lady_moon | OOM: Draco at the castle

OOM: Draco at the castle

They step from Milliways onto the sand outside the castle. It's very white. Snow-white. And just as fine and powdery. The ocean laps at the stone walls of the very large building in front of them, and it's unusual because the water isn't blue.

And the sky isn't, either.

Since dawn has just recently broken, the sky is tinged a cool pinkish lavender as the red-orange sun rises. It shines on an ocean the colour of jade, with white foam kissing the waves. Moon smiles at Draco.

"We're the only ones who live on this plane," she explains. "Nothing changes here unless we want it to." Moon points to the battlements of the castle. "I still don't understand why they insisted on battlements. Battlements are for battle and there's no one to battle here."

This is the home of the tarot cards.

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She'll have to be, because:

"No. I want it back." Draco sulked and pouted.

Moon hrumphs.

"This isn't like taking away a toy."

She's certain she won't be winning any points with Rabastan about this. The second person close to the wizard that the cards have 'helped'.

She is getting a headache.

"Maybe this should be a very important lesson for you, Draco. Be careful what you wish for, because in Milliways, someone's likely to grant it for you. And most of the time? It isn't in the form you wanted."

Draco shook his head, and whined loudly which won't help poor Moon's headache one bit, "No, you might as well taken my hand while you were at it! There had to be another way for help!"

"You yourself said there wasn't anything you could see. No weak spot. We did. This is the path."

She takes his hand in hers and draws her finger across the palm.

"A life is long. As long as it should be. And in that life, the opportunities and paths are innumerable. Where we start in life tends to tell accurately where we will end. Yours began in bigotry, cruelty, and secrecy. You used magic to do terrible things when you had the anger to spur you," she says carefully, because she knows when it came to having the courage to do the evil, Draco couldn't. "You learned darkness, you took darkness, and you gave darkness. The cycle has to stop. A spiral downward that would end as it began: in bigotry, cruelty, and secrecy."

Draco flinched, and there was another whimper as he tried not to cry again. It was true, part of him knew it. And yet, he didn't want to accept a life without magic. It was his weak spot. Always has been.

Now he was truly lost and confused.

She hugs him again, briefly, then produces her deck, offering it.

"Do you want to see?"

She'd only use three cards if he did, thinking that a large reading would only confuse the situation.

Draco shrugged, "I guess?" Unsure of everything now.

One of the best times to try.

She allows him to shuffle them before she deals out the three cards on the balcony floor between them. The sun was high now, orange-red in the oddly coloured sky.

"Ten of Swords," she says as she points to the first card. "Ruin. You will experience the worst you can. The most hopeless and terrible thing. But the positive side of this is that... well... you can't sink any lower. Only way for you to go now is up." Second card. "The Wheel of Fortune, reversed. There are hard lessons for you to learn. Don't act hastily. Your reality, now, is very confrontational." Final card. "Six of Swords, reversed. Confessions and declarations that shock. The inability to move forward. Ill will, stubbornness, stagnation. You can't dwell in what you've lost, Draco. You must accept it, process it, and then... then you can step forward and not stand like a frightened child."

Moon looks up from the cards. "You're without magic. You were stagnating with it, so don't stagnate without it."

The cards certainly weren't comforting at all, and he pleaded, "But I'm completely vulnerable, it'll be harder to defend myself against my enemies."

He gets an Odd Look.

"What enemies do you have in Milliways?"

Draco gave a look back like 'you're kidding, right?'

"According to some, about half the people I've met it seems."

"Draco, there is Security. They won't let anyone kill you. Not to mention, someone kills you while you're wearing my pendant, I'm going to be right pissed." Moon takes her responsibilities seriously. "And you've been beaten up quite a bit, so you must know how to fight back where that's concerned."

"...Not really. I just would use magic." Draco glumly replied. Her comment about nobody trying to kill him while he had the pendant was reassuring... slightly.

She would not stop protecting him.

He and Miniver had given her their trust, and she wouldn't leave Draco completely without a weapon.

"You see? By learning to use only your wand and your harsh words, you have nothing to fall back on. I should have realised this, since Harry did put you in your place after that one Quiddich match," she muses. "It doesn't matter. You are stunted. More so than I imagined. If someone wants to hurt you... my suggestion is either call me for help, call Security for help, or hide. Part of this is your learning to depend on others."

Draco glowered at the reminder. "He got put in his place afterwards for it at any rate." That he was happy for, even though the ban was lifted the following year.

"I've done some training with knives and swords, but that will put me in the cells again," he remarked, rather offended by the stunted comments.

"You shouldn't have said what you did about Molly," Moon chastises. "It was cruel and unnecessary to poke fun at the Weasley family. At least they are a warm, loving, and healthy family, if lacking in funds."

She's honest.

Bluntly so.

While Draco might have had everything he ever wanted materially, he hadn't gotten everything he needed emotionally. This whole experiment was proof of that.

"Winding up in the cells isn't a good idea. And swords and knives tend to lead you into poking people. Bleeding. Death. All very bad."

Moon ignores his offence.

It doesn't matter, because she's right.

She was. About all of it. Not that he wanted to admit it though.

"It is if you want to insult and give them a good wind up. And I know, so I'm defenseless anyway."

"Being a prat isn't helping matters," she says to him. "That sort of thing is likely to get your rear end pummeled."

Not that she would pummel him.

She might fwap him, though.

"You aren't defenseless. Try using tact and a little compassion when speaking to people."

"Even if they don't deserve it? Do I have to?"

"Who are you to decide if they deserve it?" She tilts her head. "And how is it decided what's deserved or not?"

"Well, some people are idiots. Especially some muggles." Which he now was...

He really wanted to scream or cry again.

Moon gets a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Draco, do you have any friends?"

Guilty look.

"A couple now? But one of them I haven't seen in a while. Only people I've met here."

"You think it might be because you disqualify people as idiots before you ever let them close enough to you that they want you close to them so you see that they aren't idiots? Because, I've noticed the people you keep around you... tend to be people you're boinking or want to boink."

Excuse her language.

She can be too cute sometimes.

"And boinking does not friends make."

"Not all!" Draco whined. He certainly never even consider hitting on Danny.

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