Chapter 7: BlueRedGreenPurpleYellow Black White
Draco woke early in the morning. The sun had not yet risen, though the horizon was light. A light mist had descended, and the first thing that Draco felt that morning was a sickening wetness in his fur that meant that some of the snow had melted. The second was an absence. It took him a moment to realize what was missing. Luna was gone. Unbidden, unwelcome thoughts and imaginings crept into his mind as he leapt to his feet. The wolf's senses were acute, and he listened intently for sounds, for anything to indicate where Luna was, because he could not see or hear her within twenty feet of the clearing around the lake.
I knew it. He thought, I knew I couldn't trust her. She's left me here alone because she knew I didn't trust her. As he ran through the trees, the futile hope that she had just gone for a walk, or to look for food, or something, anything but face the truth that his one link to the right side of the war had used him. Like his parents, like his aunt, like his wicked former master. She had used him. Just like everyone else. She must have left before he woke, and wiped her footprints with magic. He felt rage coursing through him as he ran, though his powerful muscles ached.
Hatred. Anger. Resentment.
And pain.
He felt pain in his heart, mind and soul. He felt it in his tired muscles and his aching bones. He felt it in every fiber of his being, and it made him wish he didn't have to feel.
Who will she tell? He wondered. Who will she tell that she caught a Death Eater?
When Draco got back to the lakeside, the sun was low on the horizon, turning the thick white clouds a pearly pink. He flung himself down by the same tree as before, and waited for sleep to claim him.
He woke the next morning to a sound, a light, musical…strange sound. He did not spring to his feet however, for he was hoping against hope it was Luna. The sound grew closer and louder, and Draco could see a figure was walking through the twisted limbs and trailing leaves of the trees. Pale as a ghost, she moved closer, the whispering wind tangling her hair and fluttering at her dirty clothes. She was singing, or humming, some strange words or tune he couldn't understand. He closed his eyes in relief. It was Luna, she had come back.
"Where were you?"
The question seemed to surprise Luna, she let her hands drift through the cold water where she had been drinking. She turned around to face him.
"I was looking," she said.
"Looking for what?"
She paused before answering.
"Blibbering Humdingers. I heard one and I followed it to its nest."
He gaped at her.
"A Blibbering what?"
She smiled.
"A Blibbering Humdinger. They're awfully rare in this area, but I found it."
He shook his head incredulously. She was mental. Absolutely mental. A Blubbering Hummbugger or whatever it was called? What rubbish. Where was she really going? Draco was determined to find out.
Luna continued to disappear for hours on end throughout the next few days. Everytime Draco saw this, he felt anger boiling in his blood and worst of all, a cold feeling of fear that the next time, she wouldn't come back. He had refrained from following her, because for all his suspicions that she was deceiving him, he couldn't bear to think that the pale girl who had saved him not only from the darkness of the Désespoir Room, but from his own darkness, was betraying him. The side of him that had been loyal to Voldemort. The part of him that still didn't trust her.
The afternoon came and went in a haze of golden sunlight, and was quickly swept aside by the dark hands of dusk. The evening air was heavy and clouds had gathered, threatening snow with every gust of wind. Draco had conjured a fire with his wand, and was sitting on an overturned log, changing the color of the leaping flames for his own amusement.
Blue.
She sat next to him on the log.
Red.
She stared into the flames.
Green.
She twisted her hands in her lap.
Purple.
She opened her mouth to speak.
Yellow.
She got up and left.
Black.
He continued to stare into the fire, brow furrowed.
White.
He wondered why he felt so cold sitting next to a fire.
