Luna had become good at coping.
She had nursed Ollivander back to some semblance of health. Well, he wasn't exactly in his prime, but he wasn't at death's door either, and she thought she deserved some sort of commendation for that. Especially when the resources she had been given were taken into consideration.
Maybe, mused Luna one night after a 'fun' time with Bellatrix, she should become a Healer rather than a magicryptyzoologist. After all, discovering new creatures was unlikely to help anybody. But healing? Luna had the sneaking suspicion that she was going to be doing a lot of damage in the months ahead, and she wanted to be able to help others. A sort of redemption, she thought.
She could be an Auror, Luna knew. She was DAMN good with her wand. Everybody had always underestimated her because of her, well, oddness, but Luna had easily learned everything she had been taught in the DA faster than nearly anyone. Hermione Granger. That's who had consistently beaten her out. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown had some spells they completely aced, and so did a few other Ravenclaws. Marietta Edgecombe, sad to say, had been a quick shot with a Petrificus Totalus. But overall, Luna was terrific at defense; better than Ginny in some areas, even. Other than Harry, Hermione was the only one to get a Patronus before Luna, and even then Luna suspected she'd had prior tutoring from Harry.
But what was being an Auror other than death and destruction? It was for a good cause, she knew, but Luna didn't have that inner hardness a job like that required.
THAT was how Luna coped.
She mused. She composed music, she wrote poetry, she drew on the walls in her own blood. Bellatrix had taken to using a knife rather than the Cruciatus lately, for which Luna was both grateful and regretful, and Luna supposed that if there was no way to heal herself, she might as well get some beauty out of the pain.
It had been just over a month since that terrible night, taking Luna to the beginning of February. It hadn't been nearly as extreme since that first session, Bellatrix no longer daring to hold the curse on for long. But still, each time Luna could feel her mind taking longer to rev back up to its usual status. She could feel some thoughts simply slipping away, could feel ideas slipping through the cracks that never had before. She had problems remembering simple facts; and living in dreams became easier than facing the real world. But she wasn't going to give up so easily!
Every night, when Bellatrix held the curse for just a few seconds longer, Luna could feel her mind starting to slip. When she would pull that terrible silver knife she was so fond of out of who-knows-where, it became just a little harder to remember who she truly was.
And so, that was the turning point in her relationship with Mr. Ollivander. Before, he had been completely out of it and she had nursed him back to life. Now, as he was recovering, Luna had begun to depend on him. When she would be sent back to her cell after a meeting with Bellatrix, and want nothing but sleep, Ollivander would say no. He would force her to reiterate her life story, and when she simply couldn't hold on anymore, he would talk to her. He told her about the family he had lost in the war against Grindelwald, and when that became too hard for him, he taught her wandlore.
Luna quite liked that. She learned about the seven hundred and thirteen materials originally acceptable for wandmaking. Most of them had fallen out of use for various reasons-extinction or immense rarity of the creatures the wands were made of. If they came from an incredibly dangerous animal, that also made it practically impossible to gather ingredients. The basilisk, who had sixteen separate body parts suitable for wands, was both savage and scarce. In fact, the last known basilisk was lying dead on the floor of the Chamber of Secrets. And upon hearing that, Ollivander of course made plans to harvest it as soon as the war was over.
He taught Luna everything he knew, and a few educated guesses he had never before revealed. Luna learned astronomy, astrology, algebra, and Mandarin Chinese. Once it was evident that she was picking that up quite quickly, Ollivander also taught her French, Spanish, German, Gobbledegook, and Mermish. She was fluent in all of those by the time of her release.
So she was learning all that and remembering it all, and yet her memories of who she truly was were just slipping away. Luna retreated into herself, living in a sort of endless night. There was nothing to punctuate the time passing by; it was always the same. Lessons, food, torture, over and over and over. More people came to cell after a time; Dean Thomas and a goblin. Dean provided someone to talk to; and she nearly rejoined reality. But it was too hard, and the emptiness simply continued....
Until one day, Luna was listening with a small fraction of her mind to a long involved tale about a wand made from dementor bone and lethifold skin; the darkest wand ever to exist. The Souleater. So she was hearing about that and struggling to get a hold on life, and suddenly Harry and Ron dropped into the room. She had heard some sort of commotion from upstairs but didn't know the source; and seeing her friends brought her hope back.