In the Melancholy Moonlight

Chapter CLIV: Just Might Work It Out, Forever

LUCY:

My shoulder was hurting again.

I'd left the sling on for too long. I'd grown too dependent on it. Using my arm again after two weeks of barely moving it sent a steady pulse of pain through my shoulder. It had been muted all night, but as I'd been lying in bed staring at the ceiling and as Ginny slept fitfully in the bed across the room from me, it had started throbbing again.

Monster. Monster. Monster.

It started throbbing more as we walked to Mungo's.

Louder came the accusation that accompanied the pain.

Monster. Monster. Monster.

The words on the door. "DANGEROUS" in particular.

Monster. Monster. Monster.

"A werewolf? Is he safe in a public ward? Shouldn't he be in a private room?"

Monster. Monster. Monster.

As I had slipped from the room, Tonks asked if everything was alright. I said yes and that I just wanted to give the family a bit of space and visit a friend of Cedric's. Alastor asked if this had anything to do with the young man in the bed at the end of the room. I had forgotten he could see through walls. I offered a noncommittal shrug and said he was the one who had reminded me of this friend. I could feel their eyes on me as I made my way down the hallway in the direction of Sloane's room, but I could feel the imputation in my shoulder more.

Monster. Monster. Monster.

Sloane heard me coming, so her door opened and I only caught a glimpse of black curly hair before I felt surprisingly strong arms wrap around me.

"Hi there, you," I said, carefully arranging my face into a smile for her before she pulled away.

This smile faded, though, the second I saw her face. There was a scratch on her nose. Not a big one, by any means, but a scratch regardless. A werewolf scratch.

I reached forward and cupped her face. "Oh, darling, what happened?"

She held my hand to her cheek with both of her own, tears gathering in her eyes. "I... I almost hurt someone, and... and then..."

"And then what?" I asked after a moment. When she hesitated, I maneuvered us so we were both in her room and closed the door. "You can tell me anything. I promise."

"You won't be afraid of me?"

I shook my head. "Never."

"O-Or mad at me?"

I shook my head again. "Never."

Sloane inhaled shakily, holding my hand tighter to her face and looking down at the floor. "They sent people in to train with me." The story tumbled from her lips, fast and messy as if she'd been forcibly holding it back, waiting for this moment, waiting for me. "They told everyone I wasn't going to hurt anybody because I had taken wolfsbane, but... but one of them still... he was scared, and he attacked me with something that really hurt, and I was so angry I tried to hurt him back, but then someone knocked me back and I tried to protect my face with my paws and I scratched myself instead." Tears were slipping from her eyes. "Th-They said it was good that I did."

"They?" I asked, fighting to keep the anger from my voice.

"Everyone," she whispered. "Everyone except Jabari. He said I only acted in self-defense, but somebody heard him and got angry with him and — and—"

I didn't let her finish. I pulled her into a hug and stroked her hair as she cried.

"I wanted to tell you," she said, her voice muffled by my jumper, "but I didn't want you to be scared of me the way everyone else is."