I just pretend that I'm in the dark
I don't regret 'cause my heart can't take a loss
I'd rather be so oblivious
I'd rather be with you
In Your Eyes - The Weeknd
—
The rain which had started earlier in the week had cleared up, and as Luna returned to Ravenclaw Tower after leaving the library, the afternoon sun shone in through the windows. She chewed her lip thoughtfully as she moved through Hogwarts' familiar corridors.
She had considered every possibility a thousand and one times. The most drastic - killing Tom Riddle - was out of the question. She was not arrogant enough as to assume she knew what such an act performed in the past might do to the future, even though it seemed the simplest option, and she was too afraid to cause some negative consequence that she had not foreseen.
And besides that, she was fairly certain she couldn't muster up the hatred and Dark intent required to make the Killing Curse work properly. She was more likely to give him a stomach ache and get herself arrested several decades in the past for using an Unforgivable Curse...or even killed herself, if Riddle had time to retaliate.
Luna tossed her bag into an empty armchair in front of a sunny window in the nearly-empty common room, then sat in the chair next to it with a sigh. She twiddled one of her Dirigible plum earrings. Even knowing what she knew about the boy, knowing he would be the reason Harry and Neville didn't have parents someday, she did not feel hatred when she saw him sweeping around the castle in his school robes with his clear skin, sharp eyes, and even sharper tongue. Confusion, perhaps, at how such a bright and talented boy had become so twisted. But not hatred.
Dumbledore's words before lunch had spurred her to approach Tom in the library, and now she wasn't sure she had interpreted them correctly. Maybe Dumbledore knew that Tom was beyond help and he had meant something else entirely; maybe she was misunderstanding his words. Luna paused in playing with her earring. Was he beyond help?
What had Harry told them, when he had shared the news about the Horcruxes with them in whispers? That first time they discussed it, they had sat with their heads together, the six of them - Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville, and Luna - pouring over each detail they knew, trying to piece it together. Luna recalled the nausea that had come over her that night, coming in waves as they talked.
And now...Tom was in his sixth year, nearly a man. He had opened the Chamber of Secrets in his fifth year, meaning the boy she was speaking to had already murdered Moaning Myrtle.
She swallowed. He had also already murdered his father, not one month ago. Had he already made his first Horcrux? Had he already made more than one?
Dumbledore didn't know these things, otherwise he wouldn't have given her such advice, if she was indeed interpreting his cryptic words correctly.
Luna felt foolish. She had approached him without thinking it through, an impulse which had done nothing more than draw more attention to herself, attention of the future Lord Voldemort. How was she to help someone who didn't want her help, who was a dangerous Dark wizard and murderer already? What redemption was possible for a fractured soul?
***
The weekend came, sunny and crisp. Tom spent nearly his entire Saturday in the library. In between long periods of doing his homework, he slipped into the Restricted Section to study those Dark things in which he was most interested, spinning the ring on his finger with his thumb as he read.
That evening after dinner, he glanced around the Slytherin common room and felt smothered. Instead of settling down with his usual group, he took his cloak from his dormitory, pinned his Prefect badge to the front, and headed back out into the castle. He made his way down to the entrance hall, then pulled one of the great oak doors open to slip outside into the night.
He inhaled deeply as he crossed the moonlit grass, walking down to the nearest edge of the lake. It was chilly outside, but he always did his best thinking when alone at night. In fact, it had been one of the reasons, among others such as unfiltered access to the Restricted Section, that he had so wanted to be a Prefect: he had a reason to patrol the school alone for an hour or two each night.
The moon was growing, not yet half full. Tom glanced up at the moon and stars, casting light out of the blackness of space to shine down on him, his hands clasped behind his back. In general these days, he was no stargazer, though he could recall many nights spent hunched in a window at the orphanage, arms around his knees unable to sleep, staring up at indifferent stars.
He found a familiar constellation in the sky above the lake, one he used to trace with a finger on the glass years ago. So much had changed.
As he turned back towards the castle, a yellow square of light cut through the blue light of the moon and stars as one of the front doors was opened again. Out slipped a small silhouette, clearly lit for a moment by the light escaping the door behind her. Luna shut the door behind her, then drifted her way directly across the sloping lawn towards the Forbidden Forest, unaware she had been seen.
Tom smiled. An opportunity to dock points and give detention at a minimum, and get her expelled at best, presenting itself during the first week of the term? He couldn't have asked for better luck. He surreptitiously caught up to her, hanging just far enough back as to avoid detection, and followed her into the trees of the Forest.
Among the trees, the pale light of the sky barely penetrated, and the darkness was oppressive. He had to keep an eye on both the girl and the ground to avoid tripping or stepping on something which would make her aware of his presence. Fortunately, her hair caught what little starlight cut through the trees, and she was fairly easy to follow. The forest floor, on the other hand, quickly became covered in a cool, creeping mist that moved around his feet and ankles, obscuring his view of where he might be stepping.
Moving further into the Forest, further than he had ever gone, he began to wonder where she was going when she came to a quiet, moonlight soaked clearing in the trees. Tom hung back, hiding behind a yew tree where he could watch what she did. Had she come here to perform some kind of magic?
But the girl went to the center of the clearing and sat down. She peered about her expectantly, as though waiting something. An owl hooted somewhere nearby.
Tom was about to go into the clearing and tell her she'd earned detention when there was a rustling across the clearing, the branches of a bush shaking. He reached into his pocket and slipped his wand out, raising it. Luna turned to face the movement, but did not pull a wand of her own. A moment later, a thestral foal stumbled out of the brush and into the clearing.
The foal tottered on spindly legs towards Luna, who held her hand to it. After the little thestral had sniffed her hand, she patted its head. Suddenly, more rustling broke out around the clearing, and several full grown thestrals appeared, making their way to the center.
Slowly lowering his wand, Tom watched as the thestrals surrounded Luna, nuzzling her, fighting for her attention, which she seemed all too happy to give. The foal was nipping at her cloak, which made her laugh, and she reached into her pocket and began pulling out several steaks that she must have nicked from dinner. She began giving each of the thestrals bits of meat, intermittently admonishing one that was being too greedy.
Tom's brows knitted themselves together as he watched. The skeletal winged horses had become visible to him just recently, having been present when his basilisk killed that Mudblood in the bathroom at the end of the prior school year. He did not particularly like them, as they had stomped their hooves at him and watched him with ghostly eyes when he had boarded the carriage, both at the end of the previous year and the beginning of this one. He wasn't sure if they'd always done it and he just hadn't seen.
And yet, here was this girl, who was nothing, a waif, a child...and she was not deterred by them at all. She seemed downright fond of the beasts, and they of her.
"Oh, Tom, I know you're there."
He jumped as her voice floated across the clearing to him. Cursing himself for allowing her to catch him off guard, he set his jaw and strode out from behind the tree. "What do you think you're doing?" he said sternly. "I could give you detention for the rest of the term."
Luna looked up at him, her pale skin iridescent in the moonlight.
A wild thought hurtled across his brain that she appeared borderline ethereal. The thought was immediately silenced. "I ought to, in fact." He crossed his left arm across his chest, using it as a platform for his right elbow, and began twirling his wand between the long white fingers of his right hand.
"You didn't have to go sneaking in the dark if you wanted to come with me. If you'd just told me so, I would've brought you along."
"I didn't want to come. I wanted to catch you at what you were up to, which, it turns out, is breaking several school rules."
She shook her head, and the thestrals, who had been eyeing him warily, seemed to sense his tone. They began moving themselves, placing their skeletal bodies between the two humans. Luna stood up, onto her tiptoes, so that she could speak to him over the thestrals' wings. "Well, I suppose being a Prefect is a heavy duty to bear. If you feel that's what you must do to be honorable, then I won't argue with you," she said, gazing at him unblinkingly.
"What the devil is that supposed to mean?" he said, ceasing twirling his wand.
"I wouldn't want to interfere with your sense of what is right," she replied, still without blinking. A smile seemed to be tugging at the corners of her mouth, but it was so faint he couldn't be sure.
"Are you mocking me?" he said coldly, taking a step towards her.
One of the thestrals snorted at his advancement, stamping its hooves, its pale eyes never leaving his face. Indeed, Luna's eyes had also never left his face, and she still hadn't blinked.
"Oh, curses, would you blink already?" he spat as the thestrals grew more agitated. This entire encounter was not going the way he had intended.
"Sorry?" said Luna.
"Furious with himself for losing control of the situation yet again, he muttered, "You need to blink!"
"Oh. Okay." She blinked very pointedly for him.
•••
Luna performed her blink for Tom, fighting a laugh. She patted the thestrals to calm them down, as she had seen Tom's eyes flicker between the creatures and her, though the look of maddening superiority never left his face.
"Would you like to pet one?" she asked, stroking the muzzle of a large male thestral who had been getting very upset.
"Why would I want to pet a vile thing like that?"
"They aren't vile at all, actually. They are intelligent, loyal, and quite gentle when they trust you."
Tom scrutinized the thestrals with disdain, expression carefully controlled, the moonlight casting his cheekbones into sharper relief.
Stepping out from behind the thestrals, Luna came closer to Tom. "Here," she said, and held out her hand to him.
Dark eyes settled on her hand, small and pale, as it hovered there in the dark waiting for him to take it. Tom smirked, then stepped forward, brushing past her hand.
"Come here," she said, leading him to the little foal. "The young ones are a bit more trusting."
Ignoring a disgruntled whinny from what was likely the foal's mother, Tom reached out a hand towards the young thestral. He hesitated a fraction of a second, then patted the foal's head. When he stopped, the foal immediately nudged his hand before he could pull away, clearly prompting him to continue, which he did.
"See?" she said. "It's not so bad." Luna took a step back and observed the scene she had created, and she couldn't help but smile.
Tom looked up at her, eyes flashing. "If you tell anyone about this -"
"I won't," she promised. "It'll be our little secret."
In her eyes held that familiar twinkle similar to Dumbledore's. How unfortunate, he thought to himself, that she's related to that loony.
—
Hello and how are you?
I apologize for the delay of this chapter, school has already started months ago and adjusting to online classes is a bit difficult for me.
I intended to post this part last week but there were things I needed to change. Nonetheless, I hope this chapter is a fun read just as I've been having fun writing it.
I do have to apologize in advance if the chapters are a bit boring, I'm just trying to set the time and mood for the story to really take off. Since if we go to the juicy bits it will be a lot to handle (^_^;) so please bear with me ☻.
Please don't hesitate to write your thoughts, opinions, theories, or just comments. I read all of them and I try to reply because it makes me so happy to receive one （＾ν＾）.
Until next time!
xxava