Draco had skipped pudding. Not that you could really call it that. There was little in his house that tasted at all edible to him at the moment. He felt as though he was being constantly followed by a dementor, all desire to think positively had gone. But he had heard a rumour. He had heard whispers that the old wandmaker in his basement was no longer alone. No-one would ever tell him anything directly, trust was not a word associated with him. It had been Blaise who had wolf whistled that evening at the tower and although rumours had been pushed aside in the drama of the night Dumbledore was murdered, the way his old 'friends' looked at him told him that they hadn't completely forgotten the whispers that Draco had been seen with a girl no-one could identify. It was up to him to sniffle snippets of conversation and come to his own conclusions.

As much as he tried to not care, he couldn't stop a sense of hope rising in his chest that the rumours were true and that Luna Lovegood was in fact being held captive so near by.

This hope was the reason he had made his excuses and left his father and mother at the dinner table. It was the Christmas Holidays and although home wasn't a pleasant place to be, it was better than suffering an extra two weeks at Hogwarts. He had seen Luna but she appeared to never see him. It was as though she had finally fallen so far inside her own head, she couldn't see beyond it any more, she had given up on him and that bothered Draco more than anything. Was he really so terrible that Luna saw no way or reason to help him any more?
The Malfoys were still not trusted and so they had been left when the death eaters had gone searching for the 'Golden Trio'. His Father said nothing as Draco left and where his mother would usually have commented on his rudeness, there was silence.

Taking three steps down to the basement, Draco shivered as he noticed the temperature change almost straight away. Muttering that he would take over from the current guard, he could hear the deep, wheezing breathing of the old wandmaker.

But Draco's ears managed to catch a much more painful sound. As he pulled open the door and took a step towards where the weeping was coming from, his foot went straight into a puddle, creating a deafening splash in the deathly silence. Abruptly the crying stopped and Draco heard the sound of someone desperately trying to choke back their tears. As he forced himself forwards, he called the first name for her that came into his head.

'Loony?'

He couldn't be sure but in-between sobs Draco thought he heard Luna gasp. Rounding a final column, he finally worked up the courage to use the spell he had been dreading.

'Lumos'

As a ball of light appeared at the end of his wand, Draco rounded a pillar, finally laid eyes on Luna and realised at once how selfish he'd been. He should never have wished to have her here. Her face was bruised and tearstained and her clothes were damp. She was shivering violently and her hair, although it was tied away from her face, hung limply around her shoulders. She was sat in the corner, her knees hugged tightly to her chest, her chin resting awkwardly on them.

As Draco approached, she didn't look up, just continued staring straight ahead so that when he was directly in front of her, she seemed to be staring intently at his knees.

Draco knelt down so that he was eye level with her. She was staring straight at him but her eyes didn't seem to see. There was a glassiness to her eyes that was similar and yet at the same time so different from the dreamy look she once wore when he saw her around Hogwarts. He saw in her eyes the same emptiness he felt in his own.

Another tear escaped from her eye and began to crawl down her cheek. Luna seemed to ignore it but as Draco reached towards her face she batted his hand away and roughly wiped the tears away herself. Her movements were sharp, a sure sign that she was unhappy. Taking advantage of the fact that she seemed to have woken up from her daydream, he started to speak to her.

'So the rumours are true then. You're really in my basement.'

Luna regarded him for a second and in the light of his wand, Draco saw her eyebrows raise slightly.

'You do say some stupid things, Draco.' Although her movements betrayed her unhappiness, her voice still retained its dreamlike tone. She paused for a second, adjusting her seating position, tucking her knees under her and spreading a forced smile across her face.

'I really quite like what you've done with the place.'

In an almost vicious way, she was playing with him and venom practically dripped from Draco's voice as his trademark sneer spread across his face.

'Very funny. Do you think I enjoy this, Lovegood?'

'Well you're a death eater. Maybe you enjoy making people suffer.'

Even in her floaty tone, the remark was cutting. She was still hurt. He shouldn't have really expected anything else. Draco was about to reply when a sound from behind him made him jump to his feet. Luna stood up slowly, looking towards where the noise had come from.

'It's just Mr Ollivander. He dreams but I don't think they're good dreams. It's so sad.'

Draco made a disbelieving sound, more out of jealousy that her voice had lowered to the tone she once used to use for him than actual disbelief.

'What's so bad about having bad dreams? There's much worse things that could happen to you.'

Luna stopped to think for a moment before she replied.

'Yes. But when reality is so hard, sometimes dreams are the only comfort we have left. If you take them away, we really do have nothing.' She was looking at him, her expression accusing, the glassiness in her eyes replaced by a fire that was something Draco found worse than hatred, Passion.

'And you think this is my fault.'

He was still searching through her expression but he could find no hatred. Anger, pain and passion were there, but no hatred.

'So I have really taken everything from you. Is that right, Loony? Even when I came down here to...' He paused and in the dim light, Luna was convinced she could see distress in his eyes. He got to his feet and began to walk towards the stairs.

'Do you know what, never mind. I guess I'm only good at playing the villain.'

As he left Luna asked him the question that had been playing on her mind for the past six months.

'Draco, are you happy?'

Draco just slammed the gate shut and carried on walking.

Well I'm back! Even if it's only for a moment. I feel like I've got a bit of an order sorted for deathly hallows now so all I need to do is write out the chapters. Yay! College is horrid at the moment and I should be doing about five different pieces of coursework right now and instead I'm writing fanfiction and trying to figure out how to work Twitter. Procrastination is wonderful.