Luna(tic) (Marauders Era)

33. When No One Else is Laughing

"I can't believe you said that!" The words were shrill coming out of Pandora's mouth, the sound barely kept below the scream that would have brought the librarian bearing down upon them.

Remus couldn't blame her for the volume, even when the sound of distant shushing greeted their ears. He himself was still in shock. It was hard to believe that Sirius had come up with such an awful nickname. That James had agreed. That he had pressed it. That neither of them had noticed the way Luna had started looking so... Well. So small. So panicked. So desperate to disappear.

It was the second time he'd seen her look like that. Like she was one wrong word from falling apart. Like she wanted nothing more than to run and keep running.

"What?" James was asking now, his tone and his hands, spread wide, palms up before him, speaking of defensive confusion. It would have been difficult for Remus to believe if he hadn't known James to be exactly oblivious enough to not have noticed the way every word out of his mouth had seemed to break Luna down just a little bit more. And just as he couldn't blame the volume or vehemence of her initial response, Remus also couldn't blame Pandora for not believing James. He himself wasn't quite convinced, after all.

"Oh don't play innocent James," Pandora practically sneered, her lip curing as she regarded James with more distaste than even Remus would have expected. "That was just plain cruel."

"We were joking!" James defended, eyes widening, looking genuinely confused. And genuinely annoyed.

Pandora didn't seem to much care, however. She just sniffed, the sound derisive, unimpressed. Accusatory. "You were the only ones laughing," she pointed out tartly.

"Yeah. Well," James muttered, and Remus recognized the beginnings of a protective resentment bubbling up even before James added, "It's not our fault Lunatic over there's a little uptight."

"Don't call her that," Remus said quietly, but the words were drowned out by Pandora's response, which was no longer even close to contained in the acceptable volume range for a library.

"Uptight!" the Ravenclaw demanded, the high pitch of the word stuck somewhere between a shout and a shriek but undeniably angry. Infuriated. Hurt on behalf of the friend who had barely even spoken, much less shouted, in her own defense mere moments ago.

"Well she is," James defended, and again, Remus had the impression that his friend was grasping at straws. That he knew lines had been crossed and was simply too proud to admit it. That he was digging himself deeper for the sole sake of avoiding the shame of admitting he'd done something wrong. "I mean were you paying attention?" he pressed, "She just-"

"You called her crazy!" Pandora interrupted, heading off whatever justification James was going to provide. Which, Remus thought, was probably for the best, even if he was now absolutely certain the librarian was coming to tell them off, if not kick them out altogether. "To her face!" Pandora added, hands spreading wide on the table as though trying to encompass the entirety of James's guilt. And Luna's pain.

James scowled. "I've called you crazy and you didn't lose your mind," he countered bitterly. Which was true, of course. James had a tendency to call anyone who disagreed with him crazy. Or mad. Or some other variation of off their rocker. Even Remus had been on the receiving end. But of course, Remus wasn't Luna. And Remus had been laughing, not looking like he was fighting back tears.

"That's not the point," Pandora snapped, her tone ever so slightly back under control even as Kendra Young nodded from beside her, scowl seeming to deepen by the moment, new creases forming in her dark brow with every flimsy defense James put forward.

"Then I don't understand the point," James huffed, throwing up a hand in evident frustration.

"Clearly," Kendra muttered, though Remus disagreed. He rather thought James knew exactly what the point was. He simply didn't like it.