LUNAR (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

Thirty Seven. Spring Solstice.

Caiti had been positively swamped with owls since Saturday, most of which she was only now, on Wednesday evening, getting around to opening. She sat in the common room with all of them now, taking over an entire large study table. She'd had to sort them into stacks by priority: those from her friends and relatives first, then letters from the people who were interested in mentoring her, and then everything else.

This last stack was the largest, and she could only assume they were from people who had read either the article about her award that had come out in the Sunday issue of the Daily Prophet or the new speculative article that had been in the most recent issue of Teen Witch.

The Prophet article had not been front page news, but it had been a fairly large article with multiple photographs, including one of her hugging Marlowe at the bottom of the stairs right after the presentation that had quickly revived the gossip magazine's old interest in their relationship.

She opened the letter from her parents first, which had many renewed congratulations and assurances that they were proud of her. It was very nice, but Caiti was so sick of saying thank you that she only skimmed it and put it aside for later when she had come down from it all.

Marlowe had sent Caiti three separate letters with long lists of questions since Saturday. She had answered the first the very same day, but the other two she was only getting around to now. When the school week had begun again, it had sunk in just how far behind she was on her homework and preparations for N.E.W.T.s. The exams were less than three months away, and Caiti had hardly thought about them all year.

She was still checking on her sun violets several times a day, but otherwise, her research had taken a backseat to everything else for the first time all year. Caiti felt strangely present in her own life. After months and months of living mostly inside her own head, it was weird to be focused on the things actually happening around her.

It was nice though, too, to have a bit of distance from everything. A bit of space would probably clear up some of the things she'd been struggling with and give her a new boost of energy to get working when this became her sole focus that summer.

Answering Marlowe's questions, however, felt like a priority.

She was halfway through this task when Amelia showed up and plopped herself down at the little round table Caiti was sitting at near the large windows in the common room.

Caiti looked up, expecting Amelia's usually bubbly self, but she looked very glum indeed.

"Hi," Caiti said.

"Hi," said Amelia. She sounded just about as glum as she looked.

"What's up?" Caiti asked. "Are you okay?"

"Have you ever felt like your friends were never really your friends at all?" she asked quietly. Caiti followed her gaze over to where Miriam, Lila, and Sophie were sitting near the fireplace. Lila had her nose in her homework but even from this distance, Caiti could read on her face that she was trying to disengage from whatever was happening around her.

"No," Caiti said, watching Miriam gesticulate about something or other with a very ugly look on her face. "I can't say I have."

Amelia didn't say anything else, just continued to watch the other girls.

"Is it your friends or a friend?" Caiti asked, though she was pretty sure she knew the answer.

"Miriam," Amelia said.

"What's she doing?"

Amelia shook her head. "Picking at everyone," she said. "What she always does." She took a breath and then added, "Saying I'll never pass more than a few N.E.W.T.s because my head's too full of boys and that Lila's going to look great on paper but she's going to flop in every job interview because she's too quiet. And that you're a show off and a know-it-all."