3. Confessions of a Sad Life

Lune's room was as massive as her counterpart's. The walls were painted a deep red, and the floor had several shallow tiers. Unlike the corresponding room, this one was surrounded by floor to ceiling windows along one side of the room, as well as a ceiling that was made of glass, showing a perfect view of the sky from the lofty tower room. Along the span of the windows were long red and gold velvet curtains connected to the walls by moon shaped fasteners. Also contrasting Soleil's room, Lune's room did not have a loft, but a small balcony only about 5 feet across, overlooking the room that could only be reached by stairs found behind a small door in the side of the room. On the balcony sat a small table and chair with a crystal ball sitting on a gold stand in the middle, as well as two cups and saucers, flipped upside down.
Back on the lower level, a pencil post bed identical to Soleil's was located on one of the upper tiers, the only difference being a velvet canopy, and its veiled placement in the room to keep it out of obvious sight. The fireplace in this room was made from white marble and had celestial engravings skillfully carved into its front face. The wall opposite the window-covered wall was lined in bookshelves, plus a small desk, found in a hexagonal room connected to the main room by a doorframe, set for French doors. The only thing covering this frame was a half-obscure set of tapestry curtains, also printed celestially. All of the other tiers were covered in small tables with chairs and poufs. The other feature of the room was a bathroom that branched off of the room where the steps were concealed.
Lune walked out of the balcony door stretching and yawning. She looked forward to see Ron, stretched out over two tiers, lying on and cuddling three large poufs.
"It might be a good time to wake up." Lune said aloud as she walked past Ron to her hidden bed and dresser. Ron stirred restlessly, but none- the-less, opened his eyes after a second. Lune walked back into the room and sat down on the tier next to him.
"Thanks for staying though... the room's pretty big and I really didn't feel like staying here by myself on my first night here at Hogwarts, you know?"
He nodded. "Glad I could be of service, milady." He said groggily.
"You're going to be late for class if you don't hurry up and get dressed. You don't have any extra clothes here obviously, so you'll have to run back to the dormitory. You only have about 45 minutes until breakfast... so you should hurry." She replied in a fretful voice.
"Okay. I take it I'll see you there?" He asked her as he stood. She nodded up to him.
"I'll be along as fast as I can."
Ron hurried up to the Gryffindor dormitories as fast as he could, and joined up with Harry.
"So where were you last night Ron?" Harry asked.
"Oh, Lune asked me to stay with her and I decided that it couldn't hurt anything."
"She asked you to stay with her?"

"Yeah. First night jitters, can't say I blame her. We had five of us here to ease our tension when we first came to Hogwarts... then there's her, she has a room ten times the size of ours and no one to share it with."
"Wonder why Dumbledore didn't put her with Soleil...is that her name?"
"Yeah I think so. From what I picked up on, her and Lune have been best friends since they were little."
"Lune seems like a sweetheart..." Harry commented.
"She is."
"Then I have to wonder why her best friend wanted to be a Slytherin so badly. She doesn't look evil... although she has taken quite a liking to Malfoy."
"I don't think she is. But she holds something against Gryffindor, I just don't know what. Maybe Lune can explain it to us... but all she told me was that she Soleil looked up to many of the previous Slytherins... I have no idea who should could possibly look up to—"
"Maybe she knows more than we do... who knows? I think we should just let her be though."
"Yeah, you're probably right." Ron answered. "I hope she talks some sense into Malfoy."
"Don't we all?" Harry said as they walked down the dormitory steps into the Gryffindor common room where Hermione was waiting patiently.
"Hi Ron." She greeted. He nodded a hello.
"So... what's your new friend like? Would I like her?" she asked.
"Now that I think about it, she does kind of seem like a intellectual know it all. So I'm going to have to say yes, you probably would."
Hermione smiled. "I have no problem with you being with someone who has a brain. Maybe you'll actually learn something."
"Are you making fun of my level of intelligence Hermione?"
"Of course not Ron. I would never."
The three entered the Great Hall to see it jam-packed. In the middle of the isle between the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables, everyone seemed to be crowding around something. Ron jumped up on to the bench to see what was going on. Just then, Draco walked in behind the three-some.
"What are they hording?" He asked them. Harry and Hermione shrugged. Then Ron jumped down and spoke to him.
"Soleil and Lune. They won't let them alone."
"Well that won't do. All of you stupid Gryffindors need to back off... Soleil needs space." He said pushing forward.
"I was hoping that Soleil being best friends with a Gryffindor would make his xenophobic comments toward us stop." Ron said staring at Draco's back.
"Xenophobic means racist Ron... It's okay, Lune isn't around so you don't have to use big words." Hermione replied with a smile.
"Racist... intolerance... what's the difference? Gryffindors can be a race." He walked through the crowd with Harry and Hermione right behind him. "Bloody hell, that takes some skill." He whispered to them as thy reached a point where the two girls were visible.

"They're not even moving!" Harry countered. "Not even a complaint..."

Before Ron could respond, Hermione pushed past them and walked over to the table, when she reached it she turned and began to speak at the crowd.

"How would you all like it if a giant crowd of people fenced you in while you were trying to eat?" She eyed over the crowd in an irritated glance. One by one the people went back to their own tables and Harry, Ron and Hermione joined Lune.

"Thanks." She spoke under her breath.

"No problem. I'm Hermione." She held out her hand nervously, and let out a sigh of relief when Lune took hold of it.

"I'm Lune." She said with a smile.

"I know; Ron talks about you a lot." Hermione commented. Lune flashed another smile at Ron, then looked the other way as a packet of envelopes was passed down the Gryffindor table. Finally the stack got to Hermione, who filtered through them to pull one out with her name on it. The stack then went to Harry, who pulled out his along with Ron and Lune's and handed to their owners. The group opened them quietly to find their schedules for the year. Harry glanced over at Hermione's sheet of parchment.

"You're taking another crack at Divination then Hermione?"

"Yes." She replied. "I figured that with that nimwit Professor Trelawney out of here, I think I should be able to just fine."

"I'm sure you'll do great. You really seem like you'd be perfect for it." Lune reassured her.

"What makes you think that?"

"Oh... I'm a seer. I can tell."

"What's up with that?" Rupert asked Lune gesturing toward her schedule.

"What?"

"Why do you have all of those weird symbols next to Divination on your schedule?"

"Um..." She looked down and turned beet red. "Well, I'm supposed to teach it." She said quickly, looking the other direction.

"I knew it was odd that he accepted exchange students!" Hermione screeched happily. "This works perfectly! What, do you teach a class and take the rest?"

Lune nodded.

"I think it's cool." Harry said.

"Yeah." Hermione and Ron agreed. "Maybe we can get extra help if we need it."

"Of course." Lune said with a laugh.

"Hey... Is your friend Soleil like that to then?" Hermione questioned.

"What do you mean?" Lune replied.

"Well, does she teach a class too?" Harry clarified.

"Yes. She's supposed to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, she'll be awesome at it! She knows everything about everything and likes to show people magical ways of defense as well as physical. Her theory is that you may not always have your wand on hand."

"She's a genius." Harry mumbled, thinking back to all the times he had gotten into a budge because he couldn't get to his wand. "I think I'm going to like that class a lot."

"One problem Harry." Hermione piped up.

"What?"

"Well, from what we've seen of her, she's just like Malfoy. She hates Gryffindors and muggle-borns."

"She can be very deceiving. It's okay; she's not really all that bad. She has reasons behind everything. Her father and mother were both Gryffindors and... well..."

"What is it?!" The three other Gryffindors urged her.

"Her mother ignored her because Soleil reminded her of her father."

"What about her father?"

"She never got to be with him. Long story, the easiest thing to tell you is that her father didn't know she existed, so she took it as a reason to bear a grudge."

"So now she hates all Gryffindors? That doesn't make sense." Hermione said.

"It wasn't just her parents. It was all of the Gryffindors back then, they all called her a nuisance and couldn't really understand her. Even my Grandfather wouldn't help her. The Slytherins all worshipped her, and befriended her. They gave her a place to live when her mother died. After a while she had to go back with muggles because people were after her."
"Why? And... who is your grandfather?"

"Don't know. Don't ask. Hush. Anyway, the muggles she stayed with were a lot like your Aunt and Uncle, Harry."

"That explains it all." He sighed.

"Still not understanding." Ron and Hermione replied.

"They had a son as well. They treated him like trash, she felt sympathy for him, then he treated her like trash after she had tried to help him. Since then, she's looked at all muggle-borns as if all they want to do is betray her. You just have to win her trust, that's all Hermione. "

"That doesn't sound very easy."

"Your smart, and a good witch, she'll appreciate you and your knowledge. Come on we have to go to MY class now." Lune ended happily.

"Are you teaching in the divination tower?" Harry asked her.

"No, they've set my room up in about 15 sections so that I can teach in there, it's just easier."

"I still don't get the whole Soleil thing, but I understand why your room looks the way it does now." Ron said. Lune smiled and led them off to her room.