Into Your Gravity ( Luna Lovegood & Tom Riddle )

Chapter thirty-one: Betrayal

"And who do you think you are
Running 'round leaving scars
Collecting your jar of hearts
And tearing love apart?
You're gonna catch a cold
From the ice inside your soul.
So don't come back for me.
Who do you think you are?"
-Christina Perri, "Jar of Hearts"
•

Luna was woken up late the next morning by Jugson. He wasn't wearing a mask, and having never seen his face before, she only recognized him by his Scottish accent as he shook her awake.

"Wake up," he said, his gruff voice oddly gentle.

Bleary-eyed, Luna blinked herself into consciousness. "How's your leg?" she asked sleepily.

He snorted. "It's fine. Got it tended to. The wife wasn't pleased."

Luna looked more closely at his face. If she had met him and his wife in a shop, she would never have known he was a death eater. She wanted to ask how he'd become one, and she was about to do so, but before she could, he was shoving a plate full of food at her.

"Eat up, little one. Don't know why you're still alive, but so long as you are, you ought to stay healthy," he remarked, eyeing her frail frame disapprovingly.

"Why do you care?" she asked, though she obligingly took a bite.

"You remind me of my daughter, though you're a bit older than she is," he admitted brusquely, then shook his head. "You eat all that quick now; we have to leave."

The food in her mouth seemed to turn to ash at his mentioning his daughter, and an ache rocked her heart, but she was distracted as he revealed they were leaving. "What? Where are we going?" she asked.

"None of your business, you ought to know that. Snape brought word that the Order's planning another attack tonight, and the Dark Lord thought it best that we move to another location."

Luna absorbed this information silently. Professor Snape was a triple agent. Anything he told Voldemort, he told him strategically. Or because he had to. Her stomach clenched at the thought of it being tortured out of him; but no, the way Jugson had said it had made it sound as though it had been voluntary. Which had to mean that any move Voldemort made would be preempted by the Order.

A small flutter of hope bloomed in her chest at the thought of seeing her friends again. Hadn't Voldemort told her that another attack might be too much for the death eaters to handle?

Bellatrix suddenly breezed in through the door, obviously checking up on them. "Not telling her anything confidential again, are we, Jugson?" she cooed.

Luna's nose wrinkled in disgust, and for the first time, she wished she had her wand just for the purpose of cursing someone into oblivion. She blinked as she realized this, and she supposed she'd been spending too much time with the wrong sort of witches and wizards. The realization did not, however, ease her rage.

Jugson answered, "Not anything the Dark Lord probably wouldn't tell her himself." There was overt mocking in his voice, an illicit implication, and he was clearly taking great pleasure in the fact that Luna was somehow in Voldemort's favor, much to Bella's dismay.

In a flash, Bellatrix had her wand drawn and pointed at Jugson.

"And just what are you doing, Bella?" came Tom's voice, as he appeared in the doorway that she had left ajar.