Seventeen Paces

The stone stairs were now a slippery slide, but Luna had already shifted her weight. She was propelled forward, but the solid step wasn't there anymore. Her feet flew out from under her and she fell onto her back and slid down the slope, her momentum dumping her on what would have been the bottom of the steps. The raucous laughter behind her was censured by a low, scolding voice.

"Oh, come on, Katie, that was funny." But the jabbering girls weren't Luna's most pressing concern any more. It was important to her not to show any reaction to their childish prank. And that would have been an easy task if she hadn't landed with her tender back on the sharp edge of the top stair, slid onto her side as she fell, and hit the floor level with all her weight on her right shoulder. She was pretty sure it was dislocated, but it was difficult to evaluate her situation as she was momentarily blinded by the crack she had taken to the side of her head. Deep breath. Adrenaline was working for her, but not for long. She had to get up and get around the corner, out of the girls' view. Then it could hurt.

With her good arm she pushed herself up to a sitting position, and then she warily climbed to her feet. She walked gingerly but calmly away from the girls, never looking back. She was wearing her school robes and the hallway was dim, so she figured they wouldn't see the way her arm hung oddly. She took one step and then the next, until she was around the corner. Knowing that if she stopped she wouldn't be able to start again, she trudged the seventeen paces to where the Slytherin common room was supposed to be. Once she was there she was out of a plan. And she was getting nauseated.

Luna put her left hand, shaking and ice-cold, to her head, and the cold felt good against her temple, helping her to focus. "Draco, come out here," she thought, begging the fates, "Please." Without a miracle she would still be there, gagging and dizzy, when the three girls made their way down, and that was not something she wanted to face. "C'mon, Draco, leave the dorm... For any reason! Please be the one to find me. Please be the one to find me. Please be the one to find me." She hunched over, trying to breathe evenly by concentrating very hard on the floor in front of her. Her eyes grazed over the stones and she tried to focus on just one to bring her thoughts into order. The stone she chose was just in front of where the girls had said the portal would be and was etched with the Slytherin emblem. Luna concentrated on the stone in an effort to keep her wits about her.

She was just having the passing thought that they didn't need a painting when they had the very floor of the castle marking their dorm when long, pale fingers caught her under her chin. The unexpected touch was so gentle that she wondered if she'd really felt it. But a gentle pressure urged her face up to meet Draco's stormy eyes. He was scrutinizing her with his brow furrowed and his eyes tormented with...was it concern? Seeing him, she let out the breath that was all that had been holding her upright. The spinning in her head masked the spinning of her world as Draco picked her up, somehow knowing to approach from her uninjured side. Cradling her in his arms, he turned back to the dormitory portal. Luna concentrated on the feel of him to distract herself from her pain, trying to feel only his body heat, his breath on her cheek, and the smooth skin of his neck where she buried her face. He growled the password...it sounded like "nightshade"...and the rumble of his voice sent a shiver through her. He seemed to cradle her even more closely as he stepped through the portal into the Slytherin common room.

A lousy game of wizard chess had done nothing to assuage Draco's temper. He was too distracted to employ any strategy so he had played for bloodlust, capturing as many pieces as he could while he left himself undefended for his opponent to conquer. Blaise had asked what was wrong but Draco just returned his friend's gaze with a menacing look, and that effectively dropped the subject. He couldn't believe he was getting so worked up over a girl. A girl he hardly knew, he reminded himself. But I do know her, he thought. He knew who she was more than he knew anyone else at this school. And he was going to lose her before he even got the chance to call her his own.

In a huff he shot out of his chair, cursing the fates, and stormed down the stairs to his room. It was an oddly shaped room with three circular dens branching off from a central entrance, rather like the shape of a shamrock. This allowed a curtain to be drawn not just around the bed but around each of the individual circular areas. Slytherins valued their privacy, and none more than Malfoy. Still sulking, he yanked off his clothes and changed into black silk pajama pants. He threw himself onto his bed, stretching out his long frame, and tried to relax. Staring at the stone ceiling, he crossed his hands behind his head and kicked one ankle over the other. He stayed just like that for quite a long while before he was yanked from his dark thoughts.

There was no tickling in his mind. It wasn't like the invitation to share he had felt before, or any kind of exercise in Legilimency. But abruptly he felt Luna's presence. He was looking into a haze, searching for Luna in the foggy distance, straining to decipher what was happening. "Draco, come . . . please . . . please . . . the one . . . please be the one . . . please . . . find me." He couldn't hear all she was saying; she sounded so far away, and she was hurt. He knew it. Her arm...there was something wrong with her arm. And she was scared, she felt nearly defeated, but she hadn't given up. She had one little bit of hope left. His stomach pitched and he bolted upright, swinging his legs off the bed where he froze, trying to identify what she was seeing. Grey blocks. She was looking at a grey block wall. In a stone castle. Not helpful, Luna, he thought to himself. Where are you? How can I find you?

A rumble started to build in his chest and grew into a growl of frustration. And then, by Merlin's teeth, her eyes caught on a particular stone. The footstone of his House. She was trying to get to him! In a blur of black silk and lean muscle, he leaped across the room and up the stairs to the common room. In mere seconds, in just four great strides, he crossed to the door. Just outside stood Luna, as white as a porcelain teacup and just as fragile-looking. She was swaying and seemed to be trying very hard to stay upright.

He tipped her chin up as gently as he could so he could see into her eyes to get some indication of what was going on. "Draco," she whispered, as if he was the last good thing in the world and she was saved just by seeing him. No one had ever looked at him the way she did at that moment, with all her faith in her eyes, as if he were exactly what she'd been holding on for. In that moment she took away any choice he had in the matter of Luna Lovegood. He would do anything he could to be a good thing in her world. He could be good for her, and he would do his best to save her.

As gently as he could, he gathered her up in his arms and headed back to his room. No one would dare step in his way, not if they valued their lives. He crossed through the common room, his eyes meeting those of a startled Blaise, still sitting by the chess board. "No one comes near my room tonight, Blaise. Keep everyone out." Draco locked eyes with Blaise, who nodded, and Draco knew his request would be carried out without question. At least for the time being they would be left alone. He continued to his dorm room, Luna curled into him with her head on his shoulder. She nuzzled her face against his neck. Saints protect them, he was hers.

She didn't want to lose the feeling of Draco's heat against her as he laid her down on a comforter that was blessedly warm and smelled just the way Draco had smelled when he'd wrapped her in his arms and kissed her. She was in Draco's bed, she thought with the ghost of a smile. His bed? She was in Draco's bed, she thought again, with some distress. Her eyes opened to see him whipping closed great floor-to-ceiling drapes of deep green and black brocade, enclosing them in a circular room. He turned back to her and she saw his determined expression. And then her gaze fell below his face and her eyes became as round as the moon she was named after.

He was shirtless. Perfect skin covered more muscles than she'd known he had, and they were all tensed. His biceps and arms were clenched, drawing into relief the way his body was cut. He had strong shoulders, defined muscles on his chest, and his body tapered to a waist just below which some black satin pants that should be illegal were slung on his hips. She drew a ragged breath.

Draco chuckled, but even that was full of tension. "Bloody hell, Luna, I guess that's a good sign, if you're well enough to ogle me like that," he said, dragging his hand through his hair in a nervous habit that he had been forcibly taught not to do any more. This girl was driving him past his Malfoy training and into emotional responses that he had thought he had under strict control.

"What happened to you?"

"I fell," she said softly, meeting his gaze. She had never wanted to put that kind of pain and worry in his eyes. "Draco, I'm sorry I came to you unexpectedly, and in this condition. I didn't mean to upset you."

"Upset? Luna, I'm frantic. How badly are you hurt? Do we need to go to Madam Pomfrey?"

Luna noticed the way he said "we"; that meant he was in this with her, and her heart soared. "Don't worry so. I know how to fix this. I don't need Madam Pomfrey. But, Draco...I do need you. I'm going to need your help." She reached up towards him with her uninjured arm.

After a second's hesitation he stepped over and sat on the edge of the bed, folding her arm in his and covering her hand with his own. It was smaller than he remembered, and much colder. "You're freezing, Luna!"

"When I fell..." As soon as he started to interrupt she hushed him, saying, "I will explain every bit of it to you." When she saw that he would wait for her to continue, she repeated, "When I fell, I landed on my right shoulder. I'm fairly certain it's dislocated." Draco looked down towards her damaged arm, trying to think whether he could remember her moving it at all since he'd found her. Shit...he couldn't. "And I hit my head."

"Luna," he said in a warning tone.

"Please," she repeated. "It was a shock to fall, of course, but my adrenaline is wearing off now that I've found you..." Luna smiled gently... "so we need to set my arm right away if we're going to save me from some of the pain of fixing it."

"Some of the pain?" Draco asked, his eyebrows rising.

"It's dislocated, Draco. I need you to force my shoulder back into the socket. It sounds terrible, I know, but it won't be as bad as you think. It will be quick, very quick."

"As bad as I think? What about you? You're the one who'll be feeling it. Luna, you need a Healer and a potion for pain."

"No," she said, louder than she had intended. "No," she repeated more softly. Pulling her hand from his with a gentle smile, she reached up and stroked his face. "I don't need anything but you." Her caress did not erase Draco's worried frown. With no time to waste, Luna reached back behind her ear for her wand. She pointed it at the curtains and cast a charm. He watched her and did not interrupt but waited until she had finished.

"You silenced the room, Luna? Why?"

"So no one will hear me if I can't keep from crying out."