The Stars That Lie (Druna ☾)

Chapter 26

A distant ringing gradually died out in Luna's ears. She came to on the floor of Draco's room littered with furniture bits and strewn about decor. Her cheek pressed painfully into the edge of a broken picture frame with a shredded pastoral oil painting clinging to the backing for dear life.

She tried to push herself up, but her wobbly arms didn't get her more than a few inches off the ground. Cuts marred every exposed bit of skin, leaking dark crimson blood against her pale, pale flesh. Warmth on her cheek told her she was bleeding there too, but nothing was too deep. None of it would kill her.

The diadem lay right where she left it in the corner of the room. In fact, it was the only thing that remained there, as it was the epicenter of the blast. The center gem was gone. Shattered. And the rest of the metal was bent, mangled, and tarnished black.

It was done. It was over.

Surely the Dark Lord was dead now?

She had to hope...

Unfortunately, the two death eaters who had come in after her were not dead. They groaned and grunted as they came to—one in the hall and one on the other side of what used to be Draco's bed but was now a broken apart mess of wood and shredded sheets.

She needed to run, but she didn't know where to. Both exits were blocked by the death eaters coming back to their senses—neither door nor window accessible from where she lay on the other side of the room. Not to mention, her whole body ached from getting thrown like a ragdoll into the wall.

Her eyes scoured the mess for something sharp. A shard of glass or a splintered piece of wood she could use as a stake. Anything to give her a fighting chance.

That was when she saw it. Laying amidst the mess was a wand. Black and spindly, long and rigid. Nothing like any wand she was used to. Could she even use a wand like that? A wand loyal to a death eater... Surely it would backfire on her.

Then again, she didn't plan to use any nice spells with it.

Luna lunged for it with the last shred of energy she had, her whole body protesting and fighting against gravity that felt ten times heavier than normal.

As her fingers scrambled to get hold of it, one of the death eaters crashed down on top of her after rolling off the bed. He knocked her aside with a burly arm, and she fell back of course, but she didn't let him get to the wand. Kicking out a foot, she sent the wand skittering across the mess where it rolled to a stop half under an overturned chair.

Fingers snagged on the ends of her hair, gripping tight and pulling hard to yank her back from going after the wand again. She yelped, instinctively reaching up to hold her scalp protectively.

Draco needs me! I'm wasting time!

Her panicked thoughts whirled around her head, drowning out everything else. Drowning out the pain.

She let go of her scalp for a second and spun around to dig her nails into the death eater's face. Flesh ripped beneath her talons as she raked her hands down, at last giving her relief on her head when he let go with a jerk.

She lunged for the wand again, landing on her stomach and rolling as soon as she had hold of it.

The death eater loomed over her, just about to wrench the wand from her hands and make her pay. Out of the corner of her eye, the other death eater leaned in the doorway, about to join in the fray.

For some reason, only one curse came to mind.

"Entomorphis!"

Of all the curses she could have fired off... She thought of only one when it mattered.

The curse that Draco used to defend her once upon a time, when things were simpler, even if they hadn't felt in the least bit simple that year at Hogwarts.

The death eater's bleeding face transformed into that of an insect. He lifted his hands to his face in horror, the pinchers of his mouth parting wide as he tried to scream but found he had no voice.

She turned the wand on the other death eater who stood in shock, blasting him with a paralyzing hex before he found his wits again. Perhaps using a bit too much force though, he flew back, falling over the railing of the staircase. He hit the landing with a thud.

Luna scrambled to her feet and went after him. She found him in a heap, limbs twisted wrongly with one leg bent up to his hip and draped over the stairs. He was either dead or unconscious, but she couldn't be sure. And she didn't have time to find out either.

Draco needed her.

She leaped over the death eater in her way on the stairs, ignoring the clench in her gut of wrongness. She never meant to kill anyone. She never wanted to hurt people. The last time she did was with her friends at the Ministry, when they faced masked, faceless foes who struck first at her and her friends.

She was never going to forget the look on the paralyzed death eater's face or the twist of his limbs.

There was no time to process any of it. It was a problem for future Luna to deal with. Fighting back tears, whimpers, and all the pain in her dead limbs, she flew down the stairs at full speed. Out the front door, she sprinted barefoot into the high grass. Rocks and roots dug into her already cut up feet, leaving her biting back more cries of pain.

Her lungs heaved, threatening to give out any second. No pain she felt across her body compared to the sharp panic pounding in her chest. Her heart raced, her mind a blur.

She stopped at the edge of the woods, sagging wholly against a tree trunk with rough bark that bit into her palms. Over her deep pants, she listened for signs of Draco.

At first, only wind met her ears. No birdsong. No rustling of squirrels. Just hollow, empty wind.

Gooseflesh rippled and rose down her arms. Across her neck. Under her ripped skirt and shredded tights along her trembling thighs.

Then— A new sound.

Whiplike cracks of volleyed curses echoed through the silent woods. Back and forth— Back and forth—

She took one step into the woods, about to follow the sound and join up with Draco to fight the weakened Dark Lord. Her heart soared with dangerous hope thinking that he wasn't going to roll over and die. He was fighting back and—

A bellowed, haunting curse stopped her in her tracks like a bitterly cold icicle had staked her to the ground.

"Avada kedavra!"