So sorry if the style seems a bit different, it has been two years after all, but I still hope you enjoy!

The Lunar Moon Chapter 9

I'm Fine

I woke up with a start, throwing the covers off of me as I jostled upright in my bed. I gripped my head as I felt lightheaded from the sudden burst of movement. I still didn't understand what was happening, as in all honesty this whole prophet ordeal made no sense, and it didn't seem likely that it was going to be explained to me anytime soon.

The ticking from the clock on my bedside table fled to my ears, and I grasped it in my hands, viewing the face of roman numerals and the slowly moving hands. It read five twenty, and from the warm light coming from outside I could only guess it was morning.

Looking at the clock reminded me of that strange dream. None of this was real, right? It just was not possible, perhaps I just had an imaginary friend – well if Celia could even count as a friend – and was slowly going insane.

Shaking my head softly to rid it of my thoughts, I swung my feet over the side of my bed, gently landing on the wooden floor without a sound. Opening my drawer I removed my school uniform and began dressing. Leaving my tie to hang around my neck I picked up my shoes and wand and headed downstairs.

The common room was empty and for that I was thankful, as I sat down on the armchair by the fire, sinking into the deep crimson fabric. I dropped my shoes down beside me and propped my feet up on the coffee table, making myself comfortable as I sat there.

Grabbing my wand lightly between my fingers I waved it at the orange flames, causing them to dance wildly, ashes flying and falling onto the burnt wood.

It was calming, strangely enough, the silence, the isolation, the warm serenade from the fire and watching as the tongues of heat licked at the air around them. I was never one for enjoying solitude, in fact I avoided it all costs. I was a needy person, who yearned for attention and had a small twang of hate when I wasn't the centre. I hated myself for it, but I couldn't help who I was.

But with this apparent 'gift' being pushed into my arms and then having this constant feeling of being watched, I didn't want the attention anymore. It scared me, to be honest, to feel like you can never be alone, as if you're a prisoner or some circus freak that people would constantly stare at and point. Then again, was any of this even real?

"I always wandered," A voice sounded from the stairs, and I turned to my head to see none other than Anna. She was leaning against the wall, standing on the bottom step, arms folded and staring at me. She was still in her pyjamas, though the bright look in her eyes, I assumed she had been awake for a while now. "What it would be like to be a muggle. Don't you think things would be so much easier? They never have to bother hiding things from us, whereas we have to enchant everything just so that they will never find out."

Anna slowly walked over and sat on the chair arm, a small, gentle smile on her face, "What are you not telling me Tanya?"

I averted my gaze, staring into the fire, "Nothing," I whispered, "Nothing is wrong at all. I'm fine..."

"Yeah of course, and that's why you disappeared into bed the first chance you got last night." she muttered doubtfully.

"I was tired, nothing more than that. I'm fine."

Anna tilted her head, "Why won't you talk to me Tan? We used to talk about everything, even if they were the stupidest things in the world." She smiled.

"It's nothing. I'm fine." I repeated.

She heaved a loud sigh, "Okay, I get it, you'll tell me when you're ready; you always do." I remained silent in reply, pulling my knees up to my chest as I curled into the chair. "Now, budge over," Anna said. I stared up at her in confusion, "Don't look at me like that. Move over so Auntie Anna can squeeze her big butt in beside you."

I rolled my eyes but complied anyway, shuffling over so she could slide in. It would seem what little piece of quiet I had was now over, as my best friend butted into my space, quite literally.

"Well… this is cosy." She said, a smile playing on her lips.

"Yes, yes it is Anna."

Since I was awake I had decided to go down to the Great Hall early, and ended up waiting for the food to appear for about half an hour. Slowly students began to appear as the minutes ticked by, and I was surprised to see Anna appear: it wasn't like her to get to breakfast at a reasonable time, and before Lily too. That wasn't the only thing that interested me, there was another girl walking along beside her towards me, and when she didn't veer off to another table I found myself looking her over. I found I couldn't place her face, which confused me. I thought I was pretty sociable and knew most people in our year, apparently not.

"Hey Tan," Anna said sitting across from me, the girl by her side. "This is Erica Inns, she joined our year just yesterday, but you went to bed before you could meet her."

I smiled at her, "Ello, the name's Tanya Silverwood," I uttered, stretching out my hand for her to shake, "Nice to meet you."

She shook my hand and grabbed a plate, sitting down beside Anna. "You too."

We sat there for a few minutes in silence before Anna spoke up. "Is anyone thinking about trying out for the quidditch team?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "You know what I'm like on the broom Annie, there's no way I'm trying out for the team. I'd probably knock the whole team off without trying."

"You are pretty bad."

"Yeah, thanks for the confidence boost Webb." I muttered back to her stabbing at the fried egg on my plate.

She chuckled, "What about you Erica? Got the skill to kill?"

Erica's eyes widened, "I can fly, but I'd never kill a broom stick."

Anna gave her a dry look, "Never mind." She muttered, going back to eating her food in silence.

"Did somebody say quidditch?" James said as he and Sirius appeared, taking a seat on either side of me. "Cause I know I'm getting into the team this year."

"Really, with those glasses, I don't think so." I said, still not eating my food.

He glared at me but a smirk was still evident on his face, "You're just jealous of my incredible talents."

"The ability to make dementors look pretty, you mean? Most certainly not"

Anna burst out laughing, while the four of us just stare at her, "That's a funny one Tan!"

Sirius spoke up, "Seriously, that wasn't funny at all."

Anna burst into laughter again, "Sirius just said seriously. So funny."

"Yeah, Anna, Sirius is serious." I muttered, ignoring the people around me.

She burst into laughter again.

"Hello Tan," a deep voice said as arms wrapped around my waist, a head resting on my shoulder. It was Max. "Miss me?"

"It's been what? Only a few days since we saw one another, I'd never miss a bloke like you."

"You hurt my feelings" He muttered, putting a fake frown on his face. I couldn't help but giggle at him.

"You need to shave" I said, feeling the stubble on his face rub against my neck.

"I thought it was kind of sexy," He muttered into my ear.

"Yeah, when you stop rubbing it against my face, seriously it's like sandpaper." I heard Anna's fit of laughter start again as she pointed over at me, "She said seriously again!"

Ignoring my strange friend and the other three around me I turned to face Max. "Please get a room," Sirius muttered from beside me. Max rolled his eyes and smirked, kissing me on the forehead before whispering a small goodbye and heading to his group of friends.

"Look at those buns of steel," I said, staring at his back side as he walked away.

"I totally agree with you there," Erica added, smirking to herself.

"Can we please not talk about my brother's ass, please?" Anna muttered, finally stopping her laughing as she began to place food on her plate, sending me a dirty look.

"What?" I questioned innocently, "Not my fault I speak my mind all of the time."

"Not always." Anna muttered under her breath, and I looked over at her, but she refused to meet my eyes for some reason.

"Actually it kind of is." James said.

I narrowed my eyes at him, "I'm sure you'd have buns of steel too if you joined the team," I turned to Sirius, "And you too."

"I always appear at the worst of times don't I?" Remus muttered as he appeared with Peter, Isabelle tagging along with Lily only a short distance behind the two boys. He sat next to Anna, handing her a book as he did so.

"Thanks Remy," She said, "Lily and Izzy!" She cried excitedly, a huge smile on her face.

"Hello Anna," Lily replied kindly as she sat down beside Erica, "Tanya."

"Lily! Izzy! It's good to see you my men." I said as they sat down.

Izzy smiled at me with a happiness I hadn't seen in a long time. "So, what do we have first?"

"Herbology!" I said eagerly, to which I was returned with a sarcastic chorus of "Yay". "You guys are such bores." I muttered, leaning on my hand grumpily.

"Ah Tanya, the somewhat bipolar plant-loving child," Anna said, "How we love you so." I stuck my tongue out at her in reply. Yeah, great come back Tan.

We were in Herbology at the moment, a shared period with the Slytherins, which currently none of us were particularly enjoying very much. The whole bunch of them were being annoying, as per usual, taking delight at our discomfort. Anna seemed to snap as she gently laid down her plant, still clutching onto the scissors we were using to trim the greenery. "Okay you sleazy hobbits shut your yap or I'll make you." She threatened, shaking the scissors in their direction. They were a group of five boys, all shorter than Anna and I. But then again, it seemed all of the boys were shorter than us at the moment, as we both peaked at five foot in height.

A blonde stepped forward, whom of which was still holding his plant, staring at Anna with uncaring eyes. Gareth Renoir, "What are you gonna do, a half blood like you has barely any magic in them to be called a witch."

Anna's eyes flashed, "Why you little-" She went to lunge at him, scissors in hand but James held her back, being smart for once.

"Anna, don't their not worth it."

"You can talk," She snapped at him, "You're the one always picking fights with the brats."

I stared at her, "Don't get snappy at James."

"You don't get it; it's not about me, their talking about my whole family, about Izzy, Erica, Kaatje, Jacques, almost everyone we know!"

James' grasp on her loosened and I relaxed as well, lifting up my wand at Gareth, fixing him with a mischievous smirk playing at my lips. He had a worried look upon his face which he was trying to hide, and his friends didn't look as if they wanted to protect him much.

"What do you call a Slytherin without teeth?" Anna questioned, standing beside me with her wand drawn. Gareth remained silent, obviously growing concerned about our plan for him. Anna shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know, I guess we'll make a name eventually."

We shared a look and then both flicked our wands, muttering the words under our breath.

I could basically see it all in slow motion: the way the tips of our wands glowed then the wind rushed towards Gareth's face, forcing his two top incisors out of his mouth, onto the floor, blood following after them and then the cracking of the pot as he dropped the plant. Mine and Anna's eyes widened in shock, but we couldn't help the smirks that grew on our faces. We stared at one another, trying not to laugh, seeing as how it was incredibly inappropriate. "Oops?" I muttered.

Gareth clamped a hand over his mouth, more so to hide it than stop the bleeding, and went to pick up his teeth. Unfortunately for him, the plant which he had dropped had already eaten the teeth, and judging by the way it was recoiling into itself, it had made itself sick in doing so.

This was the point which Professor Sprout decided to show up, and seeing blood, a fallen plant along my and Anna's smirks she could tell something had happened. "Silverwood and Webb, detention tonight at seven." She Snapped, "Now clean up this mess and get back to work. And one of you take Renoir to the nurse, he's getting blood all over the place."

I turned my gaze to Anna to see she was shaking her head, and had already went to gather a cloth to clean up the blood and dirt, which left me to take anti-bucktooth to the nurse. I glared at him, "Make a sound and I'll take out more than a tooth." I warned him, heading to the door as he tagged along behind.

We were walking along the corridor to the infirmary when Gareth spoke up, the bleeding having stopped by now. "Hey Filtherwood?" Obviously he had a lisp now. Not that I was complaining.

I continued walking ahead of him, "What?" I snapped.

"Do you think I'll get new teeth?" He questioned, and from the tone in his voice I could tell was genuinely not trying to annoy me.

I looked around at him, my mouth contorting into a form of confusion, "I don't know, you'll probably have to grow them again."

He tilted his head, "Have you ever wondered what muggleth do in school?"

I turned my head to him, "I know what muggles do in school, I used to go to one afterall. And why would you be interested in that anyway? So you can insult them further?"

He stared at me with an innocent look, "I don't hate muggleth you know." Okay, I take it back, that lisp was starting to annoy me.

"Oh yeah, I believe that after you went and insulted half-bloods." I retorted sarcastically.

He sped up to walk by my side, "I really don't, it just if I don't thay anything or I thay I like them I'll bathically be beaten up."

I stared down at him doubtfully, "And why would I care if someone like you got beaten up?"

"I want to make a truthe."

I almost fell there as I tripped over my own feet, "You mean a truce, yeah?"

Gareth gave me an honest expression, showing he was being truthful, "You heard me, between you, I and Anna I want to form thome form of understanding, no more fights or pranks."

"You seriously want to make a truce between Slytherin and Gryffindor?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Not the whole year, just yourthelf, Anna and I."

"Can I ask why? It's seems all a little fake. Plus, I can't really take you seriously, since I'm not used to you with the lisp-thing."

"I don't want to inthult you guys, but I don't want to become an enemy in my own houthe. Tho I was thinking, we have fake fights, and everyone thill believes we're true to our houthes without doing any real harm."

"Meh."

"Meh?"

"Meh." I put out my hand for him to shake, but recoiled when I noticed the blood of his fingers. "Wash your hands first, then we'll shake on it Bucky."

"Meh."

Anna glared at me from across the room, where she was watering the plants for Professor Sprout. We were in detention at the moment. "Is that seriously all you're gonna say? Meh?"

I nodded, "Meh."

She rolled her eyes at me, and I continued feeding the White shoots. They were human sized plants, thick stems covered in a white powder and large gardenia-like flowers, with a small beak in the centre reminding me of an octopus. "So," Anna piped up, still focusing on the plants. "A truce with Renoir? It's seems a little risky if you ask me."

"I know, I still don't believe him myself, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see." I replied, moving on to another group of plants. "Plus, it's not like anything we ever do is actually full-proof."

"Touché"

"And anyway, if he does turn on us, we can hex him or something, or whatever is the spur of the moment." We continued what we were doing, working in silence for the best part of twenty minutes. Professor Sprout would come and go, checking that were still working, then going away to disappear for another thirty minutes.

Anna stopped what she was doing, setting down her watering can and turning to face me. "You know how Remus is always sick once a month?"

"Yeah..." I replied, not liking where she was taking this.

"Seems a heck of a lot like our monthly problems."

I stared at her, "Seriously Anna? He isn't having his period; he's a dude for crying out loud."

"Well, you never know..."

"Don't even think it-"

"What?" She questioned innocently, "That he may or may not be a cross-dressing-transvestite-clown-loving-hobo of some kind? No, I would never think of that, never."

"You really are a pervert you know that?"

She smiled at me, "I know, but don't ya' just love me for it?"

"I actually only love your hair."

She chuckled and turned back to her plants, yet stopped when Professor Sprout returned once again.

"Okay you two, you been here long enough. You can go now." She muttered, standing in the door way as she waited for us to leave.

When we left, walking back to Gryffindor commons Anna turned to me, "I think she has a soft spot for you."

"I'd expect her to," I replied, loosening my tie around my neck. "I'm the only person in our year that actually goes out of their way to learn about plants. Plus, my mother supplies the school, so I guess that also has to do with it."

She shrugged her shoulders in contemplation. "Just a question, but what are you wanting to do when you leave school?"

"I don't know, never really thought about it, probably take over my mum's business, I guess."

"I think I may go into music, or even quidditch."

I tilted my head to her, "You play guitar don't you?"

Anna nodded, "Aye, done so for the past year now." She clicked her tongue, "How long you been jazzin' the piano?"

We arrived at the portrait hole, "Heartstring." I muttered, watching as the painting swung over to reveal the opening.

Entering the common room I noticed the group of fourth years by the fireplace and Lily sitting at the desk, working on a book. "I don't know, ever since my mum got me lessons."

"Interesting." She replied before leading the way up the stairs into our dorm.

Upon entering I spotted Erica lying on the floor on her back, reading a magazine. Izzy was laid across her bed, braiding her long her into a single fish plait.

"Bonjour." Anna said to Erica as she laid down next to her, kicking off her socks and throwing them over to her bed.

I joined them, resting over the top of Anna's legs.

"I was meaning to ask," Anna said, "What you guys doing' this year for Christmas?"

"I think I'm staying here," Erica said, still staring into her magazine. "My parents are going' over to Canada to meet family. I'm not very keen on the blighters, so it wouldn't be the most enjoyable of events."

"Well at least you know your family," I muttered, "I only know my mother and father, and he ain't even here anymore."

Erica obviously was about to ask why, but from the look she was given by Anna, she stopped in her tracks. I couldn't help but chuckle lightly at the somewhat evil look upon my friends face. She calmed down before speaking, "Me? I'm hanging out with my siblings as usual, and I suppose you'll be joining us seeing as how you're wooing my brother." Anna finished, winking at me.

"I'm not doing anything like that with him!" I cried, tensing visibly.

She stared down at me sceptically, a smirk on her lips. "Really, Tan? 'Cause you two look awfully close and cosy with one another to me."

My eyes widened, "Anna, I'm a virgin okay. V-I-R-G-I-N."

She burst out laughing, pointing at me accusingly. "Oh Merlin Tanya, you're so easy to wind up these days."

I glared at her before standing up, "This is the last time I am ever talking to you about sex. EVER." I headed for the door, the sound of laughter behind me. Opening the door I found two people falling onto my feet, can you guess who?

"Jimmy, Sirius, are you eavesdropping again?"

James stared up at me with innocent eyes, and Sirius I could only guess was doing the same, but his eyes were hidden by the unruly mop of brown hair that had fallen over his face. "Lovely," I muttered. "Two twits on top of my feet. Joy." I said before stepping around them and heading down the steps to the common room, sliding in beside Lily.

Noticing I was sitting beside her she closed her book and stared at me, before speaking up. "Look Tanya, I'm sorry about the past few months for not being the best friend. I know that I disappeared without a word, but I can explain. After James and Sirius started bullying I really hated being around them, I felt like I was betraying Severus by doing so."

"Reasonable, the two of them can go too far at times." She nodded in agreement, obviously quite glad I was agreeing with her. "And Snivellus ain't so bad, there's good in him, I remember the first time we met. He wasn't too shabby at all."

Lily ignored the name I called Severus; "Anyway, to avoid feeling awkward Isabelle and me left to wander on our own, and eventually made some good friends in Ravenclaw. Now, I know that you and Anna sometimes join in their pranks, I don't know if I can hang around you guys very much now. And to be honest, Anna always got on my nerves slightly, ever since our introduction on the Hogwarts Express." Her eyes widened.

I waved a hand at, "Don't worry about it, Anna can be an obnoxious, loud mouthed, rude, snarky, sarcastic, grumpy person, she's bound to annoy one of us sometime." I smiled at her in an attempt to readied her somehow.

"You're not going to tell her that are you?"

"Not tell who what?" A particularly English voice spoke from beside my shoulder. I smacked James on the head and gave him a dirty look.

"You know I just caught you eavesdropping only a few minutes ago and you're doing it again. You really have no shame, do you?"

He rubbed his head, frowning, "I'm a curious person, Tan, leave me be." Beside me Lily was packing up her books, slipping pieces of parchment into the front cover of her potions text book. Without a word she got up and left. I looked at her as she disappeared upstairs. I glared at James.

"What?" He asked, confused. "What did I do?"

Oh my word. How long has it taken for me to update this bloody thing? Two years almost? Oh my, I honestly am so sorry to those who were actually interested in this story. I just completely lost inspiration for it, and I thought Tanya was getting too Mary-sue for my liking so I just dropped it for a while.

But now I know how to move notes from my ipod to my computers (cause I had about three chapters worth on there but I simply couldn't be bothered typing it up) so I should begin updating this story again. Don't expect it to be regular though, I'm doing my Advanced Highers this year and preparing my art portfolio for college so I don't have an enormous amount of time on my hands.

But I will most definitely try!