Disclaimer: Everything (characters, settings...just everything) belongs to and was created by the wonderful J.K. Rowling. Not me.

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CHAPTER TWO: TEA AND CONVERSATION

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Luna tossed and turned for all of the night, and struggled to drift off to sleep. She was plagued with thoughts of her father, of Death Eaters, of her mother and how lonely she felt. Of course, she was surrounded by various people from Hogwarts and she had lots of grown ups around too, but she still felt utterly alone. The only person who had been through what she was going through was Harry, yet he was much too young at the time to have felt riddled with grief like her.

Eventually, Luna decided to head down to the kitchen and get herself a cup of tea. She and her father used to drink tea by the bucket-load; they'd each had enormous mugs with their names emblazoned on the side. Peeling the covers off her and reaching into the cupboard beside her to extract her old mug, she slowly rose, pottered out of the door, and made her way down the darkened stairs.

Upon reaching the kitchen, Luna realised that she was not alone as she had imagined she would be; seated at the table was a rough, pasty looking Remus Lupin. When he saw her drift into the kitchen, he gave her a sympathetic gaze.

"Come and sit down," Remus insisted. "I'll make you something to drink. What would you like?"

"Tea, please," Luna requested. "Could you make it in this mug for me, please?"

"Of course," Remus smiled kindly, wrinkles forming round his amber eyes. "Is skimmed milk alright?" he enquired. "It's all we have in"

"Yes, that's lovely," Luna murmured half-heartedly. Her mother always used to have skimmed milk in her tea.

"Any sugar?"

"No thank you, Professor Lupin."

"Please – call me Remus now," Remus laughed as he stirred the two mugs of tea he had made; one for himself and one for Luna.

Sitting himself down at the table, Remus took a quick peak at Luna, who was clutching her cup of tea and blowing on it gently. Her enormous eyes made him some what nervous; they were startlingly similar to full moons. The silence was eventually stolen away when Remus slowly chipped away at a lose splinter of wood on the table with his index finger and endeavoured to ask as tactfully as possible, "How are you? I mean, after the awful events of the past few days."

Luna continued blowing on her tea but in between puffs, she replied simply, "Oh, I'm fine, thank you. It's going to be a bit hard now that dad's gone as well as mum, but I'll cope."

Remus's eyes glanced nervously around the room, not entirely sure how to handle the situation. He did not know whether to continue with the subject or change it; which would Luna prefer? Eventually, he decided to press the matter further. "Luna," he began gently, "you know you can speak to me. It must be awful for you to bottle it all up – eventually, you'll implode. It must've been awful after you lost your mum, but losing both of your parents must be entirely heartbreaking."

At this moment, Luna found a small speck of dust on her pale blue jumper particularly fascinating. As she stared at it, she felt tears well up in her eyes. She did not want to cry in front of one of her old favourite teachers. She did not want to cry whatsoever; she wished she could simply get on with life with her parents by her side.

"I feel awful," Luna finally sobbed.

Lupin tilted his head sympathetically. His mousy, grey-flecked hair fell into his eyes as he did so. Pushing it out of his way, he let out an audible sigh and patted Luna's skinny arm. "I bet your dad was immensely proud of you, Luna," he remarked.

"Thank you," Luna spluttered, her eyes burning. Finishing her cup of tea, she pushed out her chair, rose, and croaked, "I should be in bed now. Goodnight, Prof-I mean, Remus."

Remus wished her a good night and watched thoughtfully as the girl left. Before she had always seemed ghostly and almost ethereal, but now that she had cried, he appreciated for the first time the fact that she was in fact like any other human being. She had a soul, and she was, at this point in her life, on the verge of giving up hope in life.


Lunafan - Very glad you love the story. Thank you!