In the Melancholy Moonlight, Part 4: Nebula

Chapter 192: What Do I Stand For?

HENRY:

I stopped by the joke shop after a Wednesday afternoon practice. I hadn't been by since the first week of summer because I had been so busy hunting for a flat, but since I finally found one and moved in, I figured it was high time to pay a visit to three of my favorite people.

Even though I arrived about half an hour before they were supposed to close, the shop was deserted, and instead of prancing around the shop as they always did, Lucy, George, and Fred were all perched on various staircases with their chins in their hands and their eyes drooping shut.

"Bloody hell, you all look exhausted," I commented as I strolled through the door. "What happened?"

Instead of answering me, they all looked at each other and started laughing.

I shook my head. "You've all officially lost it."

"No!" George protested. "No, we've — we're brilliant!"

"We are!" Fred added.

Lucy pushed herself to her feet and dragged her hand down her face, still laughing. "We were up all night. Working. New product."

"Sleep is important, you know," I said, painfully aware of how Cedric-like I sounded in that moment. "Essential, even."

"This was more important," George argued with a tired, crooked grin.

"It was worth it, at any rate." Lucy beamed. "We're going to call it the Daydream Charm. One incantation, one daydream, so vivid it's like you've stuck your head in a Pensieve. Without the actual Pensieve part, of course, those are unwieldy. But, well, we thought it would be easiest to execute a trial run if we had... memories..." Lucy's voice trailed off, a contemplative expression creeping over her face.

Fred, who was behind her, didn't see this and assumed she was simply too tired to complete her story. "We figured basing the daydreams on actual memories would make it easier, so we went and made several last night."

"Like what? And how?" I asked, curious and a bit concerned about the legality of whatever they had done.

"We pretended to be pirates from dusk 'til dawn, Mr. Magpie," George answered, "on a borrowed pirate ship."

"Pirate ship?" I repeated.

"Well, not a real pirate ship. I don't think so, anyway. It looked like one, though, wouldn't you say, Cub?" When Lucy didn't answer, George tilted his head to the side. "Cub?"

"Memories," Lucy said slowly. "Mem... I think I know how to make this work."

I blinked. "Wait, you aren't even sure if this product will work yet, and you stole — "

"Borrowed!" George interrupted, getting to his feet and stumbling down the stairs. "We had it back where it belonged by sunrise, not a scratch on it!"

"Borrowed," I corrected myself, "a ship? Just in case you figured out how to make the product work later?"

"That's right! We're rather determined to fill Lucy's summer with ridiculous and risky but fun and foundational life experiences, if you hadn't heard," Fred piped up. "Fun experience first, functional product later."

"How could this work, Cub?" George asked, jumping down the last couple of steps and only barely managing to stick the landing.

Lucy closed her eyes and massaged her forehead with her fingers. "I don't — well, I — Merlin, I shouldn't have said anything."

"It's alright," he said as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. He's always so quick to reassure anyone who needs it, I noted. "We're all exhausted. If you just realized your idea doesn't work after all, it's perfectly alright and understandable."