Entry tags:

100quills, fanfiction, fic: far away as moonshine

FIC: Far Away as Moonshine 25/28
Title: Far Away as Moonshine, Part III: Seven Years Later
Author: zephre
Rating: PG (R for whole fic)
Prompt: 100quills table 50.2: Ghost
Word Count: 2,510
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*
Concrit Wanted? Sure! Please alert me to typos or errors of continuity.

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

Chapter7: In which Luna encounters one Malfoy after another.



late August, 2005
Wiltshire

Luna watched Narcissa Malfoy over the top of her tea cup in rather the same way she would have watched a rare species of fairy appearing before her in a dark forest: with a sense of intense unreality and an acute awareness of her own lack of grace and beauty. Why had she agreed to this? Crossing the Manor wards had been one of the hardest things Luna had ever done, and now that it was done she had no idea what to do or say. Etiquette books rather skimped on the section about visiting reformed criminals whom you had helped imprison after a war.

The last time Luna had seen Narcissa Malfoy, the woman had been staring with empty eyes at the door through which the Aurors had dragged her husband and son after their trials. Narcissa's actions on Harry's behalf had saved her from Azkaban, and Harry's appeal to the Wizengamot had mitigated Draco's sentence, but Luna was under no illusions about her own role. Her Veritaserum and Pensieve testimony had almost certainly contributed to several convictions and to Lucius's lack of amnesty.

Narcissa spoke quietly, somehow managing the entire conversation on her own in the face of Luna's silence. When she brought her attention back to the words, Luna found that she had no idea what her hostess was talking about, or how to make the sort of light-hearted commentary that seemed called for by a formal afternoon tea between two pureblood witches.

She lost her grip on her cup as she set it on the saucer, splashing tea onto her fingers. It was not terribly hot, but Narcissa reached across the table and laid her hand on Luna's wrist, asking, "Are you all right?"

Luna looked up, and saw in Narcissa's eyes how fragile the veneer of civility was between them. She could break it down with a single concentrated application of truth.

"No," Luna said, refusing to look away for this. "I am not all right."

There was a long silence as all of their expectations for this meeting crashed into shards around them.

Narcissa stood up, abandoning the tea service to stand at the window overlooking the front drive. "Why did you come, then?"

"Did you know, when you kept me here, that I had been cursed?" Luna asked instead of answering.

"Yes," Narcissa said, turning back to her guest. "But not with what. Lucius told me Anton boasted of it."

Luna nodded, having expected that. "It didn't break when I killed him."

Narcissa's face betrayed her surprise. "You?"

"Me," Luna said, and got to her feet. Tiny shocks ran up her arms as she crossed the room. "This house makes it worse. I made an oath, I had to come back, but it's eating me alive." She could not help the accusation in her voice.

"Did you think it would welcome you?" Narcissa asked bitterly. "There's no welcome left, and barely any comfort. You cannot cure what was done to you - you think I don't know that? Neither can the house ever be what it once was."

Luna stopped her advance just out of Narcissa's reach. She put her hands on her hips, leaving her wand in its hidden sheath on her back. "I thought that seven years would be long enough. But I can't - I cannot be here." She did not step away, though. "Nothing has changed."

Narcissa took a step forward, her eyes flashing. "Everything has changed. You're not as simple as you'd like the world to think, Luna. Don't try to tell me you can't tell the difference. You want to run, fine, but don't pretend it's because you're still afraid of the house."

"I can't-" Luna began.

Narcissa interrupted, reaching out to take Luna by the shoulders. "Do not lie to me. If you have come only to bury old ghosts, do so and get out before Lucius and Draco return. I will not let you hurt them for vengeance against the dead."

That brought Luna up short. It had not been her intention to fight, or to accuse, and certainly not to hurt anyone. She wished she still had her long hair to hide behind as she spoke. "That is not why I came," she said slowly, forcing herself to breathe evenly, to think about more than just the weight of memory. "I didn't think it would be like this. I only wanted to see him again..." She met Narcissa's eyes again, willing the other woman to understand.

Narcissa's grip on her shoulders gentled. "Can you see him, here in this house? Will your ghosts let you see anything at all?"

Luna closed her eyes, and realized what she should have done the moment she arrived. "I need to go downstairs," she whispered. "Before I see anyone else."

When she opened her eyes, Narcissa's expression was thoughtful, but not without compassion. "You will find it greatly changed," she said. "It may not give you what you need."

"Please," Luna said.

Narcissa nodded, and let her go. "Follow me."

Luna remembered the stairs, she could have counted them still. She had followed a house elf down them every evening when Mr. Ollivander was in his cell. The door, too, was the same. Narcissa held it open for her, and whispered the command that illuminated the sconces in the walls.

Luna stopped short on the threshold, and Narcissa smiled sadly. The dank underground corridor was gone.

"What did you do?" Luna asked as she moved into the cellar. It was an open room now, with warehouse shelving and locked cabinets in long, dimly illuminated rows. There were no cells, no doors, no walls at all, only occasional stone pillars with arched capitals.

"Draco tore out the walls and part of the floor. We expanded the wine cellar and use charmed cabinets instead of cold rooms." Narcissa followed Luna a few paces behind, letting the younger woman find her way if she could.

Luna had to count her paces to even guess where the door to her cell had been, and when she walked between racks of wine bottles she felt nothing. She knelt and put her hand flat on the floor, thinking that the pain must have sunk into the foundations, at least, but there was nothing. Even her tattoos were strangely quiet here.

Standing, Luna spun back to where Narcissa waiting in the central aisle. "What happened to the stone? Surely something like that could not just be thrown away, or sold."

Narcissa shook her head, gesturely toward the back of the house. "There is a folly in the garden, at the south end of the pond. All that was here is now there, ground fine and repoured. Did you think we would preserve such horror for future generations? He did the same with the dining room and the ballroom. Everything replaced or reworked, purified or destroyed."

Luna felt dizzy. She had never once thought that the Manor would be different. It had loomed in her mind as a constant threat, an unchangeable, unforgiving reminder. In her mind, it still did. As she stared at the elegantly carved capital of the nearest pillar, she knew that Tymas had been right, all along, and Rolf, too. This place had never been her true enemy. 

Still, she could not turn away from the last step. She took a deep breath and asked, "May I go into the garden?"

Narcissa nodded once. "This way."

Being in the sunlight again improved Luna's mood, and she allowed herself a small measure of hope.

"Narcissa," she said, reaching out to her hostess. "Do you think -" She paused, wondering what she truly wanted to ask. "Can he ever forgive me?"

Narcissa continued walking without answering, and Luna thought perhaps that was all the answer she deserved. The rose garden ended, and the lawn sloped down to the pond and the fine neo-classical dome of the folly. "There it is," Narcissa said. "I will leave you here." Before the woman turned away, she did take Luna's hand. "When you see Draco," she said, "do not ask that question. Just listen."

Luna opened her mouth to question that, but Narcissa shook her head, then turned back to the house. This was like being in the desert again, learning to be still. Just listen. She could do that. She hoped.

The folly was beautiful, a smooth white temple, perfectly round. The stones were so finely cut and mortared that the edges were barely visible; it could have been carved whole from a single block. Luna walked around it once entire before letting her hand brush the surface. If there was any echo left here, it was faint and far away. She could tell that the stone was different from that of the Manor proper; it was warm to the touch, and saturated with magic. After walking halfway around again, she stopped, and pressed both palms flat to the wall.

Surely there was something left, something that told her that it had not all been in her own mind. She rested her forehead between her hands, and closed her eyes. The stone was just stone. Instead of repulsing her, it embraced her.

"You won't find any reminders there," said a low, rough voice nearby.

Luna pushed herself away from the stone and opened her eyes. Lucius Malfoy leaned against the wall of the folly, a few steps away from her. She had not heard him approach, and narrowed her eyes.

"I thought you were in Cardiff," she said at last.

"I was," Lucius admitted, running his fingers down the white stone. "And I thought you were on the other side of the world. Does Draco know you are here?"

Luna bit her lip. "Here, in England? Yes, if he read my letter. Here in your back garden? No. Not - not unless Narcissa told him. She wanted to see me alone."

Lucius smiled, but his smile was not like his wife's. This was the smile of a man who had been a Death Eater, a smile she remembered from excruciatingly formal teas the spring she spent as his prisoner. She shivered.

"I imagine she did," he said easily. "You are rather an enigma, Miss Lovegood, are you not?"

Luna shook her head. "I don't mean to be."

"You cannot help it. Look at you, such a delicate creature, no one would believe what you have suffered - and they did not believe it, did they, Miss Lovegood? Could anyone look at you and believe you had killed?" Lucius paced along the outer edge of the pavement surrounding the folly, and Luna turned in place to keep him always in sight. "What mother would allow such a creature near, without first testing its purpose? You do so much less damage, Miss Lovegood, when you stick to letter-writing."

Luna clenched her fists at her sides, but made no other move. Otto tugged at the hair at her temple, keeping her focused with the short, sharp pain. The poor lizard had learned early in their relationship never to bite Luna's ear, and had found alternative methods of drawing her out when anger overwhelmed her. Oddly, this anger she felt now did not spark along the tattoos. This rage felt clean.

"Nothing to say?" Lucius asked. He stopped walking and glared at her. For once in her life, Luna looked away first.

For five short breaths she kept silent. "I'm not here to hurt him, or to betray him."

"It's too late for that," he snapped. "You've done all that and more already. The question, Miss Lovegood," - how had he gotten so close, that he loomed over her? - "is how much more you will destroy before you run."

"Run? I'm won't-"

"Won't you? What other plan did you have? Appear out of nowhere to devestate my son and then move on to your merry life in London?"

Luna stared in utter shock for the moment it took her to realize that both Narcissa and Lucius, in their own ways, meant to protect Draco. To protect Draco from her. The knowledge did not change her longing to hex Lucius, but it kept her from pulling her wand.

"Just shut up, you bastard," she said, too angry even to shout at him. "I don't know why you and Narcissa both think I'm out for some twisted revenge - maybe that's the way Death Eaters deal with problems, but I am not. Here. To . Hurt. Draco." She took a deep breath to steady her voice. It would not do to have it break mid-rage. "I am not running away anymore."

Lucius actually looked happy when she finished. Perhaps she should have tried hexing him after all. She leaned back against the wall of the folly and watched him. He grinned, and it was frightening, even thought it was not evil. "I'm so very happy to hear it," he said, and then he turned to walk away.

"What? Wait -" Luna called, taking a few steps after him.

"Yes?" Lucius paused midstep and looked over his shoulder.

"What was that? Just now?" she demanded.

Lucius shook his head. "I had to be sure, Miss Lovegood. You understand." Then he continued on his way, and was soon lost in the hedges of the labyrinth.

"No, I bloody well don't," she muttered, hitting the wall of the folly with one fist. "Madness all around."

A house elf popped out of nowhere, scaring Luna half out of her skin. "Miss to be coming to the house, now," said the tiny creature, ears twitching.

Luna sighed and ran both hands through her shorn hair. "Yes, yes. Lead the way." Perhaps there would be brandy at the end of the journey to ease her nerves. These confrontations with Malfoys were not going at all according to script.

The elf left her in a cozy little parlor, where there was indeed brandy. A fluffy black cat made the intimate acquaintance of Luna's ankles as she poured herself three fingers from the Malfoy's supply. She downed half in one go, bracing one hand on the back of a chair. The cat butted its head into her calf, so Luna knelt to stroke its back. "We shall get along," Luna murmured, "so long as you don't eat Otto." The lizard in question licked Lunas' cheek, and she smiled.

The cat rolled onto its back to expose its belly. Luna sighed, scratching obediently, and downed the rest of her brandy. "Well, Moggy," she said as she reached blindly behind her to set her glass back on the cabinet, "do you think perhaps I've gone good and loony, or do I need one more Malfoy to tip the balance?" The cat merely purred, a most unsatisfactory response.

She did not hear the door open as she spoke to the cat, so the sound of her own name surprised her. "Luna?" She turned her head toward the voice, and there, standing rigid with shock on the threshold, was Draco.

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