The Stars That Lie (Druna ☾)

Chapter 6

Luna did not see Draco again for days. And then weeks. The only glimpses she got of him were at the occasional mealtime and sometimes in passing in the halls.

He never acknowledged her. For all intents and purposes, she was back to being invisible to him. No longer in existence—her or her prophecies.

Maybe Sinistra had been right. Maybe it was pointless to try to glean the future. Like listening in on a private conversation that she wasn't a part of, she was only catching snippets that were never meant for her to hear in the first place.

But what if that wasn't true either? What if the stars were speaking directly to her? What if she had forgotten the language and couldn't understand it all?

What if she was dreadfully wrong, and by chasing this, she was inadvertently pushing herself and Draco into something they were never meant to fall into?

Things came to a head when a horrible accident befell Katie Bell. Rumors spread about a hex, a curse, and an accident that could have killed the girl.

To make matters worse, Harry was going around telling everyone that Malfoy had done it. Somehow, someway, it was Draco who had almost killed the girl.

Luna didn't buy it for a second.

Draco had proved to her that he had no interest in harming innocents. In fact, he felt the need to defend her at one time. His anger was only ever directed at threats, and unless Katie Bell was suddenly a threat—which was the most improbable lie Luna had ever heard—Draco wasn't to blame.

Nonetheless, she didn't doubt that he played some a part in it.

The stars were more incessant than ever. New signs, new cosmic revelations, filled her notes every night.

Dark times were coming, and Draco was a catalyst.

She sat in Sinistra's office one morning after getting caught in the tower after curfew. Blinking blearily with dark circles under her eyes, Luna waited for the reprimand. But when it did not come, she broke down.

"Are the stars ever wrong, Professor?" She hiccuped, tears springing to her eyes that she tried to blink away.

Sinistra shook her head subtly.

"Can't we do anything? Can't we stop it?"

"No, dear. But"—she raised a slender finger—"I will offer you this piece of wisdom. The stars may never be wrong, but they do lie."

"They do?"

"Yes. Why, one hundred years ago, an astronomer thought that the stars were predicting a horrible plague that would wipe out half the world. He became obsessed with the prophecy and spread fear everywhere he went about the foretold plague. Only no plague came. Do you know what did come?"

Luna shook her head.

"A cure for the dragon pox. People tried to prepare, but they had nothing to prepare against. Their tests and experiments led to the cure for something else. And do you know what was going on in another part of the sky that the astronomer missed entirely?"

Luna shook her head again.

"A sign that good fortune would befall the world. The exact hour the heavens predicted, the cure was found, and an entire hospital of those sick with the disease went home by the end of the day."

It was a moving story, but Luna had to ask, "Are you saying the stars trick us?"

"They might lead us down different paths. Afterall, they know better than us."

Luna tapped her chin. If that was true, then it meant that the stars might be lying to her now. Whatever they wanted her and Draco to know, they had to act. Whether it would stop or bring about the darkest times, it would all be for the better.