Chapter 4: Wake Up, Luna
Luna groaned as light seeped through the boards nailed to the windows. She sat up, shaking herself awake, concentrating on the covers as her eyes adjusted to the light.
Wait.
Luna blinked hard at the green silk cover thrown across her stomach. She traced the intricate curves on the pattern slowly with one finger, admiring the fine needlework. Growing up, Luna and her father could not afford all the fineries available to whoever owned this bed set. She’d never been able to glimpse the lifestyle she’d been missing…until now. Luna lifted her head, taking the time to study the room before her. The huge bed she found herself in was covered overhead, partially blocking her view of the grand chandelier in the middle of the room hidden by a huge white cloth. A small dresser was placed on each side of the bed. Both were bare save for a lamp set on each dresser. A miniature, decorative four-legged table sat near the fireplace on the far side of the room, cleared of anything but dust. Luna closed her eyes, not wanting to wake from this dream.
She then opened her eyes to a nightmare. The flood of memories overwhelmed her. Last night’s conversation with Draco came back “ every word of it. She realized this was the room she’d found herself in the day before.
Luna tumbled out from under the heavy sheets, throwing them to the side as if they burned. Blindly, she made her way through the house to the dining room she’d visited only a few hours ago. The clear, un-curtained windows allowed the light to stream past and into Luna’s eyes.
“Good morning, Luna. Would you like some tea?”
Luna froze in her tracks and lifted her head hesitatingly. Draco sat at the table sipping his tea calmly with the Daily Prophet before him. He wore a rich red robe with his long blond hair tied back in a loose ponytail. He had shaven, Luna could tell; his face was smooth with no sign of the stubble he’d showed the night before. There was no hint of the wild man she’d seen before. Only the dark circles beneath his eyes told Luna he had anything on his mind to lose sleep over.
“I was wondering when you’d come down for breakfast,” he remarked lightly. “Sit down, Luna.” He gestured to the seat across from him. After Luna had settled herself wordlessly, he clapped his hands together twice.
Immediately, a stooped, haggard-looking house-elf appeared with two plates of toast with butter. “Thank you, Dotty.” Draco took the plates from the house-elf without another word. The old house-elf bowed once and disappeared.
After Draco handed one of the platters to Luna, she bit into her toast without expression. “Hermione would be most disappointed in you,” she quipped uninterestedly.
Draco raised his eyebrow as he busied himself with the butter. “Hermione has been anything but happy with me from the start. In school, I had tortured her and her…kind mercilessly. Now her S.P.I.T. or whatever it is would never have taken off if it weren’t for her almighty husband. Now it’s such an important department in the Ministry.” He chuckled. “The world’s gone to pieces. Now S.P.I.T. also has to deal with those house-elf riots. As if the Ministry doesn’t have enough to handle.” He shook his head. “This, I believe, wasn’t the future Dumbledore had envisioned, was it?”
“Well, it’s sure as hell better than your alternative,” Luna said without breaking from her polite breakfast tone. The only sign that she might be feeling anything on the subject, a brutally buttered piece of toast now resting on her plate.
The trace of the smile that had played on Draco’s lips vanished. “I kindly suggest you keep your accusations to yourself until you hear my story,” he whispered steely through clenched teeth.
Luna sat silently, pointedly avoiding Draco’s heated gaze. In her mind, Draco Malfoy would always be Dumbledore’s murderer, she decided. She let her eyes wander to the front page of the Daily Prophet and all thoughts of Draco’s treacherous acts faded away.
Last Weasley Son Marries Again.
Underneath was a picture of a familiar face at an elaborate ceremony.
Luna stiffened. Silence rang in her ears. The headlines swam in her head even after she’d forced herself to look away. Suddenly, the gentle morning light streaming through the windows burned her pale skin unbearably. The cool air in the dining room seemed too stuffy and un-breathable. The fury she’d felt vanished, replaced by feelings of despair and intense humiliation.
The powerful sound of crunching broke Luna’s trance. She was aware of the pair of probing, blue eyes watching her reaction carefully.
Draco swallowed his bite of toast loudly. “You all right, Luna?” He glanced at the newspaper and back at Luna’s rigid form. “It doesn’t say much.” He picked up the paper indifferently and threw it on an empty chair between him and Luna. Draco pretended not to notice how Luna’s eyes followed the paper ever so diligently, unwilling to let the paper, the story, the past go.
“Rita Skeeter at it again, poking her nose where it doesn’t belong. There was a bit about your brief marriage to Ron, of course, but other than that, you weren’t mentioned.”
“Who was she?” Luna surprised herself when she heard her voice.
Draco stared silently at Luna as if deliberating whether or not to speak. “Susan Bones.” Quickly he added, “Good ol’ Percival arranged it. After all, Susan’s family is awfully powerful and thirsty for Death Eater blood. Perfect for Percival’s new campaign.” Draco glanced at the picture again. “I have a feeling no love was involved in this matrimony,” he snorted, taking another sip of tea.
“He was bound to remarry,” Luna remarked, trying to sound offhandedly. “His family’s powerful. I wouldn’t expect anything other than this.”
Draco scoffed. “Don’t try to brush this off, Luna. Obviously this has impacted you enough for you to become an entirely different person. Says here you’d reacted violently to the divorce and had disappeared for three-“
“Unless I’m mistaken, I came here to write your story, Draco,” Luna interrupted shortly. “Not mine. So let’s begin.”
End notes: This chapter follows as closely to canon as my knowledge of the Harry Potter universe as of July 19, 2006 allows. Any information revealed to be false by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will not be changed.
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