Luna shivered. It was always freezing in the Malfoy's cellar. She had been a prisoner for almost two weeks, yet she couldn't seem to get over the constant chills. She supposed it was nighttime? That's what Mr. Ollivander had assumed earlier but, honestly, it was becoming more and more difficult to tell.
Luna heard the crack of the door opening and immediately froze. The door rarely opened; sometimes the Malfoy's would offer food, but Mr. Ollivander had warned her to always stay still when the door was open. Luna had pressed for more information but, to this matter, Mr. Ollivander stayed silent.
"Which one do you want?" A snobby voice said quietly. Another voice cackled; a voice Luna did not recognize but Luna instinctively tensed up.
"Didn't you get that weird girl? The one whose father was writing about supporting Potter?" A cold, shrill voice asked. Luna bit her lip. What did they want her for?
"The Lovegood girl, yes. Lovegood!" Mrs. Malfoy called out towards Luna. Luna stayed frozen.
"You! What was it, Looney or something?" The unfamiliar shrill voice slowly walked to her. Luna could hear her footsteps as they made her way to the corner that she was curled up in. "Are you deaf, girl?" Reluctantly, Luna lifted her head toward the stranger's voice. Luna watched a smile curl on her face. The stranger had wild dark hair and a look in her eyes that made Luna shake despite herself. There was something not right in her eyes; something dark in her look. A mad look.
"That's better." The stranger laughed and grabbed a hold of Luna's greasy blonde hair. She yanked hard and Luna gasped. "Stand, Looney!" Luna slowly forced her feet to stand, trembling as she did so. This wasn't right- something wasn't right.
"So, Lovegood," The stranger pulled Luna close, looking her dead in the eye. "Your father has a lot to say about that Potter, doesn't he?"
Luna glanced at Mrs. Malfoy, desperate enough to think that even she could help. Mrs. Malfoy refused to meet her eye.
"Answer her." Mrs. Malfoy mumbled.
"Well?" The stranger cackled.
"No." Luna said under her breath, softer than a whisper.
"You lie." The stranger yelled in her face, slapping her hard across the cheek. "Tell the truth, Lovegood."
"He…I'm sure he's stopped. He wouldn't once…once I went…" Luna's voice shook as she tried to desperately give an answer that this crazed woman would accept.
"Once you what?" The stranger laughed. "Once his little baby girl got stolen by the big bad snatchers?"
Luna felt a tear slide down her cheek. "I'm sure he' stopped."
"Well, he seems to know a lot about this Potter, doesn't he? Maybe…even where he is?" The stranger asked. "Well? Does he?"
"Does he know where Harry is?" Luna asked.
"Very good." The stranger nodded. "Well?"
"No, we don't, he doesn't, we don't know where Harry is."
"Well, I think you do know." The stranger grinned mockingly in Luna's face. "And you know what else I think? I think we are going to have a little chat and find out every little thing that your pretty little brain knows. Alright?"
"No!"
"Oh, God. Not again." Luna glanced around. To her surprise, she wasn't in the cellar at all. She was in the Ravenclaw seventh year girl's dormitory and she had four very tired girls glaring at her.
"Oh. I…" Luna stammered. The girl on her right, Mandy, rolled her eyes.
"Another nightmare? You got to get a grip Luna and stop waking us up every fucking night."
"I'm sorry…"
"We get it, you were in the Battle, so were we, okay? Get a grip." Kasey told her before pulling the covers back over her head.
"Maybe…I should just…um…walk around for a minute…"
"Maybe you should sleep in the common room." Mandy suggested coolly.
"I'll just…I'm sorry…"
"Let us know if you see a Nargle." Kasey taunted and the other girls laughed. Luna started to explain that was impossible because the Butterbeer cork necklace that she hung on her bed would keep Nargles away, but she figured this wasn't the time to explain. Cheeks hot in embarrassment, Luna quickly slipped her Converse on and raced out of her dormitory.
Luna glanced for a moment around her dormitory until she realized sleeping was going to be impossible at the time being. Without a second thought, Luna ran towards the door and stepped out of the Common Room. Breaking the rules was okay if you absolutely had to, like she did when they were in Dumbledore's Army, and Luna felt she had to walk around for a bit in order to feel sleepy. For the first time, she wished a Wrackspurt would fly in her ear because maybe if her brain was a bit less focused and fuzzier, she would be able to get some sleep.
Her brain had been too focused on one particular event lately.
Luna's eyes lazily glanced around the castle as she wondered. She had never actually deeply explored the castle alone, not since she outgrew sleepwalking. It was actually rather soothing to be in such a pretty castle without any of the students around taunting her, calling her "Looney".
Or worse, asking about what it was like in Malfoy manor.
"Draco tells me that you and that Potter boy were in some sort of army. Is he trying to restart that army now?"
"Well, I don't think so. It wasn't so much an army as just a class in a way. A class to defend ourselves from…to defend ourselves." Luna tried again to pull out of the ropes holding her down. She tried desperately to remember what her father had said about the special lightning bugs that could set fire with their eyes at will, but she couldn't remember how to summon them. They would have been able to burn the rope easily, although they might have also burned her so maybe it was best they weren't summoned.
"From the Dark Lord?"
"Well…"
"From the Dark Lord?!"
"I...guess…probably more from Umbridge…"
"So, he was plotting against the ministry?" The stranger pointed her wand directly at Luna's chin. Luna felt tears pour down her cheeks, she hadn't even realized she'd been crying.
"I mean…"
"Maybe you need a little help to remember." The stranger grinned and stepped back. Luna watched, horrified as she pointed the wand at her. "Crucio!"
"No!"
"Luna!" Luna snapped out of her thoughts right before she could run into the youngest Weasley. "What in Merlin's name are you doing out here so late?"
"Ginny." Luna tried to think of some reason why she was out of bed. "I was…looking for…Gulping Plimpies…"
Ginny smiled. "You said last week that they only existed in the forest. What would they be doing in here?"
Luna's eyes widened. Ginny had actually been listening while she talked about her creatures? She decided to turn the attention back to Ginny. "What are you doing out here?"
"Oh…well…" Ginny laughed. "You want the real reason?" Luna nodded. "Well…since Harry and I broke up, he's kind of taken this new role as an annoyingly overprotective older brother over me. I think he's spending too much time with Ron, frankly. Mum should not have let that kid move in. Anyway, Hermione kind of let it slip that every few nights Ron and Harry will check out the map and see if I'm okay."
"The map?
"Oh, they have this stupid map that let's them spy on people, it's really kinda creepy. Anyway, I decided to…uh…fuck with them a little bit so the past few nights I've been trying to break into the Chamber of Secrets just to mess with their heads a little bit." Ginny's grin grew bigger. "I'm pretty much just doing this until I get a goddamn howler from Ron or something. Just…ya know…why not?" She shrugged.
"The Chamber of Secrets?" Luna stared at her in surprise. "How would you break in?"
"Ya know, just do some snake talk or some shit…I don't know, it's kinda dumb. But anyway, don't change the subject." Ginny gestured toward the floor for Luna to sit down. She obliged. "I asked you what you were doing out of bed. Won't that ruin the intelligent, good student image you have going on?"
"I break the rules." Luna said defensively, not wanting to same lame in front of Ginny. The ginger raised her eyebrows and gestured for her to go on. "I was in Dumbledore's Army, wasn't I?"
"True." Ginny nodded. "You are a bit of a badass nowadays, aren't you?" Ginny gently shoved Luna.
"Yeah." Luna muttered a bit. She was having some trouble focusing in front of the beautiful ginger girl. Maybe she shouldn't have wished for that Wrackspurt. "I mean I'm not a nerd…"
"Never said you were a nerd!" Ginny said defensively. "No, you're just…you don't like to cause trouble. Meanwhile most of my family, as well as I, seem to be born to cause trouble."
"I don't like people to be upset with me." Luna muttered, a flash of the witch, that she had learned was named Bellatrix Lestrange, came to her head. She instinctively bit her lip. Ginny cocked her head.
"I don't know why anyone would be upset with you, Luna. You're so kind and you have such an original mind…"
"My 'original mind' seems to be the cause of some of my problems." Luna sighed.
"Oh, those people who tease you? Fuck them, tell me who they are, and I'll take care of them. I know hexes that would make Fred and George…" Ginny's suddenly froze upon mentioning the twins.
"Ginny, I've wanted to tell you. I'm so sorry about your brother." Without thinking, Luna grabbed Ginny's hand. Ginny smiled in thanks. "I know…I kinda know what that's like…I lost my mum when I was young…she actually kind of blew up, it was a spell gone wrong, it was super disturbing honestly there were just chunks going all over the place…"
Ginny was struggling not to laugh at Luna's honesty. "Luna, that's what I like about you. You say everything that you are thinking whenever you think it and that is just so refreshing."
Immediately Bellatrix reappeared in Luna's mind, the witch waving her wand and mouthing the words to initiate the worst torture Luna had ever felt. "I don't say everything."
"Luna, honey." Ginny said.
"What?"
"You're crying." Ginny murmured and quickly wiped a tear from Luna's cheek.
"Oh. Wow. Sometimes I don't even…I don't even notice…" Luna quickly wiped her eyes, embarrassed to be crying in front of probably the coolest girl in her year, the girl who dated Harry Potter himself…
The girl who would never notice a girl as strange as her.
"Hey, hey." Ginny quickly ran into the bathroom and came back clutching a sheet of toilet paper. "Sorry, I don't really carry around tissues or anything…" She handed it to Luna. Luna hurriedly wiped her eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Probably just some… Moon Frogs…" Luna spat out the first creature she could think of.
"Oh, have you gone to the moon recently? Because you said those were native to the moon." Ginny playfully teased.
Ginny had listened to her say that too? "You are probably the only person who listens to what I have to say." Luna confessed as tears fell quicker off her face.
"If that's true, then everyone else you talk to is an annoying git who doesn't deserve to listen to you." Ginny said fiercely. "But I feel whatever you are crying about is deeper than some arseholes who don't listen to you."
"I…I can't sleep." Luna admitted.
"Yeah, that is a problem." Ginny agreed. "Want to share why?"
"Well…you see…back at the…the manor…" Luna tried to explain but the tears were falling quicker, and she was struggling to get the words out.
"Luna, do you want, um…" Ginny seemed at a loss of words too. "My mum…I mean…when I'm upset I kinda…I like putting my head on her shoulder and like…if you want…"
Luna hesitated for a moment but than put her head on the taller girl's shoulder. She sighed as she felt Ginny take on her small frame. "Back at the manor…" Luna still couldn't get it out.
"You don't talk about the manor that much. Or even at all." Ginny seemed to be trying to get her to share. "Did something happen there?"
Luna froze and then it all seemed to hit her at once. Everything she had been holding onto for months, everything she couldn't tell her dad, everything she had been trying to forget just hit her like a wave. She gasped and started crying so hard she was sobbing.
If Ginny was even a little bit surprised or uncomfortable, she didn't let it show. Without words, Ginny adjusted Luna so she could wrap her arms around her and let the smaller girl sob into her.
"I'm…I'm sorry…" Luna choked out. Ginny patted her back.
"Shh…shh…don't apologize…it's okay, it's all okay…" Ginny soothed.
"She crucioed me!" Luna burst out suddenly. Ginny stopped patting her.
"Who? Fucking who? Point out this motherfucker I will stretch his-"
"She's dead." Luna told her.
"Oh. Good. That saves me a lot of time." Ginny nodded.
"Actually, your mum killed her."
"My mum? Wait, that bitch Bellatrix crucioed you?"
Luna nodded into Ginny's shoulder. "Multiple times."
"Multiple times? Merlin's arse." Ginny swore. Luna continued to cry, and Ginny just held onto her.
"It's okay." Ginny soothed. "She's dead, she's rotting in wizard hell, she can't hurt you anymore, okay?"
"Why are you being so nice to me?" Luna suddenly asked.
"Huh?"
"Why are you being so nice to Looney Lovegood?"
"I swear whoever gave you that nickname in the first place…" Ginny trailed off then nudged Luna to look at her. "I'm being nice to you because you tell it how it is and you're not afraid to be yourself. You're a badass in a duel, remember you were taking on that bitch with me, and when you care about someone you care with your whole goddamn heart. You're the…you're the coolest girl I know, honestly." Ginny said the last part rather quickly, but Luna still absorbed what she said.
"You think…I'm cool?"
"Yeah." Ginny winked. "And I mean…you're pretty cute too." Suddenly Ginny's cheeks were the same color as her hair.
"I think…I think you are too." Luna muttered quietly. Ginny beamed.
"Okay, look, I mean this is a really bad time and everything and like you're crying and talking about tough stuff and…ah, fuck it."
Suddenly Ginny leaned forward and kissed Luna. Luna was shocked but then she slowly leaned in and kissed the ginger back.
"Don't worry, we got this." Ginny whispered in her ear. "You and me. Nobody will fuck with us."
"Right." Luna giggled and kissed Ginny again. "No one will…fuck with us."