Luna(tic) (Marauders Era)

1. A Stranger and His Vanishing Butterflies

Luna was going crazy again.

This wasn't new. It was just sometimes worse. And right now, it was bad. Mostly because Sam wouldn't shut up. That wasn't a problem in and of itself, of course. Sometimes, Luna liked it when Sam was talkative. It helped fill the long boring hours of her afternoon. But other times, like now, she had other things to be focusing on. Things that were important enough that she really needed to ignore Sam, a task that was by no means easy when he was wandering off on a tangent about the magical properties of the flowers in the backyard, which, however interesting, wasn't very helpful right now.

She'd have liked, really, to be able to tell him to be quiet. Just for ten minutes and then she would listen to him ramble about their wilting Moly patch for as long as he wanted. But if she said that, then the stranger sitting on the armchair across from her mother would also know that she was crazy. And that was a fact Luna preferred to keep to herself.

She hadn't always. There had been a time when she'd spoken to Sam easily, carelessly, just glad to have a friend around. She'd wanted, even, to introduce him to others. And there had been a time when people hadn't thought much of that. After all, what was strange about a child with an imaginary friend?

But then she'd gotten older and everyone had outgrown their imaginary friends and Sam had still been there. Because he wasn't imaginary. It was just that no one else could see him. And that was when people had started calling her crazy.

That was a long time ago now, but somehow, the insult had never stopped stinging. Maybe it was because, whatever she told herself, Luna had never quite made peace with the idea. Afterall, she didn't want to be crazy. She didn't suppose anyone would. And really, if it hadn't been for everyone telling her so, she wouldn't have believed it. Sometimes, she still didn't. But she'd learned the hard way not to argue when people told her she was. It was a waste of time and it only ever ended with her wondering if they might be right. It was Rule Number One: Don't argue.

Luna had many rules. She'd made them for herself. Made them so she wouldn't forget. So she wouldn't repeat old mistakes. Rule Number One was the first she'd learned and it was among the simplest, both in content and origin.

The story behind it was simple: once upon a time, Luna had argued when someone had called her crazy. Back then, she'd been utterly certain that she wasn't remotely insane and she'd wanted to make sure this rather misinformed individual knew so as well. But, as it turned out, nothing convinced someone you were crazy faster than denying it. So she didn't. At least, not anymore.

"Luna, darling, are you listening?" came a voice, pulling Luna rather unceremoniously from her thoughts to look at her mother, who was frowning, her expression the same tired thing it always was when her daughter started glazing over.

Luna blinked, guilt curling in her stomach. She didn't mean to annoy her mother. And of course, her mother would have said she didn't, but Luna didn't always believe it. She saw the exhaustion her mother tried to hide. She saw the worry. The stress. And she knew, though her mother never said it, that a lot of things would have been a lot better if Luna could have just been different. If she could have just been normal.

"Sorry," Luna replied, wincing slightly and trying not to stumble over the words as Sam continued his one sided conversation to her right, now wondering what made the starthistle their mother used in potions different from the muggle starthistle that grew by the side of the road or if they were really the same and it was all just another ridiculous ploy to get you to shop in stores instead of picking your own.

"I didn't mean to," Luna added, picking at the fraying hem of her shirt and scuffing the thin carpet with her foot in vain attempt to keep her focus from drifting to Sam, who she really wanted to tell to read the room. This was not the time for his plant chatter.