It was no shame to have a parent that was a Muggle, Luna knew; several of the children had at least one parent of Muggle heritage, after all half-bloods marked almost half of the school. Yet, she thought odd that up to that point, Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic hadn't found a way for those parents to enter the Platform, she thought the exclusion to be cruel and unprecedently mean-spirited. Still, she was glad she managed to say goodbye to her mother on the King Cross' Station, even if it was the Muggle division.

"My dear boy, do keep out of trouble this time, alright? I love you so much," Hope whispered into Remus' hair. Luna stood to the side, waiting for her turn to say goodbye. "Keep your grades, my little Prefect. Don't get into too much trouble and be nice to your friends, give them some of the chocolate I put on your bag."

She always did that, always put chocolate in their bags, though she did put more on Remus' with the excuse that he shared it with his friends on the train ride. They didn't have money enough for them to go around buying sweets on the trolley, so she put some in their handbag so they wouldn't be excluded from the tradition.

She turned to Luna.

"My Luna, please, be careful with the boys. We talked at home," Hope said, kissing Luna's forehead. That wasn't exactly what had happened; Hope had talked, and Luna had listened while clearly uncomfortable as her mother went into too much detail about sexual intercourse, since she had no idea Luna knew it all far too well already. "The doctor's iron pills are going to be sent monthly to you by owl, I talked to your father. If you feel unwell again even with the pills, go to the Hospital Wing, Madame Pomfrey is in communication with your father about your iron-shortage."

"Just call it anaemia, Mum, we both know the meaning of the word," Luna said, bitterly. She wanted the love-declaration her brother had received as well, but there was her mum going on and on about her health.

"Sure, love, sure," her mother quickly dismissed. "Now, the other pills are in your bag, you have six boxes with you."

Luna blushed.

She knew the pills her mother was talking about were contraceptive pills. Her mother had insisted that she needed them, even if she went on and on about how they were not going to be used in the way a 'married-woman' should; it was all about controlling her cycle or whatever. Her anaemia had been bad enough that the doctors decided that her period was too long (which, she agreed, after all ten days bleedings certainly wasn't too normal) and might be a reason why she wasn't keeping the iron, even when it had been introduced into her body through her veins instead of small round pills that they had been trying before. Now, she was back to iron-pills, trying to see if the Pill would help with her body's control.

"I know," Luna said. Hope had said it all before and she kept going.

"When it's done, send me a message and I'll send you more," she answered. Luna nodded. "There's chocolate in your bag, share with Pandora. Keep out of trouble. Keep your grades up, Luna."

As her mother hugged her, Luna caught a glimpse of her brother trying to keep in the laugh at the awkward exchange. She rolled her eyes and showed him the middle-finger, he showed both of his back at her, but hid it fast when her mother pulled back from the hug.

Luna didn't say how quick the hug had been or how she wanted a few more seconds of her mother holding her. It was so odd. Hope only seemed to love Luna as much as Remus when she was saying goodbye to her.

"Now, go to the station," Hope said, taking a few steps back to look at both of her children. "I love you."

They mumbled their responses before they started moving towards the pillar between stations to go where their father was waiting for them.

On the other station, Lyall Lupin was calmly talking to the Potter family, who had their two children with them. He seemed a bit awkward, after all he had never been a social person in his life but forcing himself through it to make Remus happy. However, the Potters seemed to share a similar opinion about her father than her brother did, also looking uncomfortable with the conversation.

"I'm sure they'll behave better this year," Euphemia Potter said, a hand on Sirius' shoulder and the other on James'. "You should've allowed Remus to spend a week or so of the summer with us, Mister Lupin, they would've had such fun."

"And leave Luna alone?" Lyall said.

Luna blushed and looked down. Her father had yet to notice she and her brother had gotten there and we also listening to the conversation.

"I'm sure that she would've find something in our house fun as well," Euphemia said. Sirius looked away from the conversation, finally meeting eyes with Remus and smiling at his friend. "She could've come with, of course."

"Luna is very shy," Lyall said.

"I'm not shy," Luna forced herself to answer.

Lyall looked over his shoulder to see Remus going to his friends and hugging them while Luna stopped beside him, hands behind her back, holding her sky-blue dress in place when a breeze passed by. Euphemia watched the girl, who was too busy watching Sirius to notice what was happening. Luna looked down at her feet before looking back at her father, who smiled at her and put an arm around her shoulders, squeezing her to his side.

"Is your mother well?" he asked.

"Well enough," she dismissed. Her mother was pale and clearly stressed from her work, but nothing Luna hadn't seen happening before. "Did you see Pandora anywhere, Daddy?"

"I saw her parents passing by that way," Lyall answered, pointing to the corner. "Her fiancée passed by that way as well, so she must be nearby."

Pandora fiancée, Xenophilius Lovegood, had been promised to her ever since she was two and he was four. It was a good match for their family, both pure-blooded and powerful, even though not all that traditional in the hopes of keeping the blood pure, they were mostly seeing the junction of money and power the two family could hold. Xenophilius was kind to Luna and even would go as far as taking her along to some of the dates he and Pandora went on, paying for her food in exchange for some good talk. Luna really liked him as well, it wasn't all the time that she knew best-friends liking the other's significant other, so they knew each other to be lucky in that manner.

"Xenophilius came to say bye to her, that's so sweet," Luna commented to herself.

"You and the Lovegoods are close?" Euphemia asked suddenly.

Luna looked up, blinking in confusion as to why the woman was asking her questions when they had never talked more than a few words of polite greeting. Now, however, Euphemia seemed interested in whatever she had to say, carefully fixing the green saree around her shoulder.

"I'm close to Xenophilius fiancée, Pandora Rosier," she answered. "She's my... well, she's my friend."

It was clear by her tone that she was her only friend. If there was pity in Euphemia's eyes, Luna hadn't managed to see it. The woman in front of her seemed merely interested in what Luna had to say, which was new to her, so Luna just stared at her for a moment as the woman thought what the answer ought to be.

"Sirius, dear, you will help Luna find Pandora, won't you?" Euphemia said, pushing Sirius' shoulder ever so lightly. Sirius startled, turning to look at the smiling woman and the paling girl, who just stared at them in surprise and some shame. "Her friend seemed to be in the other side of the train and in times like this nobody should walk alone."

"Nothing will happen in the train, Effy," said Sirius, but swallowed down once he saw the eyes Euphemia had sent his way as a warning. "But, of course, I'll make her company until we can find her friend. Unless her brother doesn't like it, right, Moony?"

And Moony clearly didn't seem to enjoy the idea, but Peter Pettigrew's slow arrival made him keep his mouth shut as he just shrugged it off but pulled Sirius by the shirt to drag him towards Pettigrew.

Lyall raised his eyebrows as his daughter blushed beside him before turning and going back to his conversation about the overpriced uniforms that the school demanded with Fleatmont Potter.

Luna didn't need Remus' wonderful hearing or the ability of reading lips that her father had to hear what Remus was saying to Sirius while Peter and James hugged hello after a whole summer apart.

"...I'm just saying that you need to be careful," Remus was saying.

"About what? Nothing ever happens on Hogwarts Express besides us taking a bit of fun out of Snivellus. It's fine, your sister's safe," Sirius said.

"I'm not taking about that. I'm talking about my sister being in love with you ever since her second year," Remus answered.

Wrong, she thought, it was at least since her first year.

"What?" Sirius seemed shocked.

"You didn't know?" James asked, a smile appearing on his lips. "Everybody knows, Sirius. She's been crying over you for years now."

"She barely pays attention to me," Sirius dismissed, shaking his head. "Besides, she's your little sister, Moony, do you really think I'd go after my best mate's little sister? I'm not that much of a prat."

And he gave out a little nervous laughter.

Luna looked down, swallowing down with her dry throat. She had no idea why it hurt so much.

She knew it was the biggest reason why he didn't want their odd relationship to go out to public: her brother, but it still hurt to know that he wouldn't even admit that he did look at her or thought her to be pretty enough for him. It hurt. It stung. And she kept quiet about it as she forced a smile to not let tears come to her eyes as she tried her best to somehow be distracted by something else.

She tried her best to pay attention to her father's humourless conversation until the train gave its first whistle, making both Luna and Lyall jump a little bit, since they were both so entertained into the conversation (for different reasons, of course, but still).

"Let's go," James said, sounding excited. He reached for his mother's feet, touching them before touching his forehead. "Bye, Maa. Bye, Papa." He did the same with his father.

"Goodbye, James," Euphemia said, kissing his forehead. "Goodbye, Sirius." She touched the top of Sirius' head.

"I'll see you two soon enough, I'm sure," laughed Fleatmont. "Dumbledore will call for me to visit sooner or later," he dismissed, turning to gossip that small piece of information to Lyall, who didn't seem so happy about agreeing with it, but nodded either way.

Luna turned to her father.

"Bye, Daddy. I'll see you soon," she said, getting on her tiptoes and kissing his cheek before taking a step back.

"Bye," was all Remus said, without even getting close for a hug or a proper goodbye to his father, pulling James along.

Sirius walked closer to Luna.

"Let's go?" he said. "I'll help you with your bag."

"It's fine. I can take it," she dismissed.

Unfortunately, when she tried to raise her bag, her arms shook, and she couldn't take it off the ground to lift it to the train's entrance without a grunt and her face turning red. She blushed, wishing that she could disappear or simply just go back and time and go to a gym, train her arms so it wouldn't be as embarrassing as it was now. Sirius seemed amused by her reaction, but said nothing as he reached for her bags, careful not to touch her hand as he took over. She sighed, letting go of it when he looked at her with some tension, raising his eyebrows. He didn't smile, as she had imagined he would to tease her, he just turned around and climbed up the train.

Luna took one last look over her shoulder to her father, who smiled and nodded, urging her to get on the train, waving discreetly at her. She jumped in without much ceremony, smiling at him with another wave.

"Thank you," she whispered to Sirius.

"Don't mention it," he dismissed in exchange.

They walked further into the train, Sirius glancing inside the compartments to find Pandora anywhere, not even getting a conversation going with her as they walked. Uncomfortable, she said nothing either, just following him.

"Your..." she started. He glanced over his shoulder to look at her. "I mean, Lady Potter cannot see us anymore. I can take it from here, you can go back to your friends."

"You can call her my 'mum', Luna, it's no trouble at all," Sirius said. "And you can barely raise the bag from the ground, I can take it."

There was a moment of silence.

"If you don't want my brother to find out, you shouldn't be so obvious about it, by the way," she added, frowning at his back when he didn't even look at her after she said that. "The whole 'she's your little sister' and 'I wouldn't do that' certainly was overstepping. Potter was looking at you weird."

"James has his own suspicions about my summer hobbies," he answered.

'Hobbies', she repeated mentally. That was all that she was to him, and she knew it, but that didn't mean that it hurt any less.

"Does his suspicions involve names?" she asked.

"Plural?" he asked.

"Plural."

"No, just yours," he answered.

"At least his suspicions don't involve babies," she added, bitter.

He froze on his tracks and turned at once.

"First of all, don't even try talking about that, this has nothing to do with you. Second, I already told you it wasn't mine, she admitted it. I put myself on the line just writing you a letter about that, and I had to find a way to explain to James about you writing to me, which I told you not to do before. So, please, don't even try talking about that," he said.

For a moment she wondered if she should feel embarrassed for touching on the subject when he had expressed how uncomfortable he was with it, but Sirius seemed to want to make her afraid of him, which wouldn't happen, and she certainly didn't like the feeling. She didn't stand taller and confront him as she really wanted to do, but she didn't apologise; she bit her tongue and kept herself in silence, not looking at him at all.

"I need to find Pandora," was all that she managed to answer.

But before he could say anything and insist on an apology or an explanation for her stubbornness, a door of a compartment opened a few doors ahead and Pandora put half of her body out into the corridor, smiling at the sight of Luna.

"Well, good morning!" she greeted.

"Panda, hey!" Luna said, forcing her best smile, but she couldn't force how relieved her voice sounded. Pandora had a talent to appear in the best times to save Luna from herself. "I heard Xen came to the station."

Sirius walked away without a farewell, leaving Luna's bag on the corridor. Luna did her best not to turn to watch him leave her.

Pandora watched Sirius with a curious stare.

"He didn't even say 'hello'. How rude," she mused.

"Yeah, he is," Luna dismissed, turning with her eyes stuck on the ground and taking her bag with a loud grunt of effort. Usually, her father used magic in her bag to make it lighter before she went on the train, but she had forgotten to ask him to, and he had been busy, talking to the Potters. "Anyway, forget about him. Tell me everything, Panda. It was your first summer in his house! How was it? Did he take you somewhere fun?"

Pandora smiled, eyes turning small with the size of her excited smile.

"He took me to see plants in the Royal Greenhouses in Sandringham House, in Norfolk," she said, excitedly. "It's beautiful. I have never seen so many camellias and rhododendrons. Did you know that rhododendrons can be evergreen or deciduous? I knew that, of course, but the Royal Guide told us and now my brother must believe me. Oh, yes, Evan came with, of course, somebody needed to come with us and Xenophilius mother couldn't come chaperone, so Evan came."

The thing about Pandora was that she was absolutely bewitched by plants, fungi, and flowers, which caused many of their conversations to rely on Luna's growing knowledge of the useless subject to keep up. Not that Luna needed to talk much, Pandora usually did the talking in their normal conversations. It used to worse, before (around first to third year) Luna wouldn't be able to get a single word in through the whole time that they were together; perhaps, it had been slightly annoying, but at this point, Luna was far too used to be offended over it. Pandora would get tired of speaking at some point and then Luna, if she had something to say, would say her piece. However, in times like this, Pandora was a great distraction of her own thoughts as she described in detail the gardens and the royal house that she had the opportunity of seeing. Luna would get lost in her own imagination that caused the image of a colourful plant (far too tall, Pandora would say in case she could read Luna's mind) that shielded the couple from Evan's very distracted eyes and –

"Wait!" Luna said, cutting Pandora off with wide eyes. "You kissed? Panda, you had your first kiss!"

Pandora blinked.

"Yes. That's what I'm telling you," she said, confused by Luna's reaction.

"That's amazing! Did you like it?" Luna said, smiling.

Most people would've been surprised that Pandora had never kissed her fiancé, but Luna was familiar (a little) to pureblood courting process, at least through Pandora's shallow description.

The Lovegoods and the Rosiers had arranged the marriage since Pandora had turned three and Xenophilius six. They knew that they were to be married since they remembered, and they got along surprisingly well. The Rosiers had feared that they would cut ties and refuse the marriage once Pandora had grown out of the stage that people usually overlooked her quirks, but the Lovegoods were fine with her 'uniqueness', as they had called it, and the fact that Xenophilius really liked Pandora did also help them. He was an understanding person and liked to talk to Pandora, they would go hours and hours talking about everything and nothing at all, which caused Luna some envy. In general, however, they were still purebloods, and their relationship was followed by several pages of courtship rules of an agreement that they had signed when Pandora had turned eleven.

"His lips were soft. I thought they would be rougher," Pandora said.

"Why?"

"He doesn't drink a lot of water, but he said that he had been drinking a lot of liquids and hydrating his lips just so he could kiss me. I thought it was sweet," the girl said, smiling a bit. She looked out the window, eyes accompanying the one tree that was taller than the others on the fields outside and blinking when it disappeared. "I suppose he knew that I didn't like the feeling of chapped lips. I hope he didn't notice that I had been looking at his lips when they were chapped – it would be considered rude, wouldn't it?"

"I don't think he minds, Panda," Luna chuckled. "If he thought it was rude, I think he would've said something to you."

"Well, he kissed me. I let him," she said, shrugging.

"But you wanted it?"

"I suppose I did, but I didn't notice it until he had kissed me, and I liked it. I like kissing," she said.

Luna nodded several times.

"It is very good," Luna said.

"I wasn't expecting it to be," Pandora admitted. "I've seen you kissing people before, and it looked rather... wet."

Luna was grateful that she said 'people', not a name. Of all the people that she had kissed before, Sirius was the one that worked out the best, which wasn't all that good, especially now with their friction in the corridor.

"It can be. It's good, too," Luna said, trying her best not to blush. "But I can see how Xen wasn't too eager right away. He didn't want to scare you away."

Pandora smiled at Luna.

"And your summer?" she asked.

Luna gave a little smile and shook her head, dismissing her summer entirely. Pandora usually left her alone if she showed clearly enough that she didn't want to talk about something, but she wasn't clear enough this time around.

"Did you meet Sirius –"

"We shouldn't say his name out loud, we agreed," Luna quickly said, covering her words with her own voice. "We agreed upon a code-name."

"It feels childish to call him a code-name," Pandora complained. Luna rolled her eyes. "Fine," she gave in. "Did you see Sailor?"

"That wasn't the code-name that we agreed on," Luna said.

"I forgot the code-name we agreed on. From now on, it is Sailor. Did you see Sailor this summer?" Pandora asked.

Luna sighed loudly and threw her head back.

"I did," she admitted. "A few times. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, other than a girl saying that she was pregnant, and it wasn't actually his, but I wrote to him –" Pandora did a face, which clearly showed her that she, too, knew it was a bad idea. Luna nodded to agree that she knew she had messed up, "—and his friend saw my name in the letter, which leaves him in an uncomfortable position."

"He told you not to write. It was a rule," Pandora said.

"I'm quite aware, Panda," Luna said, tone snappier than she wished it to be.

She crossed her arms and threw her feet on Pandora's side of the compartment.

Luna had taken the seat closer to the window, facing the same way that the train was going so not to be nauseated. Pandora, stronger in stomach, had taken the seat that left her back to face the train's way and closer to the door. Panda usually sat normally, feet to the ground and back to the resting spot of the seat, but Luna had the terrible tendency to lower herself on the seat as time went by, making her chin almost touch her chest and, to try to be more comfortable, she would kick her feet up and rest it on the other chair – that, or she would lie down on the bench, on her side so she could still face Pandora and talk.

The sun was starting to go down outside the train.

"I'm hungry," Pandora announced.

"Mum sent chocolate for us," Luna said, pointing at the bag that she had dragged inside. "It's on the outside pocket." Pandora didn't move. "You can get it, if you want chocolate."

Pandora moved to the bag, now having permission to put her hands on the outside pocket to her the chocolate bars that Hope had sent them. Hope really liked Pandora, which Luna guessed was due to her being her only friend or the fact that Pandora was as innocent as someone her age could be without being stupid. Always the Ravenclaw, Pandora was anything but stupid, even if perhaps naïve.

When Luna had been sorted in a House different from her brother, she had been terrified.

Gone was the Remus that would help her around, not that he was cruel to her due to her house (on the contrary, he was clearly quite proud of her achievements), but he was far too busy with his friends and his own life to help her adjust to the new life she was given, but Pandora was there. Pandora Rosier, pureblood, but unliked due to the repetitive conversation topics and non-stop chattering, had been more than happy to take Luna under her wing and explain everything that she needed to know – what professors were strict, which professors allowed joking and teasing, what students to avoid; all taught to her by her twin, who was in Slytherin and therefore knew more about the school than most professors.

"Evan said this year will be a mess," Pandora said after popping a piece of the sweet into her mouth. "Apparently, fifth year is always packed with homework and everybody either has a breakdown in the first fortnight or in the last fortnight of the year."

"I bet I'll have a breakdown in the first fortnight," Luna said.

"I have breakdowns every year," Pandora dismissed Evan's theory.

Luna laughed, though she had seen Pandora's breakdowns, they were no joking matter. She had been so scared the first time it happened in front of her; it had been their first year and Pandora had a breakdown that left her screaming in the girl's bathroom and crying so hard that she threw up. Luna had been helplessly standing there, not sure of what to do other than make sure Pandora wouldn't hurt herself.

"And your dreams?" Luna asked.

Pandora seemed uncomfortable now, her dreams never being a subject she liked talking about.

"Father took me to a Mind Healer last week, he gave me potions to take if my dreams become too realistic," Pandora said, shrugging. "I don't want to get in the way of everybody else by screaming in the middle of the night."

"I don't mind waking you up, Panda, you know that," Luna said, dismissing her worries.

"But the other girls do," she whispered.

Pandora's dreams often left her gasping for air, throwing up in the toilet and crying once she woke up, but sometimes she needed help to wake up and understand what is real and what is not. Luna was more than happy to provide that help, but the other girls were less amenable to being woken by terrified screams in the middle of the night. Luna would never dare say it, but she had heard Amanda Richards asking Professor Flitwick, discreetly, if there was a regulation that would allow Pandora to have an individual bedroom.

Amanda Richards had been discreet in her distaste for being woken in the middle of the night, but Marta MacLeoid had not – screaming her head off about how annoying Pandora was and how they were in the middle of exam season. Amanda and the other girl in their dorms, Rosalie Livingston, had tried to calm her down and justify her anger as stress from the exam season, but it had not been enough for Pandora to allow herself to sleep at all that night, too scared of waking everybody again.

"Well, you have your potions now. We'll figure something out, even if we must share the bed," Luna said, gently.

"I hate sharing the bed," Pandora said.

Luna smiled to herself.

Another chapter! 

So, Luna and Sirius are always cracking as soon as they are back to school; no surprise there, am I right? Anyways, the Potters are here! (anything that Indian readers want to tell me or want to see in them, feel free to tell me; I'm ever so happy in learning anything new!)

Happy Easter (or whatever you call it), my very Umbandista family is celebrating the very Christian holiday by eating as much as we can and taking naps in the hammocks in my grandpa's garden. Brazil is Brazil, I guess.