Into Your Gravity ( Luna Lovegood & Tom Riddle )

Chapter twenty-nine: Submission

Finally, she just decided to ask and see what happened. The nerves the silence was causing to build in her stomach would only get worse the longer she drew it out. Clearing her throat to get his attention, she said quite politely, "Would you mind terribly telling me what has happened that has caused you so much distress?"

Nagini hissed at her grumpily as she spoke, as Luna's voice had disturbed her. Luna was painfully reminded of Othello hissing whenever she woke him up as well, and hoped desperately that Neville or Ginny was taking decent care of him. If they were even safe, that was.

"I am aware that it is pointless to deny that something has affected me, but I would not use the word distressed," Tom replied unhelpfully, his voice carrying an echo of chill.

Luna rose from the table and made her way around his chair so that she could see him. He still stared, unseeing, at the grate. Luna made quick eye contact with Nagini, to gain her permission to get closer, which Nagini apparently granted by closing her eyes to sleep again. Kneeling down in front of him to force him to look at her, Luna said quietly, "Please. Please tell me. I need to know."

Finally meeting her eye, he said, "You need to know if your precious Order is safe, don't you?" Luna could hear traces of fatigue in his voice, buried beneath the cold.

"Yes," she said, unapologetic. "But I also am curious because of the way it's...affected you," she admitted. When he still said nothing, she threw out her last weapon, knowing it would either infuriate him or please him. "My – my lord. Please."

He seemed to have no reaction beyond a slight narrowing of his eyes when he looked at her. "Your Order friends attacked here. Undoubtedly in an attempt to rescue you," he finally said acridly.

"They were here?" she questioned, though she wasn't particularly surprised. That would explain everything. And she had known Harry would do something to try to save her. It was in his nature. She wondered if he would still save her if he knew...well, of course he would. He was Harry.

                                 •

Tom watched her eyes very carefully as he told her the news. It enraged him that she was so utterly preoccupied with Harry Potter. "Yes, they were here." He knew what she would ask next.

"Are they all right?" she asked, just as he knew she would.

"You'll be pleased to know that many more death eaters were killed than Order members," he bit out. Nagini, sensing the change in his mood, raised her head again to his level to also glare down at Luna.

"No, that doesn't please me," Luna replied calmly. "Death never pleases me."

She was always catching him off guard. How could she do that when no one else could? He raised a hand and stroked Nagini's head with a single finger to calm her, soothing his own nerves as well.

"Who died? Please tell me, I beg -"

"Don't beg," he spat. "It disgusts me."

"I'm sorry," she said, nonplussed. "I thought you liked begging."

Her sheer lack of sarcasm annoyed him. "Potter and the Weasley brats are all fine. Bellatrix nearly killed Longbottom, but he got away at the last moment. Does that cover everyone you care about?" he intoned. His patience had ended.

Luna seemed to sense that she shouldn't ask anything else. "Thank you," she whispered. Her voice was so sincere, and it shot another wave of cold hate for Potter through him to know that she was so worried for his enemy. Again, she caught him off guard by laying her head carefully on his knee. She blinked up at him gratefully and almost...fondly. Whatever loathing she undoubtedly held for him was currently being dominated by other emotions. At the moment, she was a perfect picture of submission, though deep down he was aware that she was the one force he could not contain.

"They didn't get to you, but they caused significant damage along the way by catching us by surprise," he was saying, unsure of why he was volunteering the information. "Our numbers were severely decreased. We couldn't withstand another attack." He forced himself to regain his control and stopped speaking.

Luna, for her part, said nothing, merely absorbing what he'd said and taking note of the way the muscles in his thigh tensed and relaxed and seemed to flow with energy. She now at least understood why he had been so eager to escape in her last night. He was afraid. He was, for the first time, considering the possibility that he might not win the war he'd started.

Nagini had been moving without detection since Luna had laid her head on his knee. Only when the snake laid her head on his other knee did Voldemort notice her movement. The serpent had slithered to include Luna in her coils, leaving the two humans in a living entwinement. Looking down at his lap, with slitted, feral eyes watching him from one knee, and seas of blue eyes watching from the other, his hands moved towards each of them simultaneously. Both Nagini and Luna rose to meet his touch.