Interlude: Luna

Luna liked Tom Riddle. He listened to her and wanted to protect her, much like her father, but he was also handsome in a way that made her breath catch and her stomach fill with butterflies, which was very much not like her father.

Luna also understood that, although possibly tempered by Harry Potter's instinct toward goodness, Tom Riddle was not a good man, and he would likely never become one. Cruelty came to him as easily as breathing, and if he was being kind to her, it was because he saw some value in her friendship. Should she lose that value, his kindness toward her would end.

Only one other person had valued her before Tom, so Luna was willing to accept even this conditional affection. Perhaps, had her mother lived, Luna wouldn't have befriended him, but Selene Lovegood hadn't lived, and Luna was very lonely.

However, it remained that she did understand Tom's basic nature, and her feelings for him included an acceptance, if not approval, of that nature. Luna rather thought she might be the only one bonded to him that really saw him. Ginny and Hermione both liked him too, but they still couldn't accept that they were attracted to a person who found murder to be a fine hobby.

…It did sound a bit bad when she put it that way.

In any event, because they couldn't accept it, they both tried to project some manner of goodness onto Tom that simply wasn't there. He could be kind, in his own way, and he could even want to enact positive change to their society, but that was purely down to what he personally saw as the best world for him to live in. The moral compass they both expected him to have didn't exist.

On the other hand, Professor Snape knew full well what Tom Riddle was capable of. This knowledge, unfortunately, made this iteration of Tom seem good by comparison. Luna supposed that was a reasonable way to feel, but it also meant Professor Snape wasn't likely to reign Tom in either. No matter what he did, Professor Snape would compare it to what the Dark Lord Voldemort would have done and think, 'Well, it could be worse.'

That left it up to her to notice that Tom was hiding something and decide upon a course of action. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she thought, based on the timing and circumstances, it had something to do with Bellatrix Lestrange. Given that, after some consideration, she thought that Bellatrix was probably not as converted as Neville thought she was, which made things potentially quite dangerous for Neville.

Luna wondered if this was something she should do something about. If she did nothing, and Neville got hurt or died because of it, she would feel awful. Worse, she'd feel Tom not feeling awful, which was terrible in a different and far more upsetting way.

On the other hand, if she did something and it turned out Neville wasn't in any danger, there was every chance Tom might decide she'd outlived her usefulness. Luna desperately did not want to be discarded. Additionally, regardless of Tom's reaction, she'd feel as though she'd betrayed Tom by not trusting him, even though she knew that would be a silly way to feel. She couldn't help her own feelings, so there was nothing for it but to deal with them as they were.

On top of this dilemma was the fact that Luna rather thought she'd been the catalyst for the circumstances in question. Neville hadn't had any interest in the version of the spell that caused pleasure instead of pain or numbness, but Luna was very curious about the effects of operant conditioning when applied to humans She'd very much wanted to watch the process, and she thought that no one would object if one of the Lestranges played the role of test subject. So she'd led Neville to the idea in hopes that he'd let her observe the process, but then the whole situation with Tom's soul coming apart faster than expected happened, so she hadn't even paid proper attention, so what had been the point?

So, she wondered, what was the best thing to do in this situation? Obviously, the morally correct option would be to protect Neville. Sadly, for Neville anyway, Luna's moral compass, while vastly more present than Tom's, was also quite skewed. And so, rather than mention her concerns, Luna merely focused on memorizing Neville's features so that, should he die, she could remember him properly. She felt sad, because Neville was her friend and a very good and brave person, but sometimes one simply had to deal with being sad.