Harvest Moon

“How much longer?” Draco asked. For the eighth time in the last fifteen minutes. He was pacing Luna’s office while she divided her time between looking over interdepartmental memos, reading the Quibbler and making bottle cap jewelry.



“Honestly, Draco, it could be another few days before I get the results back. It all depends on how busy the lab is.”



“Did you put a rush on it?” he asked, stopping long enough to lean on her desk.



She gave him the same look she would have given a mildly retarded snorkak. “Of course I did,” she said calmly.



“Sorry,” he mumbled.



“It’s a good thing I find you adorable when flustered,” Luna said, going back to reading a memo that was floating a few feet away from her.



Draco started pacing again. He was edgy for some reason and it wasn’t just because his father was involved in this case. There was something else wrong here. Something he was missing and couldn’t quite put his finger on and that bothered the hell out of him. He had his back to the door when Luna said, “Hello, Harry.”



Draco turned to find Harry standing in the doorway glaring at him. “What are you doing here, Malfoy?”



Draco’s eyes narrowed a bit but he refused to let the man who was a pain in the arse bait him. Much. “If you must know, Potter, I’m waiting for my date to finish her work so we can have dinner.”



Harry snorted in disbelief before turning to Luna and ignoring Draco. “Luna, have those results come in yet?”



“Not yet, Harry. I said I’d let you know when they did. Is there any other reason you’re here?” Luna asked calmly, flipping a page on the memo with her wand.



“I was wondering if you’d seen Hermione. Ginny has been trying to call her all day and she hasn’t picked up.”



Luna shrugged. “If she isn’t in her office or at home then I presume she’s with Lucius.”



Harry’s mouth dropped open and stayed that way for at least thirty seconds. He snapped back to himself and growled. “That is no longer her case to investigate.” His eyes flicking to Draco, who was standing there calmly looking at him as though he were a new species of cockroach.



Draco sighed and shook his head. “You were always an idiot when it came to the glaringly obvious, Potter. If she and my father aren’t currently involved romantically with one another they will be as soon as his name is cleared.”



“Is she insane?! He’s the prime suspect in these killings.”



“I’m fairly certain she’s well aware of that, Potter. She is a very smart woman, you know.”



“She isn’t behaving as though she is just now,” Harry said, turning on his heel and heading back out the door of Luna’s office.



“Where do you think you’re going, Potter?” Draco drawled.



“To rescue my friend from your father’s clutches,” Harry spat out.



Draco started to laugh and found he couldn’t stop for quite a while. When he did, he looked up to find Luna holding out a Galleon to him.



“What’s this for?”



“Bets on who hexes him first for the interruption,” she said, grinning.



***

The false Potter spent at least five minutes walking around again. First Ara, then Hermione and finally Lucius. He sat down on Lucius much the same as he had Hermione.



“You know, dear brother, I think this is too good to rush,” he said, twirling the wand between his fingers. He pointed it at Hermione and said “Leviosa.” She levitated to the point she was hovering with her feet a little off the floor. The wand waved a bit more and she floated a little higher. “I believe I can entertain myself nicely for a few days like this. However, you dear Auror, will have to wait a bit longer for your turn. I owe this one pain for injuring my beautiful face after all.” Smiling maliciously he turned a bit and pointed the wand at Arabella. “Crucio!” He blinked as nothing happened.



Arabella was still standing there, dreamy expression on her face, looking as though nothing at all unusual had occurred.



“Hmmm. It seems this wand isn’t terribly tuned to me. Hardly a surprise since mine managed to disappear. Ah well. Such is life, I suppose. However, I can still get it to do this,” he said, waving it with a flourish at not Arabella but Hermione before saying. “Cruciatis Malignus.”



Hermione rose higher and her arms stretched to what had to be a painful width. The fake smiled nastily. “I’ll wager you are perfectly well aware as to what this particular spell does, dear Auror. I’m going to let you hang there. In an hour your arms and shoulders will ache abominably. Within three hours you’ll have lost most of the feeling in them. In a few more your lungs will start to fill up with fluid. By that point, I’ll release the binding spell on you so you can pull yourself up to get a breath. It may take you as long as three days to die from it. I might even give you a reprieve for a few moments in that time if I’m in a particularly generous mood. At any rate, it will be entertaining to watch you slowly suffocate while my dear brother here can do nothing about it,” he said, patting Lucius on the head as though he were a child. “See how much fun this is. And you said I always tortured the house elves for no good reason, Lucius.”