By the fire

It was quiet in the common room, it was nearly midnight, and Chase was still up doing some homework she had been assigned. She hated having so much work, and in earlier years, she would have said "Whatever" And gone to bed. But she was determined this year. She would learn the important things. Obviously she needed the practice, and she wanted to be a healer, and that involved a LOT of hard work! She didn't want to be one of those sissy nurses that delivered babies, and the like. She wanted to deal with the critically injured, the ones who could die at any second. That was her life, that's what she wanted, and the work helped her to forget other things.

Like how she was second guessing redating her ex. She was so confused in that matter, she didn't want to think about it. Then there was Elijah, the self centered Slytherin, who was amazingly hot, and had kissed her before the start of term feast, right when her ex boyfriend had run up, and punched him in the nose, effectively breaking it without a flinch, asked her out again, and she had run off crying. Only to be comforted by Elijah again. He obviously made life a bit more.. exciting that was for sure, but he had a girl, and she.. well she had HAD a guy. But now... she was blissfully single.

Looking at her work, and realizing she had just been staring at the paper for the past few minutes without writing anything down, she continued her essay, that wasn't due until next week, and hastily began to jot down more things. Until her mind wandered again.

The Hat had seriously messed up in her house placement, she should have been a Slytherin... she was cold hearted, mean, and obviously couldn't keep friends for the life of her. Right now.. her only friend was a Slytherin, and obviously Slytherin's didn't have friends, just servants , the ones who got what they wanted done for them. Was she the servant? The one who helped him get what he wanted? Well he obviously didn't care TO much about that, he had been so nice.

Chase looked around the common room boredly. There were a few late night stragglers, the ones who were having a hard time adjusting to the new sleeping schedules, and the plain insomniacs, and she sighed loudly. Waving her wand over her essay the paper dried and she rolled up the parchment, putting the scroll into her bag, after tying a little piece of string around it. She moved over to the fire and sat down in one of the comfortable armchairs. The fire was burning low, but she wasn't tired yet, her mind was in overdrive. What was there to do? Nothing that was what!

Jack hated her, she thought that Chase was with Eli only just after having broken up with Andrew, when really she wasn't, he was the only one who had been nice to her! Of course she stuck around him! They had been avoiding each other in classes, ever since they had started. Sighing again she stared into the embers. She had lost her family, her best friends, her boyfriend.. and now the only one she had was Elijah, some people could do it alone, like Jack, who was strong. But Chase? She had grown up in comfort her whole life, never having to be alone. Her only family left was an old house elf, her only friend, an arrogant Slytherin? What ever happened to her perfect life?

Luna was one of the insomniacs, she was seated on one of the chairs. She'd finished her homework long ago, but she couldn't sleep. She clutched a picture of her father, tears slowly forming in the corners of her eyes. Her overwhelming grief had been put aside to make room for eager learning, but what happens when she wasn't learning anymore? She'd go to Brienne, but Brienne was not a Hufflepuff, thus she couldn't be with her all the time. She had no idea what to do.

Her moony, depressed eyes peered over her glasses. There was Chastity, or Chase as she was called. She didn't know her that well, but she figured that if she was nice, that it'd be the start of a friendship.

"Hello" Luna said, not really thinking.

Chase jumped and looked over at the voice. It had been almost silent in the common room after the last person had walked upstairs, and Chase hadn't realized there was still someone in there. She looked over at the speaker and saw a small first year girl, clutching a photograph and crying. She sat up a bit straighter and smiled lightly. "Hey.." She said softly, half afraid to break the silence. "Are you okay love? Why are you crying?" She got up and went over to the girl, kneeling down by her. She pulled out a little handkerchief from her back pocket, it was white and had the initials KM. It had been her mothers. "Here.." She said softly and smiled kindly at the girl.

If there was one thing Chase hated seeing, was a young girl like this crying. She stayed knelled next to the chair and turned her eyes to the fire. "It's a quiet night in the common room... I wonder if ours is the only one who is so quiet at this time of night.. I bet the Gryffindors have parties every night, stay up all night, that's why they are always so silly." She said and giggled slightly. "Lack of sleep.." She turned back to the girl. "I'm sorry, I'm Chase Moor, what's your name?" She pushed herself to her feet and sat down on the nearest armchair, looking at the girl with curiosity.

Luna clenched the handkerchief, wiping away a tear.

"I'm Luna-Lorrie. You can call me Luna, though", she showed Chase the photograph of her father, who looked a bit different from her. "He died over the summer, Nick Potter told me the bad news when I was vacationing in Nova Scotia". She giggled a little at the Gryffindor remark, "My friend Daniel was in Gryffindor when he was in school. He said that not much studying went on in the dorms or the common room". Her dark skin showed odd colors in the lighting of the room, well, odd compared to average. Only because she was dark-skinned though. Her heterochromia also made her odd, one eye blue and the other brown.

"My big sister's in Ravenclaw. I wonder what they're doing at this hour."

"Hello Luna." She said smiling lightly and looked at the picture. She felt a pang in her heart for the girl. "I know what it feels to lose a parent.." She said slowly and then looked at the handkerchief again. "Nick Potter? I know him.." She said thinking hard on it, before shrugging. Daniel... this girl, who she had never met, had a lot of connections in her life. But she had a feeling she meant someone else, it just gave her the mental image of the vampire who had graduated recently. She took a deep breath and looked at the girl. "I bet she's asleep, it is late, and they get their homework done so much faster then us." She said smiling at the girl.

"I have a friend in Slytherin.. I bet he hasn't even touched his homework." She said with a smirk. "He's probably dead asleep in his dorm, not even thinking about the consequences of not doing his homework, the teachers are pretty horrible this year if I may point that out.. they seem to enjoy torturing us..." She said shaking her head. "What year are you in Luna?" She asked looking in concern at the girl. At least she only had a year of this year to go through, a torturous year, but with the tough teachers, it kept Chase from thinking to hard on her own personal problems.

"I'm in First Year, I have three classes in total; Herbology, Transfig, and DADA." Luna replied. "I just hope there's no full moon tonight, or my sister won't be getting any sleep tonight". She was of course talking about Brienne, who was a werewolf.

"Wait, a friend in Slytherin? Is he the same one that Brienne had a crush on? Eli Krum? The one that her and Daniel stayed with? I saw him and you on the train before the demons came". She wondered if Brienne was wide awake from anything, including grief from Silas.

Chase looked wide eyed at the girl. "I don't know about the moon, but yes, Elijah Krum is who I'm talking about, he's my friend... he's the only one who stuck around me when all my other friends left me.. after my family was killed." She said slowly and then let her gaze wonder to the dying fire. She glanced at the girl and wondered how much she had had to see when the demons had come. "I actually met him right after the demons..." She said slowly. "My boyfriend had just broken up with me right before the demons came.." She said softly.

"Then my best friend kept me safe... cause I can't fight to save my life!" She said with a short laugh. "And then I met Elijah.." She took a deep breath and glanced at the girl who was still clutching her mom's handkerchief. "He's really nice... but he's only my friend.." She said glancing at the younger girl again. "Don't worry about me having a crush on him or anything!" She said smiling at her. "I wouldn't want to ruin Brienne's chances with him." She said smiling. "He's a good guy.. even if he is a bit.. arrogant, guess that's what got him into Slytherin in the first place though."

Luna looked at Chase, "Eli broke her heart, as well as Daniel's. He told her that she had no chance with him, and neither did Daniel". She gave back the handkerchief. "I guess we're running on hard luck, my family and I". She knew nothing of Simon, the boy that Brienne dated now.

"I especially feel bad for Daniel, his boyfriend that he had long ago killed himself...Stanley was a Hufflepuff just like us. I hadn't met him, but from what sis told me, he was a good person".

Chase looked surprised. "Elijah?" She thought hard, and realized this wasn't as big of a shock as it should have been. Elijah was the one to do that.. but Daniel? That was a guy's name.... but his boyfriend. Her mind was spinning. She hadn't ever met someone who was gay before. Chase stared at the fire. "Well.. I'm sure Elijah had a reason behind what he did.." She said softly. Her mind immediately went back to when she had met Elijah, he had kissed her shortly after meeting her. Then said he was her friend. She wasn't sure what to think about this new turn of information. But she couldn't leave him, he was the only one who stuck around her after all her problems.

"I didn't know about all that.." she said slowly and glanced around the room carefully. Imagine, someone in her house had killed themselves... she couldn't believe it. No matter what happened to her, she wouldn't ever get that depressed, she had so much to live for.. he obviously hadn't. "I'm sorry about your sister though.. and Daniel I guess, I can imagine Eli doing that... but he still is a good guy... he kinda picked me up off my knees when I was in a lot of trouble.." she said, thinking about maybe finding him tomorrow and, not only getting a cigarette from him, but talking to him about these two new people she heard about.

"It's true, but Brienne suspects it wasn't just Slytherins teasing him that drove him over. She believed that Stanley had problems...of another nature. Supernatural ones" Luna said, "She believed he was a werewolf. She scoured his diary for any clues as to why he offed himself . She believed she found them when she saw a couple suspicious lines within the text".

She walked over to the fire and poked at it with the poker, "I met Eli in person, he wasn't very nice to me. Well, maybe I provoked him but still."