Anchor
Title: Anchor
Prompt: Week #11: Chains (dl_drabbles)
Character/Pairing: Draco Malfoy/Luna Lovegood
Rating: G
Word Count: 500
Summary: Draco comes to see Luna after the events at Malfoy Manor.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K. Rowling; I've just borrowed them for a little while.
Luna hears the pop of an apparition and rushes to the window, shells tinkling when she pushes them aside. The shock of blond hair is horribly familiar and she hesitates, but she hears the quiet murmur of voices downstairs and knows no one else has seen him.
She makes up her mind and runs down the stairs, her bare feet feather-light against the wood. The door is half-open anyway and she slips out onto the beach.
The moment she's outside the charm's reach, he turns and she startles at the cut high on his cheek. He reaches for her, taking her arms and kissing each wrist, kissing the slowly lightening bruises that mark where the chains bit her skin.
She moves closer and he presses kisses to her face, murmuring, "I'm sorry, Luna, I'm so sorry-"
"Draco," she says, breathes almost, against his lips. He pulls back and she runs a hand through his dishevelled hair. "What are you doing here?"
"I don't understand it anymore," he says. Tears well up in his eyes and Luna is smart-she's in Ravenclaw for a reason-she knows that usually, she's the one floating, scatter-brained and lost. She has to be Draco's anchor.
"What don't you understand?" she asks, stroking his hair still.
"What Father said, it made sense, it was us and them, but you're a pureblood and Ollivander too and then he came and-"
Luna touches the cut on his cheek. He doesn't flinch away. She opens her mouth to say something, something she read in The Quibbler about the Blibbering Humdinger, but dismisses it. Instead, she says, "What happened?" and touches the cut again.
"Aunt Bella," Draco says, his lip curling with distaste. There's fear in his eyes. Deep, dark fear, the kind Luna remembers feeling after her mother died. It squeezes her heart for a moment, but she breathes out and it flutters away.
"What are you going to do?"
Draco meets her gaze for a second, but his eyes skitter away. "I don't know," he admits.
Luna takes his hand, presses the palm to her lips. She says into it, "Do you want to leave your family?"
That's the one thing they have in common, their love for their families. Draco falters, but Luna smiles. "They will protect you," she says. She doesn't say Bellatrix has done much worse for much less and doesn't think of the word carved into Hermione's arm.
Draco does both. "I-I'll go back," he says slowly. "To them. I don't want-"
"You're strong, Draco. You'll get through this."
"You're stronger." Draco steps away from her, though the feeling of his hands lingers. His smile is sad. He looks past her. "Isn't that a Crumple-Horned Snorkack?"
Luna knows better, but she turns anyway; there's nothing there but Shell Cottage and when she hears the pop from behind she is deeply, bitterly disappointed.
She'll see Draco again at Hogwarts. She doesn't know if she'll ever see him again like that.