Alright, let's check back in with our boy...

Chapter 16

Draco dropped heavily onto the bed in his room in the Manor, necklace still gripped tightly in his fist.

"Ron's left us."

He felt the heavy weight of that statement settle in the pit of his stomach like he had just swallowed a sack-full of Galleons.

How could Weasley leave them? And not only had he left Potter, his best friend since day one of their first year, back on the Hogwarts Express…he had left Hermione as well. She now had one less person looking out for her well-being. The thought of her possibly getting caught by a snatcher or another Death Eater made him almost physically ill; there was no telling what they would do to her if they caught her.

He lay down across his bed and, giving in to a moment of childish need, gripped one of his pillows tightly to his chest and wishing that it was her that he held instead. He wished, more than anything, that he could take her away somewhere that she would be safe. Somewhere that it wouldn't matter that he was a Pureblood and she was a Muggle-born and they could just be together and forget about all of this.

Still in the Dark Lord's poor graces, Draco had not been sent out on many errands for him. That did not mean, unfortunately, that he was fully spared from the horror of what those who displeased or defied the Dark Lord suffered at his hands. The Dark Lord still used Malfoy Manor as his main base, so he often had prisoners or those he thought deserved punishment brought to their home. And he always required the presence of Draco, Narcissa, and Lucius as he doled out his punishments.

The most jarring had come several days before Christmas. Draco was summoned to the drawing room and entered to find his father, eyes as vacant and unseeing as always, and his mother, face pale but her stoic mask firmly in place, both already there and waiting. Draco stepped further into the room and had to force himself not to react when he realized who was there.

A pretty girl knelt on the floor staring dreamily around the room, seemingly unconcerned with where she was or the precariousness of her situation. She was slight in stature with long blonde hair and silvery blue eyes. Draco had the thought that judging by her looks, someone could easily mistake her as his sister; a guess not that all that far off the mark, considering that Luna Lovegood was actually a distant cousin.

He knew that she was a good friend of Hermione's as he had seen them together frequently in the library and at mealtimes the year before. He found himself wracking his brain as to how he might save her from whatever the Dark Lord had planned for her. He didn't know if he could stomach seeing someone as kind and…innocent as the girl in front of him falling into the hands of the Dark Lord's minions.

The Dark Lord swept into the room at that moment, black robes flowing behind him, and Draco moved to stand beside his mother, all three of the Malfoys inclining their heads in deference to their master.

"Ah," the Dark Lord murmured in his hoarse, whispery voice. "What have we here?"

Draco watched as Lovegood's pale eyes ceased their casual examination of his drawing room to meet the Dark Lord's, staring intently into his red eyes. He held his breath as he waited for what would come next.

"So, this is Xenophilius' daughter?" he said to the room at large, not expecting or needing an answer but receiving one anyway.

"I am," she stated proudly in her lilting, girlish voice, her thin frame puffing up with pride at the statement. Draco saw the Dark Lord startle slightly at her audacity, but he continued on.

"And do you know why you are here, girl?" he asked coldly but continuing to speak without giving her a chance to respond, which Draco found himself grateful for on her behalf. She didn't strike him as the type to have very good self-preservation instincts considering she was friends with Harry Potter.

"You are here because your father," he spat the title as if it were a curse, "cannot seem to stop himself from publishing things about our new, estimable government or about the traitor Harry Potter. What say you and I give him a reason to see the truth?"

Draco watched in dismay as the Dark Lord's wand slipped into his waiting hand. With a softly hissed "Crucio," the petite blonde began to writhe on the floor, her high-pitched screams of pain causing his eardrums to ring. He wanted nothing more than to cover his ears and close his eyes, to pretend that this wasn't happening, but that would accomplish nothing save bringing more punishment down upon his own head and hers, along with both his mother and his father.

After what felt like an eternity to Draco but was probably only a minute or two at most in reality, the curse was finally lifted and Lovegood lay on the floor, panting heavily. Her limbs continued to spasm from the aftershocks of the curse as she gasped for breath.

Suddenly struck by inspiration, Draco summoned some of his witch's Gryffindor courage and took a risk.

"My lord," he said loftily, drawing on every ounce of power and authority that the Malfoy name had once possessed. "I believe I may know of an effective way to convince her father to cooperate with our agenda."

The Dark Lord turned to face him, forgetting the girl behind him for a moment.

"Well then, young Draco. Let me hear this plan of yours," he said, sarcasm dripping from his words at the thought of a Malfoy contributing anything useful at this point.

"I've met Xenophilius before, my Lord," Draco said, locking all thoughts and emotions solidly behind his Occlumency shields just in case the Dark Lord decided to go searching. He couldn't afford for him to uncover his true motives behind sparing this diminutive girl's life, neither his unwillingness to watch her suffer nor his unexpected affection for his girlfriend's friend.

"He values nothing in this world more than he does his only child. Perhaps if we were to hold her in the cellar here as our captive, he would be more…compliant? More willing to follow your instructions. And if he is still disagreeable with the plan – well, we still maintain the leverage in that situation, as well."

Draco could see the wheels turning in the Dark Lord's mind as he mulled over his words. Finding no drawbacks to the idea, he nodded.

"Well done, Draco. Well done. Perhaps you will prove to be a more worthy disciple to me than your father," he spat, glaring at Lucius, "has been, after all. Take her to the cellar to join our other…guest, and make sure she is well secured. I will arrange for someone to visit Lovegood and inform him of this change in his…situation."

Draco breathed an internal sigh of relief as he made his way over to the girl who, while they had been speaking, had managed to push herself up to her knees again on the thick rug that covered the marble flooring beneath their feet. He reached down and gripped her arm in a firm grasp, pulling her to her feet and hauling her from the room.

When they had moved far enough away from the rest of the inhabitants, he paused for a moment to swing her tiny frame up into his arms, one arm supporting her thin back and the other beneath her legs. He could hear her still-labored breathing from her earlier ordeal and thought that she deserved a breather, although he knew that he was the only person in this house that would be of that opinion.

He navigated his way down the stairs carefully; she weighed hardly anything, but he didn't want to stumble and drop her. When they arrived at the cellar, Draco opened the barred doors that had been placed here quite recently, turning what had once been a food storage area into a type of dungeon. He sat her down gently on the frigid stone floor, kneeling down in front of her to make sure that she was okay. She looked up at him, no trace of anger or blame in the pale blue eyes that were so like his own, and smiled at him sincerely.

"Thank you, Draco Malfoy."

Draco startled at her words. Why on earth would she be thanking him?

"Because you saved my life, and you had no reason to," she said, answering the question that he hadn't realized he had asked aloud. He cleared his throat gruffly.

"You may not be thanking me after you've spent a few days down here, Lovegood, but I had a very good reason for doing so; even if it remains unknown to you."

"Oh! Do you mean Hermione?" she queried innocently, her guileless eyes staring up at him as if she could read the secrets of his soul as easily as one would read the pages of a book.

"I, uh, I don't know what…" he stammered, unable to get out a response and panicking at the thought that someone might have found out. After all, there were more lives on the line than just his own should anyone discover the truth about himself and Hermione.

"Oh, don't worry. I won't tell anyone. And she didn't tell me either, by the way. I could see it though. I see lots of things that other people don't." Then, as if she hadn't shocked him enough already, she leaned up and placed a gentle, innocent kiss to his cheek.

"Stay safe, Draco Malfoy."

Draco turned, utterly bemused, and made his way from the cellar, locking her in with their other prisoner whom he heard her greet with a cheerful, "Oh, hello Mr Ollivander!"

Luna Lovegood was a strange witch, to be certain, but he decided in that moment that Hermione was lucky to have her as a friend. Of course, thoughts of Hermione brought back the memory of what her friend had been through only moments before and how much worse it would be for Hermione herself, should she ever be caught. He wished, more than anything, that he could be with her in that moment. He thought he would gladly give away the entirety of his vault at Gringotts just to be able to spend one day with her right now, and he wished to Merlin that Potter would find some way to get rid of the Dark Lord soon, so that this would all end before anyone else was hurt or killed.

Song Inspiration: Dreaming with a Broken Heart – John Mayer

At least Luna has someone in her corner here in the snakes' nest.

sbz