The Stars That Lie (Druna ☾)

Chapter 23

Running on less than two hours of sleep, Luna paced around the sun room with her arms clasped behind her back. She'd tried bouncing her rubber ball for a time, but that didn't expel her nervous energy as she waited for the clock to strike noon.

Then she'd tried going over her star charts, but what was the point to noting anything? Anything true and real could be confiscated by the Death Lord when he visited, harming her and Draco in the process. The false report was already written, waiting to be handed over.

"Why is he coming so early?" she had asked Draco when he returned from his anger management walk in the woods. "Why noon? Shouldn't he come in the evening when I'm able to stargaze if he wants to observe me?"

"I don't know. I can't... I can't let myself think about the what ifs..." he had responded with a far away, hollow look in his eyes.

A snap disturbed the air, and Luna ceased her pacing at once, listening keenly to the sounds of the forest beyond the house without daring a single breath.

Footsteps thudded slowly through the house, and Draco appeared at the doorway to the sunroom with a somber expression. "They're here."

She nodded, forcing a gulp past a pit in her throat, and smoothed down the black skirt she'd been gifted. After wearing only trousers, jumpers, or whatever else seemed comfortable, she felt like a terrible actor playing dress up for a part she had no business playing.

Today, Luna had to be a death eater.

If she didn't play her part well, not only was it her life on the line, but Draco's too.

She kept three paces behind Draco as she followed him into the foyer to meet the Dark Lord at the door. Without lifting her eyes, she listened to the creak of the door and the harsh, quiet greetings between Draco and Voldemort.

"Draco... Good to see you, my faithful servant."

"Welcome, my lord."

Neither sounded genuine.

"Why do you hide behind Draco?"

It took Luna a moment to realize the Dark Lord was speaking to her now. She jerked her gaze up, accidentally meeting the snake-eyes of the cruelest monster in the world. She bit back her gasp of disgust at the sight of him, for he did not look well. From the last time she laid eyes on his horrifying figure, his color faded to an even grayer shade, his skin sinking and hanging off of him all wrong.

He looked more like a corpse.

No words came out of her lips even though she opened them to speak.

Draco had to speak for her before too much time passed that would anger the wizard. "Her mind is fragile ever since her imprisonment. I apologize for her simpleness."

"I hope it is not too simple that she cannot accurately read the stars and write her reports," Voldemort intoned. Beside him on either side, two death eaters flexed their fingers around their wands, just waiting for the order to strike.

"Not that I have noticed," Draco continued calmly. He stared down the other death eaters with cold indifference. Like he feared nothing and trusted every word out of his own mouth. "The only time she shows any intelligence is when she's looking at the stars."

The words should have stung, except Luna knew they were keeping her alive. Draco could insult her all he wanted. He could even mean the insults he said so callously. She knew what really lived in his heart though, and it was not indifference towards her.

Luna was his greatest weakness.

"May I send her away?" Draco asked out of the blue, and Luna startled, cutting a look up to him even though he stared straight ahead and not over his shoulder where she cowered.