In the Melancholy Moonlight, Part 4: Nebula

Chapter 176: Their Pitchforks and Proof

LUCY:

I folded up the piece of parchment on which I'd written my letter to Cedric and stuck it in my trunk with the others. I thought offhandedly that I really ought to find a better place for the letters, possibly even think of a way to "send" them, but I had to head to the Room of Requirement. I dragged my sleeves across my face a couple of times as I hurried there to try to destroy any evidence that I'd been crying, but as soon as I walked in and saw Harry, his face fell.

"What's wrong?"

I shook my head. "I'll be glad when patronus lessons are over."

"Only one or two more meetings of this, then we'll go back to shields. Those are more universally helpful anyway." Harry opened his arms and raised his eyebrows. "C'mere."

I rushed forward and accepted the hug, and a couple of the broken pieces came a little closer together.

"Reckon we could try to find a boggart sometime?" I asked as we pulled away. "It would help make sure everyone's patronuses are battle-ready."

"Good idea! We can look over the holiday," he replied.

I couldn't wait for the Easter holidays. A whole week of uninterrupted O.W.L. preparation. Hermione and I had drawn up a schedule already so we could make the most of the time we had, and we'd been brewing wideye potions under our beds for weeks at that point. I reckoned we could make an allowance to find a boggart, though, because it would give us a chance to practice the Boggart-Banishing Spell. I would mention it to Hermione later, maybe we could sneak out with Harry and the invisibility cloak that night.

The Room of Requirement slowly filled, and, to our surprise, there was a new face in the crowd. Dean had finally managed to bring Seamus along.

That night, there were several people able to produce corporeal patronuses. Hermione and Ron were among the first to do so, an otter and a Jack Russell respectively. To my surprise, Cho was able to produce a patronus too, a swan.

"Just remember," Harry called at one point, "it's easy to produce a patronus in a brightly-lit classroom when nothing is threatening you! If a dementor is around, this will become much more difficult!"

Cho sighed. "Oh, don't be such a killjoy. They're so pretty!"

"They're not supposed to be pretty, they're supposed to protect you," Harry muttered in reply.

"Harry and I learned with a boggart," I piped up, "so we'll look for one over holiday that we can bring here! We had to try to conjure a patronus while the boggart was pretending to be a dementor."

Lavender looked at me desperately. "But that would be really scary, and I still can't do it!"

"You'll get there, Lav, you'll get there," I said, patting her on the shoulder as I made my way over to Neville and Henry. "You two alright?"

"I'm trying," Neville managed as he glared at his wand.

"You've got this, Neville!" I glanced at Henry, who looked rather resigned as he watched his friends admiring their patronuses. "I know. I haven't been able to conjure one, either. It'll be alright."

"Even the memories that don't have him don't feel quite the same," he said. "Has that been true for you, too?"

"Definitely. It's alright, though, Henry, I know you'll get it soon."

Before he could say anything, the door opened and closed. Little footsteps slapped against the stone, and I made my way over to Harry just as Dobby appeared.

"Hi Dobby!" Harry said cheerfully. "What are you — what's wrong?"

The room fell silent as everyone strained to hear what the terrified house-elf had to say.