4.1 | Draconian ✓

23 | flipendo

A/N

This chapter is the reason Finite exists. Theo x Luna shippers, welcome back.
x Noelle

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2 3

f l i p e n d o

Knocks opponent over.

HERMIONE DIDN'T KNOW what to do when Luna awoke the next morning. She froze as she met the girl's wide-eyed gaze. When Luna kept staring, she smiled shyly and nodded. "Hello, Luna."

Luna struggled to sit up. "Hermione?"

Hermione immediately went over to ease her down on the pillow. Draco had already cleared out the guest room, and Transfigured a chair to use as a makeshift bed for Luna.

"The Order's not going to be coming back for her so soon," Draco had said, when Hermione asked why Luna was to stay with them. "They're going to be too busy saving their arses they wouldn't even think about the captured prisoners until at least a week later. Loony Lovegood's stuck with us."

"Lu-na," Hermione had corrected.

"It's Loony. Just wait till you have a conversation with her – if you can even call it that."

Hermione wasn't even sure she could have a conversation with Luna Lovegood anymore. The girl looked familiar, but it felt like talking to a complete stranger. She forced her worries aside and said, "You're in a lot of pain. Just lie back down."

"Is it really you?"

"Yes, it's me." She tried not to flinch when Luna reached across to hug her.

"Everyone thought you were dead," Luna told her bluntly, after she'd pulled back, "but I've always told Neville that you weren't. And Harry and Ron and Ginny too. Although none of them seem to believe me. But they've missed you so much – we all do." Luna didn't seem to notice the frozen look on Hermione's face, and continued on in her breezy, cheery manner. "It's so good to see you, Hermione. Everyone in the Order will be so happy to know that you're here. Where is here, anyway?"

"I – I have to get some potions," Hermione stammered out. "I'll – I'll be right back."

Before Luna could reply, she rushed out of the room and slammed the door shut.

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Draco awoke that morning with a chilling terror seizing his heart when he glanced over at the chair and found it empty. It wasn't until he recalled Looney Lovegood in the other room and realised that Hermione had probably gone to check up on her that the oxygen finally rushed back into his lungs.

He took his time in the shower to heal his bruises. When he was done, he found his friends having breakfast in the kitchen. A tense silence reigned, and Pansy and Blaise seemed unable to look him in the eye.

"Look," he started. "Last night was a disaster – "

"A major disaster," Theo cut in, only to shut his mouth when Draco shot him a look.

" – things went to shite. But it's none of our faults. We had a miscommunication. We weren't on the same wavelengths. The whole bloody mission was unexpected, for Merlin's sake."