Once in a Blue Moon

CHAPTER TWO

Lyca Frost sat quietly at the Slytherin table eating her breakfast of scrambled eggs, buttered toast, and freshly squeezed OJ, courtesy of the Hogwarts house elves. She feigned interest in the conversations taking place around her. She hated having to pretend to like these pretentious pureblooded snobs. She could care less whose parents gave them what or where they planned to vacation next summer. She would much rather be discussing the mating habits of the Ukrainian Ironbelly, or the proper application of woodrose in Good Luck Balm, or even what secret ingredient made Fizzing Whizbees taste so good. It wasn't that she wasn't proud of her heritage; her family could trace their ancestry back to the original Wizards' Council. She just felt that it took more than blood and family ties to make a great witch or wizard. Lyca sighed and reached for an apple.

"Hey Lyca," said a familiar smooth voice behind her. "Mind if I sit down?"

Lyca smiled and turned her head. Finally, somebody who could maintain an intelligent conversation had arrived. "Do you even need to ask Severus?" She shifted to make room on the bench for her life-long friend Severus Snape. "Besides, how would it look if I refused to allow my betrothed sit next to me? Mother and Father would not approve." She shook her head sarcastically, attempting to disguise the anger and frustration she felt regarding that

particular situation.

The Snape and Frost families had been close friends and allies for generations, and the families had finally decided to unite the two bloodlines. They played together as children (if you could call stealing her father's wand and playing pranks on their nannies play). Despite their families' best wishes, the pair seemed to look at each other more as siblings than lovers. They were friends, confidants, intellectual sparing partners, and occasionally partners in crime. They were betrothed to each other before they could walk, and neither Lyca nor Severus had any say in the matter. There was nothing, short of death or direct familial disobedience that could get them out of it.

"I don't see why you let it bother you," Severus said. "You know that nothing would change their minds, so why fight it? Besides, you'll get premature wrinkles if you keep frowning like that." He hid his smiling face behind an

issue of the So You Want to Be a Potions Masters.

"Why Severus Snape," Lyca answered in mock disbelief. "I do believe that was a joke."

"Then you are sorely mistaken," He said, face still hidden behind his book. "I am merely concerned about the aesthetically pleasing features of my future wife. I refuse to have a wife that looks like a dried prune at the age of 18." Lyca threw the rest of her apple at him in retaliation. She even began to say something witty in retort, but was interrupted by a loud BANG from the Gryffindor table.

Apparently the infamous Sirius Black had convinced his comrade Peter Pettigrew to try a modified Engorgement Charm on an unwitting piece of fruit. It caused the poor fruit to explode and shower the nearest diners, Lily Evans and a gaggle of other Gryffindor girls, with globs of liquefied fruit. Pettigrew turned white as he heard the girls shriek, while Black and James Potter laughed uncontrollably.

"Those insipid dim-witted fools," Severus hissed through his teeth. "They are constantly causing trouble, yet they answer to no ones authority but their own. One of these days I will find a way to get them to answer for their crimes. Hopefully in a very painful and publicly humiliating way." Severus grinned maliciously, gave the Gryffindor bunch one last petrifying glare, and continued to read.

Lyca nodded agreeably, but her mind was fixed on other things than the boyish pranks of a few Gryffindors. There was only one Gryffindor who could ever catch and hold her attention. Her eyes were transfixed on him. To Lyca, Remus Lupin was a fascinating enigma, one that she could study meticulously for hours and never tire of. Thin shoulder length brown hair framed a thin pale face. Scars marred his smooth cheeks, hands, and arms. He seemed so lonely and forlorn amongst his boisterous friends. He didn't even laugh as Pettigrew fell off his bench and scrambled over to Evans to apologize. He merely smiled and nodded, then turned his head back to his food. He had a pensive, detached look in his eyes. Like his mind were a hundred miles and dozens of years away from his actual body.

Suddenly Remus looked up from his plate and caught her gaze. Lyca's breath caught in her throat and her heart skipped a beat. It was as if he sensed her eyes on him. Their eyes were locked together for what seemed like an eternity. Both felt the other one's longing. She wanted him and he wanted her, but this relationship was even more impossible than breaking off her engagement with Severus. She was a pureblood and he was a mudblood; neither her parents nor their Houses would approve.

Potter said something to Remus, which forced him to break their eye contact. All four Gryffindor boys leaned into a huddle and had a private heated discussion. Remus nodded grimly, collected his belongings, and walked towards the Dining Hall exit. This confused Lyca, as classes didn't start for another half an hour, and these four Gryffindors always went to class together. She didn't know why, but she knew that he was in trouble somehow. She was going to help him in any way that she could, but first she had to find out what the problem was. A light went off somewhere in Lyca's head; this must have something to do with why he liked to disappear every month, and reappear three days later looking more tired and besotted than he had before. Lyca was determined to figure out what this all meant, and once she started something she always saw it through. She was drawn to Remus like a moth to a flame. She just prayed that she didn't get burned.