The Stars That Lie (Druna ☾)

Chapter 19

Same as last time! I will use asterisks {***} to denote where the smut starts and ends if you would like to skip. I hope you're enjoying the story :)

☾━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━☽

Three nights passed. They were silent most nights together now, but the air was charged in light of the incident in the woods.

Luna couldn't say she regretted it, but she wished it had happened a little differently. She wished it was not so hard to look at him now without remembering how she hurt him.

She was not used to being on this end of a grievance... Normally, she was the one getting hurt, and she swallowed it easily since she was used to years of no one understanding her.

It was not often that she was the one hurting others, and she did not like the feeling one bit.

The first two nights sitting out with him, she was distracted, barely paying attention to the sky as she wracked her brain for a good idea—anything to earn his trust again.

Gifts came to mind, since Draco seemed to show his affection that way. The only problem was that she had no gifts to give him. Other than the telescope and rubber ball he gave her first, she had nothing to her name in this place. Nothing to sacrifice that he would actually want.

There were acts of service, perhaps. But what did Draco need from her that he couldn't get a house elf to do?

Did he like back rubs?

He seemed a bit averse to casual touching...

Perhaps words of encouragement and affirmation would do the trick. Only Luna didn't know what she could say that he would actually believe. She was terrible with words, if she was being honest. Any time she opened her mouth, she felt at risk of rambling on about something no one cared about.

On the third night, Draco reminded her that her report was due the following morning. "You seem a bit distracted," he said honestly. "But we need something if we don't want to be bothered."

She nodded, determined, and did her best to clear her thoughts as she set up the telescope. If she continued to be vague in her reports, then they wouldn't be believed after long.

She set her sights on the heavens, turning to the Draco constellation out of habit. Something about it had seemed off for days, but she had ignored it, thinking she was seeing things that weren't there.

She would trust her instincts for once though, and it payed off sometime after two in the morning when she finally made her discovery.

With a gasp, she startled Draco out of his dozing, making him jolt in his chair as she lunged for her notes and charts.

She checked, double checked, and triple checked. But it was real. It was really there.

Bursting forth, brighter than Eltanin, a new star finally made its appearance in the constellation. She hadn't noticed it at first because its light was weak, but some time in the night, when she'd been exploring other corners of the sky, it had made its debut into the world with blazing glory.

The symbolism and implications of the new star whirled around in her head faster than a hurricane. She flipped madly through her notes, marking it down, then drew arrows to it with other events of note.

The Draconids shower in October... The new star brighter than Eltanin... The symbolism of something spectacular about to happen and a reckoning for something huge—

She jerked her head up, gaping at Draco in the seat beside her where he sat patiently, waiting to be told what was going on.

Draco was going to finish what he started. Most likely in October.