My first exam is today. I have not studied enough because I was too busy writing this, but anyways... it just shows how excited I am with this story, I guess.

I'm bored, so leave a lot of comments, please. Thank you!

Luna pulled her cloak around herself tighter. The wind whipping the Astronomy Tower was even stronger than at the Ravenclaw Tower, but she wanted to pay attention to what Regulus was saying because it really sounded important. Still, all she could do was try not to shake too much as she wrote down the important information in key-words to remind herself that she needed to be present.

"...and not only that, most of the time that the moon appears in any other subject, its called by feminine words, which means that inside of Alchemy and Potions it's often seen as a warning that something must be done at night, but some potions are obviously meant to be brewed at night for complete potency because of its connection with emotions and intuition, such potions for dreams or calming draughts, though they might be brewed during the day as well. In other areas, such as Transfiguration, it might be used for manifestation and growth; that's why it's so important for a potential Animagus to recite the incantation at first moonlight and first sunlight," Regulus was saying. "Is there a specific reason why Astronomy needs to be under you attention?"

Luna nodded.

"Alchemy," she answered.

Regulus nodded, crossing his arms seemingly at ease.

"What sort of Alchemy?"

"Potion-Making Alchemy, with the focus in Healing and Undoing Magical Ailments," she answered. "But, for now, I want to get in Advanced Alchemy next year so I can find a good spot in an Academy once I'm out of Hogwarts."

There was a twitch in Regulus' face muscles, but she couldn't read it as any emotion that she recognised.

"You have it all planned out," he said. She looked away. "It's a good thing, though. It's impressive," he added when she seemed uncomfortable by his words.

"I want to get money as soon as I get out of school; a spot in an Academy usually comes with a small salary," she explained. "Once I'm out of the Academy, I can find a good job inside a healing or medicinal company. I can support myself and my family if I have a good enough job."

Regulus looked at the entrance of the Tower.

"You have a brother, though, and your father still works, I don't understand why you're thinking about support your family. Besides, once you get married, and so does your brother, you brother will keep supporting them and his family while you'll be supported by your husband," he said.

Luna didn't answer immediately, incredulous by Regulus' words. She took a deep breath while she prepared an answer, but once she was ready, there were no words that she could form to give him.

"My parents are divorced," she said.

Regulus frowned.

"Divorced?" he asked.

"Yeah," she whispered.

She wanted to say that there was no shame in her voice, but there was – there really was, and she hated it. She understood that the divorce was for the better, after all she remembered quite well how her parents used to scream at each other and how she would cry in bed.

"What is a 'divorced'?" Regulus asked.

Her jaw dropped.

"Oh!" she managed to choke out. "Alright, it's... when the marriage is over."

"So... it's separated," he said.

"No. A separated couple is still married, even if they don't live together, but a divorced couple's marriage is over, dissolved," she explained.

Now it was Regulus' jaw that dropped, though he was much quicker to recover and pull himself together once more.

"That's allowed in the Muggle world?" he asked.

"In the Wizarding world as well," she said. "Since 1933 in the Wizarding world, but it was really expensive until the 40s or something. I'm not interested in the lawful side of the Wizarding world, forgive me."

"I never heard of it!" Regulus said.

She almost laughed.

"It's uncommon even now," she said. "Especially for people like you." He raised his eyebrows at her, throwing his jaw up – a mixture of pride and offense. "Pure-blood people, I mean," she added.

If pure blood meant money, the Black Family was the bloody Royal Family of the wizarding world. They had everything: power, money, connections. Regulus Black was nothing short of the Crown Prince; Heir to the House of Black as he was, it was no surprise at all that he knew nothing about what a divorce was.

"Well, I'm sure that your husband would support both your mother and father after your father retires, besides I'm sure that your father's alimony is –"

"Alimony?" Luna asked, almost laughing. "No. My father will pay child's support until my brother and I turn eighteen, and then it's my mum on her own. She works too, so it isn't the end of the world, but she's been going on more and more shifts. Alimony is rare." She sighed. "How can you know what alimony is, but what a divorce is?"

He shrugged.

"Separated couples pay alimony, though it's usually called 'pension' or 'pocket money'," he said. "But my father also pays my mother 'pocket money', but they're still married."

"That's barbaric," she groaned.

"She can spend it as she likes!" he defended. "And it's quite a lot of money."

"Doesn't she have her own money?" she asked.

"She doesn't work," he said. Luna shook her head in astonishment. "Do you want to work after you're married? Your husband might not accept it."

"Well, I might not marry a rich, traditional pureblood," she said, smiling at him. "For all I know, I might end up marrying a poor, completely barking mad half-blood."

Regulus shook his head side to side slightly, clearly distasteful with the idea, though he did control himself enough to not let his upper lip curl in disgust. He looked at the stars, hoping in silence that Luna would search for something better than a half-sane, poor half-blood.

"Going back to the subject; you want Advanced Alchemy, am I correct?" he said, dismissing the past subject. She nodded. "Well, then you might want to know a bit more about the moon, because it's one of the biggest influences within it. The phases of the moon are even more important than the moon itself, because the biggest thing it might influence its how actually effective the potion is, but the time of the month actually affects if the potion works at all."

"The moon has how many phases?" she asked.

"Eight," he answered. "New moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, last quarter and waning crescent."

She wrote it down.

"Alright, go on," she grumbled, still writing.

"Well, let's start by the 'new moon'," he said, glancing at what she was writing. "It's the best for new intentions and purification, so that's usually when an Animagus starts their path of transformation, and, inside Herbology, to plant new seeds that have not been planted in your soil before; in potions, they create purification potions during that time, so they're used in healing for detoxification and rejuvenation. You'll notice most rejuvenation spells that work, which are rare, are done during the new moon."

"And in alchemy?"

"That's when everything starts," he said. "A new project is only put to action during the new moon. It's very auspicious."

She wrote it down while she nodded.

"Now, it's 'waxing crescent'," she said.

He nodded, uncrossing his arms.

"The 'waxing crescent' is more well know than the new moon, because she works for growth and development, you'll see hair growth potions and potions for the good development of the foetus being done in this time. But in healing we'll see good spells for gashes and cuts without leaving scars because of the regeneration of the tissue that happens; that also helps the alchemists to boost the effects and potency of their experiments, perhaps even accelerate their results if they're good enough," he said.

"What do you mean by 'if they're good enough'?" she asked, leaning forward as if that would help her listen better.

"If he can brew without help of any light besides the moon," he said, smiling at her reaction. He pushed the smile back and looked away, twisting his body away from her slightly, looking at the stars with a lot of attention. "And the 'first quarter' is focuses mostly on determination and action, so all the potions around that time are done focused on physical healing, boosting of strength and courage – that's also when you'll find people brewing Liquid Luck. This is the favourite time to Classical Alchemist, because it's when most of the transformation of the matter happens."

She wrote it down in tiny letters, adding a note near the 'first quarter' with a reminder of Regulus' comment.

"And 'waxing gibbous', that's when Pandora's potion is made," Regulus said.

Luna looked up so suddenly that she felt slightly dizzy from it.

Pandora talked very little about her potion and even less about her dreams. The only option was that Evan had been the one to share the information, but then Regulus wouldn't have shared it with her so easily. He had done so for a reason.

"You know about it?" she asked, surprised.

"About her dreams? Yes," he said, shrugging. "Her parents don't accept her abilities and don't allow her to work on them, which makes them violent against her."

She shook her head.

"Abilities?" she asked, confused. "Pandora has night terrors."

"Pandora has visions. Pandora is a natural Seer, a very rare and very good Seer," Regulus said. "I would've thought that you, who took Divination so seriously, would've noticed that already."

"Pandora doesn't take Divination. Visions are had when one is awake and focused," Luna said.

Regulus twisted his nose at the idea, knowing far too well that it was far from the truth.

"Perhaps the ones that learn Divination follow that recipe, but Pandora was born a Seer, that's a lot rarer and a lot more powerful as well," Regulus told her. Luna just stared at him, unsure of what to say. "Do you know why I'm telling you this, Miss Lupin?" She shook her head. "Because you're the only one besides Evan and Xenophilius that she can trust, and she'll need you to trust her too when she comes to tell you something."

"She has Seen something?"

"No, but she will," Regulus said.

Luna frowned, slowing getting up, holding onto her notebook and mechanical pencil – another reminded how connected to muggles she was to Regulus, which he had to look away from several times.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked.

"You're not stupid."

It wasn't the answer that she was looking for, but one that she knew how to digest.

While the idea was far away from Hogwarts, there was a growing restlessness in the bigger cities due to several groups of opposing political views that wished nothing more than power and the complete control of the Ministry of Magic. If it wasn't squashed soon enough, it would surely become a problem.

"It'll be ugly?" she whispered her question.

Regulus looked at her for a second before looking away again.

"So, Pandora's potion is done during the waxing gibbous because potions with the most potency during that time are the one for concentration, focus and clarity, so of course the healing will follow it. Mentally ill people only try new treatments during the waxing gibbous. Now in Alchemy, it boosts the transformation of matter, yes, but not as much as before," he said, ignoring her question. "And now, the Full Moon."

She looked away, knowing he wouldn't answer her. Still, her mind was too shambled for her to go back to taking notes of what he said, so she just tried to focus as much as she could.

"The full moon is obvious, really. Werewolves, hags – many creatures gain more strength during the full moon because of its culmination and fulfilment. Potions here peak in potency, but – oddly enough – healing declines considerably, that's why werewolves are so deadly, because saving someone that was attacked by a werewolf is hard; one bite, one scratch usually means death," he said.

Luna dropped her mechanical pen and fumbled to get it before it hit the ground. The sudden movements caught Regulus' attention and he watched as she kneeled on the ground to get the pen.

"Surely there's something good in full moons," she said, though her voice was weak.

"Results," he said. "In Alchemy, full moons are for results, at least the first try of it."

She nodded, getting up from the ground once more and holding onto her things. Regulus ignored her, going back to his talking as if he was talking to himself.

"'Waning gibbous' is an odd phase, really. It's used for banishments and any sort of exorcism in potions, spells and transfiguration, but it's also used to brew poisons and to heal poisons, so I think it's a rather ironic phase to me," he said. "In alchemy, however, it's when you fix your mistakes from the first result, trying to purify it." He cleared his throat. "That's also when families with daughters do purification spells for brides."

Luna didn't ask. She had never been to a wizarding wedding, so she wasn't sure how they worked, but she wasn't in the mood to hear any more of the explanation. All she wanted was to go back to her dormitory and go to Pandora.

"The 'last quarter' is when you need to keep an eye on Pandora, that's the best time for divination, as you probably know, and when her nightmares are worst," he added, finally looking at her once more. "In alchemy, it's time for research of hidden truths. Many times, Divination and Alchemy walk side to side."

"And lastly?"

"Lastly, we have the moon of 'surrender', as many call it. That's the 'waning crescent'. It's a useful phase, indeed. Many of the potions brewed as potions of control, controlling the mind and the body of someone else is very complicated so many healers end up resorting to only brewing those during this phase for maximum potency. But also because of the moon phase, they focus on the healing of muscles and nerves because of the relaxation that people can get during this time. In alchemy, it's when you start something that didn't work over."

She nodded.

"When you speak, it's hard to know the difference between healers, potioneers and alchemists," she admitted.

Regulus just watched her under the moonlight without answering her for a few seconds.

"Do you see a difference?" he asked.

"Yes."

"I don't. I just see a uniform," he said. "What's the difference between a potioneer with a poison and an Auror with justice? Just a uniform."

"One is murder and the other is justice," she said.

He shrugged.

"Just a uniform, just words," he explained. He turned to look at her and crossed his arms again. "Tell me, what's the difference between what you want to do and what a healer or a potioneer wants to do?" She didn't answer, fearing his answer. "Well, it's simple – you are experimenting something that they never thought of before. You are a Healer that is in love with Potions with ambitions and aspirations too big for both careers to take, so you are going to Alchemy... that's what most alchemists are."

"Crazy scientists?"

"I don't know about crazy, but scientists indeed," he agreed. He didn't smile, but his eyes did. "I don't know where the world failed you, Luna, but I hope you make sure it doesn't fail anybody else."

Luna Lupin wasn't disorganised by any means. Sure, she could end up forgetting a thing or two around the house, but she always remembered to get it before going out anywhere, but her school supplies were kept in order even when the rest of the world was falling apart. So, not finding her favourite mechanical pen was simply unbelievable.

"It's not there!" Rosalie said, watching Luna looking under her own bed. "You've already searched for it under the beds, Luna. You probably forgot it in some classroom, or when you went out last night."

Luna looked up.

"You're right. It's probably in the Astronomy Tower!" she said, nodding.

Marta watched Luna get up.

"How did you get Flitwick's permission to go out after curfew to study?" she asked, a smile on her face. "Besides, we all know that you weren't alone because you're terrible in Astronomy. Who was tutoring you?"

"Just someone," she dismissed, not liking the idea of sharing that Regulus Black had been the one to tutor her; the idea was rather uncomfortable. Someone in the room giggled; it had been Amanda. "Anyway, I got permission from Flitwick by asking it. If you want to go out to snog your boyfriend somewhere with permission, ask him, perhaps he'll allow it."

Marta scoffed.

"Let's be honest, the man hates me," she grumbled.

"Because you've been caught snogging your boyfriend so many times that they stopped taking points from Ravenclaw and started giving you detention because it was simply unfair to us," Amanda reminded her from her own bed, where she was sitting while putting her shoes on.

Marta scoffed again.

Luna smile to herself, making sure that Marta wasn't looking when she walked to the mirror to fix the braids on top of her head making a careful and delicate half-crown, the rest of her hair falling over her shoulders.

The group of girls walked out the dormitory all together.

"Morris said that someone fell down the stairs yesterday, near the Charms' classroom," Marta said over her shoulder to the other girls. "He didn't know the girl, but said it was a Slytherin a year above. The Gryffindors ran to help her so fast that he could barely blink."

"Probably Dorcas Meadowes," Pandora said, pushing her hair. "She's their friend."

That caught Luna's attention.

"Dorcas Meadowes is my brother's friend?" she asked. "And how do you know that?"

"Because Evan doesn't like Dorcas Meadowes, says she thinks she's better than everybody else," Pandora answered.

Rosalie turned to him.

"And does she?" Rosalie asked.

Pandora shrugged.

"I never talked to her before," Pandora answered.

Rosalie, certainly disappointed by the lack of gossip to spread around the school, looked away and crossed her arms as if she was cold, embracing herself. She turned to Amanda, changing the subject fully to a girl from Hufflepuff that had been caught in the library with Sirius Black, which left Luna in silence during the whole way to the Great Hall.

They sat together in the table, filling their plates between words and laughs that Luna did not follow.

Her mind was stuck on Dorcas, and the fact that she knew that she had gone out with Sirius Black not too long before. There was even a joke about how she would be the only Slytherin that admitted going out with him, or at least the only one that he had the audacity to ask to go to Hogsmeade with him the year before and she had accepted, going there with her chin raised. House frivolity to hell, they seemed to become good friends when nothing more than a snog came out of it. Then, a few months later, Dorcas came out rather publicly by starting a relationship with Marlene McKinnon. They seemed happy enough. One would never imagine that most Slytherin didn't like Dorcas for her rather closed-off personality, refusing to go to parties to socialise and network, staying in the dormitory to read and study without anybody else.

Looking at the other girls in her year, she wondered if any of them saw her as a friend other than Pandora. Probably not, her mind decided in silence, forcing her to eat a strawberry with honey to fill her mouth with something other than bitterness and resentment.

"Miss Lupin, good morning," Regulus Black's voice said from right behind her.

She looked over her shoulder from where she was sitting in surprise.

Regulus Black stood beside the Ravenclaw table, both hands behind her back and chin high, though he looked down straight at her. He didn't seem in a rush to say what he needed to say before going somewhere else. He didn't seem embarrassed to be talking to her, though he was uncomfortable – the thing about Regulus Black was that he was always, at some level, uncomfortable with something or awkwardly standing at the corner of a social gathering, clearly not wanting to be there completely.

"Oh, hello, Black," she greeted. Someone made a sound to her left and she cleared her throat quickly. "Mister Black," she corrected, trying to get on the same level as him.

Regulus' lips twitched as if he was holding back a smile while he took his hands away from his back, offering her the mechanical pen that she had been searching for very long in her dormitory.

She gasped before she could control herself, taking the pen from him with some relief slipping to her face when her eyes fluttered closed. She smiled at him.

"You dropped this on your way back to your Common Room, in the Astronomy Tower's stairs," he said. "After I fixed everything back to its original places, I saw it. It is yours, I'd hazard a guess through your reaction."

"Yes," she said, nodding. "Thank you."

"You're most welcome," he answered.

Before she could say anything else to him, he just smiled a very false and polite smile, nodding at her once as some greeting before turning on his heels to go back to his table.

Pandora leaned forward.

"Regulus?" she called out. Regulus turned to her right away, as some soldier waiting for orders. "Tell my brother to open Mother's letter as soon as possible, please. I'm waiting for an invitation to the Winter's Ball, but I believe it'll be under his name, not mine."

"I shall, Pandora," he said, gently. "Excuse me."

Now, with all messages that he needed to give or to deliver, he walked back to his table, sitting beside Evan, leaving the blond boy between him and Barty. He didn't look at the Ravenclaw table deliberately as he gave Evan his sister's message.

"Your tutor is Regulus Black?" Amanda whispered as soon as Luna looked back at the girls, eyes wide.

Though she had no desire to share such information, it was clear that she couldn't keep it anymore. Luna didn't mind it, of course, it was more the fear of Regulus being embarrassed about spending so much alone time with her (she knew how cruel the rumour machine of Hogwarts could be), but clearly she minded it more than him – he had talked to her, given something that she had left behind accidently the night before, without a single drop of shame or rush.

"Yes," she answered. "He's the best student at Astronomy. I asked, he agreed."

"Luna Lupin, you are one lucky motherfucker," Marta said.

Her boyfriend turned to look at her.

"He's not that handsome!" Morris said, quite offended.

"Yes, he is," Rosalie quickly intervened. "He's bloody gorgeous, at that!"

Luna looked down.

"He's just... teaching me," she said.

Marta giggled maliciously.

Pandora raised her eyebrows at Marta, clearly not understanding the giggle. Nobody tried to explain it to her.

Luna rolled her eyes, reaching for a cup to fill with coffee and fill it with sugar. She didn't mind that some people didn't understand how much she liked coffee, but she liked the feeling it gave her body – some sort of buzzing that kept her going for at least an hour more than she would be able to without it. Pandora reached for the coffee pot and passed it to Luna as soon as she saw her getting the cup, smiling when she cleaned her hand with a little twitch of her nose (she hated how the coffee pot had a handle with a bad texture).

Pandora sipped her tea and raised a single eyebrow.

"He's nice, isn't he?" Pandora said. "He's always very kind to me when he comes to visit us in the summers, even brought me a few presents and sent them over after my engagement."

"Regulus Black? Nice?" Rosalie said, still paying attention to the conversation while Marta was already distracted. "He's beaten-up half of the school's male body at this point in time."

"Well, I never gave him a reason to beat me up," Luna said.

"That's what housewives from the 50s said," Amanda joked, sipping her own tea. "But really, be careful with him, Luna. He never beat a woman before, but you never know what can come off it."

Pandora frowned.

"He's got into fights, yes, but the other party also hit him back, they're no Gandhi," Pandora quickly defended Regulus, annoyed at the other girls. "Morris got into fights before as well; the difference is that he lost."

Morris, who had just gotten his attention away from Marta at the mention of his name, looked offended once more, jaw dropping at Pandora's audacity, but he didn't argue or say anything back once he caught Luna staring right at him.

While Luna wasn't the scariest of people physically speaking (she wasn't tall nor strong), her eyes were expressive enough for most people to read her emotions as soon as she threw them in the air. One look from her could say a thousand words, and if someone dared to be anything bar comprehensive and understanding of Pandora's feelings and situation, her mouth would follow.

Morris had been in Ravenclaw for long enough to know how particularly exhausting it was to be scolded by Luna – he had seen her talk for almost three hours about irresponsibility and underage drinking at the ear of three fourth years when she was in her own second year because they had lost several points to the house by being found out by Flitwick. From that moment on, several smart Prefects had made her their number one punishment, right alongside Pandora, who also had impressive lungs and vocabulary when upset. He even knew that Luna had refused to be a Prefect; there was gossip about that, some said it was because of her constant health-issues, others said that she and her brother got along so terribly that they thought it was for the best to be kept apart.

He, particularly, would bet on the 'brother' theory. There was absolutely no chance that he and his brothers would treat each other in the manner Luna and Remus did; he missed his brothers back in Hungary so much that it was torturing, and yet Luna and Remus could barely stand in the same room for too long.

"I'm sure Regulus has a reason for his fights, just like I had a reason for mine," Morris diplomatically said.

Luna looked away with a comical aristocratic air, the closest thing to approval that he would get from her at the moment. Morris wondered if Luna knew that, when she did that, she looked just like her brother during the Prefect meetings; because if there was something that he learnt was that one cannot run away from family, even if they are very far away.

Shorter chapter and a lot of Moon-Talk, I guess. Sorry about that, I don't know what happened, but it came naturally. I hope you all liked it.