Chapter 3

"You have failed me, Draco Malfoy."

Draco stood, once again, in the dark, stone room. The night outside, which he could only just see through the single window behind Lord Voldemort, was a dark yet restless one, clouds rolling furiously in the ruthless breeze. His father stood on one side of Voldemort, though he was a considerable distance away from him, and his mother on the other. The fate seemed to rest heavily on Draco's shoulders; something he couldn't handle.

"Once again, your family have proved me worthless. They say it's wise to rid your life of those who trouble you, wouldn't you agree, Lucius?" He turned to Draco's father, who was frozen with fear, refusing to make eye contact.

"M-my lord...?" Lucius questioned, his words barely audible. A disgustingly evil smirk crawled onto the Dark Lord's lips.

"Ofcourse, it all comes down to you, Draco. You have betrayed me the most. So sit back and await your fate, Draco... I'll deal with you last."

Draco's blood ran cold. Every word the Dark Lord said was laced with sickly evil undertone, and Draco had to concentrate to stop himself from shuddering. Voldemort turned his wand on Lucius, who seemed to have noticed because despite his already rigid state, he seemed to have become even more tense. The Dark Lord's eyes flickered over at Draco for brief second, before looking back at his victim.

"Imperio," he whispered chillingly, casting Lucius under his full control. It didn't become completely obvious, but Draco knew it had worked as his stance had changed. Slowly... painfully slowly, Lucius wandered over to the other side of the room... towards his mother. Draco's anticipation turned into absolute fear as Lucius drew his wand from the cane, and pointed it straight at his wife.

"L...Lucius..!" Narcissa said, looking into her husband's dead eyes, begging him to come around.

"No..." Draco whispered, wanting to do something, willing himself to move, but staying nailed to the spot. Lucius stood there for a while, wand pointed at her chest, face cold as ice.

"Crucio," Lucius said venomously, watching unseeingly as his wife suddenly became alive with pain, her screams at him to stop echoing around the cold room. His wand followed her to the floor as she collapsed to the ground, the pain too much to handle but not enough to knock her out. Tears came out of her eyes, begging, pleading him to stop.

"STOP IT!" Draco cried. Neither of his parents seemed to hear, but Voldemort however, turned to him, his smirk curling into an even eviler smile.

"You want it to stop?" He asked all-too nicely. Draco felt himself go light headed as he realised he'd almost given permission to do what he was sure he was going to do.

"No... please... no-!"

"AVADA KEDEVRA," Lucius roared, cursing the woman into final stillness. Draco felt sick when the tips of his father's lips turned up, as if he was pleased with himself.

"Look at what you've done, Lucius..." Voldemort mocked, lifting the curse from him so Lucius could truly see. He immediately fell to his knees, and Draco sobbed at his father's helplessness. There was nothing he could do...

"You will join her, Lucius," Voldemort told him, smiling almost kindly. Lucius held his wives head in his lap, but shook his head at the Dark Lord's words.

"Please, my Lord..." Lucius begged. "I will do anything."

Draco's facial expression showed his complete shock and repulsion of his father's words... he was begging the man who had just killed his wife for his own life, offering him anything?

"Anything, Lucius?"

"Anything, my Lord," he confirmed, turning and bowing his head to him.

"Very well, Lucius, I will give you one more chance."

"I won't let you down my lord, thank-"

"If," Voldemort said, stopping his thankful rambles, "you kill Draco Malfoy."

Draco's eyes widened. Lucius looked at him with eyes that were not of a father's.

"This is the only way?" he asked. Voldemort nodded, and Lucius sighed, bowing his head once more before rising again, walking towards Draco with his head down. Draco shook his head in disbelief... his father's loyalties remained with the Dark Lord, not his own family? Tears fell down his cheeks as he whispered over and over, "no... no..."

As soon as he was in front of him, Lucius lifted his head to meet the gaze of his son once again, but his eyes dropped as soon as he met his son's pained ones.

"Draco," he whispered impatiently. "My boy... you must understand-"

"I don't understand," Draco said through clenched teeth, trying to keep back the tears. "I'm your son! You're only son!"

"It's the only way," Lucius muttered, more to himself. He took one step back, wand raised. Draco felt like his soul was already trying to leave him...

"Draco."

Lucius sighed, his lips moving soundlessly but stopping, trying to pull himself together. He looked coldly into his son's eyes, finding ways to hate him.

"Draco!"

"Avada Keda-"

"DRACO!"

Draco's eyes snapped open, staring into the eyes of Theodore Nott. His own breathing was heavy, his clothes damp with sweat. He closed his eyes, ashamed.

"Again?" Theodore asked simply. Draco nodded. Although Draco was never really close to anyone, Theodore was probably the closest he had to an actual friend, not a follower. And the only one who even had a vague idea that Draco was having these nightmares.

"I'm gonna take a walk," Draco decided aloud, sitting up in his bed. Theodore nodded, leaving him alone and drawing the curtains for him around his bed with a flick of his wand.

Draco got dressed into his robes almost subconsciously, not being able to escape the terror in his mind. The dream kept getting worse... recently it had been stopping after his father had killed his mother, which was already tormenting enough and Draco had often woken up in tears. But this... not only was Draco on the verge of death, the dream had shown his father betraying their family in order to keep his own life. He wouldn't allow himself to believe it could really happen, trying his best to block the dream from out of his mind.

He walked out of the common room, looking at the clock as he did and realised it was a few minutes past four o clock in the morning. As it was still on the verge of summer time, the sky was getting lighter already, and Draco guessed he probably wouldn't get in trouble for being out of bed at this hour.

He walked out of the dungeon and outside, being met by the cool morning air. It was a relief to him; it had felt so stuffy in the castle. The happy noise of the birds singing helped to calm him down, bringing him into a state of relaxation; a state that was suddenly taken away when a blonde girl skipped right into him as she turned the corner, shocking Draco's daydreaming state.

"Oh, hello Draco!" Luna said, as if it was perfectly normal for him to be there. He just stared at her, wandering why she was out of bed so early, also dressed in her robes. "Do you wake up this early too?"

"Oh... no," Draco replied, still a little dazed. "I just needed to get out."

"Get out of where?" Luna asked politely.

'My head,' Draco thought to himself, but audibly replied, "The castle."

Luna smiled understandingly, as if she knew what his real answer was. "I like to get up this early, especially in the summer. The grounds especially are beautiful in the morning," she said. "The sun's just rising now, but it's hard to see it from here. We can go and watch it, if you like? I often do. It can bring you a feeling of hope."

Draco frowned at first. It really was as if she knew what was going through his head, but knew the likelihood was that she could simply see right through him, or just that she felt he could do with a positive feeling.

"Why not," Draco said, earning a smile from Luna. She led the way back into the castle, but stayed side by side with Draco so they could talk.

"Oh, look! There's my ninky charm bracelet!" Luna said happily, wandering dreamily over to a statue of a thoughtful looking man and taking it off his wrist. Draco decided not to question what a 'ninky' was. "That was a clever place to put it," Luna said, confusing the Slytherin.

"What?" he asked, thinking that if she had lost it, she couldn't have put it on this statue without thinking.

"I often lose things you see, but they have a tendency to show up here and there around the castle. I never really lose anything that important, so it becomes a game. The nargles are very good at it."

"...the what?"

"Nargles. They're rather small creatures that tend to infest mistletoe, but they're also quite mischievous and it seems they have made a game out of taking my belongings and hiding them from me."

Draco felt a little guilty, knowing that in at least some cases some of the Slytherin's had stolen something of Luna's when she wasn't looking and hidden it, but she seemed very good at finding them again as she would be seen with the stolen object a week later.

"Why don't you try and hide your stuff from... the nargles?" Draco asked.

"It's all in good fun," Luna smiled. "It's actually quite rewarding. When I find the objects that have gone missing, I find myself very happy, like I've accomplished something."

Draco shook his head with the tiniest smile on his face at her weird manor. He found being around her strange; she treated him and everyone else she came across like a friend, and didn't even seem to care that he was a Slytherin who could really be quite horrible to her. However, he still didn't dare say a bad word, in fear that the only company he had in Care of Magical Creatures class would leave him.

"You're very quiet, Draco," Luna said, not in a horrible way – more like she was analysing his personality aloud.

"I just don't know what to say," Draco admitted.

"You can say whatever you like," Luna smiled. "Don't feel that you have to hold back. I think it's nice if you can say whatever you're thinking to someone. For example, I'm wondering right now if the moon frogs will still be out from last night. It's quite possible, the moon is still in the sky and it's full..."

Draco chuckled, thankful it was a chuckle and not a disgusted sounding laugh as it would've been in other circumstances. He felt like he was still dreaming, thought it was a nice dream now; it didn't make much sense but he felt so at ease.

"Moon frogs," Draco assessed. "Frogs from the moon?"

"Precisely!" Luna smiled. "Taken from their natural habitat though... I feel slightly sorry for them, but they seem quite happy here."

"I imagine there's more for them to do here, might be an exciting change from the moon," Draco quipped, allowing himself to smile.

"Ooh yes, you're right!" Luna agreed. "It might be like a one way holiday for them. I imagine it could be quite a nice change, once they've adapted to their surroundings."

"I dunno, there's a lot of difference from here to the moon. Like the whole... sun thing..."

"Hmmm that's interesting actually... the extensive change in weather and the transition from night to day here must be quite hard to get the hang off if you've been living on the moon your whole life."

"The earth must seem exotic to moon frogs," Draco said, finding it hard to believe he was actually having a conversation about moon frogs.

"We're like the Australia to their... oh no, I don't know many countries on the moon..."

Draco chuckled again, and even Luna laughed a little. They'd finally reached the astronomy tower, walking out onto a balcony to look over the school grounds.

"I think we're just in time," Luna said, just as a ray of sun leaked through the trees and hit the windows, reflecting a golden colour over the entirety of Hogwarts. As the sunlight splashed over the scene ahead of them, Luna gave a relaxed smile as Draco became genuinely absorbed in what he was seeing. It astounded and relaxed him at the same time, giving the same sort of feeling you get when you get in a hot bubble bath after a stressful day. The sun was rising slowly above the trees, and the way the rays of light came off the sun was even magical for someone from the wizarding world.

Draco looked over at Luna, who was now looking ahead, also enjoying the view. Her eyes weren't really squinting in the sunlight, but her heavy eyelids seemed to help block it, and, Draco noticed, she actually had quite long eyelashes, protecting her large, pretty eyes. As she looked out at the view, she looked slightly dazed, but Draco could tell she was happy. It was a while before either of them spoke, as their breath was truly taken from them.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Luna asked eventually. She was looking at him, but Draco's eyes were still transfixed on the grounds, nodding in answer to her question. He turned to her and smiled. He wanted to say thank you, but couldn't quite find it in himself to treat her with such strong kindness yet, kindness which still wouldn't match up to how she treated him. However, the smile seemed enough, as Luna smiled back and looked ahead again.

"It's things like this that make you realise life's not all that bad. If the days can still keep going, why can't we?"

Draco nodded again, and there was a little more silence, although it was more relaxed than awkward.

"You were right," Draco said finally, looking at her. Luna tilted her head slightly, asking silently what he meant. "About this... bringing you hope."

"I thought I would be," Luna smiled. "Thank you for accompanying me today, Draco! It was nice to share this with someone."

"I need to be getting back," Draco said, Luna's kind-heartedness beginning to make him feel alien. "I'll see you around."

"Goodbye, Draco," Luna said, the smile still lingering on her lips. Draco wondered how she could smile so easily at people; even when the world was cruel to her, she would show compassion to the world. It was something he was brought up to think as a weakness, patheticness. But in her, it seemed almost enchanting. There was finally light touching Draco's life, and he was in no rush to put it out.

A/N: I'm a bit worried that people are gonna start complaining that Draco's a bit OOC, but I just wanna point out that we never actually get to see how he reacts to being treated this way, and especially in the situation he's in, he probably would act a little different :P Please enjoy :D Reviews are loved!