It was a full moon that evening, bigger in the sky than Luna had ever seen it before. She stared at it as she walked alongside Ginny and Neville. He had managed to land them only half a mile from the meeting spot, with no splinching at all. Luna looked through the night, and could see her house in the distance. It had been repaired to its former glory after the incident earlier that year, and it gave Luna a feeling of hope. She could already see herself returning there soon, all this over. Hopefully, after tonight, it could be.
"You two should wait here," she said to her two companions, "He's expecting me to come alone."
"Luna!" Neville protested, "We can't let you do this on your own, it's too dangerous."
"I have to," she stated back, "If you hear any commotion, then you should intervene." She took Neville's hand and smiled at him.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine." They had reached a shroud of trees, which would keep Neville and Ginny out safely out of sight. Luna instructed them to wait there.
"Well, here goes," she said. She kissed Neville on the cheek and walked off, out of sight. He tried not to think that it may have been the last time he would ever see her.
Luna walked up the steep slope towards the top of the hill where Moonlight would be waiting for her. She was apprehensive, but not too nervous. This was just something that had to be done. Her house came back into view as she neared the top of the mound, and then she saw him.
Adamo Moonlight stood between a wizard and a witch, and behind him were two werewolves, sitting obediently. He seemed to have some sort of control over them. They snarled at Luna as she appeared over the top of the hill. Moonlight himself was younger than Luna had expected, even though she had been told that he had only left Hogwarts a few years before she started. He was average height, with short dark hair, and was wearing a blue cloak.
"Luna Lovegood," he looked at her, "We meet at last. I believe you have some information for me?"
"Where's my father?" Luna asked. She had to make sure he was safe before she did anything else. Moonlight waved his hand at the wizard next to him, who turned around and disappeared over the other side of the hill. One of the werewolves started howling randomly, startling Luna a little. A moment later, the man returned with her father. Luna felt a wave of relief seeing him again, and that he seemed relatively unhurt. He was shackled, being dragged along by the wizard, who dumped him unceremoniously on to the ground beside Moonlight.
"Luna!" he screamed at her, "Don't tell him anything! You don't know what you're doing!" Moonlight pointed his wand at him, prompting him to be silent.
"It's okay, father," Luna told him, "I know exactly what I'm doing." Moonlight began to walk towards her, and Luna resisted the urge to run in the other direction. He stopped a few feet in front of her.
"You silly little girl, you really don't know what you've gotten yourself into." He reached out his hand towards Luna, but still a little away from her, and she gasped as she felt her thoughts being entered. Moonlight was definitely telepathic. Luna wished she knew anything about Occlumency at this point, as she tried as best she could to stop him invading her mind, but she couldn't. She collapsed on to the floor, as Moonlight smiled.
"Skele-Gro and Pepperup Potion," he said triumphantly and then suddenly he started laughing.
"There's some surface memory I can detect," he said, "Someone called Neville Longbottom? You…like him?" Moonlight was in hysterics now.
"Well, I hope your little boyfriend can live without you," he pointed his wand down at Luna, "Avada Ke-"
"Crucio!" The spell hit Moonlight in the chest and he collapsed to the ground writhing in pain. Before the wizard and witch could react, two more spells had hit them, causing them to fall to the ground, and with one final spell at Xenophilius, he was released from the shackles holding him. Luna didn't get a chance to see who her saviour was, before he had grabbed her hand, and starting running, her father hurrying behind them. She took a furtive glance behind her, and as she had expected, the two werewolves were in pursuit of them. She then took a chance to look to her side and see exactly who had rescued her, Draco Malfoy.
Xenophilius had caught up with them now, and Draco seemed to be leading them in a specific direction.
"We need to hurry," he announced, "It'll be leaving in a few seconds." They reached the bottom of the hill, and Draco went straight for a log on the ground. Luna and her father flowed, and just a few seconds before the werewolves would have caught them, Luna found Ottery St. Catchpole disappear as the portkey spun them away. They fell down a moment later on hard ground again, Luna and Xenophilius too exhausted to be able to land on their feet.
"You went after Moonlight with no Order backup!" Draco shouted at Luna, "You really are loony." He saw Luna's father glare at him.
"Sorry, Luna," he added, "Old habits." He helped Xenophilius up.
"How did you find me?" Luna asked.
"We had some intelligence that Moonlight was meeting you tonight," Draco explained, "I was sent to get you out of there if it was true." He looked at something in the distance.
"I'm sorry I had to bring you here, I know this is probably the last place you want to see." Luna looked up, and understood what he had meant. They were outside of Malfoy Manor.
Draco helped Xenophilius up and led him and Luna up to the large front doors of the house, pushing them open. She was immediately greeted by the sight of Neville, who ran up and hugged her.
"I thought you were dead," he said to her, as they were led into the large main room of the house. Draco was looking at them both. Luna assumed he must have heard what Moonlight had said. As she entered, she was relieved to see Ginny standing in the middle of the room with Ron. They had all managed to get safely away.
"Ron came for me and Neville," Ginny explained, walking over to Luna.
"I'm afraid there's not much to offer for food," Draco said, "As you know, we don't have a house elf any more." The Manor was looking extremely run-down, judging by the last time Luna had seen it. She followed Draco and Ginny into the kitchen. Ron still seemed to want to stay as far away from him as possible. Ginny started rummaging around, hungry after everything that had happened that night. Luna herself had wandered off, and was now staring down into the cellar she had been kept in for many months earlier that year. Draco walked over to her.
"I'm sorry," he said, "About all that." He motioned to the cellar, realising how stupid it sounded. As if a simple apology could make up for everything.
"That's okay," Luna replied, smiling at him, "You save my life tonight."
"Yeah, but don't you still hate me?" Draco said, almost wanting her to. Luna shook her head.
"I don't see the use in hating anyone. It never does any good. People like Voldemort and Moonlight live off hate. It never brings them any happiness." Luna looked over to Draco, and saw he had begun to cry slightly. She reached out and hugged him, and was sure if she were to put the sorting hat on him now, it would put him in Hufflepuff. Ginny was looking over now, at the most surreal sight she had ever seen. Luna Lovegood was consoling Draco Malfoy.
"I really messed up didn't I?" Draco sighed.
"Yes," Luna replied, "But you're making up for it now, that's what matters."
"Doesn't matter what I do though is it? Everyone will always hate me. Well, except you."
"I have an idea," Luna said excitedly. She led Draco out of the kitchen and back into the living room.
"Daddy," she ran up to her father, "Why don't you write an article about Draco in the Quibbler? About all the work he's been doing for the Order recently."
"Maybe, Luna," Xenophilius replied, not entirely sure it was a good idea. Neville had come over and started to talk to Luna, seemingly wanting to get her away from Draco, which he succeeded in doing.
Soon after, Xenophilius and Ginny had done their best to prepare a meal for everyone. It wasn't bad, and Ron was just grateful Luna's dad hadn't been left to do it on his own, remembering his taste in cooking from when he had been in Luna's house. They were sat around the centre of the large table in the main room of the manor. Luna was the only one willing to sit beside Draco, with Neville on the other side of her, on the opposite side of the table, her father, Ginny next to him, who in turn was next to Ron. He seemed a little uncomfortable around Xenophilius as well. This was all leading to a thoroughly awkward meal. Luna didn't feel much like eating, despite having not had anything in her stomach for hours. She was too desperate to get on with the mission.
"We'll need to leave soon," Luna simply said, breaking the slice of the dinner.
"Luna, it's already passed midnight," Ginny pointed out, "We should wait until tomorrow." Luna shook her head.
"We don't have time. Moonlight knows all five potions now. He could finish the machine at any point and use it." No one at the table could argue like that.
"Father, Ron, Draco," she turned to each of them, "You should stay here. Ginny, Neville and I will go to Edinburgh, that's where Moonlight's hideout is. If all goes well, I should be back here soon." She rose up from the table, and walked over to stare out of one of the large windows. Neville and Ginny pushed their plates away and joined Luna.
"We better get going then," Ginny said. Luna smiled at both of them, and after a short goodbye to the other three in the room, they walked back out into the cold night. After the warmth of the manor, Luna was nearly shivering, even with her warm clothes on. Neville had already took hold of Luna and Ginny's arms, and once again, the three of them felt the suffocating effects of apparating, something Luna had grown used to over the past few weeks. At least it was warm.
Soon though, she could feel an even colder air hit her face. They were back on solid ground. Neville had improved greatly in apparition, and none of the three even checked for splinching. Looking around, Luna noticed they seemed to be in a park. It was well lit for this time of night, and she could easily see the features around her, including the city's castle high above them. She knew they weren't too far away.
"This way," Luna said, more guesswork than anything else, and led them both up into the main streets of Edinburgh. Mostly everywhere was closed, and nothing except a few taxis passed them. Walking slowly so as not to get lost, the three teenagers walked across the bridge spanning the large valley separating the two parts of the city. Luna could sense they were getting close, and her heart had started beating faster. Venturing deeper into the city, Luna began to worry she had led them in completely the wrong direction, before seeing a sign reading South Bridge attached to one of the many old buildings in the area.
Luna found a crumbling set of stairs which brought them down the lower level under the bridge. All three immediately began looking for any entrance to the vaults.
"There," Neville stated, pointing to a small door at the side of an alley, a large sign reading Closed for Maintenance across the front of it. That had to be it. All three joined hands, this time out of fear rather than Neville being about to apparate. Luna led the other two through the door, which shut tightly behind them, seemingly of its own accord. It was now, for the first time, that Luna wondered if she would ever leave.