Chapter Fourteen "but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled" Song of Solomon 5:2

"Oh yeah, you fucked it up really well. Even now that she's rid of Roy she wants nothing to do with you," Hermione said unsympathetically when Draco relayed what happened to Hermione. "You can't say that you don't deserve it."

"For goodness sake! What's this bullshit about 'I don't like her enough for it to be worth her while'? I saw her three times in one week before everything blew up in my face again. Doesn't that tell her something?" Draco fumed.

"Yeah, you wanted to get into her knickers really badly," Hermione said flatly, "taking into account your reaction to her owl or rather - total lack of it!" Draco glared at Hermione, his gaze furious. Hermione always found his colourless stare un-nerving when he was angry. Not as un-nerving as Severus' smouldering fury but bad enough. "You don't see it from her point of view. The way it looks to her is that she was good enough for you when things were okay but the minute things got really rough, you didn't want to know her. That tells her that you don't trust her or think she's important enough to share your troubles with or even that you want to open up to her. All that then leaves her to be is a sexy diversion in your life and I don't think she wants to be only that to you. I think she's probably dead tired of men only wanting that from her!" Hermione explained annoyed.

Draco stared at Hermione. He had never thought about it like that before but he had a horrible feeling Hermione was right. "What men?" he growled.

Hermione sighed angrily. "The Roys of the world, of course!" she replied.

Draco clenched his fists. Roy had better not have gone anywhere near her knickers otherwise Draco would hex him in a way that he'd never recover from. His parents had taught him some useful things after all, he contemplated.

* * *

The next week, Draco and Luna took the Slytherins on a field trip to meet a distinguished medi-wizard who was making enormous break throughs in treating wizarding diseases. He was a Slytherin and so was his entire research team.

Draco did not talk much to Luna and she avoided meeting his eye as much as possible. The students were back at Hogwarts by lunchtime all chattering excitedly. Draco and Luna left them to their afternoon classes and headed back to Dumbledore's office to report on the success of the trip.

Dumbledore looked very pleased with them both. "Well done. This is working out even better than I could have hoped. I knew you both had it in you," he chuckled. "One day young Draco, you will need to share your story with the Slytherin kids and tell them what you learned," he added more seriously, his blue eyes resting kindly on the boy before him.

Draco's back stiffened. He found it hard enough to speak to a friend like Hermione about any of it, let alone all the Slytherins. The problem was, he admitted, that the truth made him look very stupid and gullible. In reality, anyone else could see Draco was simply raised wrongly and no-one would judge him harshly for that but Draco judged himself harshly. In that moment of revelation he also understood that he didn't want to discuss any of it with Luna in case she judged him negatively. He didn't want Luna to think anything bad about him. The thought made him flinch inside. He suddenly realised he cared desperately what she thought of him. He finally grasped that by not wanting her to think badly of him, he had behaved so badly that she had ended up thinking he didn't care about her really at all. If he'd been honest from the outset, she probably would have a much better opinion of him today.

He made the decision as he sat in Dumbledore's office to invite Luna to Malfoy Manor for lunch that weekend and show her the Dark Arts room, his Dark Mark and anything else she was curious about. Although the thought made him feel slightly sick, at least then she could make up her own mind. He'd also 'fess up to why he hadn't told her about it all before now - just stupid pride and the fear that she'd end up hating him for his brief Death Eater career and tainted family. He hadn't been able to face her rejection of him because of those things but he was in no better position now than if she had.

He felt terrified.

* * *

Luna was half-tempted to turn down the invitation to lunch from Draco but it was worded in such a way as to sound like a 'working lunch' about the Slytherins. "There are some things I can show you which may help you understand the problems some of the Slytherins kids have," the note had said. In the end, she had agreed more out of curiosity as to what these 'things' were than any other consideration.

Reluctantly she got dressed to go. She wore a subdued black wool skirt with a cream cashmere top. She knew that if she wore certain colours and outfits, men reacted differently to her so she chose the most conservative thing in her wardrobe. She didn't feel flirtatious and she didn't want to look it.

Draco also looked subdued in navy trousers and a white shirt when she arrived. "I wanted to show you something," he said, frowning slightly and seeming distracted. Luna merely nodded.

He led her to his study and to the wall behind the desk. He said something in a language Luna didn't know and a door appeared in the wall. "The moment you step through the door, say this counter curse otherwise you'll be knocked unconscious," Draco said firmly and told her the words.

Luna followed Draco through long tunnels under the Malfoy Manor until they finally reached their destination. "I've only been in here once," he said quietly and taking a deep breath, he opened up the doorway into the Dark Arts chamber.

There were no Aurors present that day so Draco and Luna were alone once inside. Luna looked around and frowned at the titles of the books in the main library room. Draco didn't move from that section so Luna passed under the archway into the dungeon area. She didn't stay there long. She glanced at him as she passed through the library again to get to the other archway. She stayed longer in the other section but didn't linger.

When she came back she merely looked at him questioningly. With another sigh Draco pulled up the sleeve of his shirt on his left arm and showed her the inner forearm. The first thing Luna noticed was how thin Draco's arm was. He had the bones of a man, strong looking and large but little flesh clung to them. She could see every sinew and muscle move under his translucent skin when he moved his arm. The next thing she saw was an ugly black mark. It had a definite pattern and she leaned closer to look at it.

She glanced up at him blankly, never having seen the Dark Mark before. "It's the Dark Mark, Luna. I was a Death Eater," he said flatly, his face suddenly looking weary. "This is my parent's Dark Arts chamber," he said, nodding at the room generally.

She stared at him silently for a long time, a pang of fear slicing through her that didn't show on her face. "Why did you bring me down here?" she asked quietly.

"I wanted you to know the truth about my family and about my past," he said tiredly, going to sit down on one of the library's couches as though suddenly too drained to stand. He pushed his hand through his fine, pale hair and rested his forehead on the heel of his hand. His elbow rested on his knee so he didn't have to look at her.

"How long were you a Death Eater?" she asked gently.

He shrugged. "I don't know. Three months?" he guessed.

"Why did you do it?" she said, talking a step closer to him.

"To please my parents, it really wouldn't have been worth fighting them about it. Besides, I'd been brought up to think of the Death Eaters as glamorous and exciting and powerful. I wanted to do it. I thought their cause was a noble one and right too," he muttered.

"What changed your mind?" she asked.

"Gillamoor, I saw it for myself. By then I had already figured out the glamour and power that I thought the Death Eaters had was a sham but I would have stuck with it if I hadn't found out about Gillamoor," he said sighing and sitting back on the couch, slouching miserably.

Luna had heard about Gillamoor via the wizarding newspapers and Hermione's involvement in finding it. "You knew nothing about it?" she questioned.

Draco shook his head. "I was only an initiate. Only the inner circle knew about it until the night it was raided by Aurors," Draco said expressionlessly. It seemed like his whole life revolved around that night and the fall out from it nowadays.

"What are you going to do with this room?" Luna asked.

"You haven't seen the press coverage have you?" he asked wryly.

Luna shook her head. "I don't read that kind of press," she replied honestly.

"It's being dismantled by Aurors. I told the Ministry about it as soon as my parents were caught. I don't want this stuff on the Malfoy premises ever again," he said bitterly.

"It really has been rough for you, hasn't it? I knew your parents were in Azkaban but Hermione didn't really tell me the details of why," Luna explained.

"Do you hate me for being gullible?" Draco asked, his tone grim.

"Gullible?" Luna repeated questioningly.

"Gullible to Voldemort's lies and gullible about thinking the Death Eaters were glamorous," he explained.

"No. Voldemort has fooled wizards much older and more experienced in the ways of the world than yourself," Luna said simply. "Why would you doubt what your parents told you all those years and why would you not think that fighting for a cause you thought noble and right was the appropriate thing to do? All the cloak and daggery would have just made it more thrilling."

He looked at her consideringly from out of his light eyes for a long moment and then stood up and walked over to her until he was almost touching her. She didn't step away, merely looked up at him. He placed one hand on her arm and bent his head to kiss her. She didn't pull away but she didn't respond immediately either. He put both arms around her and pulled her against himself. He couldn't believe how good and right it felt to have her back in his arms. He kissed her rather greedily and her lips parted under his. Gently he pushed his tongue into her mouth and held her tighter against his slender form. He slid his hands under her cashmere top, eager to feel the soft smooth skin of her torso. Luna did likewise, moving away slightly so she could undo his shirt buttons. They came away easily and she ran her hands up to his chest. Suddenly she pulled away and looked at the spot where her right hand was resting. A large, wide scar ran across his pectoral muscle. It was deep enough to leave the dent that she had felt.

"What's that?" she asked, staring at it.

"A scar from my Death Eater initiation," he said, feeling self-conscious.

"What did they do, cut out your heart?" she asked sarcastically.

"I think they came close," he replied, just as ironically. "They needed blood for the contract I had to sign. They probably took a good litre," he added.

Her hands were unusually diminutive even for her petite build, and the small fingers traced his scar almost caressingly. She looked thoughtful as she took all this information in. "A blood contract," she murmured. "It can't be broken until you or the other wizard dies."

"That's why the Mark is still there," he clarified.

"Yes," she said distractedly, her fingers still moving restlessly over his scar.

With one hand, he lifted her chin and lowered his mouth to hers again. It didn't take long for the rest of their clothes to come off. Draco only surfaced long enough to mutter "incendio", pointing his wand at the library fireplace before leading her over to the library's couch.

An hour or so later Luna looked drowsily at Draco and said, "I thought you were supposed to be showing me something to help me understand the Slytherin kids."

"I did," he replied grimly, his long fingers tracing Luna's spine caressingly. "This Dark Arts chamber and my Dark Mark are what we're up against in trying to restore Slytherin pride. About one in five of those kid's parents are in Azkaban because they are Death Eaters. This is the reality of the evil some of these kids were probably brought up to take for granted. We need to show them the destructiveness of it so that they are not sucked in by visions of glory and glamour and lies like I was," he explained, gesturing to the chamber around them.

"You don't think it's a little sick that the first time we have sex is in a Dark Arts chamber?" Luna said dryly, her fingers absently tracing the scar again.

"I didn't notice where we were actually," he said seriously, his silvery eyes gazing intensely down at her as he shifted his body to lean over and kiss her.

"I'm so glad we didn't bother to dress again," Luna murmured as she felt his erection pressing into her thigh once more. She moved slightly so she could put her arms around him.

"Mmmm. I'd say we probably won't bother to get dressed for quite some time," he muttered as he leant down to capture her lips once more.