Stars in Her Eyes {Wolfstar's Daughter}

Chapter 69: No One

To say Nell Lupin-Black was exhausted was an understatement. After her hand had just started to heal from a week of detentions with Umbridge, and the hours of OWL work had began to pile up, the last thing she needed was a full moon to kill every ounce of energy she had left.

Face down at the Gryffindor table for dinner, all she wanted was for the entire great hall to shut up.

"How you feeling?" Hermione asked softly from across the table, her voice laced with sympathy and concern as she made sure to keep it quiet.

Nell simply groaned into the table.

Growing up she had soon learnt that each full moon was slightly different. The transformation itself seldom differed but the build up quite often effect her in different ways. It always took her out like a speeding bus, and there was no doubt it always hurt but whereas sometimes she couldn't even pull herself out of bed, others she managed to make it down to the great hall for dinner.

Some months the moon washed over her like a fever, leaving her delirious, barely able to form coherent sentences and strangely philosophical. What Ron liked to call "stoner Nell".

Others she found herself having to restrain from ripping someone's head off from looking at her the wrong way. The redheaded boy deliberately made sure not to give this Nell a name, and they made a conscious effort to do everything they could to keep the girl cool.

This month, the moon when straight to her senses, cranking up every single dial in her brain into overdrive. Colours were so bright they burned, the air smelt thick and dry with dust and so cold it dragged down her nose like sandpaper.

And if she couldn't smell it she could certainly taste it, to the point she physically had to move away from her classmates opening old textbooks just to avoid the dust hitting her lips. Naturally Harry had gotten used to reading whatever information they needed from these books out loud to her from a distance, they all had. And the library was entirely out of question at these times, Nell was fairly sure even stepping one foot the old room would have her clutching her stomach.

But even worse than that, the worst of it all, every single sound hit her ears like a shard of glass, forcing it's way through her eardrum, with what felt like hot sticky blood dribbling down her face as it reached her brain. She could barely hear what people around her were saying when every word sounded like someone scraping a metal fork against the inside of her skull.

Usually on months like this, two of them would be sent to fetch food from the hall and then the group would eat in one of their dorms. But this month Nell insisted they eat in the hall. She didn't know why, maybe she thought she had something to prove to herself, that if she just did it she could get past it. Or maybe she felt guilty for dragging her friends away from dinner. She wasn't entirely sure, all she knew was that now she was here, she wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball in a dark room all alone. Even the wolf seemed a more inviting option that this.

"How's your hand" Harry leant down slightly and spoke softly beside her head from where he was sat beside her, well practised in keeping his voice down on moons like this.

"Okay" she lifted her head slightly, her hair sticking to her warm forehead, "yours?"

"I'm fine Nells, it's more you I'm worried about, you look really pale" he frowned slightly, pulling the hair away from her sweaty forehead as she looked back at him.

She watched his hand move to her face, gently pulling the stray hairs away. She couldn't help the notice the way his skin felt nice and cool against hers.

"Maybe eating something will help?" Ron suggested, reaching to put a couple of things on her plate.

Nell just shrugged exhaustedly. There was little comfort to be taken by the girl when she knew the worst of the night was ahead of her.