, one with Xenophilius Lovegood printed on the front, and the other with Ginny Weasley. She gave Pig another gentle stroke, and he picked up both of the envelopes, clamping down on them protectively with his beak. He gave one final, muffled hoot, and fluttered up the window, soaring away from the house.

Luna allowed the feeling of relief to seep over her. Things seemed to be looking up. Barty had been—well, not horrible - the night before, and he hadn't found out about Luna using his owl. Ginny and her family seemed to be stirring something up to try and get her out of this situation, and while she was a little worried about what they might do, she tried to convince herself that they wouldn't make the situation worse. But best of all, Ginny had sent Pig. That meant so much—she could communicate with her friends and whoever she liked, and Barty didn't even have to know about it.

After she stuffed her belongings back into her rucksack and put it back into the corner of the room, she threw herself back down on her bed, sighing gratefully.

She only hoped that things would continue to get better from now on.