In the Melancholy Moonlight

Chapter CLIII: A Snake Inside

A/N: I'm so sorry this is so late! It's been... a week. I'm exhausted, honestly, but I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Please forgive any typos, I'm falling asleep as I type this. I'll edit everything in the morning. I just really wanted to get this out on May 22, at least in Pacific Standard Time. Thank you all for being so understanding with me, love you! Without any further ado... Chapter 153. Buckle up!

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HARRY:

I knew Lucy was nervous about returning to the Room of Requirement for the first time since the full moon, so the two of us headed down earlier than usual for the last D.A. meeting before the Christmas holidays. She was silent as we walked down there, fiddling with her sling more than usual, but as soon as we opened the door, her anxiety seemed to, for the most part, vanish.

"Now this," Lucy said, a slow grin spreading across her face, "is perfect."

I blinked, face flaming. "Thank Merlin we got here early."

"Why? You aren't planning on taking this down, are you?"

"Of course I am," I spluttered.

"Aw, Harry, Dobby must have worked so hard on it."

"You didn't help him, did you?"

Lucy rolled her eyes and held up her sling. "As much as I would have loved to help with a masterpiece such as this..."

Dobby had decorated the Room of Requirement for us. Massive golden ornaments with my face hung down from the ceiling, and there were banners reading "HAVE A VERY HARRY CHRISTMAS" on every wall.

"How early are we?" I asked. "How much time do we have to tear this down?"

"We?" Lucy repeated, lifting her sling again.

I squeezed my eyes shut. "Right. How much time do I have to tear this down?"

"Not enough, Harry James. You're just going to have to leave it all up for the meeting."

I knew from her amused tone, though, that Lucy was enjoying this far too much. She was trying too hard not to laugh.

"Not an option, Lucy Harper."

"You know, I actually don't hate that one."

"Neither do I." I frowned suddenly. "Wait, how will we do our handshake before the meeting? We both need both hands for that."

"It's not the end of the world if we miss one," she replied, her voice light, still distracted by Dobby's decorations.

I tore my eyes away from her and looked around. "Dear Merlin. Er..." I pointed my wand at one of the ribbons holding an ornament. "Diffindo!"

It dropped easily into my arms, and I vanished it a second later. I did the same for five more as Lucy watched. I almost asked her if she could throw her wand across the room and vanish everything the same way she'd thrown her wand over the side of the hill and somehow conjured a storm, but I decided against it. We hadn't spoken about anything from those couple of days — not the storm, not the ropes, not whatever boats she had deliriously mentioned to Hagrid. I assumed she was keeping me out on purpose, and probably with good reason. I still wanted to help, obviously, more than anything, but I knew by then that pushing Lucy when she didn't want to talk only forced her deeper into her shell rather than coaxing her out, so I didn't push her.

I returned to my diffindo-evanesco routine, and I had nearly vanished all of them when I heard Lucy groan.

"Everything alright?" I asked, whirling around, worried her shoulder was bothering her again.