Draco had taken one step out of the room of requirement when Luna was on him like a limpet.

'Are you done?'

Draco shrugged her hand off his shoulder and walked down the corridor, ignoring her completely.

Luna, satchel banging against her thigh as she ran, hurried after him and blocked his path.

'I said on my terms, Lovegood.'

The violence with which he spat her name indicated to Luna that his time in the room of requirement had not been productive. As he continued to march away from her she called after him.

'I'm going to feed the thestrals. They like apples too.'

It was such an odd thing to say that Draco stopped to try and find a deeper meaning in it. There didn't seem to be one so he turned to find her already standing right behind him.

'Just as mental as always, Loony. Perhaps I'll humour your madness for a while.'

Luna smiled as if he had agreed the first time she'd asked.

'Come on then.'

They were soon deep in the forbidden forest. The thestrals approached as soon as Luna arrived and handing Draco a lump of meat, the threw down a handful of apples.

They were silent for a while, just throwing various articles of food and watching as the thestrals ate gratefully.

'Who?'

Draco threw the meat and looked puzzled at Luna's way of breaking the silence.

'Who what?'

Luna passed him another piece of meat.

'They can only be seen by those who have seen death. You can see them.'

Draco threw the final piece of meat to the smallest thestral who gobbled it up hungrily.

'I'm a death-eater. Seeing death comes with the name.'

'But who?'

'No-one you would know or of any importance.'

He was walking back out of the forbidden forest before Luna even had chance to fasten up her bag. She skipped after him, finally drawing level with him as they reached the edge of the forest.

'Every life is important, Draco. That's why death haunts you long after you've seen it. It's not something you forget, is it?'

'But what if there's two people and only one can live? How do you judge who lives and who dies?'

They were walking across the grounds back towards Hogwarts observed only by the setting sun. It was peaceful but the constant hum of nature prevented them from feeling as though they could be overheard.

'I don't think it's anyone's place to determine who has the right to live.'

'But if you had to make a choice?'

Luna stopped walking, her eyes full of suspicion at his persistence. 'I... I don't know.'

She was staring straight ahead to the silhouette of Hogwarts, her face drained of blood as it finally dawned on her what Draco was suggesting. Her view was cut off as Draco stepped in front of her.

'What if it was the choice between your own death and the death of someone else? How do you choose?'

Luna was searching the ground with her eyes as though she was looking for a way around Draco's question. She met his eyes and gulped.

'I think...'

'You would sacrifice yourself.' Draco nodded. 'That's why you're on the good side.'

There was no anger in his voice, only relief. Luna knew why. The saying was true that a problem shared was a problem halved because now that Luna knew the stakes, Draco wasn't alone in his attempts to survive. He knew, just as Luna did, that she would search for a way to keep him alive whilst doing the right thing and she would probably be more successful than him.

Luna watched him re-enter the Hogwarts building before she let her knees buckle. All the air had left her and she suddenly gasped as she realised she had forgotten to breathe.

Because now she knew so much more. Voices were coming from all different sides of her head, telling her the right thing to do and others were coming from her heart, contradicting them completely.

Someone was going to die. Draco's mission was more serious than fixing an old cupboard. She had just told him that the right thing to do would be to die. Although, she hadn't actually said that. He'd assumed that.

For once the brain full of lateral thinking which had earned her a place in Ravenclaw failed her. She was at a loss.

There was so much more at stake, so much that Luna wished she didn't know any more.

If Draco succeeded, someone else had to die. If he didn't, he died himself. It was simple. No way out. But there had to be way out. There was always a way out.

Luna's mind was going so fast you could almost hear it buzzing.

The person who had to die must be important for Draco's life to be at stake.

But if the death of the person is so important, why trust it to a young, inexperienced death-eater and offer him no assistance?

That would mean that they didn't expect him to succeed.

Which would mean that Voldemort intended for Draco to fail.

And Luna reached the same conclusion that Narcissa Malfoy had reached a few months earlier.

Voldemort was intending that Draco should die.

And so it begins! Don't worry I have fluff planned but this chapter just wrote itself which is why I've managed to update whilst in the middle of my exams.
Thanks again to reviewers!