Written For:

- Flying Lessons #5: You have to pick one of your pairing (or triad, in Sophie's case) and decide what position they would be. If someone is already a Quidditch player, don't just go by their position on the pitch. Once you've picked a position, focus your story regarding the description. This week is an easier week than most because you can let your mind go wild! Beater: Someone who is awfully protective of their friends and family and don't mind getting in trouble to show it. They aren't necessarily violent but people will eventually be scared to anger them. / Prompt used: (location) The Great Hall

- Gringotts Prompt Bank/Sex and the City: (dialogue) "They're stupid and lazy and they should be shot on sight.", (word) Threatened

- Gringotts Prompt Bank/Secret Diary of a Call Girl: (word) Powerful, (dialogue) "You know me, I never play by the rules."

- Gringotts Prompt Bank/Poems Porn: "Sometimes you meet someone and even though you never liked brown eyes before, their eyes are your new favourite colour."

- Gringotts Prompt Bank/Said Synonyms: chirped, asked, grumbled, spat

- Word Prompt Express: present

Word Count: 1,925

Chapter Five
Brown Eyes

Travelling through time was beginning to have an impact on Luna, but she wasn't about to admit that out loud. After several months of living almost constantly in the past, she was travelling back to her present less and less. When she did, she was confused about her surroundings and where—or when—she was. Deep down, she knew that she was going to have to return indefinitely at some point, but she didn't want to just yet.

To do so would mean to leave Barty and Regulus behind. Not just that, but to leave this entire new life behind. She had never felt such a strong sense of belonging before now. She felt like an anachronism; she'd been born in the wrong decade altogether.

Barty and Regulus's final day at Hogwarts came around much quicker than Luna could ever have expected, and it was on that day that she knew she would have to leave them soon. It wouldn't be long before they would both embark on new areas of their lives—and in Barty's case, Luna knew that his path wouldn't be the best one. If she were to get involved with the choices he made after leaving Hogwarts, she could alter a lot in the present time, and she didn't want to be responsible for any drastic changes.

It was sad, but it was what had to happen.

She sat in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, waiting for Barty and Regulus to come up from the dungeons to greet her. She spotted their faces, both of them grinning and pulling their trunks behind them, out of their robes and dressed in casual Muggle clothing. Her heartstrings tugged at the sight of them—she wasn't ready to leave them just yet.

Perhaps she could stretch just a few more days with them? She knew for a fact that neither of them had become Death Eaters yet—both of them were currently wearing short sleeved t-shirts with their bare arms exposed, and even though everyone in their right minds was aware of Voldemort and his movement, it was still the early days for Barty and Regulus yet. They still had a few years before things would turn truly bad.

A flicker of hope blossomed within Luna. She still had a few years left.

"Hey, daydream queen," Regulus chirped as he and Barty arrived at Luna's side. "Why are you still in your Ravenclaw robes?" he lowered his voice. "Not that you've needed them at all while you've been here. All you've done is lurk around the school," he sniggered.

"I've been doing my schooling in my own time," Luna replied with a smile. "So that's none of your concern."

"Where are you going now?" Barty asked immediately, and she shrugged.

"I don't know. I guess, I was waiting to see what the pair of you were going to do, now that you've finished Hogwarts."

"I want to celebrate," Barty started, earning a sigh and an eye-roll from Regulus. "I suggested that the three of us spent the night in a hotel, or something."

Luna raised her eyebrows, staring widely at Barty.

"Not like that!" he said hastily, his face glowing. "I just meant it could be fun, you know. If we stay in one of those Muggle bed-and-breakfast things. We could play cards and—"

"—as much as playing cards sounds like a truly riveting idea," Regulus interjected sarcastically. "You know that my parents will be waiting on that platform for me, Barty. They're not going to let me wander off to some Muggle suburb with you, when your dad has thrown some of their best mates in jail, and you," Regulus nodded to Luna. "They don't even know who you are. They'll have a million questions that you won't be able to answer. And anyway—your dad is going to be the same, Barty. We'll both be going down to the Ministry tomorrow in our best suits to be employed as interns to our fathers."

Barty groaned loudly.

"You know it's the rules," Regulus added with a sigh. "My parents are being even more serious with me since Sirius was disowned."

"You know me, I never play by the rules. I'm beginning to think Sirius had the right idea," grumbled Barty. "Your parents are ridiculous."

Regulus didn't reply, so Luna piped up. "You don't like Regulus's mum and dad?"

"They're stupid and lazy and they should be shot on sight," Barty replied curtly. Regulus threw him a dark look. "Hey, it's true! I hate my father passionately, but no one can say that he's lazy. I know your dad works with the Ministry, but what does he do, really, apart from throwing them some complementary money every couple of months? And your mum—well, I won't even get started with her."

"Fine!" roared Regulus suddenly, making Luna jump and several other students turn to look at him. "I'll ask my mum if I can spend the night with you guys. But that's all I can do, okay?"

Barty grinned. "That's the spirit."

oOo

Luna and Barty sat a little way away from Regulus on the platform once they got out into King's Cross. She turned to look at Barty as they sat, waiting for their friend. His hand was resting closely to Luna's, and their pinky fingers were just touching. She wondered if he could feel the electricity that was coursing through them.

His brown eyes were focused on Regulus, who was shuffling around by the ticket booth, his hands in his pockets as he waited for his parents. She could tell that Barty desperately wanted Regulus to be free of his mum and dad so that they could go and celebrate—clearly, it meant a lot to him.

It meant a lot to Luna, too. Even though Barty's ideas had been mediocre at best, and certainly not what some of the other graduates would be planning for their first night away from Hogwarts, she still had high hopes that they would have a good time. The three of them had developed such a strong bond over the months, that Luna was sure they could be cleaning up litter and still make a good time of it.

Luna knew who Regulus' parents were before he even acknowledged them. They were a pair who couldn't look more out of place if they tried.

Orion Black was almost a replica of Regulus, except, he was slightly wider in the shoulders and his face was lined and his hair threaded with silver. He wore a stiff black pinstripe suit with a grey shirt underneath, which might have looked acceptable if it wasn't for the red cravat that he wore at his neck. He had a long cane in his hand with a skull for the handle, and from the possessive way that he clutched it, Luna guessed that he kept his wand encased within it.

But it was Walburga Black who really sent shivers down Luna's spine. The woman stood at almost five foot eight in her life-threatening heels and her wispy blonde hair that was tied up in an intricately plaited knot at the back of her head. She had a pursed lip that McGongall would be proud of, and she was wearing a tight black dress that was buttoned all the way from the chin to her knees. Her dark stare scanned the platform swiftly, lingering momentarily on Barty.

Luna couldn't hear what they were discussing, but Walburga's body language said enough. Her face went from stony to worse as Regulus spoke, and when he finished, she was practically grimacing at him, her teeth bared violently like a vicious shark. Luna swallowed—how on earth could Regulus stand to be around her? The woman terrified her right through to the bones, and she had only just seen her from afar.

The activity on the platform seemed to slow right down suddenly, as Luna and Barty continued to watch Regulus's exchange with his mother. It was in slow motion that she pulled back her arm, raising it above her head. Barty's fingers clenched around Luna's.

The slap that Walburga landed on Regulus's cheek seemed to echo around the whole building. It was so forceful that it pulled Regulus off his feet and sent him flying through the air, before he came crashing down on the ground, landing face-first.

He had barely touched the floor before Barty had stood up from the bench and started running wildly towards Regulus, pulling Luna along with him. When they reached the family, Luna knelt down beside Regulus, pushing his hair out of his face and observing the crimson, hand-shaped mark on his cheek.

Before now, Luna had only ever seen Regulus looking powerful. He exuded attitude and influence, and he was always the one who was laughing, cracking a joke, lightening the mood. But here on the floor, he looked like a wounded child. This was what his parents had turned him into.

"Who on earth are you?" spat Walburga Black, but Luna didn't quite have the nerve to look at her. It was odd, as Luna was rarely truly afraid of anything—but this woman made her want to quake. And if she had the ability to break down someone as strong as Regulus, then Luna knew that she wasn't stupid to be afraid of her.

She didn't need to reply, however, as Barty stood in front of her and Regulus immediately, obscuring them from Mr and Mrs Black's view. "Never mind who she is," Barty yelled. The passion was in his voice, and Luna wished he would stop. She knew that this woman wasn't someone to speak to with such disdain. "How could you slap your own son in the face like that?"

Luna noticed that Barty had one hand in his pocket, clutching his wand. "Barty," she whispered. "Don't."

"You don't deserve to be parents!" Barty continued, yanking his wand out and pointing it at Walburga. "You don't deserve Regulus as your son."

Orion stepped in front of his wife suddenly, so that the tip of Barty's wand jabbed against his throat. "How dare you speak to my wife like that, boy," he spoke in a dangerously low voice. "How dare you raise your wand to her."

Without waiting to see what would happen next, Luna did the only thing that came natural to her. She clutched Regulus with one hand, and grabbed Barty with the other. Before Orion or Walburga could say anything else, she had sucked them both into side-along apparition.

oOo

They were safe about an hour later, in the top room of a bed-and-breakfast back in Scotland. Neither Regulus or Barty had said anything since Luna had forced them away from the Blacks in London. They had only watched each other from across the room, their eyes boring into each other.

Luna watched the pair of them too, observing each of them. Regulus's dark, almost black eyes were filled with pain and sadness and something else—guilt, perhaps. Barty's, however, were filled with nothing but hate. His gold-flecked, chestnut-brown eyes stared at Regulus, willing him to have the strength not to feel so loyal to his parents.

And Luna remained silent, letting her gaze settle on each pair of brown eyes in turn. She didn't know how she had come to be in the situation she was on, but she knew that she wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Sometimes you meet someone and even though you never liked brown eyes before, their eyes are your new favourite colour.