InsaneJournal

NaNo fanfic Part 3
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Pairings this part: None
Rating: PG-13

December 1997, Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire

Luna had not intended to go quietly.

She, Neville, and Ginny had not been quiet that fall, and they had every intention of continuing their insubordination for as long as possible.  The shared a compartment on the Hogwarts Express until a prefect came by and said that there was a hexed schoolbook terrorizing some first years down the train and didn't anyone know any decent counter-jinxes?

Of course the three of them had to offer to help, and so they were in the corridor when a Stunning Spell came out of nowhere and hit the door frame next to Luna's head.  She was lucky no splinters hit her; they flew the other way.  Ginny's angry shriek was the last thing Luna heard before everything went dark.

She never intended to be a quiet prisoner. 

After her third evening of Crucio for interrupting dinner, Bellatrix bound and gagged her and threw her back into her cell.  She curled up as well as she could and wondered whether they would just leave her in the dark until her voice had recovered enough to scream once more.  Her eyes played tricks on her, or perhaps it was arracles, making bursts of light to interrupt the darkness.  She told herself stories to keep from thinking too hard about all of the nightmares that could be lurking inside that darkness.  Some time later, footsteps in the corridor made Luna sit up and scoot herself backward until her shoulders and bound hands hit the wall. The stone itself was cold, although the room was not uncomfortably so. She had never given much thought to the cellars of Malfoy Manor before she found herself in residence, but it relieved her to think that they were warded against the weather.  Or perhaps it was only this one room.

"Lovegood?"  The whisper was followed by the appearance of a sliver of light across the floor.  "Lovegood!"  This time the word was more urgent, but no louder.  The light grew as the door opened just enough for a robed figure, its face lost in shadow, to slip inside, then the darkness returned as the heavy wood fell shut again.  "Lumos." 

Luna blinked even in that dim light after so long staring into blackness.  Draco Malfoy looked paler than ever in that wan illumination, and Luna felt for a moment as if she were looking into a hexed mirror.  His hair was unkempt, dirtied by shadows, his eyes huge and white framed by bruise-black circles.  She could only imagine that she looked similar, save for the binding of the gag. 

Malfoy fished a large, lumpy candle from his robes and set it in a crudely carved hole in the bricks, then lit it with his wand.  The candle flame was even weaker than his lumos but at least it would stay lit after he'd gone.  When his eyes finally found her in the corner, she pulled her knees closer to her chest and tried to make herself small.  She had never found him threatening at school, but now, despite his reluctance to follow Bellatrix's example, he was a terrifying variable.  Fear changed people; Luna had no idea what to expect from a frightened Malfoy on his home ground. 

He crossed the room until the toes of his boots were inches from her own bare feet. She had to tilt her head back at an awkward angle to see his face, but he was completely backlit and she could make out nothing of his expression.  His robes made him seem larger than she knew him to be; her shoulders hunched still more at the threat implicit in his proximity.  He just looked down at her for what seemed like hours, and she wondered if he found her pathetic or amusing, huddled in the torn and dirty remnants of her school uniform. 

Without warning he knelt, his knees on either side of her feet, and leaned forward until she could feel his breath warm on her cheek. His free hand settled across the tops of her feet, exerting just enough pressure to keep her from moving; he must have seen her try to kick the others. 

"Don't do anything stupid, Lovegood," he said, his words barely a whisper against her ear.  "I don't want to hurt you." 

She jerked her head away from his, but couldn't get far.  He waited for her to feel the pain in her new posture and shift back.  She blinked rapidly, determined not to cry, but she had never felt so vulnerable, even when writhing under the curse on the beautifully plush Malfoy carpeting.

His hair tickled her nose as he touched his lips to her ear.  "Listen to me, if you want to live."  There was something in his voice, in the tension that she could feel in his body when they were so close, that made her keep still this time.  Draco Malfoy, terrified at Hogwarts, tended to strike out at those he could hurt.  Here, in the heart of the Death Eaters, where Voldemort himself had joined their table, what had he learned to survive?  What had he done? 

Taking her stillness for agreement, he eased the pressure on her feet.  "You have to stop attracting their attention.  They don't want to kill you, they don't want to deal with you at all.  They would all rather forget about you."  His wand hand abruptly clutched hard at her shoulder, the wood gouging a bruise that made her gasp behind the gag.  "You don't want His attention.  Be quiet.  Be still." 

The tears spilled now, from pain or confusion Luna didn't know, and didn't care.  What did Malfoy care whether Loony Lovegood lived another day?  Hadn't he just been applauding Bellatrix with the others as the madwoman had lazily cast the Cruciatus again and again and again?  Was that always the after dinner entertainment at this house, and Luna just happened to be the victim du jour? 

"I'm going to take off your gag now.  You must not scream.  You must not even speak too loudly.  Understand?" He was so close she could feel the roughness of his jaw against her cheek as she nodded.  His wand hand left her shoulder and moments later, the gag dissolved. 

"Why?" she whispered. 

There was a long pause, and Luna knew that he had understood what she was asking.  "This isn't like detention at school.  This is real.  If you defy them too often, you will die."  His voice broke on the last three words. 

She wondered again what he had witnessed in this house, what he had done, and shuddered.  She didn't want to know, and would never dare to ask.  "Why help me?" she whispered now.

Malfoy choked, and she felt his head hit the wall behind her.  "Help you?  I'm not helping you, Lovegood.  I can't even help myself."  He squeezed her shoulder, this time without the bruising force.  "Just don't die.  And don't make them hurt you again.  There are worse things than the Cruciatus that you don't want to know about." 

Luna bit her lip.  She didn't need his help imagining all of the horrors that Death Eaters could inflict on a sixteen-year-old girl.  She was lucky the only sadist in residence at the moment was Bellatrix.  Malfoy was afraid.  Malfoy was afraid for her.  She didn't know if it was genuine worry for her, or just abstract worry for one of his pureblood peers, but he was terrified enough to risk this warning. 

"I can be still.  I can be quiet," she said, barely vocalizing, turning her head toward his. 

Both of his hands left her then, and she felt strangely bereft.  Magic crackled over her skin as he wordlessly released her bonds.  The ropes unraveled and fell to the floor.  She flexed her fingers and rolled her shoulders, then lifted one hand to Malfoy's face.  He was still more shadow than anything else, the tiny candleflame flickering over his hair in an absurd sort of halo.  When her fingers touched his cheek, he inhaled sharply, but didn't move.  She sat still, letting her eyes fall closed, committing the details of this human contact to memory.  How long would it be, if she was forgotten by all but Malfoy and the house elves, before any person was again close enough to touch? 

She didn't know why he allowed her touch so long.  She daren't speculate on his emotional or mental state.  She wouldn't have chosen him as her conduit for sanity, had she been given any choice.  But he was all she had. 

"Thank you." 

Her words broke their silent accord, as she heard him make a noise somewhere between a sob and a laugh. She opened her eyes as pulled back, ran a hand down his face, and took a deep breath.  There was a moment when she was sure he would say something else, some final reminder or even just an insult like at school.  Something.  But he didn't.  He stood up, with a rustle of robes, and practically ran for the door.  She sat very still for a long time after he had gone, looking around the room in the light of that one candle. 

It wasn't until she finally stretched her legs out in front of her that she knocked into something on the floor, and realized that he had left a stack of squat, lumpy candles for her.  There would be light, if she managed to keep the flame alive. 

Somehow that kindness more than anything else broke through her stoicism, and she cried at last in earnest.  True to her word, she curled up into the corner and muffled her sobs in the ruins of her robe.  She cried until the candle began to gutter, and she had to forget her pain long enough to light a second candle, and a third, before the flame went out.

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