Looking at the Stars

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June 1996

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Luna woke up in the middle of the night, panting loudly and sweat moistening her forehead. Just a dream, she told herself to calm down again, just a dream. In her dream she had been back in the Department of Mysteries, in the Room of Prophecies. And Death Eaters were chasing her, and the crystal balls fell down on her. She saw the door that led to another room, a hopefully safer room, and her friends were already through the door but no matter how fast Luna ran, she didn't get nearer to the door. Suddenly, she fell, and her scream woke her up.

She looked around the semi-dark dormitory, but Cho was fast asleep. Luna sighed, slowly calming down again but not enough to go back to sleep soon again. Her gaze went to the window, and she was disappointed to see a cloudy sky. Whenever she couldn't sleep, looking at the stars and dreaming herself away helped. But how could she gaze at the stars when there were no stars? Luckily for her, she knew another place for gazing at the stars – and she didn't even have to break rules to do so.

She got out of her bed and into her plush slippers and put a robe around her. Then she left her dormitory and went into the common room. Although she hadn't been to the other common rooms, she was certain that the Ravenclaw common room was the most amazing of them all. The blue-bronze drapes were over the large windows now but on a sunny day you could see over the whole lake. There were niches with bookshelves, desks and chairs, so reading and studying was comfortable. At the end of the hall stood a marble statue of Rowena Ravenclaw, smiling gracefully over her industrious students. But the best of all was the ceiling: midnight blue with painted stars that glowed in the dark, which looked more real than the ceiling in the Great Hall.

Luna smiled and went into the middle of the room before lying down on the blue carpet and staring at the starry ceiling. She went through the different constellations and thought about their stories. Astronomy was one of her favourite subjects – was there anything more sublime than the endless but beautiful universe? – and she had spent many hours in the library researching the mythological figures that lingered forever on the sky canvas.

There was Cassiopeia, the wife of the Ethiopian king Cepheus and mother of Andromeda, who had claimed to be more beautiful than the Nereids, the nymphs of the sea. The sea god Poseidon had been so angry with her that he had flooded her lands and condemned her daughter to be eaten by a sea monster. Luckily for Andromeda, Perseus had come and rescued her before marrying her. The whole family was now part of the stars.

Luna's gaze shifted to Hercules whose star constellation always made her chuckle because you could see the man holding his club. Hercules had been a demigod, one of the great heroes of Greek antiquity, but in the stars, he reminded her of a man from the Stone Age.

"What are you doing there?"

Luna lifted her head slightly to see who had spoken.

At the door to the girls' dormitories stood Cho in a dark blue robe.

"I couldn't sleep," she replied and put her head back down to look up. She expected Cho to simply leave again, maybe while rolling her eyes at strange Loony, but to her surprise Cho walked towards her and then sat down next to her on the soft carpet.

"I heard about the Department of Mysteries," her roommate spoke in a soft voice.

Luna kept staring at the stars, her safe harbour, her way of forgetting…

"Well, bits and pieces," Cho continued, "and I think most of it is exaggerated. But it still must have been crass."

"It was," Luna whispered.

"You know, I think you were really brave. I don't believe I would have been able to fight against Death Eaters."

Here Luna finally turned her eyes to Cho's face which looked forlorn. "You know people never believe they are able to do something until they are suddenly doing it. And that's why we have Dumbledore's Army. To practice for the right moment."

Cho gave her a smile and nodded. For a while they remained silent, both in their thoughts, until Cho sighed deeply and asked in a happier voice: "So why are you lying on the floor?"

Luna chuckled. "I'm looking at the stars."

Cho's face turned upwards. "Beautiful," she whispered.

Luna smiled and when Cho lay down next to her and they both gazed at the stars, she remembered that she wasn't alone anymore. Yes, what had happened in the Department of Mysteries was only the beginning of the fight against Voldemort, but whatever would come, she wouldn't face it alone. Luna had finally friends.