Hello, I am back! I hope you all like this chapter. More of the story is moving in this chapter, but there is romance here regardless.

LEAVE COMMENTS! I want your thoughts in this one, because it was quite difficult to write.

My exams are done, finally. I got 8 and 9 in the first two, still waiting for the results of the last one, though. Still, those are REALLY good grades, especially because the second one (which I got 9) is a med-school discipline and MANY people in my class weren't good - I am beyond surprised I went so well lol.

The song was what gave me inspiration for this chapter.

The moonlight coming through the Ravenclaw's dormitory window wasn't enough to light up the room enough for some of the girls to understand right away where the screaming was coming from, but Luna was standing with her wand shining a white light on the way towards Pandora's bed before Rosalie was even trying to sit up on the bed.

"Panda! Panda, wake up, dearest, it's just a nightmare," Luna was saying loudly.

Luna wasn't even dressed properly, as she usually was to go to bed. She had fallen asleep on her knickers and a white tank-top, but she had not taken a moment to dress anything as she stumbled towards Pandora's bed.

Pandora was kicking. Her hands together in front of her body as if pleading, but her legs were kicking wildly, the sheets and blankets making her feet stuck and helpless even in the land of dreams.

Luna was quick, pulling the covers down to get Pandora free. The kicking stopped, but the crying and screaming didn't, even if it did slow down a bit.

Amanda jumped up from her bed, stumbling forward to Pandora's bed to take a look at her before realising that she was still asleep. Rosalie followed out of her own bed, looking at Amanda like a soldier awaiting orders, rubbing her eyes as she tried her best to keep herself awake even though she wanted nothing more than to fall back in bed and go back to sleep even through the screams.

Pandora's mouth was moving between the screams and the sobbing, but none of the words seemed to make sense. It took a moment for Luna to realise that it wasn't English at all, nor was it any language that Luna could recognise. She would gasp in between sentences, eyes closed tight and whimpering through the words.

Rosalie was standing beside the door, shrugging on robes over her pyjamas. Amanda was whispering the instructions of where to find Flitwick and where Madame Pomfrey probably was that day of the week, after all she was a Prefect and would know everything. Marta was still sitting in bed, eyes slowly blinking as she fully woke up from her slumber.

"Is she alright, Luna?" Rosalie asked, putting on her shoes.

"Call Madame Pomfrey, please. This isn't how this usually goes," Luna answered, looking over her shoulders to her dormmates.

Pandora's eyes opened, wide and completely focused on Luna at the moment Rosalie slipped out of the room. Her crying slowed down as she shakily gasped for air, hands grabbing blindly at Luna's tank-top, scratching her skin with her nails. Her gaze was distant and her pupils dilated, seen even in the half-darkness of the room.

Amanda turned on the lights.

"It's coming..." Pandor whispered, voice hoarse from screaming and frantic. "It's coming for all of us."

Luna knelt by the bed, gripping Pandora's hand and trying to get it away from the bleeding skin on her shoulder.

"What is it? Panda?"

Pandora's eyes focused for just one second, enough for the sheer horror to make Luna shiver and grasp on her hand even tighter. Then, her face went blank, her breathing slowed down, allowing her body to go limp. Her mouth opened and a voice of low, eerie tone came out. The cadence was unnatural and slow, completely different the from the common word vomit that Pandora's words usually sounded.

"The Snake coils tighter around the innocent. Loyalty is a useless burning flame; it is vain and it is moribund. It shall kill. Regret and love, blood and duty," Pandora said. "Nothing shall shield them from their destiny. The Mark stains and burn, and the darkness will claim flesh and soul. Choices made in fear lead to chains that cannot be undone. The child of shadows and the son of pride shall battle, fates untied and entwined."

Luna's hands shook, strength disappearing as she leaned against the bed, hoping it would be enough to keep her on her knees without falling over.

"Pandora, everything is going to alright. It's almost over, alright?" Luna whispered, hoping her voice sounded firmer and more confident to the world than it did to herself.

"Evan?" Pandora whimpered.

Pandora leaned back against her pillows, back arching as if the weight of the truth of her vision was crushing her against her bed.

"One regrets its angry choice, one is the sacrificial lamb of love. One chooses the path of the dead, their blood sings. They shall fall," Pandora continued and stopped at once.

Her breathing was ragged as she lied back in bed, body finally relaxing naturally against the bed. She let go of Luna.

Luna fell to the side, not realising that it had been Pandora's strength that had kept her on her knees for so long when her own strengths had disappeared. And there, sitting on the ground, she watched as Madame Pomfrey ran into the room with Rosalie, who announced that Flitwick went to get Evan.

Marta silently, helped Luna up while Amanda followed Madame Pomfrey's instructions of dressing Pandora, who was to go to the Hospital Wing. Marta, too, had heard every detail of Pandora's Sight and couldn't drive it from her mind; she helped Luna to sit on her own bed, watching her as she looked at the ground, shaking and deep in thought.

Pandora had seen the future. And it was terrifying.

Luna said nothing as Madame Pomfrey levitated Pandora to the Hospital Wing as she slept on through the night, but followed against the Healer's advice, and sat – awake and alone – in the chair beside the bed, unable to think of anything other than that words that Pandora had spilled out at her, unaware of their power.

By the time the sun came up and shone through the windows, finally lightening up the darkness that seemed to have set in and soaked in, Luna had written down the prophecy Pandora Lovegood had said and read it time and time again, begging her own mind to find a suitable explanation for all of it.

"You seem concerned, Miss Lupin," someone said.

She jumped, suddenly all too aware that she was alone in the Hospital Wing, turning to the door and narrowing her eyes through her sleep to see who it was.

Professor Albus Dumbledore strode into the Hospital Wing with a small smile on his lips, barely looking concerned over Pandora's situation or the fact that Luna had deep and dark bags under her eyes from spending the night awake. He wore lavender coloured robes and – oddly enough – bright pink shoes.

"Professor, hello," Luna greeted, still getting over her startlement.

His grin grew slightly more in response.

"You are the most remarkable friend, Miss Lupin. Not many people I know, your age or mine, that would sacrifice a night of sleep over a friend's... nightmares," he said.

His eyes found hers by its corners. Watching. Scanning. Wondering.

"I know they're visions, sir," she said.

Dumbledore's shoulders seemed to relax a bit and he sat on another chair beside the bed on the other end of the corridor. He was giving them space for some reason, even though Pandora was still asleep and Luna was talking to him.

"Seers in such natural talent are hard to come by, and even harder to train. It is a pity that Miss – Oh, do forgive me, Missus Lovegood was against it for so long. Had she been trained beforehand to control and understand her visions, I have the firm belief that she would've been able to go through nights like these in much better states," Dumbledore said, looking at Pandora gravely. "It is health hazard that she was unwilling to see."

"She saw it. Her parents didn't," Luna corrected, defending her friend.

"Well, she no longer is confined to her parents' decisions, thankfully," Dumbledore said, sounding content with the reminder. His eyes softened as he inclined his head, acknowledging Luna's meaning. "The burden of such decisions often lies with those who care deeply, but who fear powers such as these, which many cannot understand. Her parents, unfortunately, denied her the tools to face the full weight of her gift, hence her situation at the moment. Yes, yes... quite sad."

Luna continued frowning, slowly folding the paper in her lap, hoping that it wouldn't get Dumbledore's attention. He didn't seem to notice it.

"Pandora doesn't talk about her gifts to anyone. Not to me, not to Evan. She's scared of it," Luna said.

The headmaster sighed, lips pushed together in a thin line.

"It isn't uncommon for Seers so young to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the responsibility of their power. Missus Lovegood is lucky her visions come when she's asleep, even if they are scary – especially in times like these – because many have it come unbidden, without prior warning. The burdens cannot be taken alone... alone, it is unbearable," Dumbledore said. He paused, his blue eyes turning to Luna with intensity again. "It is important for Missus Lovegood to receive proper guidance now that she can chosen how to handle this gift herself, but I fear she's too scared."

Luna blinked, surprised as she processed her words.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Someone needs to teach her."

"You want to teach her?"

"Not I," Dumbledore specified. "I would take especial interest in her learning, of course, but it would be important for her to have private lessons with Professor Ethelridge, our retired Divination instructor. He can help her understand her abilities, teach her to navigate the storm or her visions rather than just be swept away by them, even when she cannot understand them."

"Pandora won't take it," Luna said, certain.

He leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice, as if he feared Pandora would wake suddenly.

"I fear that, without such training, these nightmares may continue to worsen until her sanity cannot take it, as I said to her parents when she first had such fits," Dumbledore said.

Luna's fear and dread worsened.

Dumbledore seemed genuine in his concern, but still there was a small part of her that worried. Logically, she blamed her hesitation in Regulus' distrust and senseless anger against Dumbledore, even going as far as being rude to him freely, without explanation or reason, though now she knew that Dumbledore was a talented reader of people's mind, trying to break down the Occlumency shields Regulus took years to build. Regulus had never said to be particularly cautious with Dumbledore, believing completely that she wasn't in danger, though she wasn't fond of how he dealt with anything personal or magical when it came to Luna, taking his interest as academic, even if patronising regardless.

Still, Luna's heart sank as she watched Pandora's sleeping frame, pale and still.

"I'm not... sure, sir," Luna admitted.

She wanted to think of Pandora's well-being and her safety. Luna's mind was stuck in Pandora's sanity.

For so long, the society Pandora lived in feared she wasn't sane enough to be "normal" due to her autism, and now there it was, a real threat against her real sanity. An ironic and cruel twist of fate.

"Your wariness is understandable, Miss Lupin, but I assure you that my intentions are solely to help Missus Lovegood, as I said to her husband. Nothing more," Dumbledore said.

Luna looked down at her hands, the conflict and fear pressing against her chest. It felt hard to breathe for a moment.

"Shouldn't you be talking to her brother? You already talked to her husband. I'm nobody, sir," Luna said, refusing to look at him.

Dumbledore didn't answer right away, watching her as if making sure she was being genuine in her self-deprecation. He moved closer, gently putting a hand on her shoulder and allowing her a moment to look at him.

"If there's one thing that I know about you and Missus Lovegood is that there's nobody in the world she would listen to more than you, Miss Lupin. You are her first friend. You are her sister," Dumbledore said.

"I'm not –"

"You are everything her soul has searched for," Dumbledore insisted, cutting her off.

Mollified, Luna watched his blue eyes shine.

"Alright," she said with a firm nod, gaze on his. "I'll talk to her when she wakes up. I can't promise she will take it or that she'll do whatever the training asks of her, but I'll talk to her."

Dumbledore's smile returned, gentle and understanding. Proud.

"That's all that I can ask, Miss Lupin. Thank you very much," he said.

His eyes gazed down, glancing so quickly at the paper in Luna's hand that she wondered if she had imagined it. But before her mind would be certain, Dumbledore was fixing his robes and making his way to the doors without saying his fare wells and disappearing to the corridors once more.

Luna stayed seated, watching Pandora's steady breathing in silence as her own tensioned shoulders slowly loosened. While she knew what to do, she was still uncertain. Not that she thought Dumbledore wanted to hurt Pandora or that the old, retired professor would be unkind or any sort of improper, but still she wondered if Pandora could take it. Mental training was harsh and merciless, Pandora was sensitive and kind. It was a fearsome thing to think through.

The room was quiet. Too quiet now.

Luna slouched back in the chair and closed her eyes.

She had a headache coming.

The Snake coils tighter around the innocent.

Loyalty is a useless burning flame; it is vain, and it is moribund.

It shall kill.

Regret and love, blood and duty.

Nothing shall shield them from their destiny.

The Mark stains and burns, and the darkness will claim flesh and soul.

Choices made in fear lead to chains that cannot be undone.

The Child of Shadows and the Son of Pride shall battle, fates untied and entwined.

One regret its angry choice, one is the sacrificial lamb of love.

One chooses the path of the dead, their blood sings.

They shall fall.

Regulus stared at the crooked handwriting in front of him, frowning at the words and dreading the meaning of the prophecy given in the middle of the night and memorised out of fear and horror.

"And Pandora?" he asked.

"Accepted the lessons. She was scared," Luna said, pulling her knees to her chest, sitting in front of Regulus on the library. "If there's one thing that Pandora doesn't want to, it is losing her sanity. It's the only thing she has that people say she never had at all, it's proof that she is... 'normal'."

"She is normal," he said, coldly.

"The world doesn't think so, even if we do," Luna said, voice weaker.

Regulus looked away from the parchment, gaze meeting hers over the paper only to find her eyes shining towards him, filled with guilt and fear.

"I didn't say that you didn't think she was normal. I'm just annoyed that this must happen to her at all, sorry," he said.

It was genuine, even if it was a passing apology.

Luna nodded slowly, acknowledging his apology, but not saying anything to him and his rudeness. She hugged her knees close to her chest, breathing slowly and keeping her eyes away from the window, refusing to allow her headache to get worse.

"I want those nightmares to stop, Regulus. You weren't there. It was different this time, it was scary," Luna said, frowning. "She spoke in a language I didn't understand at first before going back to English."

That got Regulus' attention, making him fold the parchment in his hands and putting it back onto the table and sliding it back to her. Luna took it, shoving it back into her bag and hoping to forget the words and the tone her best friend had said.

"I'm sure Professor Dumbledore and that other man will understand it better than us," Regulus said. "They'll know what to do."

Still, it didn't mean that Luna was comfortable with the idea or that she wasn't scared of Pandora's situation.

"She'll spend the night out of campus tonight," Luna said. "Xenophilius requested she spend the night with him before she goes with Dumbledore and Ethelridge for the weekend."

"You'll spend the weekend alone?" he asked, frowning.

"Well, not alone. There are the other girls in the dormitory," Luna said, dismissing the concern in his face. "They're not so bad, even if you don't like them."

"It's not that I don't like them, Luna. I just think they're not as kind to you and Pandora as you are to them," he explained, shaking his head slowly. "It feels... unequal. You deserve people that love you as much as Pandora or I."

She gave him a little smile.

"You're protective today," she teased.

"Sometimes I feel like you need a bit of protection. Don't blame me for trying to be useful," he teased back. He reached over the table and took her hand, squeezing it lightly.

"It's a bit lonely, I'll admit. Marta has Morris, Amanda and Rosalie are best friends and are always talking to one another. Without Pandora there it feels... odd, rather sad," Luna said.

Regulus pushed his lips together, swallowing before taking a deep breath.

"You don't have to stay there if you don't want to," he said, looking at her with some hesitation. "You don't have to feel alone."

Luna looked up at him, confused. "What do you mean?"

"You can stay with me in the Slytherin dorms if you don't want to be alone, I mean," he said, nervously squeezing her hand again over the table. She raised her eyebrows, his cheeks flushed with colour. "I don't mean anything much about it, I swear it. Just... spend the night, you know? Just so you don't feel so alone or stressed."

Luna's face softened. She knew that whenever anything bad happened in her life, Regulus would become concerned for her health, even though she had been having a good period of grace from her illness. Usually, such carefulness coming from someone else might annoy her, the overbearing nature of some of the people around her made her feel suffocated when she didn't require help, but Regulus' attempts of nursing her back to health and simply making her company managed to convince her that – from all the possibilities – having him around was the lesser evil when sick.

"I'm fine," she said, softly.

"I just want to make sure you continue being fine," he said, voice lowering in tone and volume.

She smiled at him.

"The boys won't mind?" she asked.

"Barty and Evan will look the other way, and Ash will be kindly silent," he said.

She frowned.

"Ash?" she asked.

"Ash Rubble. Our roommate. He's not very talkative and he's not very friendly to us – he has a girlfriend or something in Hufflepuff, he spends most of his time with her," Regulus said with a shrug. "I don't say anything when his girlfriend spends the night. He won't say anything if you do."

Fortunately, Ash Rubble – the quiet boy from Slytherin that truly spent most of his time with his head buried in a book if not talking to his girlfriend and her friends – spent the night out of the dormitory. Not that Regulus didn't trust him to keep a secret, after all Ash had never mentioned in passing any of the girls that Evan had brought back to his bed the year before and they had never as much as looked twice at Vale (his girlfriend) when she had stumbled out of his bed in the mornings. His absence, however, allowed Luna to feel free to roam the dormitories happily when Evan and Barty were out.

The room was slightly bigger than Ravenclaw's female dormitory, either because it had less beds or because it truly was bigger. The ceiling was painted carefully as if by hand with images of a treetop, healthy green leaves colouring the otherwise white ceiling and some tiny white flowers amongst the leaves, almost as if they were hiding from view.

"In spring they become bigger," Regulus explained. "It's October, but the plants never die. I suppose they wanted something happy, evergreen."

"It's beautiful," she said. "Our ceiling has birds in it. Storks and eagles."

"Apparently, the Hogwarts founders were quite fond of ceiling murals," Regulus said with a small shrug as he sat in his own bed, drawing the curtains open. He crossed his legs, watching her moving around the room and looking at the closed black door. "It's the bathroom. You're welcome to look in it."

She glanced at him, smiling a bit as his amusement. She looked into the bathroom, opening the door. It was big enough for two shower areas and a toilet that had its own compartment with a door; there was a stone sink as well in front of long and tall mirror.

She turned to him again.

"It's nice. But you know what's nicer?" she teased.

"Hm?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at her.

"You," she said.

He groaned, throwing his head back at her little smile.

"That was awful!" he said.

"It was, but I'm trying to seduce you, so do play along," she said, rolling her eyes fondly.

Regulus leaned back in his bed, watching carefully as she walked towards him and stopped right in front of him, still smiling, but her shoulders seemed slightly tense as she sat down onto the bed beside him.

"I've already told you that we don't need to do anything. I just don't want you feeling alone in moments like these," he said.

He pretended as best as he could that his heart hadn't quickened in his chest, the way Luna's eyes seemed longer and shinier looking at him making some of his hopes grow. Regulus wasn't hypocritical enough to say that he hadn't thought of what might happen that night after he invited her over for the night, but he wasn't cruel enough to expect it, just lustful enough to hope it would.

Luna, thankfully, was as red-blooded as he was.

She leaned forward, kissing him chastely.

He was caught off guard for a moment, kissing her back regardless of his surprise and gently touching her hand.

"I know," she said against his lips. His eyes fluttered closed. "But it can happen, can't it?"

He opened his eyes.

"If you want it to," he answered.

Luna took his hand and pulled him towards her, sitting beside him on the edge of the bed, she smiled again and pressed another soft kiss to his lips. Regulus was quick to cup the side of her face, deepening the kiss as her arms found their way around his neck, pulling him even closer until Regulus eased her down to lie on the bed, climbing half on top of her so they were tangled in each other's embrace.

For a while, everything seemed to fade away slowly – Pandora's vision, the stress they were under with the exams, the looming worries of the raging war prepare to attack outside. It was just them and the warmth of their company growing into an intense desire that could not be ignored.

Regulus' hand found her hip while the other arm was near her head, propping him over her without crushing her with his weight. His grip was gentle, but firm, slowly sliding down to her thigh, leading it to go around his waist with the other was between his legs. Luna let out a soft hum, delighted with the feeling as her fingers found the buttons of his shirt, opening the first two, exposing the hollow of his neck and clavicles.

She cocked her head to the side as he pulled back for a breath, kissing his neck as making him breathe deeply. His breath caressed her ear as he let it out, making her shiver.

"Luna..." he whispered.

His voice was rougher than usual, hoarse. And torn – indecisive.

"Yes?" she whispered back, lips brushing the skin of his neck as she spoke.

Her nails brushed against his skin as she undid another button.

"I don't want to get too carried away," he admitted, struggling with his restraint that threatened to slip away.

"And why is that?"

"Because Evan and Barty are coming back soon," he lamented.

Luna smiled mischievously, kissing his lips once more, but not deepening it.

"Does that truly worry you? I'm certain that you caught them doing worse before," Luna said.

"Just Evan, last year was difficult not accidently walking into something. Barty is well-behaved," Regulus admitted.

Luna snorted at joke.

"You worry too much," she said, but she didn't initiate anything else.

Regulus allowed himself to give out a soft laugh before kissing her again but then pulled back, hand reaching to touch her cheek gently again.

"I just –" he started but cut himself off. His eyes narrowed and his head raised slightly, listening to something and gently raising himself off her, making her leg leave his hips. She closed her legs. "Someone's coming," he said.

His face flushed as he sat up on the bed, fixing his shirt and trousers while Luna sat up as well, turning her back to the door, kicking her legs into the covers of the bed, almost hiding herself behind Regulus.

The door creaked open and Regulus almost groaned. He would rather it was Barty or Evan, but it was Ash, strolling in and freezing just past the doorway when he saw Regulus, red-faced and nervous, sitting on the bed with his hands on his lap. His eyes ran through Regulus' bed, finding... something under the covers.

Regulus looked over his shoulder and his face burned even more.

Luna had slipped under the covers; all that Ash could see was a stray lock of her blonde hair peeking out beneath the covers.

"Oh... hm... I didn't know anyone was in here, sorry," Ash said, awkwardly as he looked around the room, refusing to look towards where Luna could be. He walked towards his own bed. "I'm just grabbing my sleeping clothes. I'll sleep over Hufflepuff tonight."

Regulus didn't answer, just nodded, letting the awkward silence making Ash so uncomfortable that he hurried to go through his things as the air was weighted down with tension. Luna, meanwhile, was shaking under the covers – it took Regulus just a few moments for Regulus to realise that Luna was laughing. It made Regulus' mortification grew as he watched Ash gather his toothbrush and quickly getting up.

Ash gave Regulus a sheepish grin as he made his way to the door, giving him a little thumbs up, shuffling with his weight as he opened the door and slipped out.

As soon as the door closed, Luna's laughter was no longer silent. Several soft giggles broke out before it became full laughter that shook the whole bed. She peeked from under the covers, face glowing with happiness and amusement.

"You hid!" he said in exasperation, face still blushed. "Really?!"

She shrugged, sitting up still covered in blankets.

"I didn't want to make it too awkward by staring at the poor boy like you did," she said. "If I pretend to do anything else, it would've been less awkward."

"It didn't work! You just hid like a child. What was I to do? Ash –" he started, crossing his arms and trying to look stern, which was difficult when his cheeks were flushed.

"...will think that I'm hilarious or really shy," Luna interrupted, rolling her eyes.

Regulus huffed without real annoyance, just some exasperation that she had left him to deal with the awkward situation.

"It wasn't funny, let alone hilarious. It was terrible!" he lamented.

Luna scooted closer, wrapping her arms around his waist from behind and kneeling. She rested her chin on his shoulder, kissing his neck once more. "It was a little funny," she whispered her insistence.

He reached behind him, hand finding her thigh and caressing it gently. His lips twitched as he tried his best not to smile, but it was difficult when Luna rocked from side to side, trying to cheer him up.

"Alright," he admitted with a little sigh of defeat. "Maybe it was a little funny. But next time, please, don't hide under the covers and leave me looking like a fool."

Luna grinned, pulling him closer and kissing his cheek once more.

"Deal," she said with a nod. "But let's try not to get caught again, alright?"

"In this school? Hard," Regulus said, slipping from her arms to turn around and look at her again. "There are people walking around and paying attention to us all the time, because – apparently – we're quite popular, I fear people will catch us without even trying. And outside of school? I hate our chances unless we go to Meera's inn again."

"Do you accept going to the inn?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

Regulus looked away, cheeks colouring once more.

"I don't see why not," he said. "You're a difficult one to get, did you know that?"

"And yet, you love me anyway," Luna teased, raising her head once more, offering him her lips pressed into a pout.

Regulus leaned down, kissing her lips. "I certainly do."

What did you think?

Though I loved writing this chapter, it was a difficult one. I'm terrible with writing anything with too much subtlety, so I was very close to running against a wall to get something working for the prophecy lmao