A/N: Here it is, a insanely overdue 9th chapter, and for that wait I'm very very sorry. Updates should be weekly or even sooner, but since I've lost my beta it's been taking me a lot longer to edit this than the first few chapters. Please please please review! They mean so much to me.
I do not own any characters, places, spells etc... they belong to JKR!
They stayed like that for a while, although the comfort of their previous discussion had left them so it was in silence that they continued into the night. Luna liked conversation, but every now and then silence was just as good so she decided against breaking it. Besides it was one of those relaxing silences and those were always nice. What she didn't understand was why Draco wasn't making the effort to talk. He'd already displayed how paranoid he could be about the idea of her escaping while under his watch, and sign of tiredness were beginning to show on him. Surely he'd rely on conversation to keep him awake and alert. Unless of course he was hoping she'd eventually fall asleep instead, leaving him free to wind down a little.
Sooner or later though slumber has a way of creeping up on you, and Luna was no different to anyone else in that respect. It felt like she'd evaded a good sleep for a while now and for some reason then felt like as good a time as any to just let it take her. She'd wish later that she'd never bothered.
She ran recklessly, her long red dress becoming tangled in the countless branches that reached out to snatch at her. Ripples of material tore at the bottom, leaving the front of her legs exposed as the wind blew her dress angrily into the wind, into the darkness behind her, into the night. Not far behind her she could make out a feebly glowing candle as she took a brief look back. It stood out in the forest: creamy, fiery white, hopeful, pure...
In averting her eyes from where she was headed, she let the root of an aging tree succeed in tripping her up. The forest floor came to life around her in a menacing manner. Soon leaves and grass (all were black so it was difficult to make out what was what) began to gather about her sprawled body, submerging her into darkness until she could see nothing but black. They pinned her down, making it impossible to escape. The ground grew hot, she screamed hard but no real sound could escape her lips, she tried harder but the effort was too much and soon enough her attempts to escape seized completely. That's when the wind grew angry. In a gust of pure force it obliterated the nature keeping her trapped. It slapped her fragile body hard, whisking it up into the night air where she began to tremble with panic. Then it cooled and merely rocked her around, slowly and steadily. It was almost like being at sea. Why did the wind feel so lovely and cool, compared to the forest floor? How could flame and frost exist so closely without cancelling the other out? And perhaps most importantly, why did the wind have skin so pale?
'Wake up!' Draco shouted, glaring at soft eyes clenched so tightly and fearfully that he felt half mad expecting any reaction. She seemed to be trying to block out something. Silly really he mused. If she opened her eyes she wouldn't see all that much to fear anyway: just the darkness of the dungeon.
Luna writhed on the cold stone floor, her hands dangling loosely at her sides as Draco shook her harder. He tried covering her mouth but that just seemed to make it worse as she screamed more. If he was perfectly honest, he'd never felt more stupid in his life. How could he possibly be growing more infuriated with a girl that wasn't even consciously doing anything to anger him?
It was as this thought crossed his mind that he registered her hand, tightly wrapping its small, thin fingers around his thumb. Compared with hers, his looked worthy of a giant. For a second he let her hold it but that was neither because it pleased him and nor was it to comfort her. It was simply late, and it took him a second longer than it normally would to acknowledge her touch. But when he did, something snapped. He grabbed her shoulders, pulled her up (which, he did notice, took practically no effort at all), and shoved her hard into the wall. He wasn't sure why he did it. She gave him a startled expression, looking like she'd been framed for something. He did not bother to consider why he'd reacted like that, but instead rose to his feet and left, closing the cell door behind him on the way. Jerkily, thus making it screech across the stone, he moved his chair back to where it had started, offering only one glance at Luna, who looked as though she didn't know what to do with herself. After considering it for a second or two Draco then moved his chair as far as he could from her cell without actually needing to look at her.
'Draco?' She asked into the darkness, half expecting a shadow of sorts to reply. It wasn't the really 'black' kind of dark, but the one with a bluish tint that signalled the fast approaching morn. It also told Luna it would be a cloudy day. An orangey darkness would have meant they were due for sunshine. She learnt to spot the difference between the two from months of wakening before the sunrise. How she wished the room would glow orange right then.
For some reason, she felt excluded from something. Her back hurt from when she'd clearly been shoved into the wall, and that's what befuddled her. It seemed harsh for Draco, a little too harsh. The worse he'd done to her until then was just grab her hair a little too roughly, but even that had been somewhat gentle.
She tried again since no reply seemed likely to come, 'Draco?'
She knew he'd heard her, and pretty much knew he wasn't going to respond now but tried again anyway. Let's make it a hat-trick, she thought.
'Draco?' Silence answered her for the third time.
He was not going to talk to her again that night, or morning (whichever you wanted to call it), and she only wanted to know why.
Though she had nothing to lose by repeating his name over and over, which, she was aware, would probably have been an easy way to get a response, she didn't bother. That wasn't Luna. She believed the right to have time to think was something nobody should have taken away, and since Draco wasn't talking and had nothing else in the dungeon to look at, it was safe to assume that he was indeed thinking, so Luna left him to it.
It was a further few hours or so, or at least felt like it, until footsteps sounded at the other end of the corridor signalling another switch in watching duty. She hoped it would be Dolohov since that might mean at least some freshness of conversation.
Unfortunately it wasn't. Although the sight of Professor Snape, at that moment, lifted her spirits more than the sight of Dolohov could have.
'Long night Draco?' he stopped a distance between them both, although slightly closer to her.
'Mmm?' Draco mumbled, then not a moment later his ears must have begun to work again for she heard him grunt in a 'yeah' sort of way.
'I'm sorry to say there's no time to sleep now, he wants to see you,' Professor Snape said. Then, after a quick glance in Luna's direction, he added '-now.'
Draco didn't reply but only headed off in the opposite direction to where Snape had come, meaning he passed Luna en route, though did not make any effort to remove his eyes from the floor as he sauntered past. He looked like a zombie, only not quite as dead as the ones you heard about in muggle tales.
'That difficult to control are you?' Snape asked in a way that meant no answer was needed.
He opened the door, brought in the chair that Draco previously occupied, and left the door open. He placed the chair next to Luna who swayed her body forwards until she knelt on her knees, using her arm for support.
'Professor, I don't understand. Are you working for Harry, and the Order?' (Luna wasn't sure why she felt a need to make a distinction between the two, they were one in the same after all).
'Miss Lovegood, I don't believe this is the time for that discussion, and given that we are currently sitting in the dungeons of Malfoy Manor, I think you'll agree this isn't the place either.'
'Can you help me?'
He raised an eyebrow. 'I take it you imply by means of helping you escape?'
Her eyes widened with undefeated hope. Please say yes, she thought, oh God please say yes...
'I'm afraid-'
What an optimistic opening, she thought.
'-I cannot Miss Lovegood. Your purpose here is one of great importance to the Dark Lord, as I'm sure you've gathered, the longer you remain here, the longer Miss Parkinson can occupy your place in the order. It's imperative he retains a spy within their midst, the Dark Lord is irrefutable in the matter.' Luna's heart sank a fair drop back into reality.
'If you were to be released, there is no guarantee Miss Parkinson will make it back to her family.' He added as an afterthought.
'The order wouldn't hurt her,' she began.
'These are dark times Miss Lovegood, in fact I believe the term dark to be something of an understatement now.' 'Mr Potter is unpredictable, and though not too noticeable on the surface, he is showing signs of passion, passion I believe the war has brought out in him. His actions tell it all. He believes he is ready to defeat the Dark Lord. If you take into account the enormity of the scale of war this has become, there is no guarantee the passion to make progress would not result in him cursing a death eater if they were to be unexpectedly revealed within the circle of people he trusts.' Snape stood, motioning for Luna to follow him.
'I believe you're required upstairs Miss Lovegood.'
She tried to push herself up, but her legs refused to cooperate, and her eyes began to see a throng a funny shapes. As soon as she rose, she slumped back down.
Snape seemed to understand what was wrong. He offered her his arm, although his face showed no sign of companionship to go along with the gesture.
Together they left the dungeon, Snape leading, and he didn't seem half as nervous as Draco, Luna noted: she was allowed to walk on her own, with no shackles and for that she was grateful.
'Where are we going Professor?' she asked politely, both out of curiosity and a strange urge to make conversation with the only person in this house who still seemed to regard her as a human being, not just some prisoner.
'To greet the Dark Lord, he is taking up residence here for a few days'
Puzzled, Luna continued, 'But why must I go too? It hardly seems fitting that prisoners should greet guests.'
Snape smirked a little at that: trust her to compare the darkest wizard in the world to a mere house guest.
'Oh I believe he has some business you can assist with.'
She did not like the sound of that at all.
The room could have held at least a hundred people without a single one of them brushing against someone else.
However once Luna entered behind Snape, and saw who stood in the centre, it looked instantly full. It wasn't that he was scary, just that with such a dominating presence, Lord Voldemort's character seemed to take up a space all of it's own: too much power to be all nestled up in one body.
His eyes pierced hers, and she couldn't help but look away. It felt like he was reading her mind. Snape grabbed her wrist with quite a strong hold and it startled her. He brought her to sand before Voldemort whose eyes never left hers.
'You are Luna Lovegood, daughter of Xenophilius Lovegood.' It wasn't meant as a question, and so Luna did not respond.
'Your father is currently researching in Australia, and you are aware of his business.' Luna felt as though he was just enlightening her on his thoughts, and so resolved to just stand there patiently, thought it was hardly as though she had a choice anyway. He spoke like a snake; an obvious thing to perceive but the resemblance between him and the serpents was just too blatant for it to go unnoticed. Luna was not scared of him.
His wand, she noticed, looked like his hand had grown it itself. Next to his long thin fingers, it looked quite at home. She wondered when had been the last time he'd put it down.
'You are not an important member of the order, and play an insignificant part in whatever role they attempt to fulfil in this so called 'war'.'
'We are all a part of this war. Nobody more important than another, you merely fight harder, so you feel more important.' She didn't think before speaking, because she didn't really see the point, he was probably reading her thoughts anyway. A small, almost camouflaged intake of breath from behind told her Snape had not left her yet.
Voldemort's face relaxed.
'Your father is due to arrive back in the country in a few weeks, either you can help us before he returns or we'll take him too.'
She did not understand.
Watching Snape out the corner of her eye, she saw him mutter something, perhaps he would be expected use Legillimens on her at this point.
She only thought it best to ask, 'What do you need my father for?'
She wasn't even expecting an answer, and so it did give her a little surprise when he replied with what she assumed was honesty. 'Two years ago he published an article on the influence of dark magic throughout the world. He mentioned a pendant and I know you will know just as much about it as he did. It belonged to an aged wizard, who remained hidden in the mountains of Tibet. I wish to find the wizard he came across, and to do that I need your father's research.'
'He keeps all his research at home, where he edits the paper.' Luna said without thinking once.
Oops, was that bad? Did she care? Yes, she did. But it was hardly giving away a lot was it?
'This is where I require you, or your fathers… assistance'. That word put a dark spin on a sentence that Luna would have otherwise interpreted as merely business-like. This sounded like personal business now.
'You don't need my help to break into my own house.'
'No, I don't. But I can gather from your thoughts that your father's research isn't much organised.' He began to move forward as he spoke, until he stood right in front of her.
'You'll know what to look for and where to look for it.' Then Voldemort turned to Snape. 'Take her there now, ad be back within the hour.'
'My Lord, perhaps it would be better for me to accompany the others. I think you'll agree their last 'effort' was hardly worth being entitled as such'.
He seemed to contemplate Snape's words half-heartedly, from the look on his face (which Luna thought looked practically inhuman).
'Yes you're right.' He announced a minute later. 'Draco can take her instead.'
The great door behind her swung open and in strode Bellatrix, Narcissa, Draco and two young men who both looked to have seen a harder life than even Luna had from the past few days. Bellatrix looked straight at Voldemort and Luna knew she was practically invisible to the mad death eater right then.
Snape motioned Draco over to him, who himself looked a lot more tired than anyone else in the room. He looked worse than this morning now that she could make out his face in the light, or at least the minute portion of light the room contained.
Removing her watch from Draco, Luna averted her eyes to stare instead at an old table that looked to be made of hazel wood. Luna hoped it was, because those lovely trees were know to be harvesters of wisdom, and since she had no inkling towards Voldemort's need for the man in Tibet, a little extra wisdom couldn't hurt.
As Snape muttered what he needed Draco to do, they looked like they could merely be making small talk as Snape made casual gestures to people around the room, and Draco nodded in response. Draco's face showed no sign of how he felt about accompanying Luna, so she wasn't sure whether she should look forward to visiting home or not. After all, returning there with a Death Eater (Harry had told them Draco had already received his dark mark), could hardly be considered a pleasant way to go back.
That's when Luna's mind began to work. Apparently, like her body, it had been drained of usefulness the last few days. This could be her chance, if she let it. If, as it sounded, it would only be her and Draco making the journey, then her chances of escaping were pretty strong.
The only thing against her was that Draco would obviously be carrying a wand, whereas she still had no idea where hers had got to. Although if she looked at it that way, she had the fact they were going to her house, where she would be on home ground, on her side. Magic against familiarity, she stood a good chance against him.
It wasn't until Draco began to leave and Snape mouthed her to follow him that she realised she had another weakness: weakness itself. Her limbs felt tired and overused, despite the fact all she'd done was sit on a cold floor for days. Luna wanted to shake herself out of it so badly, she needed to think positive. She could escape, but not if she felt defeated from the beginning. It gave her walk more bounce, and it was with her head held high that she walked out the door: the prospect of freedom seeming to lighten the weights pulling her body down.
Though she didn't know it, the dungeon's magic was growing weaker the stronger she made herself feel.
The door thudded behind her and she was left facing what she could have easily mistaken for a statue. Draco did not look well at all.
'Follow me.' he said. What else did he expect her to do, grow wings and fly on ahead?
They moved briskly, Luna's step with more bounce than his. She didn't want to appear too pleased though, otherwise she knew that would give the game away.
He stopped at a brown door just behind the first bend they past after leaving the room. He reached inside and pulled out a long length of cloak, then shut the door and walked on again. He didn't even look to check that Luna was still following.
Once they arrived at the entrance he turned and flicked his wand down at his wrist, then to Luna's, and back to his own. A fine metallic chain appeared, thought it was too tiny to even see the chinks loop around each other. He gently pulled at it and Luna felt her wrist being tugged along: for a tiny thing it sure seemed strong.
She looked at him. 'I wasn't planning on escaping you know. In case you haven't noticed, I still don't have a wand.' That might have been the first lie Luna had ever told.
'Don't let go.' He said simply. His words weren't giving away any more than his face. Luna half fancied his brain had been devoured by bed bugs last night. From what she could guess right then he didn't have any more personality in his whole body than a tree branch.
His words were the same as Neville's had always been, yet they were so distant she felt he shouldn't have even bothered. But Draco wouldn't mean them in a caring, requesting way like Neville had. No, when Draco used them they were meant simply as an order: One that, for obvious reasons, she had no intention of disobeying.
She wondered what it was she wasn't supposed to let go of a moment before he grasped her wrist in his hand. Together they squeezed into air that felt so tight it gave the sensation of being forced into a container from Snape's potion cupboard back at school.
It was strange apparating with Draco, and when they landed on a field just a few minutes walk from Luna's home, she couldn't help pretending it was that very night a few days ago. Only this time, instead of being surrounded by other disguised order members, they were completely alone. She found it hard to pretend Draco was really Harry though; he just had a knack for that sinisterly calm expression that Harry just couldn't quite replicate, even with the use of the same facial features.
'Come.' Draco called from a few feet away. She hadn't even noticed him move and only just registered the brief tugging feeling when he jerked a little harder on that fine chain. Luna looked down on the chain: another problem to sort out if she were to escape.
They set off for her home, Luna's mind taking the journey with them, and the more they walked the harder she began to search for an idea that could lead her to freedom. In a simple world she would just ask to be let go, but simple it was not, not on the face of things anyway.
Her house looked complicated on the outside, peeking along the horizon as they grew close to home. She saw a light in a bedroom and wondered if anyone had been there since she left. She couldn't recall leaving a single light on after she last left. It was one of the upstairs bedrooms; hers from what she could tell. Assuming they were approaching in the right direction.
'Have people been here?' She inquired, hastening her feet a little so she could talk to Draco from his side rather than a way behind: he liked to take long, strong strides and Luna's feet needed a good two or three steps to match one of his.
'Yes.' He stretched the word out a fraction of a second longer than necessary, and Luna sensed she wasn't welcome to ask any more questions.
The distance was quickly tightening itself as they walked faster. Rather than grow tired, the walk seemed to spur Draco on and soon Luna was almost running to keep up. She imagined the length of field left to her gate was like an elastic band, quickly springing back on itself in one huge unexpected lurch. Sure enough a moment later, or at least that's what it felt like, they stood before her front door.
Draco pushed at it.
'You might need the-' Luna began to propose, before the door gave in with one long, loud creak, that echoed around her garden.
Despite the fact she was home, Luna resisted the urge to run headlong into the house, slam the door shut behind her and pretend she was merely arriving back from a long weekend away. However Draco's hand on her shoulder told her all she needed to know: he was taking no chances in her escaping. She would say he was paranoid, but this time he was dead on the money. He could hardly be frowned upon for worrying over something Luna knew he was right to worry about. She was leaving here without Draco. Bits and bobs of possibilities fluttered around her head and soon enough she had too many plans to choose one over another, the only problem was, each seemed more unlikely than the next. Simple reasoning with him wouldn't work, and she knew her wand would not be at her home, since she'd been miles away from there anyway when she'd lost it.
A distraction may work, but how? She scanned her brain like a ravenous librarian, hungry for knowledge. What would do the trick? Trick... trick...
Trick.
She had it.
'It's upstairs,' she pointed to the spiral staircase dominating the majority of the downstairs space.
'I can go up first if you like.' She offered, but from the frown Draco replied with she continued on, 'Look, I'm hardly a wild animal.' Luna shook her wrist; making the chain tinkle, demonstrating to him that there was no need to worry. And though he maintained his frown, he let her go up first.
They stopped on the second floor for a moment: she just had to check her father hadn't moved it since she'd been staying at the burrow. It was unlikely but she made sure anyway.
'Next one up.' Luna whispered importantly, as though fearful that unwanted ears lurking around the house may hear them.
'Now it should be up here, but just in case, you might want to check in his room. There's a padlocked case at the end of his bed and-' but Draco cut her off.
'No way, we're not splitting up. We can look here first then go up.'
Luna treaded carefully; she didn't want him to feel like she was doing all the talking, otherwise he may think she had planned it all too well.
'It's just he made it sound like it was important we get back quickly, and it's already taken us a quarter of an hour to get this far.' He wasn't looking too convinced.
'Ok then you're right. We can do this quickly…' she said whilst simultaneously pulling open the cupboard closest to them in which there must have been stacked a good 20 or more shelves. Each with at least a hundred or so wads of paper jammed into them from corner to corner.
'I suppose we could use a summoning charm. The only problem is I'm not sure what to summon.'
Draco rolled his eyes. 'Accio TIBET PAPERS!' Draco shouted. The cupboard gave a great moan as a million sheets of paper suddenly flew in Draco's direction. They fell slowly like white lilies to the floor and landed in a snowy pool about his feet.
'I would have warned you about that.' Luna muttered quietly to herself, trying to keep her face smirk-free.
Mild annoyance would have been a significant understatement to the look he gave her.
'At least you've narrowed it down.' She said in a very 'that's a good boy' sort of way. It was patronising, but luckily Draco seemed far to absorbed in glaring at inanimate sheets of research paper on the floor to hear her.
Draco strode upstairs, pulling her along, tied her to the stair's railings and muttered a spell that seemed to make the chain duplicate itself in length.
'You check the trunk.' She barely saw him as he rushed back down the stairs.
So far so good.
Luna knew there was no chance he'd let her be alone on the level closest to the front door, and she was now a good three floors above the ground. Safe to say Draco was probably pretty certain she wouldn't attempt to jump from this height. The chain was just an extra precaution. She let him have a good few minutes to scan through the papers he was left with before she called down to him.
'Draco,'
'What?' He sounded agitated, she noted.
'His trunk's not up here anymore; he must have moved it into the living room. It has his most recent research in it. Probably just put it there for a bit of light reading, you know?' She gave him a moment. 'I'm sorry, I must have missed it on our way up. It'll be on the floor below you.'
'Right I'll go check then.'
The sound of faint, heavy steps followed as he descended the stairs, which meant there were now two floors between them.
Should be enough, she thought.
'It's here,' he called up. 'Where's the key?'
'You see the big thing that looks like a horn above the fireplace?'
An uncertain shout back of 'Yes,' followed.
'Daddy likes to hang all our keys on the wall hidden behind it. If the trunk's locked the key will be there.' Luna smiled. She could hardly control the excitement already trying to sneak into her voice.
'It won't move.' His shouts were growing more distance as Draco probably focused his attention on the Crumpled Horned Snorcack horn hanging on the wall.
The thing with Snorcacks is they get angry quite often. And when a Snorcack gets angry you know it's time to move.
'Try a little harder.' She yelled, trying to sound confident. It came quite naturally to her right now.
Snorcacks have a similar defence mechanism to a certain type of ant, and despite their difference in size the idea is still quite the same. You see, when angered, they bang their horns on the ground and the result is really quite splendid. It always amazed Luna how they never managed to kill themselves in the process but then again, she thought, that was probably what made it even more magnificent.
'Just give it a really big thud. That should do the trick.' she instructed.
Even though Luna covered her ears with plenty of time to spare the explosion still thudded on her eardrum, reverberating against it again and again, until all she could make out was a faint echo of a bang. The floor of her father's bedroom rumbled like the stomach of a hungry beast, ready to devour something large. She knew the damage would be immense, and hoped her father would forgive her.
The tiny gold chain fell to pieces and Luna stared down in horror, hoping she had not done what it seemed she had.
Both feet carrying her as quick as she could, she dashed down the two flights of stairs that had only just moments ago separated her from an dreadful headache. She found Draco straight away on the floor. He wasn't far from the remains of the horn which meant he'll have been very close when it exploded.
He was breathing, but only just. Fearing she'd done a lot worse than she'd truly meant to, Luna rolled Draco onto his back and checked his pulse. It was soft and almost undetectable, but it was there nonetheless.
Now came the decision she'd not really thought would be necessary. Draco needed medical attention, if he had a concussion then it was a lot more serious then she'd expected and Luna wouldn't be able to do anything on her own. But that would mean taking him home, and she would forfeit her chance of freedom.
When it came down to it, she only had two options: help an enemy or escape?
If she was perfectly honest, the decision was easy.
