This chapter is pretty much just me proving that Luna Lupin in a Ravenclaw through and through, hence why I'm having such a hard time writing her. The bad thing about writing smart characters is that I have to learn shit that I'm not prepared for. You have no idea how much I know about herbs, fire and actual alchemy. I'm so tired.

Regulus Black had not been sleeping well, and one did not need to be the best of friends with him or share the dormitory with him to see the stress marks in his face and the darker bags under his eyes as he glared at his breakfast at the Slytherin Table.

Luna, herself, could see the signals worsening day after day from her place in the Ravenclaw table and Pandora would shift beside her, fingers twirling around each other in uncomfortableness whenever the situation was brought up. It took no more than two days for Luna to stare at Pandora as she avoided looking at her direction for her to understand that her friend knew something that she was unwilling to share, which only could mean one thing: the information might be dangerous. So, breakfasts at the start of June were beginning to be become a quiet ordeal, which left everybody sitting around the girls to awkwardly throw subjects around in the hopes of entertaining at least one of them to the point of a conversation starting.

"...I guess it's a stupid thing to say, but I really like pink," Rosalie said, nodding dramatically with her head.

"Pink is nice," Morris agreed.

"I hate pink!" Marta said, shaking her head and turning sharply at her boyfriend. She looked betrayed. "I thought you liked yellow."

"Well, yellow is my favourite colour, but it doesn't mean that I don't like pink at all, dear," Morris said, frowning at the offence in Marta's face. "They're just colours. I doubt anything changes if I start liking pink a bit more than I like yellow."

"Yellow is nice, too," Pandora said.

Her voice had been so sudden in the conversation that some of the people in the group turned to look at her in curiosity, then glanced at Luna, who was far too busy studying and eating her breakfast as the same time. She had a test coming soon.

"What you're favourite colour, Pandora?" Amanda asked gently.

"Egg-shell," she answered. "Because it's similar enough to white without making my head hurt after staring at it for too long."

"It's a nice justification," Marta mused. "Did you wear a white dress to get married, though?"

"Yes," Pandora dismissed.

Marta waited for an explanation as to why Pandora forced herself to wear white, when clearly she didn't like the colour that much, but when none came she just gave up on the subject completely, turning to look at her friends in surrender. She had tried to do her part, but Pandora wasn't willing to compromise.

"And you, Luna?" Amanda asked, glaring at Marta's exhausted sigh.

"Orange," Luna said without looking away from her book.

Rosalie raised her eyebrows. "I've never seen you wearing orange, though," she said.

Marta sighed in annoyance.

"Not everybody dresses in their favourite colour all the time, unlike you Rosie," Marta teased, rolling her eyes. "I know that half of your wardrobe is purple, but some people have actual taste in clothes other than just the colour of it."

"Don't be a bitch," Rosalie said, glaring.

Pandora sighed, lowering her head.

The conversation stopped suddenly.

Luna closed her book.

"Are you alright?" Luna asked, not looking at Pandora, but leaning towards the table – away from Pandora – to drink her juice. She seemed to be paying attention to the answer regardless of how her body was angled. "Is it the noise?"

"I got a headache," Pandora answered.

"Do you need Madame Pomfrey?" Luna asked, putting the cup back on the table.

Pandora nodded.

In silence, Luna put her book back in her bag and gave a look to Amanda, who nodded without needing to hear Luna say anything out loud; it clear that it was for her to warn someone in Luna's class for the next professor of her whereabouts. Then, without saying anything, Luna took Pandora's bag and threw it over her shoulder as well before helping the blonde girl get up from her seat. They walked together towards the exit of the Great Hall.

It was like the air suddenly felt heavier away from the usual chatter in the Great Hall. The empty corridors felt colder as their footsteps echoed around the stone walls.

They were already at the stairs when Pandora reached for Luna.

Quickly, Luna reached back, holding Pandora in place as her knees buckled.

"Oh, shit! Panda, are you alright?" Luna yelped in surprise, preparing to drop the bags and carry Pandora.

But Pandora hadn't fainted.

"Panda?" Luna whispered, suddenly feeling her throat closing and her heart racing.

Pandora's blue eyes were wide and frozen in place, unfocused and unresponsive. She was awake, though completely out of it. Her thighs were pressed together so forcefully that the muscles underneath her skin seemed to be shaking, her fingernails pressed Luna's arms to the point of the girl having to bite the inside of her cheek to keep herself from screaming as blood pooled around Pandora's nails.

"...like a sunset, like a dawn... you like orange," Pandora whispered.

A ray of sunlight came through the high windows and Pandora's hair shone gold.

"Yes, Panda," Luna said through her teeth in pain, carefully sitting Pandora on the stairs. "Because it's a hopeful colour."

"You'll need hope," Pandora said, voice trembling.

"And you like off-white colours, because they are soft and calming, because they are –" Luna started.

"Homely," Pandora completed, cutting her friend off.

She clung to Luna's arm even more. Blood dripped to the ground.

"Yes. Homely."

Slowly, but surely, Pandora blinked away whatever she was seeing and trying to distract herself from and turned her eyes away from the stone wall, turning to look at Luna with big, fearful eyes.

Pandora swallowed forcefully, frowning.

"I believe – I --," Pandora said. She took a deep, shaky breath. "We need Dumbledore. He'll understand."

"What did you See?" she whispered her scared question.

"Greenish gold liquid and orange fire in a laboratory while the sun rose, and you... in your laboratory. There was orange there, there was. But there was no hope in sight, Lu," Pandora whispered.

Luna felt her stomach drop almost to her feet in horror, unsure how such simple imagery could make her whole body clam up and her heart race. And while she stared at Pandora, she couldn't feel the stinging pain of her friend's nails into her skin or care about the few drops of blood on the stone floor of the staircase.

Still, it was not something that made a lot of sense. Luna's desire to join the academics of Alchemy had no connection to her wish to understand the creation of gold or the wealth involved in it, just the simple wish of creating something unique and – hopefully – helpful to someone, somewhere in the world.

"I made gold?" Luna whispered in confusion as she digested the words.

"No, you made poison, Lu. And you hated it, you were so miserable in your cries" Pandora said, her eyes filling with tears. "And everybody else loved you for it."

That was enough to make her fall apart.

Pandora's nails went deeper in Luna's flesh as she sobbed hard enough for her whole body to rock with the force of her fear, but Luna didn't feel the pain yet. She just held her friend, all her secrecy suddenly forgotten in her race to give her some sort of comfort.

Luna, who had dreamed of helping and saving people, of creating something good and beautiful, was destined to create a poison terrifying enough to bring Pandora Lovegood to tears.

She watched her own blood pooling at Pandora's fingers, running down her wrist and pooling there before dripping onto the floor in silence. It was like ink pooling on someone's hand when they hesitated writing onto a page with their quill in hand for too long – and Luna silently wondered Pandora had just signed her future away by bleeding any hope she had left onto the floor of the school that raised them.

They made the rest of the trip silently.

If Pandora noticed any blood in her hands, she made no comment on it. If she noticed it, she most likely believed she was imagining things again, as she often did for a few minutes after any Sights.

It took no more than ten minutes for Pandora to be sitting in a bed in the Hospital Wing, eyes open, but far away as she stared out of the window in clear disinterest as Madame Pomfrey cleaned her ruddy hands.

"I'll clean your wounds soon, Miss Lupin," Madame Pomfrey said, not looking away from Pandora as she made her swallow some of the correct potions. "And I'll find you something to wear. You cannot go around with your shirt bloody."

"I'm alright," Luna dismissed, also not looking away from Pandora.

Madame Pomfrey walked around the bed.

Sunlight was coming from the windows, but in that position – somehow – Luna's face seemed full of shadows. She looked older for a moment, tired, exhausted of the world around her like it had beaten her to the ground.

"Headmaster Dumbledore is coming soon," Madame Pomfrey said, voice gentle and low, as if Luna would spook. "He'll know better what to do with Pandora's situation if it doesn't go away soon."

"It's lasting longer than usual," Luna said.

Pomfrey took her arm into her hands and saw the half-moon marks of nails in her flesh. She made no comment of it, but she waved her wand to clean and disinfect it before reaching for the correct potion.

Luna smelled like her usual self, but the undertones of blood made Pomfrey scowl. It wasn't the smell that bothered her, it was the fact that Luna clearly didn't care that the edges of her folded sleeves were soaked red with her own blood.

"Her dissociation usually lasts a few minutes, but sometimes it can last up to half-an-hour, depending on what she saw. The headmaster gave me a vague explanation of the situation, but a complete explanation of the care Missus Lovegood must be under in these situations. Do not worry, Miss Lupin, I'm well equipped to deal with this," Madame Pomfrey said gently, dripping the Essence on Luna's wound, ignoring how she hissed through her teeth in pain as it sizzled and smoked, closing the wound without a scarring. "And though we still have fifteen minutes before I start worrying, Professor Dumbledore made sure to warn me that he's on his way as soon as possible. He won't neglect her care, I can assure you."

"She said it was about me."

Poppy's hand slowed down as she glanced up at Luna's dry but scared green eyes. She was hesitating to tell her more, but the girl seemed to be overwhelmed at the information, like a cup filled to the brim. She was spilling.

"The vision?"

"I created something monstrous, Madame Pomfrey. I believe I might have chosen a bad path for my life," Luna whispered, leaning towards the matron, as if she feared being overheard. "I chose Alchemy to create something good. How could I create something other than good for the sake of creating something terrible?"

Madame Pomfrey frowned.

"Did Missus Lovegood say it was the only thing you created? Did she say you created it on purpose?" Madame Pomfrey asked.

Luna looked up at her, surprised by the question.

"No."

"Then how can you believe such horrible things about yourself, my dear? In Alchemy and Potions, most things are created by accident while trying to create other things. And believe me when I say this, Luna, but I cannot see a better person to have something monstrous in hand and do nothing bad with it," Madame Pomfrey said. "You are a good person, and just because you have something bad with you, it's your intention that matters above all."

"Above all? Above my results?" she asked, voice small and fragile.

"Above all," she insisted. "You would never hurt someone unless you needed to, and even then, you'd hate it."

Without hesitation, Poppy would give the most potent poison in her cabinets to Luna and trust she wouldn't hurt anyone with it even in the direst of situations unless to save someone she loved, but Poppy would dare think of a moment – a lonely, dark moment – when Luna's possession of something terrible and dangerous might become danger to herself. Luna never put her own life high in her regards.

Luna frowned, looking away and turning her face as well.

"Yes, you're probably right. Pandora must just have seen my future career, nothing else," Luna whispered, but no longer to the matron, but to herself.

Albus Dumbledore thought the notion of joining an academic career in Alchemy for the sake of creating something good, as Luna described, rather childish, even to someone Luna's age, for he knew that she understood the weight and danger of the situations and decisions being taken outside of the school walls.

He knew how smart she was. One needn't see her grades or the extensive letters of recommendations from her professors or the review of her peers to understand that Luna Lupin was an extraordinary girl that would get far in life. In the future, she was most likely to become a world-renown alchemist with a wonderful proficiency to understanding magical ailments and illnesses often misunderstood and ignored by the general public due to the situation she grew up with, but never – for a moment – Dumbledore thought that she would be important for the war about to come in any other position other than Remus Lupin's little sister or Regulus Black's girlfriend.

When Remus hesitated joining the ranks once he graduated, it had been because of her and her oddly lasting courtship with Regulus. Dumbledore had to insist that she would be protected in the same way Hope Jensen would be for Remus to agree to the terms. He had thought that Luna's position in the game that Voldemort was playing would simply be leverage, perhaps the reason for emotional torture against the newest heir to the House of Black once the young couple's schooling was done.

Finding out she was a key-player to a game she did not want to play as harder blow than he would admit.

"So you saw her at dawn in a laboratory that you know to be hers, in a house that does not belong to her, in London," Dumbledore carefully described back to Pandora Lovegood. "And she had a potion ready that she did not want to make but did. Was she being forced?"

Pandora pulled her legs to her chest, the covers of the bed in the Hospital Wing protecting her modesty. She looked paler than usual even after forty minutes after a vision, blonde eyebrows almost touching one another in the middle of her forehead, blue eyes unblinking as she stared at the wall behind Dumbledore. She made no eye-contact.

"I don't know," she whispered.

"Was she alone?" he asked.

"No. There was a man with her, but I did not recognise him and he had his back to her, so I couldn't see his face," Pandora said, shaking her head slowly, eyes not moving from the spot. "But Luna was crying. She was very scared. I could feel it – that's why I got back so... out of it."

"Because you were scared, too?" Madame Pomfrey said gently, urging the girl to explain. "Is there anything that would've helped you come back sooner?"

Pandora shook her head again, hugging her knees and hiding her face for a second, eyes fluttering closed.

"I never felt that sort of fear before, but I know it was fear," Pandora explained, voice muffled by her position. "It was horror. It was like there was a monster in her chest, suffocating her to come up, clawing at her throat to climb up."

"And it was the potion that made her so horrified," Dumbledore guessed.

Pandora nodded, sniffing.

Dumbledore waited for a second, but the girl made no more comment. He decided he had to ask.

"And what was the potion made of?" Dumbledore asked.

Pandora shook her head, shoulders starting to shake as she held back her sobs. "I don't know," she said, voice affected.

Dumbledore took a deep breath, giving the girl some time to pull herself together after the situation. Reliving such feelings couldn't be easy and he hated making her live through it all again, but he needed the information.

"Can you describe what was it?" he asked.

"I knew it was poison. It didn't smell and it was still bubbling, it looked like gold, but there were green undertones on it, especially near the fire," Pandora described, raising her head and looking at Dumbledore's eyes as she said it all. Then she looked away, staring at his nose as she went on. "Luna hated it deeply. She hated it existed and that she had been the one to find out about it. She knew it was bad as soon as she looked at it. She knew it was a death sentence to drink it."

"Did she plan of making anyone drink that?" Dumbledore asked.

Both Pandora and Poppy turned to him as if he had said an offensive word, both with chastising words on the tip of their tongues. Fortunately, Poppy held herself together, understanding that Dumbledore needed to ask such questions for safety reasons, though her accusing eyes turning sharply to him had been answer enough about her own opinions on young Luna's intentions and morals facing such a hardship. Unfortunately, Pandora was hardly one to hold her tongue in the face of injustice, especially against someone she loved so much, such as Luna Lupin – her most loyal and most devoted friend.

"Luna would never!" she said, eyes widening and nostrils flaring. "Luna is good!"

"I understand that, Missus Lovegood, however –"

"No! Luna is good! She is good!" Pandora said, kicking her feet towards him and making him get up from the edge of the bed even though she didn't actually kick him. He raised his eyebrow at her reaction. "She was crying and scared. She didn't have any intentions with it, but the knowledge of it was enough to make her regret it all."

"Regret what?"

"Alchemy," Pandora said. "She had done good already for other people, and she couldn't see it because of the bad she just led to by creating that golden potion. All I know is one ingredient."

"What?"

Pandora frowned, eyes tearing up again.

"Her own blood."

Madame Pomfrey repressed a shiver at the information while Pandora hid her face again and pulled her legs closer for some comfort. Had the young woman been anyone else, Albus might have put a hand on her shoulder for support, but knowing that would only make the situation worse, he put his hand behind his back and forced himself to fix his posture.

Whatever Miss Lupin was meant to lead towards, it was nothing good, but he had to commend her for her intelligence.

If the ingredient was her own blood, it meant that she couldn't be killed if one needed the potion to be produced again. Though that it meant that she would be a desired person – either for protection or capture. Whatever side needed the potion, her safekeeping was important.

Luna Lupin had just found a way to keep herself alive through a war.

Regulus had several types of kisses.

The chaste kisses that he would steal whenever he was unsure that they were alone or when he thought that they might be seen. It was a press of lips against lips, most often leading to the capture of Luna's bottom lip between his. It was a bit noisy sometimes and it make him blush whenever the 'mwah' sound was heard by someone nearby, though he was good in pretending it didn't bother him. There was the wonderful, warm kiss that involved tongues. A silent exploration of how deep they were allowed to go. It was reserved for when they were alone, safely tucked away from public opinions and misunderstandings of their intentions towards one another. That sort of kiss usually left Regulus' arms around Luna's waist and hers around his neck, pulling one another closer, close never being close enough. Her favourite kisses were the messy, sloppy kisses that he left on her neck, bosom and lips when he was close to release, with the sort of desperation to keep control and silence even in his most vulnerable moment, for he knew far too well how loud he could get. He would hold her so impossibly close, whining and whimpering through his accelerated breathing, as if her taste – of her skin, of her tongue, of her sweat – was not enough to satiate him.

Though, she was now becoming acquainted with the worst type of kiss Regulus had in his storage.

The worried kisses.

Though his lips were pressed against hers, moving ever so slowly in careful movements, his mind wasn't there in the Astronomy Tower in that evening. Regulus was far away from her while he sat right beside her.

Luna's heart ached.

"What is wrong?" she asked, tone begging.

Regulus turned to her, looking away from the stars they had been watching and his eyes softened.

Luna had agreed coming out to meet him after he found out Evan would spend the night in the Hospital Wing with Pandora since she was distressed but her husband was out of the country. At first, she had come with the intention of giving him news about his girl best friend but had noticed Regulus' interest seemed shallow – and while slightly hurt that Regulus didn't seem to care too much about Pandora's situation, she knew that it had been what Pandora saw that made him hesitate so obviously. The night falling made the Astronomy Tower colder than the moment they had gotten there, when the twilight was still shining, streaked in hues of purple and orange. Luna was trembling, but she sat beside him in silence, feet dangling through the safety bars.

Regulus put an arm over her shoulders, pulling her closer with the intention of warming her up, but it did little. He, too, was cold. He didn't have fat enough in his body to keep him warm when he looked like a shadow of himself, with pale skin and sharp cheekbones more pronounced than ever, dark circles under his eyes haunting the ethereal beauty he usually had.

For weeks, she had sensed the growing weight pressing down on him, but Regulus Black was nothing if not experienced in keeping people at arm's length of his business. He had avoided her questions with distracting smiles, sweet kissed and sharp words. But no matter how much he tried, he couldn't hide it from her – not truly, and not as he did with others, not when she looked at him with green eyes deep rooted into his soul.

"Regulus, please, tell me," Luna whispered. "Is it what Pandora saw? Is it your parents? Are they pressuring you into finishing the courtship?"

"No," he admitted, voice hoarse. "I'd hazard those would be your first guesses, but it isn't it."

She studied him for a moment, dissecting his demeanour, trying to fight a fault in it. Regulus didn't look away from her, hoping that somehow she could read him so he wouldn't have to talk about it out loud, but there was a flicker of guilt in his expression that made her frown, and with that came the shame... and finally, fear.

"You've been distant," she began, voice gentler now.

"I have," he agreed.

"You're not yourself this past couple of weeks. You're falling into a dark hole and I can't seem to pry you up," she replied.

Regulus looked out at the stars again. Those dead or dying shining lights, like ghosts haunting the night sky – he was named after two of them.

For a moment, he wondered what Luna's reaction would be if he simply didn't answer her, but he couldn't dare. His shoulders sagged and he took a deep breath before letting it all out in a long, shuddering breath.

"I did something bad," he whispered. "Something I thought would be safer."

Luna's face was paler now, as if she had hoped he would say something different. She had her own suspicions.

"What did you do, Regulus?" she asked, afraid of the answer.

His jaw tightened, fingers curling in his lap.

"You know."

"I imagine," she admitted. "But I want to hear you say it."

"I joined the Knights of Walpurgis," he said.

Though she had thought it was the main possibility, the words hit her like a stone sinking in water, weighting down on her stomach. For a second, she couldn't breathe, she had to turn her head around, away from him, so she could catch her breath. She couldn't hear it he said something else, for she was hearing the pounding of her own heartbeat.

She shrugged, making his arm fall away from her shoulders.

"Regulus," her voice just above a whisper.

"Luna," he answered.

It was an answer. Her name was enough to say what he wanted, but she didn't seem to understand how her own name could be a full sentence. She didn't seem to understand that was his begging and his pleading, his explanation.

"That's –" she started, but cut herself off.

She didn't know what to say.

"I know," he said, looking down and pulling his arm back, both hands now on his lap. "I know what it means. I know what's been done."

"Then... why?" she asked. "Why would you --?"

"For you," he said, voice breaking. "Because of you."

Luna's mouth opened, but no sound came out. She just stared at him, stunned with his perfectly simple explanation as tears pricked the corners of her eyes.

"What are you on about?" she finally choked out.

"They were watching you," he said, voice trembling. "They were watching everybody connected to you. They know about your brother's loyalties, of course, it's not hard to. And our relationship is rather public." He pulled his legs into the tower, leaning away from her so he could turn and sit facing her completely. "It wasn't hard to know how to force my hand. All they had to do was threaten you and I'd do anything."

She froze, her heart twisting painfully. "Regulus..."

"I knew that it was the way to protect you, especially after what happened to Evan. If it happened to him with a first-year, imagine what would happen if a seventh-year attacked you out of spite to get to me. All I had to do was prove my loyalty, prove my abilities to their side, and you'd be safe," he said.

Tears now spilled over, no matter how quickly Luna wiped them away.

"No! No. Regulus, that isn't – You can't have –" she said, unsure on how to continue. "How long?"

"I had to! As long as I'm with them, doing it correctly, they'll leave you alone," he snapped, voice louder than he had expected. He winced, licking his lips before lowering his voice again. "I can't lose you, Luna. I can't risk it. Don't you see? I don't have a choice. I can do it. There's meetings and talks, but... they are harmless for now."

"For now?"

"Until they leave school," he explained. "There's a... continuation for the club."

"The Death Eaters," she guessed, name bitter in her mouth.

He frowned, and then nodded.

"They expect me to join them as well," he said.

"When?"

He locked his jaw before sucking his teeth in, tongue moving under his cheek. One word and his destiny was to be sealed.

"During the summer, before my birthday," he said.

Luna jumped up, slipping and stumbling, having to hold herself up by the stone in the wall as she shook her head.

"You said they were dangerous after they leave school, you have one more year still!" she said, accusatory. "How will you join them while you're still in school? That's ludicrous, Regulus!"

"My father agrees with you, Luna. He has been trying to convince everybody that I should be Marked only when I'm done with my schooling –"

"Marked?"

He ignored her question.

"...but he agrees with me that joining is for the best if I do love you as much as I say I do, and he's trying to buy me time. Buy us time," he explained, getting up from the ground as well. His eyes were distant again. "He joined the Knights of Walpurgis in school as well in his own time to protect his girlfriend, and she wasn't even a half-blood, she was a muggleborn. And it worked! I don't see how that wouldn't work with us."

Luna blinked, shocked.

"You father dated a muggleborn?" she asked, confused. "Marked? What?!"

"He did. She got pregnant, that's when his father forced him to marry my mother," he explained.

Luna shook her head, leaving that information for later.

"Now, Marked? What do you mean?"

Regulus frowned.

"There are... talks of it, but I haven't seen a Mark with my own eyes. They say that the leader gathers some of the most well-trusted and well-born people into an Inner Circle, where he marks those people with a magical signature in the skin," he said. "They say it's the same things that stays in the sky after a... rally. They said it hurts something wicked."

Luna frowned.

"You don't want it? You don't believe... it all?" she asked.

"I don't believe killing muggleborns will make the world a better place, I don't believe you deserve your magic any less because of who your mother is, and I don't believe your mother wants your brother's and your deaths just because you were born with magic," he said. "And I don't believe your father is any better than your mother."

"Because he's magic?"

"Because he's a man," he said. He frowned. "And I don't believe I have the right to invite you into my bed and have someone else in there when you cannot follow. I don't believe that I'm entitled to your love because I'm in love with you."

"Regulus –"

"But I believe that my love for you shan't fester and die, or wither away if this is too much for you. I won't stop protecting you in case this... doesn't work out," he said, frown deepening as he looked down at his feet. His head was so low it looked like he was bowing to her. "You are entitled to the money in the courtship contract for I... dishonoured you, and this situation only solidifies how much I do not deserve you. I can bear this alone –"

With his head low, he did not see Luna coming, but he did hear it.

Her arms were around his neck and her body pressed against his in a sincere hug.

"You're not alone in this," she whispered, voice steady despite the tears streaming down her cheeks. "I'm here. I'm not leaving. I'm here, Reggie. I'll wait with you through all of it."

The night outside was dark. The sun had a long time ago, but it was like the stars shone a little bit brighter for a moment as she whispered those wonderful words in his ear.

HERE'S THE CONFIRMATION OF LUNA'S LEGEND. Luna's arc is based off - even if lightly - on Midas, as it was hinted at before, but now I make it very obvious. In general here's what we already have:

- Orion = Hades

- Walburga = Persephone

- Alphard = Dionysus

- Evan = Orpheus

-Luna = Midas