Luna(tic) (Marauders Era)

10. The Origin of Nicknames

That first night in the dormitory was a long one for Luna. The bed was strange. The room was strange. The day that seemed to loom even before the moon was properly up would be strange. And terrifying. Because tomorrow, Luna would sit in classrooms filled with other children and listen to lectures about the same magic she had spent years pushing down. Tomorrow she would take that wand hidden in her bags like a bad memory and use it. Tomorrow, she would do something she hadn't done in three full years. Tomorrow, in full view of a dozen and more students, Luna would use magic.

The thought of it kept her up, staring out the window, chased from sleep by the memory of the last time she had done such a thing. A memory that, like her wand, she had hidden away, half afraid of what might happen if she touched it. But now, on this sleepless night before she broke the promises she'd made in this memory, it had slipped from behind its door and would not leave her alone.

Luna had been eight the first time she'd done one of those inexplicable things her mother said all young witches and wizards were prone to. It had turned into one of those moments she knew she would never forget. But not because of the magic.

At eight years old, Luna's classes were full of all the same children she'd known for years, the ones who'd attended the same schools and had the same teachers, who had shared recesses and coloring books and make believe stories with imaginary friends all the rest of them had out grown somewhere along the way. At eight years old, Luna knew the name of every single person in her year.

She knew Jeffrey, who collected interesting rocks, Estelle, who's favourite teddy bear was lime green and inexplicably named Pink, Ava, who loved anything to do with horses, Jessie, who's favourite color was the off-red-but-not-pink of the tulips in the school yard. Brain, who visited Amsterdam with his family every summer and always told everyone about it even if they didn't ask. Teddy, who everyone called Bear, until the day he punched Fred, who never knew when to keep quiet. There was Molly, who loved butterflies, and Sylvie, who loved bugs of less pretty varieties. Winston, whose nose was always in a book, Ryan, who had once eaten a worm on a dare in Year 2. Tyler, who brought oranges to lunch, Pamela, who peeled the crusts from her sandwiches, Isla, who always wore braids, Nicholas, who went by Nick, Miles, who shared his carrot sticks and Evelyn who gave her the raisins she never wanted. There was Cora and Olivia and Henry and on and on and on.

Luna could name all of them. Luna had played with all of them. Had thought she was friends with all of them. And if they teased her for those times when she was careless about Sam, if they joked that she better hurry on and grow up, Luna thought it was all in good fun.

Until that day.

Until Jeffrey and Estelle and Peter and Teddy and Molly came up to Luna at recess and asked her if she wanted to play a game with them and Luna had asked a simple, harmless question she had never spoken since. "Can Sam join?"

They had laughed. They always did. Luna smiled with them. And she waited for an answer.

"Sam's not real," Peter had said, half a smile still on his face. "So no."

And Sam, by Luna's side, had scowled. "Well, who wants to play their stupid game anway?" To which the honest answer had been: Luna. Luna wanted to play. She was bored here sitting against the side of the school house. Bored and wanting to laugh with her friends beneath the first sunny skies of the spring.

So she'd said, "Please?"

And they'd laughed again. But this time, Luna hadn't smiled. "He's not real, dummy," Estelle had told her. "Stop being stupid and come play with us."

Which had been insulting, of course, and Luna would have taken it as a joke, but Same most certainly didn't. And since Sam couldn't stand up for himself, Luna stood up for him. Or, at least, she had in those days. Before she'd learned to keep her mouth shut. "Well," she'd said, sticking her chin in the air with a stubbornness she didn't quite remember losing, "if Sam can't play then I won't either."