Into Your Gravity ( Luna Lovegood & Tom Riddle )

Chapter thirty-two: Time

A/N: THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER.

Oh well the devil makes us sin
But we like it when we're spinning, in his grin.
Love is like a sin my love
For the ones that feels it the most
-Massive Attack, "Paradise Circus"
•

"Wake up! Wake up now!"

Luna awoke to Tom's urgent voice, and to him shaking her shoulders. "What? What time is it?" she asked groggily. She had dwelt on unhappy thoughts for hours before dozing uneasily after he had left her room earlier in the day.

"It's after midnight. Your friends in the Order are coming," he spat. "Come with me. I'm taking you somewhere you won't be in the way."

Suddenly wide awake, Luna said, "The Order? How many?"

"Too many. Get up." He walked over to the armchair, where clothes lie for her. He picked these up and threw them at her. "Get dressed. Quickly."

"Where am I going?" she asked, as she began to dress. "I want to stay."

He rounded on her, pulling his wand from his robes and pointing it at her, his eyes ablaze with a madness that had breached the surface. "Do what I say. I don't have time for this."

"Curses will rebound on you," she said, reminding him of the oath he made not to harm her. She kept her eyes fixed on the tip of his wand nevertheless.

"I'm sure I can have Bella take care of you if need be," he seethed. "Move."

Luna's stomach turned over as she realized that at this point, with him so obviously frayed at the edges, it was not unlikely that he would follow through with that threat. She fell silent and finished dressing as quickly as possible, as Voldemort hovered by the door.

As soon as she was dressed, he seized her upper arm and hauled her out of the room and through the hallway. The death eaters were preparing for battle with a silence Luna found discomforting, as though a bit of doubt had wormed its way into their heads over the day and had settled in to grow. Busy as they were casting defensive spells on the building and positioning lookouts, they immediately leapt out of Voldemort's path as he passed with Luna in tow.

Voldemort flung the front door of the manor wide with a flick of his wand. They set off across the sloping grounds, and she noticed he had pulled an invisibility cloak out of his robes as they hurried into the dark night. He lead her around the back of the house towards a small, winding dirt path that, from her vantage point atop the hill, she could see led to the small graveyard a short distance away. Neither one of them spoke as they hurried down the path, their robes billowing behind them.

The night was chilly, just enough bite in the air to be uncomfortable, but the sky was clear and the stars were bright. Luna thought distractedly that there were far too many stars in the sky, and some of the little lights must be Giant Peruvian Fireflies, which would certainly fly away once all the noise from the battle started. She thought about mentioning this to Tom, but was fairly certain that even if he did happen to believe in Giant Peruvian Fireflies, he wasn't likely to want to discuss them at the moment.

The silence between them was only punctured by their breath until they reached the outermost gravestones of the cemetery.

"You must stay here," he hissed at her, moving quickly between the headstones until they reached a large marble pillar. "Sit," he order, pointed at the base of the pillar on the side facing away from the manor. She would be hidden, even without an invisibility cloak.