Title: Sweet Lysander Part One Thick as Thieves
Chapter Title: I
Summary: Draco looked as he always used to. Manicured, expensive, handsome--in that pale, pointed sort of way. "You've been practicing," Luna remarked, her knowing eyes belying the bland smile she offered him. And just like that, it slipped.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. I also do not own Natalie Merchant or her works; my quoting of her lyrics is to enrich the fanfiction but not to profit by it.
Pairing: Draco/Luna; Eventual Draco/Astoria and Rolf/Luna
Spoiler Warning: I base everything in this story, to the best of my ability, to strict canon facts—and also what Rowling has mentioned in interviews about life after the books for the HP characters. Draco and Luna's somewhat love story is creative license, but I believe entirely plausible.

Alternate Warnings: Rating T is for swearing and eventual adult sexual situations. Also contains characters dealing with serious subjects like torture, death and grief, so standard angst warnings apply.

Author's Note: Hi readers! I wrote Part One of Sweet Lysander some six months ago and then began something else. I'm back to it now, if only just to begin posting it, and should continue on with Parts Two and Three sometime early next year. I write each part as one length, and then divide them later into different 'sections' or chapters. So if the segments seem abrupt, I apologize. I was experimenting with a different style of formatting the story.

I understand that pairing Draco and Luna seems odd at first, but after taking into consideration Luna's time spent at Malfoy Manor, probable politics surrounding the Malfoy family and The Great Trials that surely came after the immediate ending of Book Seven, and Luna's interesting nature, I began thinking that it would just be fascinating to pair them up. It was also very important to me to try and keep everything canon. So, assuredly, this love story is going to have a rather sad ending, because they end up marrying different people. But I wanted to play with the meat of time between the end of Deathly Hallows and its Epilogue, and try to spin something new.

The entire story of Sweet Lysander was inspired by the Ophelia album by Natalie Merchant, and I have chosen one song for each part where the lyrics will guide us through the story. There will be some disturbing flashbacks to Luna's time spent at Malfoy Manor, and there will also be journal entries written in Luna's first person. So the narrative will jump stylistically, which I hope will serve to enrich the flow of the story. Harry and the gang play big, big parts in this story, so they too will often show up. I enjoy, immensely, writing Harry and Luna together. I also enjoy writing Ron and Xenophilius, so whenever I can have an excuse to bring them in, I will do it.

Beta credit goes to the wonderful and fabulous Doumi, without whom this story would not have, quite literally, seen the light of day. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for all your help.

And thank you for reading.

Yours,

Gloria

Sweet Lysander

Part One

"Thick as Thieves"

I

"I do very much think that Unicorns are beautiful. Yet, for all their beauty, I find them to be disturbingly arrogant. They look at you with smug black eyes and toss their silvery manes all around...

"I prefer the humble severity of Thestrals.

"When they see you, they really aren't concerned about the way they look to you. They see you noticing them and they seem sad that you can see them at all. They appear to know, in some sense, what you sacrificed to behold them, and they respect that with such gravity.

"I wonder, sometimes, if they are glad to be seen at all. Or if they would rather be invisible to everyone. Because, then...then they would know that the children they tote into the castle every year have never had to bear witness to the death of a loved one.

"A bitter sacrifice, for the Thestrals, I think. To rather be ignored, unseen.

"Many students became aware of Thestrals my Seventh Year. And I watched the Thestrals become very, very dismal indeed."

~ Excerpt from the Diary of Luna Lovegood

***

Remember how it all began
The apple and the fall of man
The price we paid

So the people say

***

The day after the fall of Lord Voldemort dawned wet and grey. Storm clouds rumbled to the west and the once-lush landscape surrounding Hogwarts Castle was muddy, sodden, and smoking in areas where the fires still hadn't been put out.

Luna Lovegood faced away from it all. She stood at the border of the Forbidden Forest, her back to the castle, and her bare feet sinking into the moist soil. Luna heard the snap of a twig behind her and whirled about, her wand clutched tightly in her right hand and pointed at the intruder.

Harry Potter paused, giving Luna a moment to recognize him, and offered her a sleepy smile. They were all still a little on edge. Luna blinked and lowered her wand. She watched him with wide eyes as he came to stand beside her before turning back to the darkness of the forest.

"Couldn't sleep?" Luna asked, her usually dreamy voice a little higher than usual. She breathed in deeply through her nose to calm her racing heartbeat.

Harry shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Just so used to not sleeping, I guess. You?"

Luna glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. Harry looked disheveled to the point of haggard, but the line of his shoulders was different than she had ever seen them. Softer, more relaxed. Luna took in another breath and let it out slowly. If Harry truly believed it was all over, then she could too.

"Yes," Luna answered belatedly. A comfortable silence fell between them as they stared at nothing, the sun rising at their backs, the thunderheads making ready to wash the last of the battle-smoke away.

"Thank you," Harry said, his deep voice breaking through the quiet, "for yesterday morning."

Luna smiled her small smile, glancing at him sidelong again. "Yes; sometimes it is good to have a few moments alone with an old friend."

Harry sent her a startled glance. "You knew?"

Luna shrugged and dug her big toe further into the wet earth beneath her. "People are somewhat less mysterious than they think they are."

For some reason, Harry beamed at her then, a warmth in his smile that coaxed a smile from Luna as well. "I'll remember that," he said.

"What will you do now?" Luna asked, her voice soft, lilting, almost the way it normally was...before the war made it strained.

Harry chewed on his lower lip and shoved his hands deeper into his pockets. "There's still a lot of work to do," Harry answered quietly. A moment passed. "And, if I want to build a future here...I'm going to make sure they do it right this time."

Luna studied him for a moment. "Ginny will like that. She will want to play Quidditch."

Harry jumped a little and turned red, his brilliant green eyes moving to meet her searching gaze. "Yes...I don't know." Harry paused, glanced away, and looked back at her. "Yes."

"I think you'll make a wonderful Auror," Luna remarked, lifting her gaze away from him to stare off into a place where Harry had never quite been able to follow.

"Luna..."

"Nargels didn't take my shoes this time," Luna stated matter-of-factly, as if they hadn't almost breached a conversation that bordered on intimate, on 'what if', on maybe. She looked down at her feet before pointing somewhere to her left. "I took them off over there."

Harry seemed at a loss as his eyes followed the direction of her pointing finger and returned to her face. He could barely make out her features in the shadows. "What will you do? Will you come back for your Seventh Year?"

Luna didn't answer right away. "Yes," she said. "I think I'll go visit my father for the summer. He must be terribly lonely."

Something shifted in Harry's expression. It flickered over his features too quickly to name. If Luna noticed, she said nothing.

"I spoke with Kingsley this morning," Harry said. "Your father has been released from Azkaban." Harry produced a knapsack and handed it to her. "Here," Harry said, his voice thick with some indiscernible emotion. At Luna's questioning look, Harry said: "It's a tent."

It could have been a play of light and shadow, but Harry could have sworn he saw something in Luna's shoulders sag. "Thank you," Luna murmured, taking the pack. She was quiet a moment before saying: "I think I'll leave today."

It wasn't much longer before Luna went to collect her shoes and return to the castle. With a heavy heart, Harry watched her go. Something hard and cold pressed against the palm of his hand and Harry glanced down to see the bony head of an adult Thestral alerting him to his presence. The Thestral stood where Luna had only moments before and kept Harry company as Luna disappeared into the fog.

***

Down a path of shame it lead us
Dared to bite the hand that fed us

The fairy tale
The moral end

The wheel of fortune
Never turns again

***

Luna arrived home the following day; at least, what was left of it. She stopped in front of the massive heap of rubble and ash that used to be her father's house and fingered the knapsack Harry had given her the day before. Suppressing the hearty sigh that bubbled up despairingly in her chest, she dropped the knapsack to the ground, followed by the small suitcase that held her belongings and went to look for her father.

She found him by the river.

Well, not precisely a river, in the strictest sense. Perhaps more of a stream that trickled gurgling water around the border of their land, once clear and bright, but now murky with the permeating ash from the burned house in front of it. Even Bottom Bridge seemed darker, tired under the strain of being what it was against such a harsh landscape. Xenophilius Lovegood sat, smoking a pipe, at the edge of the bend about twenty meters behind the rubble.

"Hello, Daddy," Luna murmured, coming to stand next to him. Xenophilius did not respond.

He was filthy, and Luna could smell his rank from where she stood. Luna looked down and noted that beyond her matted and rumpled father, there was a space of bent grass that was worn and scraggled down to its pale brown roots. He must have been sleeping here too.

This time she did sigh, and it sounded strange even to her own ears. Luna Lovegood did not often give in to moments of exasperation.

Luna went back around the once-house and picked up the knapsack Harry had given her. It took her an hour to figure out how to properly assemble it, but when her task was completed, Luna found it a satisfactory abode for her and her father for the next few months. The magical tent had two rooms complete with bunks and separated from the living area by thick drapes. The foyer had a loveseat of deep amber and a cherry wood rocking chair. There was even a small kitchenette with cupboards and a cauldron.

She rummaged around the bathroom and found a bar of soap and a washcloth. She also found a large towel and a bathrobe, and smiled at the Gryffindor emblems embroidered in the thick red and gold fabric. Bundling these items in her arms, she left the tent and returned to where her father was still crouched by the stream, puffing madly at his pipe and staring with unseeing eyes at the horizon.

Luna set the items at the edge of the creek and walked around her father. "Daddy?" Still, Xenophilius ignored his daughter. Luna bit her lip and thoughtfully fingered the Dirigible Plum hanging from her left earlobe. "Alright," she murmured finally.

Luna bent low and cupped her hands under her father's arms, holding her breath against the stink emanating from him, and heaved. With a startling splash and much sputtering, Xenophilius toppled into the stream, nearly dragging his daughter with him.

Sopping wet, Xenophilius stared at his daughter gazing serenely back at him from the edge of the shallow stream.

"Do you need help, Daddy?" Luna asked, her voice soft but serious, even a little compassionate.

Xenophilius dragged his eyes over to the bundle of toiletries and then back to her. Finally, he shook his head mutely and Luna nodded before walking back to their tent.

An hour later, Xenophilius emerged from his forced bath clean, if not a little comically dressed in his too-tight Gryffindor robe. His eyes darted around the tent as he clenched at the amulet hanging around his neck until he spotted his daughter, curled in a corner and compiling a list of things on a scrap of parchment.

Luna paused at long last and looked up at him. At his questioning look, she said: "I'll get you new clothes when I go into town for lumber."

Xenophilius frowned.

Luna shrugged. "Well, I can't very well leave you to sleep outside when I go back to Hogwarts."

"No." It was barely a word, really; more a croak than anything else. A single note pushed through a throat left long unused.

"Daddy, the war is over. It's safe now."

That's what they said last time.

Xenophilius didn't have to say it. Luna didn't even have to be alive for the first war to know that's what her father was thinking. Back when he didn't have a little girl to worry for, back when things were a little simpler, and hiding away was a little easier. When existing didn't seem to matter as much. They said its safe now. Everything will be alright. You-Know-Who is dead and gone.

That's what they said last time.

Things were different now. Luna was everything to him. And he almost lost her to the Dark Lord. And Xenophilius Lovegood nearly lost everything he considered right and good and honorable to get her back. Dirigible Plums and Nargels and Crumple-Horned Snorkacks be damned, he wasn't going to let that happen again.

"It won't," Luna said, reading the anxiety in his face like an open book. "Harry won't--"

Xenophilius froze at the boy's name, worrying savagely at his lower lip with his teeth.

Luna frowned then, unsure of her father's reaction. After a moment, she un-tucked her legs and stood. "Well, I will not leave you to sleep in a field and I am going back for my seventh year. You should dig up the Dirigible Plums from behind the house to keep the Nargels from getting into our tent at night." She paused. "I'll pick up some equipment for you to write an article for the Quibbler. It's time you took credit for the Deathly Hallows, Daddy. You always knew, right? Harry said he'd found out from--"

Xenophilius began to sob furiously and the old man collapsed to the ground. Luna rushed to his side, perplexed and twice as unsettled as before.