She kept her distance well, never allowing him more than a foot near her, though he was aware she would reach out to him, and he craved those moments. It meant some reprieve from the ache of not being able to reach out to her.
His days were a blur of strategy meetings, training his body and relearning quick duelling so that he would be formidable against his former peers. Speaking of formidable, he was in utter awe at Luna's abilities; he had suspected she was unstoppable based on the complete chaos and devastation he had found her surrounded by, often alone, but when she offered once to be his duelling partner for practice, he found himself cursed, hexed, near tortured more times than he could remember. She came equipped with potions and counter spells for every one, so he didn't suffer for long.
Luna moved like a dream. She was unreadable, she floated on her feet and her movements were unpredictable because of it. Somehow, she managed to bring her otherworldliness into her duelling, and that paired with her lethal use of spells, all silent, made her more frightening to Draco than before. But he loved her for it all the more, becuase he was less worried about if she would survive their suicide mission. If anyone had a chance to survive, it would be her.
Draco himself found that even if he attempted wordless magic, in the heat of the moment, he'd yell the intended spell which obviously got him caught with her perfect counter, often paired with some painful jinx or the other. The pain or discomfort only ever lasted a few seconds, and she almost always stared at him like she was drinking in his symptoms to see if he was okay. He took heart to that, he thought it could mean she still cared and not because they needed bodies, they needed numbers to fight, but because somewhere in there, she loved him.
On his fifth day, he managed an entire duel- which ended in his loss- without uttering a word. Luna looked impressed and when she pulled him to his feet, they stared at each other for seconds too long and Draco wanted to kiss her but he knew he couldn't.
He had found, behind his lean limbs, muscles began to spring, and his stamina enabled him to last longer in duels. He finally felt like he was ready.
He fell asleep every night in his too small bunk bed with an arm almost always slung over the side and fingertips trailing the floorboards, three beds down from Luna, and surrounded by the calm sound of sleep as one person remained on post to watch.
They had fallen asleep. All of them.
Draco woke with the sound of a loud bang, the sound of wood splintering and a flame blazing to life, then screaming.
"What the-" Granger was saying, but she was quicker than Draco and had already run into the hallway with her wand pointed. In a flurry of flashes, he heard bodies hit the floorboards and he had finally followed her to see about three men crumpled in sickening angles.
"Luna!" Draco whispered and he spun to look for her. She wasn't there in her bed where he had checked on her last. He watched her fall asleep on the nights it wasn't his or her duties and he saw her, so where was she?
"LUNA!" He yelled louder.
"Would you shut the fuck up," the Weasley girl was whispering as she cast a spell around her and Draco saw her limbs gradually disappear. "Go find her, but shut the fuck up."
"What's happening?" Draco asked the empty air.
"Seems like your master finally found us." Weasley said grimly and he heard her footsteps, or rather, saw the boards bend under her weight as she went after Granger.
Draco tried desperately to remember a proper disillusionment charm, but his brain was stupidly blank and he cast protective enchantments instead, walking boldly after Weasley into a landing of bodies; their own people and the mercenaries.
Draco's blood was cold in his veins and he felt exposed. Exposed because he had no sight on Luna, no idea where she was, though he knew she would be okay, and he wasn't dressed for battle. Bile rose in his throat and he lunged down the staircase, cursing silently one, then two mercenaries that barged through the open front door. Blasted in front door, that must have been the splintering sound.
Wasn't this place protected by the Fidelius Charm? Didn't this mean someone betrayed them all? Draco swallowed bile again and spun, his wand to his eye level, ready to curse or hex or kill anyone that stood in his way.
"Luna." Draco was saying, though cautiously because he didn't know who would come in behind him or who would be in front. He remembered with a jolt about the extra wand in the compartment of his arm and he flicked it into place, his index finger pointing listlessly at the floor for no reason.
Then he heard her scream and he was blinded. His body moved so quickly, he didn't know who he cursed to find her, but he found her, curled on the floor with- one of the Carrow twins, he couldn't be sure, twisting their wand on her writing body.
He didn't think.
A green flash burst from the tip of his wand, wrapped like spider legs around the twin's ribcage and they fell to the floor, leaving Luna heaving on the ground for only a second before she was on her feet again; her white hair in the dark room was clinging to her face in webs and her pink mouth was open in a gasp.
"Go!" She yelled and Draco glanced at her before he spun, cursed someone behind him and pushed forward into another room to find more mercenaries attacking the sick. He cursed them all with a flurry of wand movements and vindication tinting his mouth in iron so bitter, he had to try not to spit.
He heard her, Luna, behind him, shuffling in her dance like movements and her gasps of pain he knew came with extended exposure to the cruciatus, but he dared not look at her because the flying curses around them threatened to kill them both, and he would be her human shield until the end.
Granger and the Weasley girl came running into the infirmary, the six or so bodies or the mercenaries lay motionless or groaning on the floor, and to Draco's dismay, blood had begun to patter softly onto the floorboards, flowing freely from the beds.
"Fucking hell." He swiped his hand across his brow, his ears perked for any more intrusions. Granger immediately began casting protective enchantments as they caught their breath.
"Who's alive?" Luna asked, stepping up beside Draco and relief threatened to knock all of the wind from his lungs because beside the torture, she was whole.
"The rest of the Order were out tonight." Weasley explained and she flicked her wand, managing an otter shaped patronus that disappeared unconcernedly into a wall. "I'm telling them to not come back here tonight since we're compromised."
"Fuck, we lost them all." Granger was swiping her palm across her forehead which resulted in a battle paint type smear in what Draco thought was her own blood.
"Draco," Luna was close to him now and the fear within him dissipated just slightly, "You're hurt."
He looked to where she was prodding with her wand and found, to his surprise, a gash in his left arm just on the shoulder; it was seeping so much blood, he was sure he left a trail from wherever he had been.
"Shh." Granger whispered then backed slowly into a wall between the infirmary and stepped carefully over a dead body. She gestured for them to do the same and Draco obediently, with Luna at his side, pressed himself to the wall while avoiding the fingers of a mercenary whose motivation he would never understand.
Fenrir. He held his breath and he thought he could tell that everyone did the same. He peered into the room, inching forward, his claws for toenails scraping against the wooden floor as he sniffed curiously at the air.
"I know you're here, little piggies." Fenrir was whispering. "I can smell your filth."
Draco thought that was rich coming from a man- beast- who smelled like he wore death as a perfume and had to stop himself from huffing a breath in indignation and half amusement. Luna's hand clenched around his in a slow movement and he gripped her back slightly, scared that this meant more than it did and hoping it meant exactly what he wanted it to.
Fenrir's nose was outsmarted by Granger's ridiculous magic and he retreated after sniffing within two feet of them. They heard disgruntled voices and then nothing after what felt like hours. Their limbs, at least Draco's limbs, had become numb from retaining their upright position and pressed against the wall, so when he moved, he had to bite his tongue to prevent himself from audibly groaning.
When Granger, then Weasley and Luna cast their detection spells for signs of life and there were none, which Draco realised meant everyone but them had died, numbers he was scared to acknowledge, they grasped onto each other like they were life rafts in a thunderstorm at sea in thirty foot waves, and they were gone.
Weasley's face was streaked with clean lines where her dried tears had ploughed a path through the dirt on her face. Granger was stroking her back, Luna looked at them all and Draco sank to the floor.
"What the fuck happened?" Kingsley was demanding, even as he gathered them altogether, leaving Draco fixed to the floor and pointing his wand at him. "You sold them out-"
"Kingsley." Luna said in such a soft tone mixed with finality that Kingsley lowered his wand…slightly. "It wasn't him. Someone else maybe. Whoever it was is likely dead, and was possibly forced."
Kingsley shook his head and slowly folded himself into a chair. "We're ruined." he said and Granger looked up sharply at him.
"No, the fuck we are." She said firmly. "We need to get everyone. We're counterattacking tonight."
Kingsley lifted his head and nodded, standing with as much composure Draco thought the man could muster; because his hands were still shaking despite the determined expression on his face.
"Tonight." He confirmed.
"Tonight," Luna, Granger, and Weasley said in chorus. Draco felt incredibly out of place, but his wand- wands- pulsed in anticipation at his fingertips, because adrenaline coursed through him, Luna was safe, and he could kill anyone.