I am back with a less heavy chapter, just because I had the time today. I had a bad day, so this is my comfort until I can fix my problems.

My boyfriend, randomly, decided to read this fic and I'm scared of his opinion LMAO. If you're in the mood of teasing, leave messages for him in this part of the chapter. Thank you for reading, everbody! (thank you for reading as well, D., I love you)

Marta wasn't someone that was often worried over other people; she had too much to care about in her own life and couldn't bear taking care of other's life. However, even she couldn't ignore the fact that Luna had not eaten in more than 24 hours.

"This is ridiculous!" Marta said at the foot of Luna's bed, pulling back the curtains.

"Marta, stop it!" Amanda said from where she stood in front of the mirror, knotting her tie. "Leave her alone. She wants to be left alone."

"No, Marta is right. Luna, get up!" Rosalie said, getting up from her bed where she had been sitting, ready for the day, and pulling Luna by her arms to sit up on the bed. "I don't know what happened, but whatever it was, it can't be that bad."

Luna had not cried since she had gotten to the dormitory and had a good moment alone, sobbing and weeping by herself. Then, once it stopped, it didn't start again. She had been lying there, wasting away in shame and pain. In the middle of the night, Pandora had slipped into her bed and held her close (a miracle that would have made her cry in itself, but she had no tears left), whispering questions that she never answered. She was in a state that even her hair was un-braided and unkept; it was unusual to her.

Pandora, now, sat in her own bed, unsure of what to say or do.

Luna looked at her best friend.

"I don't want to eat. I'm not hungry," she said.

"Even if we call one of the house-elves to bring you food here? This way, you don't have to go outside," Pandora said.

Smart as she was, Pandora had already understood that whatever it was that happened with Sirius, it was the cause for Luna's situation. Clearly, she didn't want to see the boy again.

"I'm not hungry," Luna insisted.

She was hungry. She was starving. But the feeling of her stomach almost gluing itself to her back was a feeling that she could focus on and not feel the way her heart twisted and contorted in pain; she could control which one of the terrible feelings she would feel: shame, sadness, anger or hunger. And hunger felt the most natural.

She went back to lying down.

"Leave her alone," Pandora said, shaking her head. "She won't move."

"We can't leave her here in this state!" Rosalie said, looking at Luna in worry.

"Who knows what she'll do when we leave her alone in here," Marta added.

Pandora frowned, pushing down the chill that went up her spine. Though the thought had crossed her mind, she truly believe that Luna was nowhere near that level of danger just yet, but would get there if she didn't receive the attention she needed – but for that, Luna needed to want to get better, and understand the impact that her feelings and actions had on the people that loved her very much, that included Pandora. But she also knew that forcing Luna into any situation would have dire consequences.

"Come on, leave her alone," Pandora insisted. "We'll talk to Flitwick and Madame Pomfrey."

Going to a trusted adult might be the best decision, after all that was what professors told them to do with any situation that they couldn't deal themselves, or that they didn't feel safe doing. And Pandora feared for Luna, very much, and she didn't feel safe forcing her friend out of bed.

But the other girls didn't share Pandora's opinion.

By the time that Pandora had finished her breakfast and was walking to class earlier than usual, breaking her routine, to get Flitwick's attention to the matter with Luna, the other girls had already concocted a plan.

As breakfast was finishing up, they all got up from the Ravenclaw table at once. The group walked to the Gryffindor table all together and stopped right in front of Remus Lupin, crossing their arms until he turned to look at them.

James Potter's shoulders squared and tensed at once, but Sirius Black looked down in what seemed to be shame, even Peter seemed taken aback by their sudden appearance behind Remus Lupin, but none of them were noticed. The girls' eyes were stuck completely and fully on Remus.

"Luna is unwell," Rosalie said, taking control of the situation.

Remus frowned, looking around to his friends.

"Well," he said, finally looking back at the girls. "Then you take her to Madame Pomfrey. I can't do anything."

"She's not sick, she's just... in bed," Marta said. "She didn't eat at all yesterday, didn't go to classes. Refused to get up today."

That caught Remus' attention, because he raised his eyebrows and twisted himself on the bench, passing his legs towards the corridor, not under the table. He leaned forward a bit, trying to pay more attention to them.

"What's wrong with her?" he asked.

"We're not sure," Rosalie answered. "She didn't say it."

"She stopped crying, but she had just cried when we got back to the dorms yesterday, she was all red in the face," Amanda said, she was the one that sounded the saddest about the situation. "We've tried asking, even Pandora was worried."

"She's –" started Sirius. He stopped himself.

"Perhaps we should tell some professor?" James said, covering Sirius' silence as fast as he could.

Peter nodded.

"Maybe she's sick," Peter said.

"She's depressed," Marta said, shaking her head. "Heartbroken."

Peter sighed and shook his head, pity clear in his face.

"Do you think she broke up with her boyfriend?" Rosalie wondered out loud.

"What boyfriend?" Remus asked, frowning deeper.

Sirius looked up, suddenly interested in the conversation once more. James squeezed his leg under the table in warning, making the man look down once more.

That made the girls look quite uncomfortable once they realised that Remus had no idea of what they were talking about. They shifted their weight from leg to leg, glancing at each other awkwardly.

"What boyfriend?" Remus insisted.

"We're... not sure," Amanda whispered. "We saw her, you know..."

"No. I don't. What?" Remus asked.

"She got to the dorms in the middle of the night, hair a mess; there was a time that she was always late for class, too," Amanda answered. "The thing is that she never said his name and always denied when we teased her about it."

Remus' lip twisted and curled in disgust, completely in disbelief that Luna actually had someone in her life that not only cared for her in that sense. It was something new in his life, because he was far too used to people forgetting that Luna was there at all.

"And you think that... bloke broke things off with her?" Peter asked.

"That, or... someone died, I don't know," Marta said, rolling her eyes. "It's horrible, Lupin. One look at her and you'd understand what I'm trying to say. I've never saw her like that before, it's bad."

Remus shook his head.

"Nobody dies of a broken heart," Remus dismissed.

"Somone with a heart condition might, especially after two days without eating," Rosalie said, surprised at Remus' coldness. "Luna is depressed, Remus. You need to talk to her as soon as possible."

Remus sighed.

"Can one of you take me there? I'll talk to her," he caved.

Sirius felt like he couldn't breathe.

Remus climbed the stairs to the female side of the Ravenclaw dormitories in silence and opened the door without knocking, but almost froze in place when the door opened completely.

Luna's pallor was shocking, the dark bags under her open and awake eyes was concerning, but it was her clothes that surprised him. It was cold enough for long sleeves and long pants, but Luna wore a tank-top and shorts, lying in bed on top of the covers, completely still and looking at the ceiling.

"Luna," he called, voice softer than what he would usually use. Still, she didn't look. "Luna!"

Slowly, Luna blinked, looking up at him.

"Remus," she greeted automatically. She looked rather odd, almost robotic. "Hello."

"What happened to you?" he asked.

"Nothing happened," she said, voice weak.

Remus tried not to sigh too loudly.

Once upon a time, he would've climbed into bed with her, coached her out of her shell until she finally confessed whatever it was that was bothering her, but now that they were grown enough to each have their own life, it was clear that they no longer held the same intimacy for him to dare to do so. He feared that touching her at all would cause her to lose the little control she seemed to have over herself – because he knew, deep down, that just underneath the thick skin of a heartbroken person, there was chaos and insanity, which he wasn't ready to deal with at all.

"Luna, you need to eat something," he said. "Your friends told me that you haven't eaten since yesterday morning."

"That's a lie."

"Yesterday – why? Have you eaten something?"

"No. I didn't eat yesterday morning. I came back to bed before breakfast," she explained. She took a deep breath. "I've been very tired."

Remus raised his eyebrows.

"You look very tired. Have you slept at all?" he asked.

Luna closed her eyes for a moment, almost as if contemplating the idea of sleeping, but soon her eyes were open again, but they were unseeing for a second – something that only she could imagine in front of her.

"Luna," Remus called out again.

"You should leave me alone," she said. "I'm tired. Being alone makes my headache a bit better."

"I'll leave when you eat," he said. Slowly he crossed the room, uncomfortable with being in the bedroom of several girls that he didn't know. He sat on the foot of his sister's bed. "Luna, you know that you have hypoglycaemia. You can't just... not eat at all," he waited for her answer, but nothing came. He cleared his throat. "Have you fainted yet? – perhaps not, because you haven't moved from the bloody bed, so you probably haven't had the possibility to faint yet. But, Luna, you might have a convulsion if you go even longer without eating. You know the risks. Please, come on – let me get you something to eat."

"I don't want to eat."

Remus groaned.

"I didn't ask you what you bloody want, I'm telling you that you need to eat," he said, voice sharp. She looked up at him and he hesitated, wondering if he had crossed the line, but he insisted. "I'm telling you to choose what you want to eat."

"Nothing."

"Well, you'll eat something," he said, rolling his eyes. "I'll get you pasta."

"I don't like pasta."

Remus almost smiled. At least that hadn't changed from when she was a little girl.

"Then choose what you want to eat," he said. "And while the elves prepare it, you go and shower. You're stinking."

Luna watched him for a moment, measuring him up and down, eyes narrowing in suspicion. She was trying to see if any of the care that he was showing towards her was genuine or if she could find in her mind and imagination any sort of reason for him to have second intentions.

"You won't ask me why?" she asked.

Remus pressed his lips together.

"Are you going to tell me 'why' if I ask you?" he asked. "Are you going to tell me 'who', too? Because your friends seem to think this is a problem with some bloke."

There was a feeling almost like a euphoric laugh bubbling in her chest, but when it finally reached her throat, it sounded a lot more like a bitter sob. Quickly, she locked her jaw in place, forcing her teeth together to hide as best as she could her shame and naiveté.

"Bloke," she repeated with the same bitterness and anger that she had felt the first moment that Sirius had told her about his plans to break things off with her. "That... 'bloke' is nothing more than a dog!"

She pushed herself to sit down, the feeling of a terrible heartburn making her cough. She sniffed, pushing away tears as best as she could and looking away. It had been so sudden that she realised a few things at once – 1) she had moved from what felt like a limbo state for the first time in hours. 2) the room was spinning from that simple movement, therefore she was lucky that she didn't move any further. 3) she really needed to take a piss. 4) sadness was exhausting.

"Dog or not, getting in this situation for anyone that is still alive is decaying," he complained, looking at her in a mixture of disgust and pity. That was a look that she was becoming used to, still – coming from him – it felt patronising. "Luna, no man deserves your tears, your anger... your hunger."

She looked at him by the corner of her eyes.

"You certainly don't," she tried to tease.

Remus looked allowed an incomprehensible feeling go by inside his eyes for a second before he looked away, quickly changing subjects so the pressure in his chest would feel like knuckles pressing on his sternum.

"Now, go on. Choose. What do you want to eat?" he asked.

It was in moments like that these that Luna wondered what the hell had happened between her and Remus.

They had been such good friends, allies against so much of the world that seemed to be falling apart around them when they were younger. Even after his bite, he had continued being her older brother and eager to make her understand that he wouldn't hurt her even when Lyall wasn't so sure about it – even when he did hurt her, Luna had never held it against him once she grew to understand that the creature that had opened her had been something completely different from her brother. She wasn't sure when every word that she spoke became ammunition against him, a wildfire spreading around his comfort like a disease; perhaps it had been his reaction to her first few arguments with their mother, where she spewed things that she didn't mean like the adult she thought herself to be, but the words had become sharper at some point.

Remus had stopped forgiving her so easily, or least he didn't forget as easily.

There was a time – a good time – in her childhood that she could get Remus to do anything for her just by asking and smiling. Even when he was angry at her for embarrassing him by calling him by his middle name in front of his friends in muggle school ('John', what a name! Embarrassing, indeed), she would flutter her eyelashes, tell him not to smile and he would open a dazzling smile and a laugh, unable to control himself. Now, she could beg and beg, cry and throw herself to the ground that Remus would be able to ignore her, stepping over her body as if she had never been there – or so she thought, because though he was still angry at her due to their discussion about their father's role in their lives, he was still there, trying to somehow take care of her, even when she didn't want him to.

There are times where he was an ally. There was a time where he felt like an enemy.

Luna truly loved her brother.

Luna loved Remus, but it was hard to make him love her back because his love was ever so different from her. If she pushed too far to get into his good graces, it seemed to backfire, and she would be left even further away from him as if she had been the one to push him away.

"I want toast," she whispered, some defeat in her voice.

"You have to eat everything," he said.

"I'm not hungry."

"But you must eat everything. Fuck, Luna, I'm here, missing classes, to make sure you're eating everything," Remus said, trying to guilt-trip her into eating. "I don't understand why you do this to yourself so much. Last summer – not this one, the one before, you know? – you stayed the same way, and for what? Because some girls laughed at your clothes."

"They didn't laugh at my clothes, Remus, they laughed at me. It's different," she said, frowning and pulling her legs close to her chest. She hated that she could feel her stomach when she did that. "You wouldn't understand."

Remus' unconsciously took his hand to his face, his finger grazing the big scar across his face gently. He used to be so self-conscious of his scars before James, Peter and Sirius had started making up stories for them; one always better than the other, from 'hunting accident' to 'gang-related', and all very fun to listen to.

Before he could say something about his own scar, he saw it: the start of Luna's own scar near her clavicle, just under it and disappearing into her shirt. He knew she had a scar there, but he had never though it would be so big and the gashes so deep.

He looked away, suddenly uncomfortable.

"I think I know how it feels to have people laughing at me," Remus said.

"People laugh at your scars, but one look from you and they'd fear you," Luna said. "I'd give a lot be feared."

"Not respected?" he asked.

She looked at him.

"What does respect do for me if not help others build expectations around me? With fear, people would leave the fuck alone," she said, clearly annoyed "There's a lot of things that you think that you understand because of your illness, but you don't, Remus. Not everything is a competition and not everything has to do with how the world treats you. Just because your life is bad, it doesn't mean my life can't be."

"My life isn't bad," he said, shaking his head.

She watched him for a whole second in silence.

"Well, than that's already better than mine," she said, eyes turning unseeing once more.

Not wanting her to go back into another state that he couldn't bring her back from, Remus was quick to call for a house-elf (one that James knew by name) and request toast with jam. By the time that he looked back at the bed, she was still sitting, but her chin was resting on her knees and she was looking at the furnace in the middle of the room, which burned enough to make the room comfortable in the very high tower in autumn.

"Who left you like this, Luna?" Remus asked.

"I suppose, myself," she answered bitterly. She scoffed. "I should know better. I'm smarter than this, really. I knew who I was getting involved with and I knew that it wasn't love or anything like that, he made sure to tell me that, and I'm not stupid. I should've listened. I shouldn't have harboured feelings, hopes for someone that clearly didn't feel the same for me, but I was so blind."

If it was someone else, Remus would've said that 'love' usually left people blind, but he couldn't see his sister in love, the idea was so laughable that he just watched her bitterness pour out of her, overwhelming her state in an incredulous stance.

"What did he say?"

"He said that he wanted me, that he could never give me love. And then he said that he could never love me and that he didn't want me anymore, because he found someone else – someone better, I suppose. Someone that isn't ashamed of being seen in public with," she said, shaking her head, lowering her legs on the mattress again. "Who knows? I just have to wait, sooner or later the whole Hogwarts will know who he was talking about."

Remus sat on the bed again.

"Luna, who was it?" Remus asked.

Luna looked at him.

'All is far in love and war', a little voice whispered in her ear. It would be so easy to end Sirius' friendship with a simple confession of his name, a simple nod in his direction to give Remus an inkling would be enough for revenge – but it didn't feel right, because Luna knew that the little moment of alliance that was happening between her and Remus would disappear as well, after all how many times had he told her that his friends were out of line for her; that had been his only rule about their relationship in school, he didn't mind if she talked to him in front of his friends and even greeted her a lot in first year in the hopes that some of his popularity would rub off on her (it didn't work).

One word from her would end Sirius, but it would end her, too. She wanted to be let in, not be hated by her brother.

She wanted Remus as her ally for a bit more, not her enemy.

"Nobody important," she lied.

"Luna –"

"I can deal with it," she said.

There had be better ways of revenge, she knew. Revenges that wouldn't mess with her relationship with Remus further.

And, for now, Remus and Luna were allies for a bit more.

The jam was made from Chinese pears (according to elf that brought it up to them, a different one from the one that Remus had made the request), which they divided amongst themselves, sharing the food, but not their thoughts.

I wrote this chapter while listening to Allies or Enemies - The Crane Wives; I don't know if you all know them, but I love them a lot, a lot of my chapters are based off their songs.