Chapter 10

After three weeks of living in the past, I was finally falling into a sort-of routine. I was regaining the same schedule that I usually had while at school. Get up just in time for breakfast, head to classes, finish my other homework during History of Magic, then head to the library for any homework that I needed extra reading material for. Except, unlike back in my usual time, I was also reading copious amounts of other books on really anything and everything. Not just topics that drew my fancy every once in a while.

And my habits had only changed because absolutely no books that I had ever read (or could even find) from the Hogwarts library had any accounts of random time travel. Needless to say, I was getting frustrated.

On another note, November had come around, which meant that Quidditch season had begun. For the most part, the only way it affected me was that Marlene, Ellie, Lily and I were constantly being treated to play-by-plays and strategy talks about recent Quidditch practices from both James and Sirius. It reminded me painfully of my brothers and I couldn't help but wonder if they were still playing on their Quidditch teams, since I had been missing. Personally I hoped they continued to live their passions, but something told me that they would be too worried about my well-being.

It was breakfast on a crisp, Sunday morning and I was wondering about what my family was doing and if they were having any leads on where I was or how to get me back. I wondered if they thought I had been taken by Death Eaters or something. I sighed, feeling another stab of loneliness strike my heart.

"What's up?"

I started as Remus' voice came from my left. "Huh?"

"Are you okay?" he asked, looking concerned. "You haven't even touched your eggs yet and usually you're the first one done with your food," he examined my face critically. "Did you get any sleep last night?" I could tell that he was referring to the dark marks under my eyes and the red veins that laced around my brown irises.

I sighed again. "Not really." There really wasn't any point in lying. I had been kept up for a few nights by nightmares about Voldemort finding out that I was in the past and was, well, from the future. Needless to say, my family (both from the past and present) and my friends (again from the past and present) were tortured until I told him how to win the war once and for all.

Of course, it wasn't at all logical, as Voldemort wouldn't have any way to track me back to James and Lily and, in this time period, wouldn't even know about little Harry Potter and what it would mean for him.

"Why didn't you sleep? Were you finishing homework? I know you work ahead sometimes, but today is Sunday, and we don't actually have class."

I shook my head and, pushing my plate away (as I no longer felt even remotely hungry), laid my head on my arms on the table.

"Nightmares." I mumbled sleepily, yawning.

Remus nodded solemnly, seriously, as though he knew what it was like and I suddenly realized he did. I had always heard stories through Teddy that my dad had told him about Remus Lupin and Teddy's favorite was about how the Marauders had all become Animagi to help Remus through werewolf transformations. It had completely flown my mind that Remus was a werewolf, and I almost felt bad for forgetting.

Now that I thought about it, during the second week that I was here Remus had looked tired and pale for a few days, and had missed classes for a day because he was staying in the Hospital Wing. At the time I had accepted their excuses about him having a cold, but as I thought back, it resembled what my dad had said he looked like later in life around transformations.

Suddenly the sound of Sirius' voice, right next to my ear, yelling "Hey LUNA!", caused me to jump up (nearly falling off the bench in the process) and whip around, drawing my wand as if ready to attack.

"What?" I asked breathlessly, a bit confused and my ears ringing unpleasantly. A scowl came over my face when I saw Sirius and James overcome with loud laughter and Lily, Ellie and Marlene giggling, but trying to hide it. I turned my head to Remus and saw that he had a faint smile on his face, as though he was trying to remain serious. Shaking my head, I plopped back down onto the bench and stuck my wand back in my pocket, my face flushing as I saw that everyone in the vicinity was either smiling or trying to repress a laugh.

"Thanks for the wake-up call Sirius." I said sarcastically, yawning again.

"Hey, what's up Red?" He asked faux-seriously as he wiped away tears of mirth. He had taken to calling me Red when Lily had hexed him for calling her that. "You look like you were run over by a herd of hippogriffs!"

A quick, imploring, glance in Remus' direction convinced him to answer for me and I put my head back down as he answered for me.

"She didn't sleep last night."

"You didn't?" Lily asked, looking suspiciously at me. "You went up to bed really early."

I just shrugged. I didn't want to argue. Nightmares had woken me up three times during the night and when I woke up the third time at 4:30 in the morning, I knew I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep.

I had closed my eyes for a moment, so it surprised me when Lily said "Why didn't you tell us you were having nightmares?"

Sending an angry glare at Remus, who looked innocently up at the ceiling of the Great Hall, I shook my head and put it back down on my arms for the fourth time. "There wasn't any point."

"I still think you should've told us," Lily said, obviously upset.

"That's what friends are for!" Ellie added.

I groaned. This was why I didn't want to tell them. I knew that they, like my brothers, would want to help me somehow, when they obviously couldn't. When I was younger, before I had arrived at Hogwarts, my mom always comforted me, keeping my nightmares away. She would sing and hug me close to her flowery-smelling hair. I bit my lip to keep from crying. Ugh! I just felt so emotional all of a sudden!

"Maybe you should just go back to bed," Marlene said. "You look exhausted."

I nodded, too tired to argue.

"Come on then," I heard Remus say. "Let's get you upstairs before you fall asleep here and we have to carry you up."

I was going to retort, but as I stood up, I yawned yet again, losing the words. "Fine," I replied simply.

Remus led me through the doors of the Great Hall and I could vaguely hear him say something to the other Marauders, Lily, Marlene and Ellie, but I wasn't troubled to know what it was.

We headed up the main staircase and I nearly tripped over my own feet. Remus let out a chuckle as he caught me, helping me up to my feet as I grumbled.

I was surprised when, instead of going up the remaining staircases, Remus pulled me down a corridor on the third floor. "What's up?" I asked, peering around through foggy eyes as I tried to figure out where we were.

"You're going to the Hospital Wing."

"Aw! Come on!" I groaned, taking a step back. "Seriously? I'm perfectly fine, just tired!"

Remus sent me a 'yeah, right.' expression, grabbed my arm, and pulled me the rest of the way down the hall.

"You're going to the Hospital Wing because it's quiet there so no one will disturb you, because Madam Pomfery can give you some Dreamless Sleep potion, and because it doesn't look like you'll make it to the seventh floor in the first place."

I cursed him under my breath, but agreed with his reasoning in my head. It was true that the dormitories could be loud, especially on the weekends, and Dreamless Sleep potion would take care of the nightmares. At least for a small amount of time.

We entered the quiet ward and Remus went to get the nurse, leaving me on a bed near the wall farthest from the door. Madam Pomfery came over a minute later and scanned her eyes up and down my body, 'tsk'ing and clucking her tongue. She shook her head as she left my field of view, then she came back and helped me lay back on the soft white bed.

"Easy there," she said gently, smiling gently when she saw I was struggling to keep my eyes open. "Here's some Dreamless Sleep for you; drink up then."

She gave me a dark purple potion that tasted sort of like oranges, and I was asleep in seconds.

Chapter End!

Happy Thanksgiving to all you Americans out there! And Happy November 22, to all you other readers! :D Since I [obviously] have no school, I cranked this out while at my grandma's house, listening to Pandora and rocking it out! Hope you like it, because I kind of do, but I don't think it's my best. :P

Please tell me what you think of it and if there's any ways I could make this chapter (or the story in general) better! I'm always open to constructive criticism! Thank you all for reading‼!

~Megan 3