“Sit.”
One word spoken with clear certainty from Barty Crouch Jr. that said much more.
Something flared inside Luna Lovegood’s chest hearing his command. Her body tensed, whether ready to flee or fight she wasn’t sure of yet but she was filled with adrenaline either way.
She turned back to him, watching how he filled the doorway. Her mind scrambled for a way out, a way to stop what she had already invited to start.
Then she saw him. Saw his face in the dim light.
This wasn’t the Barty that sneered down at her at Malfoy Manor, or the Barty who held an arrogant air about him in the last secret Order meetings before the final battle, or even the Barty who barged back into her life since then with deadly glares.
This was a man. One standing in front of a woman, obvious attraction threaded through him. And even more obvious vulnerability. He was strong still but not unyielding, letting her see him as much as he saw right through her.
His normal sharpness seemed to have somehow faded, the look on his face one of that could almost be called caring. Almost. Barty wasn’t commanding her outright. He was asking and expecting that she would follow suit. Just in that realization, Luna felt more mutual trust bridge between them. The unspoken spark that had existed before came fluttering back to the surface.
Alone with this wizard she could be free.
Carefully, Luna sat down on the edge of her bed, her hands nervously fiddling with the end of her long, braided hair. She may trust him in this private moment, but that did nothing to quell the nerves twisting around inside of her. Not when he looked at her so intensely.
There was another pause. One too many between them that made her question if she even liked pauses anymore if they were filled with him not being close to her. She heard her own breath, the way it shook slightly on each exhale.
Thankfully, Barty began to step closer, his eyes running over her face as if for any trace she was backing out. She nodded and he returned the gesture as something flicked in his eyes she couldn't name. He filled her vision, drowning out anything else that wasn’t Barty in this moment.
Her breath hitched when he reached out for her, his hand caressing her shoulder before it moved to trace the column of her throat. For a moment, his hand stretched across, fingers curling around one side as his thumb pressed against the other.
She wondered if he was thinking of how easy it would be to break her, too. That part of him may never die.
“What’s this?” His fingers grazed against the base of her throat, a shiver running down her spine at his touch as Barty picked up the chain around her neck. The silver pendant shaped like a bulb of garlic hung down from the necklace, the swinging motion it made at being disturbed catching her gaze as they both looked down at it.
“It keeps away vampiric pixies which have been reported to be one the rise since-.”
He tugged on the chain, just hard enough to pause her words. Her usual and practiced patter about the creatures ended once their eyes met again. The heat in his look and the way his fingers continued to move up and down the chain so close to her skin took all of her attention again.
“Take it off.”
There it was again. Another suggestion that she imagined would have been barked at anyone else. An insistence without any of the sting. Just like before she could refuse, but Luna couldn’t forget that she had asked for this. For him. This had all started with her invitation, after all.
As slowly as she had walked to the bed, Luna reached for the clasps and removed the necklace, setting it into Barty’s awaiting palm. His fingers closed around it, turning away from her to set it at her vanity.
When he returned back to her, he knelt. Their faces were more level now, so close with barely a few inches between them. She could feel his heat and knew he could feel her halted breaths back. The squirming feeling in her gut came back tenfold as his warm hands slid up her thighs.
She would melt completely at this rate, the way his heat sank into her thighs made her want to squeeze them shut to relieve some of the pressure. The glint in his eyes told her that he was all to aware.
“And this?” Barty’s fingers were now brushing against a patch sewn onto her yellow trousers a few inches above her right knee. A jolt ran up her legs that she could only hope he hadn’t felt.
“The symbol there is from a magical tribe in the Caribbean. Wearing keeps your footing steady.”
He didn’t scoff as she expected but glared down at the little blue patch of embroidered cloth. “You don’t need it.”
Another pause stretched between them and Luna was sure he could hear her heart pounding as he inspected her again. He reached up to hold the end of her plait, pushing her own fidgeting fingers away.
“What’s this for?”
Luna had to look down to remember. There at the end of her braid were a few beads tied together with red string. One of the larger beads had a spiral painted on it in white.
“It attracts sprites to help with-”
His fingers had moved again while she was answering, something she only realized when she felt them land softly on her lips to quiet her. Every urge inside her begged for her to kiss the pads of his rough fingers and she couldn’t help but be proud that so far she had resisted.
“Why do you wear it?”
She repeated her same answer but her voice was now shaking, “The sprites help with creative thinking.”
Barty raised a dark brow, fixing her with an annoyed look she’d seen him use when Mundungus tried to redirect meetings. “You’re more honest than that, little Luna. Try again.”
He was right. She was. Or at least she used to be until it became too hard to tell the truth when the dark had seeped in. Luna didn’t want to answer his question. It itched too much deep inside to reveal this.
She let the space stretch out again in silence until he scoffed and shifted as if to move away.
Grabbing an arm to hold him there, needing him to stay now more than ever, she whispered, “I don’t know how to not wear them.”
“Better,” he praised, rewarding her as his warm hands settling back on her thighs. The heat radiated from right above her knees to a place that made her want to squirm and whimper, images of him touching her higher up flooding her mind.
He seemed happy enough with that answer and moved on to focus on her hands. She was still, watching with fascination as rings were slid off fingers, his motion caring and delicate.
Barty no longer asked her to do it herself. The bangles on her wrists were removed one at a time, at an achingly slow pace. His eyes stayed fixed on each one, moving them up to watch them glint in the light before tossing them onto the floor. A pattern of delight and destruction .
It was different from how Neville had been. They’d used quick charms to disrobe and jump into bed in a string of nervous giggles. Two people fumbling through a first time as they threw themselves into a new world of adulthood.
This was Barty dismantling her. It was a process to him and as she watched on, transfixed and completely his. Too often, she hadn’t seen why he still scared people. Why folks skittered away from him even with all he did to ensure Voldemort was defeated in the end. But here, in the quiet of his disarming touch, she could see it. Men who enjoyed the process of taking things apart often did so at the expense of others.
But, oh how she wasn’t scared. Overwhelmed. Turned on. Desperate for him to touch more of her, yes, but she understood something deep and unspoken about this man.
Once her wrists were free of the bracelets, Barty offered her another wicked grin. It made her thighs clench again and he chuckled lowly at her reaction.
“Masks. All these baubles are masks.”
He kissed the word into the palm of her hand. The roughness of the stubble lining his jaw on her skin made her shiver. Barty smirked again, taking her other palm in his hands, leaving another wet kiss there, his tongue tracing up to a finger so slowly it further enthralled her. Heat rushed through her, a pitiful sound of wanting fell from her lips.
“You hide behind them, these baubles of yours.”
His sharp honesty spurred her reply. Luna tilted her head, daringly reaching for his chin to make sure he caught her eye again. “You do too. You intimidate people...keep them away.”
Dark eyes stared deep into her own. She watched as his throat moved around a swallow. At the same slow pace everything had been since they first came into her bedroom, Barty pulled her hand back away from her face and positioned his body so that he was kneeling over her.
“They should stay away.” His breath was unsteady as his eyes flicked back and forth between her own.
They should stay away. Barty’s words hit her in the chest. How lonely it must be to believe that everyone should keep far from you .
Luna bit down on her lower lip as she worked up the courage to reach out for his face again, cupping his jaw and urging him closer. He flinched and glared but didn’t remove her hand this time.
“To keep them away,” she repeated. “They meaning me?”
“Yesss,” the s of his whispered response dragged on for another beat before he ducked down, lips crashing together in a kiss of unrestrained passion.
Take It Off - Annabelle_Rivers - Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling [Archive of Our Own]