Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Contradictions
By Silver Sailor Ganymede

"I don't understand you." The girl's voice rang out clear and cold in the darkness of the cellar, her eyes gleaming like stars against a stormy night sky. "You're full of contradictions, this whole regime is."

Draco stared back at her furiously. He shouldn't have been made to come down here and see to the prisoners anyway, that was supposed to be Wormtail's job but the Dark Lord had cursed him so badly for some reason or other that he couldn't even move and hadn't been able to for days. Of course that minor fact didn't make Draco any more happy about the job he had to do… though he supposed he should be grateful, the Dark Lord had made him do much, much worse than he could ever have imagined, even in his worst nightmares, but of couse he could not allow himself to dwell on that, could not allow even a hint of hatred with regard toward his current position. He was a Malfoy after all, he deserved more respect than this, even from the Dark Lord…

But that was not the reason for his annoyance. No, the reason was this girl, this foolish girl who had bothered to speak to him, her captor, now he had come down there to feed her and the other two idiots who were down in the cellar with her. He had come down here to give the old man and the girl food, wanting to leave as quickly as possible, but now this girl, this prisoner, had the audacity to speak to him and even to contradict him, to contradict everything he stood for… or at least what he had tried to convince himself he stood for.

"Mudbloods never understand anything," Draco said haughtily, turning to leave, but the girl continued speaking.

"I'm a pureblood you know. All of our family have been for centuries." This stopped Draco in his tracks. He turned and looked at her again, then realised that this girl with her dark blonde hair and moon-like eyes was none other than Loony Lovegood. Of course, one of Potter's foolish followers – he should have known.

"What don't you understand, Lovegood?" he snapped, but instead of flinching away at his anger she simply smiled.

"The hypocrisy of the Death Eaters," she replied. "You do realise that your master was a 'filthy halfbood' as well? You're slaves of a man who's no better than the people you go out to kill for fun."

"The Dark Lord is no mudblood! I should curse you for that, teach you a lesson," Draco hissed, quite ready to put the girl under a severe torture curse, but Luna Lovegood was not afraid of him at all. She just stood there smiling as though she were oblivious to his rage and Dean and Ollivander's obvious anxiety for her but inability to do anything.

"Do whatever you want, Malfoy. You'll never be able to hurt me any more than you've already hurt yourself."

Draco Malfoy left at that point. He had no intention to go back to the cellar and see those fools again. But was Luna Lovegood really that foolish? And if she was, why were her words still echoing in his mind?

"You'll never be able to hurt me any more than you've already hurt yourself."