In the Melancholy Moonlight

Chapter CVII: Saturday Morning

HARRY:

Saturday morning dawned bright and early. Ron was already awake — to my surprise — and pulling his Quidditch robes over his head. I soon jumped out of bed and followed suit; I'd been looking forward to Quidditch more than nearly anything else about returning to Hogwarts. I wanted to wait for Lucy in the common room, but Ron seemed tense at the prospect of his first practice, so I didn't say anything and instead followed him out of the portrait hole.

She won't be alone, Angelina and Alicia will walk down with her, I reasoned to myself.

The twins were already there when Ron and I arrived in the changing room.

"Alright, Ron?" George asked, taking in the paleness of his face and the stiffness of his shoulders.

Ron nodded. "Yeah."

Fred smirked. "Ready to show us all up, Ickle Prefect?"

"Shut up," Ron muttered back.

The curtain behind us parted, and I turned around with a smile to offer Lucy.

My smile vanished when it was Katie Bell who entered with Angelina and Alicia instead of Lucy.

Angelina started talking as if nothing was wrong. "Okay everyone," said Angelina, entering from the Captain's office, already changed. "Let's get to it; Alicia and Fred, if you can just bring the ball crate out for us. Oh, and there are a couple of people out there watching but I want you to just ignore them, alright?"

I blinked, remaining rooted to the ground even as the rest of the team filed out around me.

Lucy had always been there for Quidditch. She had been there when Ron first told me about it. She had been there when I had chased after Malfoy with the Remembrall. She had been there for the match where Quirrell jinxed my broom and the match where I beat her brother to the Snitch. She had been there and even replaced me in the match I missed because I was in the Hospital Wing. She had been there when I broke my arm and when Lockhart made it worse, and she had been there that night in the Hospital Wing, too. She had been there that fateful day Hermione was petrified, and she had been there when Quidditch practice started up again the next year. She had been there when I fell off my broom, she had been there when we cast our Patronuses at the "dementors," she had been there when we won the Quidditch Cup. She had been there at the Quidditch World Cup, too, and even though we didn't watch the match together and found ourselves separated when the Death Eaters attacked, we'd still spent the early hours of the morning together, away from everyone else.

Lucy had always been there for Quidditch. I had no idea what it would be like without her, or why she wasn't there in the first place.

But I didn't have time to wonder. I reluctantly tossed my broom onto my shoulder and followed everyone else out onto the Pitch.

We were immediately met with a mocking uproar from a group of Slytherins in the stands.

Malfoy's voice, of course, rang out the loudest. "What's that Weasley's riding? Why would anyone put a Flying Charm on a moldy old log like that?"

Ron kicked off, ears reddening from anger and humiliation, so I shot up behind him.

"Ignore them. We'll see who's laughing after we play them," I muttered.

"Exactly the attitude I want, Harry!" Angelina said with a smile. She opened her mouth to say something else, but Pansy Parkinson interrupted her.

"Hey, Johnson, what's with that hairstyle anyway? Why would anyone want to look like they've got worms coming out of their head?"

Fred looked for half a second as if he'd chuck his bat straight at Pansy's face, and if I'd had something to throw I would have thrown it, but Angelina wasn't fazed. She merely pushed her hair over her shoulder and said, "Okay everyone, we're going to start with some passes just to warm up, the whole team, so spread out and let's see what we can do!"