In the Melancholy Moonlight, Part 5: Dark Matter

Chapter 216: Dancing With Our Hands Tied

LUCY:

As soon as I collapsed onto the sofa in Hagrid's hut the morning after the full moon, unhurt but very cold, Harry handed me a mug of hot chocolate — my frozen fingers grazed his warm ones, and we both hesitated, longing for a touch that lingered, but we couldn't, so we pulled away.

The days that followed had many other "couldn't"s.

We wanted to sleep together in the nights after the full moon when I was so cold I shivered even when I was sitting right next to the fire, but we couldn't, so I asked Ginny if she'd mind sleeping with me instead.

"Of course," she said instantly, even though she looked across the common room at Harry with narrowed eyes, suspicious, confused. "Harry could do it too, you know. You have shared a bed before."

The blush that rose to my cheeks at the reminder was genuine. "Yes, but — different circumstances. I can't. We can't."

"Can't, or won't?"

I sighed. "If I had a Sickle for every time I've been asked that question lately..."

We wanted to tell Ron we were dating so he'd stop teasing us about the way we were dancing around each other, but we couldn't, so we tolerated his ribbing and generated new excuses instead.

We wanted to be each other's dates to the Slug Club Christmas party, but we couldn't, so we invited other people instead.

I decided to invite Neville and Harry decided to invite Luna, which raised more eyebrows than I expected. I wanted to invite him because I knew he fancied Hannah and he knew I fancied Harry, and because I knew he missed Hannah, and because I knew he'd understand that we were just friends. Similarly, Harry made clear to Luna that they were just going as friends, to which she responded that she was perfectly okay with that because she had no interest in ever being more than friends with another person. Harry and I had agreed ahead of time that Neville and Luna were the perfect dates for us, but we never expected the uproar our decisions caused, mine especially. Apparently, rumors had been flying about Neville and me — people seemed to think that I had a budding romance with Neville, and I had inadvertently fueled those rumors by asking him. Harry asking Luna to be his date the very next day caused a general uproar, particularly among Romilda Vane's group. Romilda herself had tried to give Harry a Love Potion, in the form of gillywater and Cauldron Cakes, but he had the foresight not to consume either, even before I told him I could detect the Love Potion. Despite all of the buzz, however, we stood by our dates and laughed about it all late at night in the Room of Requirement.

We wanted to tell Hermione we were dating so she would reconsider her choice to invite Cormac McLaggen for the sole purpose of spiting Ron — because she was convinced that Harry and I had invited Luna and Neville respectively to spite each other — but we couldn't, so we just kept begging her to invite someone else instead.

We wanted to wear something that visibly matched to the Christmas party, but we couldn't, so we wore something invisible that matched instead.

"If I wear a necklace that's secretly a locket and you wear a watch that's secretly a locket and we place an invisible photograph into each secret locket," I explained late the night before the Christmas party in the Room of Requirement, "we would be matching in a way that nobody else will ever figure out."

Harry grinned. "You're brilliant." He immediately removed his watch. "Here, charm it however you need to charm it. Do you have a necklace that will work?"

I extracted it from my pocket with a smile. "Lavender and Parvati convinced me to get it when they were helping me shop for a dress in one of their catalogs. I thought it was silly at the time, but now I'm glad they were so persuasive. Did you bring your camera with you tonight, by any chance?"