07 de setembro! To the Brazilians here: Happy Independence Day!

I went to a birthday party and helped one of my friends (she's a teacher) to make the decorations for her class for Monday, so it was a fun day. Very DIY vibes, really. I never tried it before.

Now, this is a fluffy, but short chapter. I didn't have time to write a better one and I got lazy. Sorry. I hope you like it!

THIS CHAPTER WAS TOTALLY BASED OFF THE SONG UP HERE!

Now, here's the thing, I got two pieces of information that I confirmed last chapter, but I want to make it clear here:

Luna's storyline (future) is based on Midas, as it was said before.

And YES, Hades and Persephone were what gave me inspiration for Walburga and Orion.

Pandora Rosier was always a beautiful girl, and she had always been told how beautiful she was, regardless of how her personality seemed to enrage so many people. Though she was considered annoying and quirky, many people would say that her beauty would make-up for whatever it was that she had ruined by existing in more than silent sidelines of a ball.

Still, on her wedding day, she was absolutely, delightfully ethereal.

Or so said Narcissa.

"I did a wonderful job, I declare!" Narcissa said, fixing the last curl with a spell and her fingers. "A flower grown with the veil made by hand, and your makeup looks great as well, Panda."

Narcissa was a good cousin. She had always been kind, both to Pandora and to Evan, even though their age-gap was great enough for them to have never played much together when they were children. Still, when Pandora and Evan had started Hogwarts, she was still studying there and had made sure to keep an eye out for them, as much as she was keeping an eye out for Regulus. She liked children, she would say, eager with the idea of it impressing her future husband even if it was the truth. But the truth was that she liked Pandora.

"Now, we should braid her hair," Louise said, pointing with her finger to the curls that Narcissa said. "At least part of it, to keep it out of her face."

"I think it would look wonderful, indeed," Druella agreed.

Pandora frowned at her cousin through the mirror. Narcissa gave her another little smile, knowing that Pandora had already been struggling with allowing her to curl the ends of her hair, after all she never liked when people would touch her hair.

Louise, however, was a very stubborn woman, and Pandora had no way of running away from her decisions, not even on her wedding day.

"I want Luna to braid my hair," Pandora announced.

Luna, who had been sitting in the corner of the room, quiet and hoping that the women would forget that she existed, looked up in alarm, eyes widening at her friend's words as everyone turned to look at her. They had just realised that Luna still existed, apparently.

Louise, Druella, Bellatrix and Narcissa – the closest women in the family – were in the room helping the bride get ready, or at least that's what they would call it when the truth was that Pandora was sitting on a chair and Narcissa was taking care of all the cosmetic spells pretending that she needed to take a few breaks in between them just so Pandora could have some time to breathe through the stressing process. Luna had been invited out of Pandora's request and insistence, but it was obvious that Louise had not been glad by her presence, even if it was the proof that Pandora's was beloved.

"Me, Panda?" Luna asked.

"I like your braids," Pandora explained. "Can you make me one?"

Luna smiled, even if the attention of the women in the room made her uncomfortable. Being asked to be part of something so big for Pandora was an honour. Such tradition was often reserved to family, being in the room was a lot, touching the bride was beyond especial.

"I can do anything you ask me, Panda," Luna said, getting up and smoothing down her dress, walking towards her friend, still dressed only in her bathrobes. "What do you want in your hair?"

"Do you remember that braid you did last year, the one where you took only the upper part of your hair and braided it into a half crown in the back of your head? Can you do it on mine? This way, the flower crown can rest of it without falling off my head for the rest of the night," Pandora said.

Luna nodded without hesitation. It wasn't a terribly difficult hairstyle to do.

Reaching for the hairbrush, she heard Louise make a little noise.

"You'll do it by hand?" she asked, confused.

Luna frowned, looking at the woman through the mirror.

"Yes, my Lady," she answered.

Pandora smiled, pinkish lips stretching. "Luna always does her own hair. It'll look really great, Mama, you'll see! Really, you will!"

Louise locked her jaw and nodded at her daughter, clearly just forcing a smile for her benefit. She didn't trust Luna to do a good job, even seeing the complicated knots and braids that the girl's hair was adorned with at that very moment. She had always thought that she used spells to do it, but, apparently, she would spend a long time in front of the mirror, pinning her hair to look exactly as she wanted, which the idea in itself was a nightmare.

Luna tensed up, but brushed through the curls with care to not pull on her friend's hair. There was some pressure to do a better job than usual now that the women were watching, interested in her technique when, clearly, they would not do it themselves often.

"More hairpins, Panda," Luna requested once half of her hair was already pinned in place.

Pandora reached for the little box, taking a few of them and offering them over her shoulder. Luna took a few and put them on her mouth, holding them there while she already started pinning the other half, using her teeth to open the hairpins.

Once she was done, she took half a step back to admire her work before nodding, satisfied at how hidden the pins were and how the braid looked.

"There, there!" she said, comforting her already restless friend. "Your hair is done, darling."

Pandora smiled at her through the mirror the smile that her mother didn't like much – the one with the top and bottom teeth would both appear, making her look like an over-enthusiastic child, giggling at something that just wasn't that funny. But Louise said nothing, not at the girl's wedding day.

"That's good work," Narcissa compliment, admiring the braids. "Do you do people's hair often?"

"Thank you! I do mostly my own hair, but some of the girls at school ask for braids sometimes," Luna admitted. She shrugged. "I like braids, and my mum didn't have much time to do it for me, so I learned to it my own. There are quite a lot of photographs of when I was young that they were quite... original-looking."

Narcissa smiled a bit at the wording. Luna's self-deprecating humour had taken her by surprise.

"I'm sure they were," she said, trying not to laugh.

Bellatrix nodded at Pandora through the mirror, admitting that it was good enough and that she looked pretty enough. Pandora's smile grew – receiving Bellatrix's acceptance of approval was rare, and almost unheard of. It was a moment for pride, even over something so small as hair.

Druella getting off the sofa and slapping once to get everybody's attention made Pandora flinch, but otherwise the response was just sudden silence.

"Now, the dress!" Druella announced.

Narcissa did a little squeal, following her mother towards the closet to help her get the dress out of its protective coat before taking the dress to the bride without letting it touch the ground. While Druella held its upper part, Narcissa held onto the skirts.

Pandora smiled. She was proud of her choice in dresses.

Once again, the family allowed the bride to follow Muggle tradition and marry in white. Narcissa had insisted on it as part of Malfoy's political plan of appearing neutral in the eye of the public, but Pandora had insisted on it simply for the fact that it was so beautiful. The family had accepted it, because they couldn't deny Pandora anything when she looked at them with those blue eyes.

The dress' bust was made of what appeared to be petals of white roses with a few light-pink ones intertwined (the same flowers that were on the crown of her veil) and it was flush against her skin, having a spell to cup her breasts and ribs carefully. It had no sleeves and most of her upper back was exposed. Around her waist, the skirt start, billowing towards the ground in expensive silk in the outer part and cotton on the inside to give enough volume and not let the silk touch her skin (she never liked the feeling of silk against her, anyway); on the very end of her skirt, right where it touched the ground, there were more pink petals, as if she had walked over a carpet of roses and some of the petals had been caught on the skirt.

"Oh, Panda!" Luna said, shocked. "You look like the princess of a fairytale!"

Pandora smiled even more, smoothing down the skirt.

Her mother kneeled in front of her, reaching under the skirt and fixing the underskirts.

"You look beautiful!" Narcissa said, nodding in approval.

"I do," agreed Pandora, nodding at the mirror and glancing at the people around her. She stopped at Luna, smiling at her. "I look beautiful."

"You do," Luna said with a solemn nod. "You always do."

Louise watched the looks exchanged between the two girls before looking away, once again reminded at how deeply they cared for one another. When she had sent her children to Hogwarts, she had been ready for Pandora to be completely dependent of Evan during her academic career, especially socially speaking, but when Pandora fell into Ravenclaw instead of Slytherin alongside her brother, she had been terrified. How could her daughter, so terrified of human contact, have friends and be a normal Hogwarts student? She feared she would forever be lonely and scared, even if Pandora often insisted that she didn't mind being alone and that lonely just wasn't a problem. And then Pandora wrote home about her best friend, Luna. Whoever the girl was, she had Louise's complete gratefulness from the very start.

"Today is yours, Pandora," Louise said, smiling at her daughter. "Remember that you will always be my daughter, even if you're somebody's wife, alright? You'll always have a home to come back to if something goes wrong. I need you to remember this, alright?"

Pandora looked at her mother, eyes deep and wiser than her age. She simply smiled.

"Nothing it going to go wrong. I'll never come home, Mama."

Louise felt her stomach drop. That was how and when she knew that she had just lost her daughter forever.

She forced a smile.

"You make a beautiful bride, and you'll make a wonderful mother one day," she said. Pandora nodded once, taking it as a compliment. "And you'll do good as a wife."

"He's my friend before being my husband. I'll be happy with him," Pandora said, and it sounded like a vow.

Narcissa frowned, glancing at Luna, watching her reaction to her cousin's clear oddness coming through. She would always drop little sentences and information like these whenever they pressed her on a decision she took or when they pressed her to talk about someone that she loved. But Luna had just smiled, either ignoring the situation or just too used to Pandora's personality to care.

Someone knocked on the door and Bellatrix opened it, fixing her black dress and cape around herself.

Evan looked into the room.

"It's time," he said.

Pandora's eyes went from distant to nervous in a second, flying around the room before stopping on her brother at the door, widening in clear fear – not of the future, but of one simpler thing.

"Are there a lot of people out there?" she asked, voice wavering.

Evan looked over his shoulder before walking into the room, which wasn't exactly allowed, for he was a man, even if he was Pandora's brother. He wore a wizarding three-piece suit of deep brown with black details and black shoes, his blonde hair had been brushed back and gelled into place.

"Honest? Yes," he said with a grave face. "But Xenophilius is wearing the ribbon you sent him on his hair."

Pandora's eyes seemed to shine with the information.

"Really?" she asked, surprised. "I thought he would keep it on his pocket."

"No. Regulus is better than me with hair, so he just tied braided into Xen's hair," Evan said. He looked at Luna with that information. "He's had practice, I imagine."

Luna half-heartedly glared at him, which caused Evan to smile and give her a humorous quick wink, ignoring his mother's reaction to it. She put her hands behind her back, moving slightly away from Louise and closer to Bellatrix, eager to get closer to the door, but that caught the woman's attention and she watched Luna with more attention.

"Do you think he liked it?" Pandora asked.

"It's braided into his hair, Panda. He hates having people mess with his hair. He liked it," Evan said, tone final. "Now, calm down, slow down. Papa will come in a few moments to walk you down the aisle. I just came here to warn you, women, that we are ready."

Bellatrix, without another word, just watched Luna for another second and turned on her heels, walking out of the room and down the stairs to the gardens. Druella clicked her tongue with disapproval at her daughter's manners, smiling at Pandora once more before whispering encouragements on her way out of the bedroom. Narcissa leaned down and fixed Pandora's skirt once more before kissing her cheeks (Pandora froze to allow her such a thing, but did nothing back) before slipping out of the room.

Luna was about to follow her.

"Lu?" Pandora called.

Luna froze.

Pandora had never called her a nickname before.

She turned and smiled.

"Yes, Panda?"

Pandora opened her arms slightly, an invitation that Luna couldn't deny into an embrace that Pandora never offered unless there was no other way.

"May I have a hug today?" she asked.

Had Luna been a weaker girl, she would've fallen apart right then and there, but she held onto control firmly as she nodded and walked right back into the room without hesitation and without a glance at the Lady Rosier, because whatever was on her face did not matter. What matter was that Pandora needed her.

Slipping into Pandora's arms was easy, like slipping into old habits or into an old pyjama. Comfortable. Familiar, even if separated by time. Not that Pandora was a good hugger; contrary, she was a terrible one. It was like hugging a tree – still, but bigger than oneself.

"I love you, Panda," Luna whispered.

"I know. I love you, too," Pandora said back, louder. "There is no difference between your soul and mine; at our core, we are one and the same. And there's nobody I'd rather be intertwined with than you. We would meet in every universe and every version of us. We're braided!"

Luna frowned into the hug, face hidden from her friend in her shoulder.

"What do you mean?" Luna whispered.

"We cannot escape each other. Whatever happened in our lives, we would meet," Pandora explained, pulling back from the hug. She looked into Luna's eyes, her own shining with unshed tears. "You are mine and I am yours in every way that matters. We were friends by choice, but our souls were meant to meet. And I'm proud I'm worthy of being your friend."

"I'm proud of being your friend as well," Luna answered. "Thank you for letting me be here at this especial moment."

"There's no one else I'd rather have here. You are my sister," Pandora said.

Evan smirked to himself, looking away from the girls.

He cleared his throat.

"Alright, though this is emotional and all. Miss Lupin, I must walk you to your chaperone. Lady Potter just arrived," Evan said, looking back at Luna.

Lady Rosier, standing in the corner of the room, was struggling to keep her tears in check, especially in front of Luna. Seeing her daughter so accepted and so loved was beyond of what she one day thought she would see, and the absolute devotion on the eyes of both girls just made her stomach churn in shame for one day thinking that Luna was not good enough for her girl.

Louise smiled at Luna, even if it felt a bit forced.

"Evan, take Miss Lupin to her chaperone. Be kind," she told her son.

"I'm always kind with Miss Lupin. Regulus would have my teeth if I was anything but," he said, playful. "Now, come along, Luna, before your partner has my bollocks for keeping you from him for longer than necessary."

"Evan!" scolded his mother.

Evan just smiled, because Luna chuckled and stepped away from Pandora, breathing still restricted to keep her own tears in check, kissing her cheek quickly before taking Evan's arm and allowing herself to be led out of the room.

Together, but in silence, they walked down the stairs, but before they could make to the garden, Luna stopped, bottom lip trembling.

"Oh no," Evan said, staring at her eyes watering as she looked up, desperate to control herself once more. "Oh, no, no! Don't cry. I don't know what to do when people cry. Please, stop."

"I'm trying," she hissed between her teeth.

Evan looked around to make sure nobody could see them from the garden before taking a deep breath and laughing at the absurdity of the situation, still he offered her his handkerchief. Luna, still looking up to avoid ruining her make up, accepted it and quickly dried her tears, giving a sob mixed with laughter, also amused by the situation she found herself in.

"Pandora hugged me," she said.

"I know. I was there," Evan said, laughing at Luna's reaction.

"She said she loves me. She called me 'sister'," she continued listing things that Evan was present to see. "I love her so much. I'm so happy," she said, going back to crying.

Evan sighed, crossing his arms, knowing that perhaps he would be standing there for longer than he anticipated.

"Oh, come on, Luna, stop crying. If people see, they'll think I did something to you," he said, fearful. But Luna went back to sobbing, drying her tears before her make up going ruined because of it. "Ok... Do you want me to call Regulus? I can find him, absolutes. Or Lady Potter? I can find her even quicker."

Thankfully, before he decided to leave her alone in the corner of the corridor, somebody wandered in.

Barty Crouch Jr. was surprised to see Evan and Luna against the walls (one across the other), especially because Luna babbled pathetically while trying to save her face from her own tears.

"What did you do?" Barty asked.

Evan gave an offended scoff. "Why do you think I was the one to do something?" he asked, sharply.

"Because Luna's crying. Luna, my friend, why are you crying?" Barty asked, walking closer and reaching forward for a friendly pet on Evan's arm before takin over the situation. Evan was quite grateful. Barty took the handkerchief from Luna's hand and quickly dried a tear that had escaped her notice, fixing the mascara's stain. "What happened?"

"I'm just really happy," she said, trying to regain control. "Pandora is so happy, and she'll be so happy."

"Oh, yeah, everybody's happy," Evan said, bitterly.

Barty gave him a little glare before looking down at Luna once more.

"Then why are you crying, if you're happy?" Barty asked, confused.

"Because that's my reaction to most of my emotions. I'll be fine in a minute, just... I'm just being dramatic," she dismissed her own emotions quickly. She took a deep breath, fanning her face. "Everything's fine."

But even once she stopped crying and walked out to meet Euphemia and Regulus, she cried again as soon as Pandora walked down the aisle and gave her realest smile at Xenophilius, who showed the side of his head, which had a white silk ribbon braided into his hair.

Pandora had sent him a ribbon made out of the silk of her wedding dress, and he wore it proudly through the whole honeymoon.

Luna laughed loudly, too loudly, perhaps, at Euphemia's head bouncing with the song, but refusing to dance herself for the third time when another man asked her to dance, insisting that she would not dance that night.

"You are being requested tonight, Auntie," teased Luna.

"I'm a beautiful and young woman. What can I say?" joked Euphemia, showing her palms and shrugging up.

Luna reached for her cup of water on the table, sipping it while holding back another laugh. Euphemia did a little dance with her shoulders, a playful smug look on her face that made Luna roll her eyes fondly.

"You should go dance when someone nice asks you to, Auntie. It can't be that frowned upon," Luna said.

Euphemia laughed.

"I could go dancing if I wanted to, Gudiya, I just don't want to," Euphemia explained and reaching for the other cup of water. "I like to dance with my husband and my sons."

Euphemia did a little glance around when she said 'sons', which Luna made no mention of. She knew that even if Euphemia was proud of her relationship with Sirius, but she knew the danger of mentioning it out loud without someone to back her up (and Luna wasn't sure if she counted, being underage and not all that good in duels in case one broke out).

"Well, I liked dancing with James as well," Luna said, a silent compromise.

Euphemia's smile grew.

"Oh, I'm giving a party soon. You'll receive an invitation soon enough, too, of course," she said, leaning towards Luna. "My family is coming from India to see James, they are willing to come since it's to celebrate his last year."

"The Gupta Family?" Luna asked, eyes widening. "The family that barely talks to you?"

Luna was slightly ashamed of letting the words fall off her mouth, but Euphemia didn't seem to mind, just nodded and confirmed.

The thing is that Euphemia wasn't ashamed that her family had mostly stopped speaking to her. She had left home for a reason, and she had left her homeland for a reason, and she was proud of how her relationship with Fleatmont had turned out – it had gifted her a beautiful life, a kind son and a wonderful group of friends that came along. She had not been made to work a day after the wedding, Fleatmont's potions and his family wealth were more than enough to keep them well above afloat, but he had never told her not to work. Euphemia had taken a long time to completely get used to her new life, even with the help of her mother-in-law and sister-in-law (though she had found comfort in the insistence of her father-in-law in speaking Hindi and Punjabi a lot in the house, even if he did not know Rajasthani), then she had learned the British Society with such grace and swiftness that her mother-in-law was quick to compliment her often.

When her father-in-law passed away, she had started taking care of her mother-in-law full time; parties stopped, society papers no longer mattered. And then her mother-in-law also passed away the year after, not able to deal with living without her husband, whom she called her first and only love. And then her sister-in-law married a man from Greece, leaving England to only come back every year or so to visit them.

After it all, home alone, she had decided to start working. Euphemia found solace and happiness in planting and selling potion ingredients, which Fleatmont was more than happy about, because it meant he didn't have to worry while he was away, making his potions in the laboratory and teaching young Academy-aged interns to do the same. Besides, he was more than happy to have ingredients which he was sure were of good quality that he could find at home. Even after she got pregnant (a surprise really, they had been trying for years and nothing had happened, so they were about to give up) she had continued working, though Fleatmont had hired help from an intern (Botany and Herbology Academy student, a young man named Ian) with the heaviest work – James was already a toddler when Ian married and invited the family, he had moved away to Northen Ireland with his wife.

While at summer with the kids at home, she stopped working, but while they were in school, she would go back to work. She was more than glad to live in her fantasy of having a little girl during the summers.

"You didn't dance tonight," Euphemia said, raising her eyebrows.

Luna's cheeks coloured.

"Regulus and I decided that talking was nicer. And Evan is sulking in the corner, Barty's been trying to cheer him up for hours over there," she said.

"You're scared you won't be able to control yourselves on the dancefloor," Euphemia corrected, laughing a bit. "Frustrating, isn't it?"

Luna sighed, not caring what her chaperone would think. She leaned forward so she could lower her voice.

"Yes, it's frustrating that I can't just –" she stopped herself.

"Snog the daylights out of him?" Euphemia offered.

"Yes!" Luna admitted.

Euphemia laughed loudly, throwing her head back and receiving looks from some of the other tables.

The music stopped.

Luna and Euphemia looked around, seeing some of the couples on the dancefloor slowly walking away once the music ended, preparing for the next dance, but it didn't start, because Pandora was talking to the string quartet and arguing with her mother in a low voice at the same time. Xenophilius stood beside his wife, smiling at her arguing with her mother as if that was all he could do to not fall in giggles.

Pandora turned, looking around the room and smiling at Luna.

"Luna! Come dance with me!" she screamed.

Euphemia made a little noise of surprise and raised her eyebrows, looking at Lady Rosier in something that seemed to be permission before looking back at Luna, seeing nothing at Louise's face.

Slowly, scared, Luna got up from her seat, glancing at Louise, unsure of what her reaction to it would be, but the Lady Rosier just sighed, looked at the tent's ceiling and walked away, clearly exhausted from the argument.

"Panda –" Luna started.

"It's her day. Do what she wants, Luna," Xenophilius said with a nod.

It felt like a promise of protection.

She exchanged a look with the groom, who smiled and nodded at her once more. He didn't seem concerned or scared, just amused by Luna's fearful reaction.

So, Luna offered Pandora her arm, ready to lead her to the dancefloor.

"Well, my sweet girl, let's dance," she said, as charmingly as she could.

Pandora giggled, lacing her arm around Luna's and giving the quartet a little signal with her hand, before walking with her friend to the very middle of the dancefloor. So, she looked straight at her brother.

"Evan, Barty, come dance! Everybody, please, find a partner and come dance with us!" she said, speaking loudly.

Barty's face grew pale from where he stood in the other corner of the tent, a cup of wine in hand, which he held with both hands. Evan, who stood beside Regulus and Barty, looked at his sister and Luna, frozen in his spot for a whole second before nodding and taking Barty's cup from him, shoving it to Regulus' chest before dragging him forward, glancing at his mother on the way to the dancefloor.

Louise Rosier watched the dancefloor fill with several partners dancing with one another, pale and silent beside her husband, who laughed, drunk and delighted with the fun. And just as Barty's hand slipped to hold Evan's before the dance started (with couples still running to the dancefloor), Louise smiled just a bit to herself, seeing her son looking genuinely happy for the first time in almost a year.

Regulus laughed, running to the other side of the tent under the watchful (and judgmental) eyes of his mother to offer Euphemia Potter his hand.

"Lady Potter, will you dance with me?" he asked, still smiling.

Euphemia took his hand, even after refusing to dance so many times.

By the end of the night, the rules and protocols of conduct seemed to have been forgotten for a few hours. Men danced with men, women danced with women, men and women talked friendly conversations without a single moment of deliberation of jealousy and eye-contact time.

For a blessed night, people were just people.

And Evan held Barty's hand in front of his parents.

I thought a chapter without a Luna/Regulus interaction would be boring, but I wanted to give a girlhood chapter a try.

Female friendship are so important to me.

I missed my chances to have female friendships in my childhood because I was such a pick-me (I HEALED, ALRIGHT?!) and then in my teenage years I was just so messed up that friendships were not on top of my mind (thanks C-PTSD, health problems and drug addiction!). I'm learning to have female friends now, in my adult years and this is very important to me that Luna and Pandora are such good friends to one another.

I hope you all liked it!