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100quills, fanfiction, fic: far away as moonshine

FIC: Far Away as Moonshine 12/28
Title: Far Away as Moonshine, Part II: The Battle of Hogwarts
Author: zephre
Rating: PG (R for whole fic)
Prompt: 100quills table 50.2: Invisible
Word Count: 1,275
Summary: For Draco Malfoy, the war was one endless nightmare. Until Luna Lovegood gave him a reason to hope. Can he find his courage, make his luck, and become more than a pawn to those in power?
Warnings: (for whole fic, highlight to view) *mature themes, imprisonment, mention of rape, abuse, battlefield violence, various canon and other character deaths, sexual situations*
Notes:The title is from the song, "Street of Dreams" by Oysterband.
Chapter Index:
Part I:   1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 ||
Part II:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 ||
Part III: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 ||
Epilogue

Chapter 3: In which very little gets better and many things get worse.


Living under the Fidelius with a group of outlaws made bringing in outside medical help difficult.  Luna did not know what Bill planned to do for her, or how he was communicating with anyone, but it was obvious that meetings were occurring and information being shared. She never did find out, either, because one day in May Harry, Ron, and Hermione got up before dawn and left the house, taking their things and the goblin with them.  

Bill, Fleur, Dean, and Luna sat at the breakfast table that morning and tried to pretend that nothing had changed. Bill laughed too loudly at a story Dean told about the Gryffindor boys dormitory at night. Fleur offered opinions based on her year spent at Hogwarts, then trailed off into uncomfortable silence as the memory of the end of that year surfaced. Luna stared at her plate in silence until Dean took her hand. She smiled gratefully at him, squeezing his fingers.

They spent the day nervously waiting for the wireless to shriek the news of Harry's capture or death.  

But when the wireless did shriek, it didn't talk about capture or death. Instead chaotic news broke of a break-in at Gringotts, a dragon over London, battles between goblins and wizards, and structural damage so severe that even the Muggles took notice.  The Statute of Secrecy was threatened, and everyone blamed Undesirable Number One for trying to undermine the legitimate government. Luna listened with increasing disbelief, looking across the room at Dean as if to say, did you know about anything like this?

Dean shook his head.

"This is very bad," Bill said soberly. "Whatever they were trying to do, they can't have wanted this much chaos. Everything will only get worse."

"You-Know-Who has been so quiet," Fleur whispered. "But he cannot let this go."

"What in Merlin's name were they thinking?" Bill cried, punching his palm in frustration. "I told Harry to be careful of goblins. I hope they aren't in trouble."

Luna stayed quiet through the speculation, although Fleur's mention of You-Know-Who made her shudder. He had been away, Draco said. Out of the country, on his own mission.  Surely something like this would have him rushing back to consolidate his power?

"Maybe it's not as bad as they're saying," Dean suggested. "There's no way for us to tell, is there? Maybe this is just more Ministry propaganda."

"Perhaps," Bill said.  "Perhaps-"

Luna jumped up, and everyone looked at her. Her pocket was burning.

For just a moment, Luna had been certain that the Death Eater's curse stretched across the miles of Cornwall to find her here, then she realized that what was burning in her pocket was actually her old DA coin. She pulled it out and stared at it.

Dean leaned over to stare, too.  "Blimey," he whispered.

Neville was sending the signal they had never thought to see.

"Harry's at Hogwarts!" Dean punched the air and cheered. "This is it! We have to go."

Bill and Fleur required very little persuasion once the purpose of the coin was made clear. Bill sent his Patronus to his family, while Fleur sent hers to alert more Order members. "Meet back here in five minutes to Apparate to those coordinates," Bill said, and the four of them scattered to make whatever preparations they could.

Luna did not know what one did to prepare for a revolution, so she put on a clean robe and made sure her shoe laces were not fraying. She freshened the sticking charm on her wand and tucked it behind her ear, then added a few of the charms she had made here at Shell Cottage to her pockets. She ran her fingers over her empty earlobes and wished fleetingly for her pair of dirigible plum earrings back. She could have used the clarity of mind.

Five minutes from Bill's mark, they left Shell Cottage. Fleur took Luna side-along, and they appeared with a tiny pop of displaced air in the middle of a large empty room with tables and chairs piled to one side.  Luna recognized it at once.

"The Hog's Head?" Bill said in confusion.

"More like King's Cross these days," the old barkeep muttered, gesturing to them from the doorway. "Come on, then, more coming every minute.  What is that boy thinking?"

Luna did not bother listening to the conversations that began as more people arrived and were introduced to the tunnel.  She refused to wait for the others, but insisted on going ahead. Dean went with her. At the end of the tunnel Neville was waiting, and maybe Ginny if she could come.

Luna walked until she reached the end, and smiled at Harry as she stepped down into the Room of Requirement.  Then there was Neville, so Luna found a place to sit. Everyone seemed to have a different idea of what was happening.

At last, Harry told them what was going on, and there came a moment when Luna was the one who could help. She could leave this room, the last place of safety they knew, and step directly into the line of fire. She could risk, could act, could be of use. The choice was easy in the end, and Luna wondered that she had even doubted it.

She let Harry drape his Invisibility Cloak over her and tucked herself close to his side, and together they went out into the night.

The corridors were different when one was invisible. Nothing moved in response to their passing, and no shadow stretched across the floor. Luna was able to move in a sort of shell created by the cloak and by Harry himself. He had lived this long, he was practically a talisman of good luck in and of himself. He created hope by simply being in the world, and Luna felt herself grow invulnerable by his proximity.

She led him where he needed to go, and she even cast a Stunning spell upon Alecto. For a moment she felt free, floating on a euphoria that filled her to the brim, overflowed from her and overpowered every bit of Darkness that clung to her body. She paid little attention to the argument between Amycus and Professor McGonagall, hearing the words but not truly processing their meaning.

And then suddenly, with a single word, the world cracked across its axis, skewing away so sharply and suddenly that she almost fell out from under the cloak.

"You shouldn't have done that,"* said Harry, his voice colder and more threatening than Luna had ever heard.  And then Harry Potter, the hope of the Wizarding World, shouted, "Crucio!"*

Invisible, Luna watched the Death Eater writhe in the grip of the curse she knew so intimately, a curse she knew Harry himself had felt as well.  She watched and she wanted to weep, because if even Harry had cast Unforgivable Curses, how could this ever end well?  What would the world become when there was no difference between those who fought in the name of power and those who fought in the name of good?

By the time McGonagall was spluttering over the spell, and complimenting Harry on it - Luna swallowed bile - there was no reason to stay hidden.  She had to give up the invisibility, but to do so meant becoming once more the Luna Harry expected.  

He was still their hope, if a hope tarnished in Luna's eyes. He did not need her tears or her judgment. She breathed and seized her moment.

"Oh," she said as she pulled the cloak away. "Are we allowed to say the name now?"*

- - -
*this dialogue quoted directly from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, American edition.


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