Into Your Gravity ( Luna Lovegood & Tom Riddle )

Chapter thirteen: Intertwine

Fold out your hands, give me a sign
Hold down your lies
Lay down next to me
Don't listen when I scream
Bury your doubts and fall asleep
Find out I was just a bad dream
Goodbye - Apparat

•

Luna woke with a start not long after she had fallen asleep, the acute nighttime senses she had gained along with motherhood tingling. She had heard what sounded like a cry, and when her eyes popped open in the dimness of the room, she noted that the furniture in the room was shaking, including the small bed in which Violetta was laying. Mostly vibrations, but occasionally one of the pieces of furniture would give a larger jerk or shudder, like something was alive inside it and trying to get out. Luna was facing the window, and as she watched, a vicious crack appeared in one of the glass panes. The crack then began to spread like a spider web. She sat up to go comfort Violetta. The girl had occasionally caused such things in her sleep when she was having nightmares.

Just as she was lifting the blankets, Luna again heard a small, choked whimper, and she froze. Instead of coming from where Violetta slept in the dark, it had come from behind her. Turning her chin over her shoulder, she saw that Tom had rolled over and was facing away from her. He was still asleep, his eyes shut tight, but he had his hands clenched in fists, his face twisted in torment. He twitched as though making an attempt to get away from something, and the furniture in the room gave a more violent shudder all at once. Violetta seemed undisturbed thus far.

"Oh, Tom," Luna whispered in the dark. She brushed a couple of sweat-heavy black curls off his forehead. Laying back down, she pressed herself against his back and tried to wrap her arm over him.

Tom gave a small gasp, followed by an almost inhuman whine at her touch, and he tried to shrink away from her. At the same moment, the crack in the window pane spread outward even further. Luna reached for her wand and quickly repaired the glass so that it would not shatter, then lay down beside Tom again.

"Shhh," she murmured, draping her arm over him more slowly, so as to not startle him. "It's all right. I'm here." The same gentle reassurances she had given to Violetta before came ready to her tongue. She pressed her face behind his ear. "You don't have to face it alone."

Tom's restless movements paused, as did the furniture, as if he and everything around him were listening to her whispered promises in the dark. "I won't make you face it alone," she whispered again into the shell of his ear. Another moment of tension passed, then Tom began to relax against her. After a few minutes, during which Luna continued to hold him close and hum reassurances, all of his twitches and fearful sounds ceased, and his more steady breathing of deep sleep resumed.

Luna followed not long behind him.
   
                               •

The next time Luna woke, the grey morning sun of creeping winter was already shining in the window, and Tom was already gone from the bed, the spot where he had slept long since cold. She yawned and stretched, supposing her late night had lead to a late morning.

"Violetta, darling," she said as she sat up. "Good morning, it's time to rise and shine. I'm surprised you let me sleep so...," Luna's voice trailed off as her eyes fell onto the small cot where Violetta had been sleeping. The cot was empty.

The world narrowed to just that empty little bed. Luna's throat became tight. "Violetta?" she repeated, her voice sounding thin and strained. When no response came, she sprang from the bed and spun around, looking in all corners of the room, as though her daughter were hiding, as though she would stay so quiet. She rushed to the empty cot and ripped the blankets off completely, as though they were somehow concealing her child. Luna then dropped hard onto the wood floor, sending waves of pain into her knees, and ducked her head down to look under the bed. As though Violetta were playing a game and would be smiling out at her.