𝒜𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓂𝒶𝓉𝒽 | 𝒟.𝑀.

59 | ﴾ Hate ﴿

Several levels deep into the bowls of the ossuaries of the Nott castle, where thousands of innocent souls had been lost to the world in an utterly execrable and cruel finale, two young magicals stood face to face after quite a duration of time had passed since they had even been in the same room. All around them the rush of trickling water wept through angry cracks in the venerable mortar that had withstood against the heavy pressure of the encompassing ocean for centuries. The reek was indescribable in combination with the corpses that were dispersed throughout the tombs and chambers like pieces of furniture.

Draco stepped back from the metal grating in horror with his eyes widening, letting his broken fingers drop in repulsion. Luna approached him despite his clearly panicked reaction towards the abomination before him, speaking in her familiar sugary and unperturbed tone, "You needn't be frightened. It doesn't hurt - not anymore, at least."

Draco suddenly felt icy cold, shivering in disbelief. He squinted through the shadows suspiciously, like a small dog held against it's will at a shelter and up for show to whoever passed by, "Impossible - I saw you die."

Luna's one good blue eye blinked several times avidly, "Hmm. What a phantasmagoric term, death. But yes, you could imply that I've started a new life. It was quite a nasty height to fall from, but it was an awful lot like flying momentarily."

When the battle of Hogwarts had begun, Luna was one of the first innocent casualties fighting on the Order's side. She had been picked up by a Dementor at least five stories into the sky before being dropped horrendously far with a sickening snap of her spine on sharp rubble. Draco had been busy hunting Madeleine like prey who was just beyond on the viaduct bridge. He'd seen the fairy-like Lovegood girl virtually bend in half upon impact.

Albeit darning a thick cloak he could tell that she was deformed below her raggedy dress. One of her shoulders hung dramatically lower than the other, her back hunched unnaturally. It was her face that most disturbed him, where across at a diagonal angle a resentful, stitched scar spanned from the center of her forehead, across the bridge of her nose and then hooked back around her eye to disappear behind her ear. The skin on either side of the slice presented in two completely different tones; clearly the patchwork transplant belonged to another body. The bones below the replacement flesh were oddly sunken, likely where her skull had been bashed inwards. In place of her left eye was some form of rotating black marble with what could only be described as a milky, cloudy cataract deep in the center.

Draco swallowed, "Nott, he did this to you?" He tried not to linger his eyes but it was impossible. Luna had once been a sight for sore eyes with long white hair and princess features, not that far off from his own wife. She was his biological relative, and there was an unspoken sensation of anguish welling up inside of his heart for her.

She tilted her head to the side thoughtfully with a tiny smile on her lips, and her spinal column clicked almost robotically, "Theodore was kind enough to salvage my remains. Although, I am missing a noticeable degree of my left-most prefrontal cortex. Not to worry, I mainly struggle to feel any emotions at all. It could be worse."

"No, this isn't natural Lovegood," Draco fought not to gag, turning his face to the side with his arm to his mouth. The morbidity of what Nott was capable of had begun to shine like a diamond amongst pebbles. She was a walking corpse, sewn together like a first year's indefensible science experiment.

"Are you here to visit?" she foolishly inquired, and Draco was astounded by the ridiculous inquiry that felt more like she was mocking him then anything.

He reached forward and grabbed the bars, shaking them in place with a snarl, "Yeah, we're playing hide and seek can't you tell? No, Lovegood! How much of your brain did you lose? I'm locked in a fucking cage!" He had to take in sharp breaths of aggravation as the pain in his fingers quickly monopolized his reality. It was sensationally ironic that he was now on the other side of a locked cage in a dungeon, with Luna Lovegood visiting him.