Memory Lane

Chapter 3

Lovegood wins the next hand and I decide it's about time to go. She asks for one more, though, and I can't tell her no.

I don't know exactly how the companions spend their time when they aren't in a fic, but this might be the only fun she gets to have.

"Where do you stay, Luna?"

She looks completely baffled and I realise I need to explain this question carefully. "When you aren't... here. Playing Snap with me."

Yes, brilliant, I curse myself. That'll make more sense.

But her hazy blue eyes clear a little and she says only, "In the dorm, with the others."

"The other... Ravenclaws?" Now I'm the one confused, like she's still at school.

Luna shrugs. "Everyone. It's a regular dorm. We have beds there. We must have house-elves to keep it tidy and bring food."

Flabbergasted, I try to reconcile this information with what I knew of the early days of Resistance captivity.

This has to be a public opinion thing, a way of softening the optics. Yes, they're well-kept and Obliviated. Healed when needed. No harm done, really.

Like attractions in an amusement park, they're no use if they're not properly cared for.

"How - how long have you been there?" A calculating question, and I'm not disappointed.

"Only a day or two, I think." Luna looks up at me and smiles. "It's your turn, Draco."

Yes, it is. I play a card. "Do they keep you all together, or is it just the other girls with you?"

I'm not surprised to hear it's just girls, just like at Hogwarts. I'm amazed they allow as much socialising as they do, but I'd be stunned to hear that everyone was in the same pool of dormitory beds.

I do get out of Luna that while she said 'everyone,' there are multiple dorms for girls sorted by rough age. That makes sense, as the captivity pool grew. It's probably the same for the men.

"Lovegood, do you know why you're in that dorm?"

I'm edging very close to dangerous territory now, but I can't help myself. This has evolved far beyond what I'd last seen in my initial visits to the park and Dolohov's fics.

Luna meets me with wide, inquisitive eyes, always a little too wide for her face. She always looks startled. "Well, we're in hiding, of course. We're preparing for the final phases of the war. It should be soon, any day now."

Huh.

"'Preparing,'" I repeat. "Do you have books there? Is it like a common room?" I know they don't have wands. She doesn't seem bothered by this obvious gap of war preparation and it must be part of the Obliviation they all go through.

"Oh, yes," she nods seriously. "And I should probably tell them I saw you, but you're not like the others. You've always been kind."

This is not even close to true.

My only redeeming qualities towards Lovegood consisted of playing Snap with her in the dungeons of Malfoy Manor and making myself scarce when the Dark Lord wanted to crucio something out of her so someone else had to do it. The more time I spent in the dungeons, the less I was able to force together the desire to torture her.

It would have exposed a weakness I could not afford.

All of this distracts me enough that she wins this final hand easily, and I look up and say, "Bring me out."

* * *

Mind still reeling from this conversation, Dolohov has to ask me twice what I thought.