In the Melancholy Moonlight

Chapter CXXIII: Silencio and Evanesco

LUCY:

By the time the rest of the world was beginning to wake up, I was alone on the fourth floor of St. Mungo's. I was in a small room by myself, at the very end of a long hallway. Professor Moody was sorting something with the healers. Professor Lupin had stopped at the second floor to visit an old friend of his. Tonks had to leave, seeing as she was doing Order business that day, but she'd walked with us there.

I heard approaching footsteps and internally braced myself for whatever the day would bring as soon as the door opened. But as they neared, I realized these footsteps weren't those of an adult. They belonged to a child. A hesitant knock at the door confirmed that guess.

"You can come in," I called softly, and the door creaked open.

A young girl stood there, curly hair tumbling around her shoulders. Her eyes, though tired, were bright, and a shy smile made its way to her face.

"H-Hi," she said, stepping in and closing the door behind her. "Y-You don't know me, but I know Cedric. I heard you were here. Lucy, isn't it?"

"I am. And you're- oh Merlin." I swallowed hard. "You're Sloane?"

When she nodded, I jumped up and rushed forward to hug her. If she was surprised by the gesture, she didn't show it.

The young girl's story returned to me in a rush, as clearly as if it had been just yesterday Cedric and I were talking about her, that day after the Quidditch World Cup.

"There was a little girl bitten by a werewolf. In June. Her name is Sloane. She couldn't have been more than six or seven. She told us that she had gone outside to see the bright full moon when... when..."

"Fenrir Greyback?"

"We think so. He's known to target children."

"She's alright now, isn't she?"

"We were able to stop the bleeding. Powdered silver and dittany. But she was so scared, and her parents, they..."

"They what?"

"They didn't want her, Lu. I saw a lot of horrible things this summer. Some injuries we couldn't heal. Some poisons that moved too fast for antidotes. Some illnesses that had progressed too far. But nothing haunted me more than what happened to Sloane."

"Where is she now?"

"Still in St. Mungo's. Everyone there has more or less adopted her. We worked together to help her make her own space, and unless someone adopts her, we're hoping she can stay there until she goes to Hogwarts. That way we know she has a safe place to transform and access to wolfsbane. I want to take you to meet her next summer. I think you could really help her. She's the sweetest little girl, Lucy. You'd love her."

"Take me. I want to meet her."

"I will. You will."

I held the girl a little tighter for a moment before releasing her. Her smile widened a bit as she glanced up at me. "You're taller than I thought you'd be."

I shrugged and nodded. "I've grown recently." I returned to sit on the bed and patted one end of it. "No one's coming for another little while, I reckon, the paperwork might be... a bit difficult."

Sloane nodded as she perched herself on the bed and crossed her legs the same way I had. "It happens. We aren't always easy."

I couldn't help but stare at her. Cedric was going to take me to visit her that summer. That summer, the one he had never gotten to see. That summer, the one that had stolen him, and Mum, and Dad. Seeing her, sitting with me, was... surreal, in a sense. Like a ghost from the past, from my life with Cedric in it, had just appeared in front of me.