Strangeways, Here We Come
Illusions…
Tonks slept badly on the full moons. In fact, she always had – but now it was worse. Sleeping badly was actually a rather inaccurate term, for often there was no real sleeping involved; she would merely toss and turn fretfully for hours on end, waiting for the sun to rise.
How could she sleep when somewhere out there in the night Remus was hurting?
The answer was simple: she couldn't. It got to the point where she didn't even bother to try.
Instead she began to keep vigil by the window, sitting on the sill and following the moon's graceful dance across the night sky.
She would watch as it loomed large over the horizon; she would watch as it rose, growing smaller as it ascended; she would watch as it finally faded when the sun made an appearance, and she would release a breath she hadn't even known she'd been holding.
There was an eerie sort of beauty to it, Tonks supposed; but she couldn't bring herself to truly enjoy it. The only thing she enjoyed was watching the moon seem to shrink as it rose higher and higher – she liked to think that the smaller it became, the more its hold on Remus waned.
She told him of her thoughts and observations one morning while patching him up, after he had guessed how she'd spent her night (and she cursed herself for not morphing away those bags under her eyes!).
"Ah, that's the moon illusion," he explained with a small smile. "The moon always looks larger when it's closer to the horizon than when it's up higher in the sky. It never really changes size, of course – it's an optical illusion."
"Oh," she said, then chuckled at how the man could somehow endure painful transformations and injuries and still manage to be a professor the morning after. At least it seemed to take his mind off his bumps and scrapes, so she asked, "Why does it happen, then?"
"Well, some theories talk about angular sizes, others talk about apparent distance… There's no official agreed upon answer."
"Where's the fun in official answers anyway?" Tonks scoffed good-naturedly as she finished up the last of the healing spells. "Which do you think it is, Professor?"
"To be honest, I never gave it that much thought," he murmured with a tight smile. "No matter what the true explanation may be, the moon always seems too big to me."
Well, I'd like to wish my readers Happy New Year! And they say that the way you ring in the New Year is the way you'll spend the rest of the year – so here's hoping that by posting today, I'll have a very productive year on the fanfic front! Of course, reviews are always good for motivation… ;)
Toodles,
- ish -