In the Melancholy Moonlight, Part 5: Dark Matter

Chapter 224: A Dreadful Thing

LUCY:

Seeing as Hermione was still cross with Ron when his birthday arrived, I slipped from our dormitory the morning of his birthday and made my way up to the boys' dormitory. I wanted to get to him and give him his gift before Lavender could — he was all hers after that.

Ron and Harry appeared to have just woken up when I opened the door. Ron was fiddling with a small package, and Harry was sprawled on his bed studying the Marauder's Map, most of his trunk's contents on the floor.

"Happy birthday, Ron!" I called cheerfully, dropping a large orange sack onto Ron's bed. "I reckon you know the drill by now with these types of birthday gifts, having now witnessed Harry, Ginny, and Hermione receive similar ones, in that order."

Ron grinned. "Brilliant! Thank you! Can't wait! I'll save that one for last, since it'll take the longest to properly appreciate."

"Hey, it's your birthday, you can celebrate in whatever order you see fit," I said. I lowered myself onto Harry's bed, poking him in the stomach. "Good morning."

"Morning, Lu," he replied distractedly.

I peered over his shoulder at the Map. "Any sign of Draco?"

"He's not in his bed, or the Slytherin common room, or the Great Hall, or near Snape," Harry muttered.

With Harry distracted, I was Ron's sole audience for his present-opening. He was most excited about the watch his parents had given him. I forced my mind away from Cedric's, which I still wore on my wrist, and smiled as he showed it off to me.

"Look, Lucy, you'll appreciate this, it tells the time with stars instead of hands! Blimey, I think it's a new watch. I thought I'd get my Uncle Fabian's, but this is even better, to be honest, his is a bit dented in the back. I think I'll come of age next year too, with a haul like this!"

I snorted. "And how do you plan on turning seventeen two years in a row?"

"Well, I have a year to figure it out, don't I?" Ron joked. "I'll open yours after I eat one of these Cauldron Cakes, Lucy. D'you want one?"

"You can have cake for breakfast on your birthday if you'd like, but I'll pass, thanks," I replied with a laugh.

Ron sighed. "So boring! How about you, Harry?"

"No thanks." Harry pushed himself up to a sitting position and moved closer to me just as Ron ripped open the package. "Malfoy's gone again!"

"I guess we'll have have to wait and see if he shows up to apparition lessons," I said with a shrug.

Ron shoved a second Cauldron Cake into his mouth and checked his new watch. "Oh, damn, we're going to be late for breakfast if we don't hurry up. Sorry, Lucy, I'll open your gift after our lesson."

"It's all good," I said with a dismissive wave of my hand. "I'm sure Lavender would want to see, come to think of it, she's heard me talking about these types of gifts, she can join us if she wants. She contributed one of the memories, after all."

Harry still hadn't moved from his spot on the bed, so Ron tossed a Cauldron Cake wrapper at him. "Come on, if you don't hurry up, you'll have to apparate on an empty stomach. Might make it easier, I suppose..."

I laughed loudly as I watched Ron think about what he'd said, shrug, and pop a third Cauldron Cake into his mouth.

"I don't think it matters, so you can eat as many of those as you'd like," I said, still laughing. "I'll avert my eyes while you boys change, we can head down to breakfast together."

I flopped backwards and buried my face in Harry's blankets, breathing in the comforting scent of him, all Chocolate Frogs and broomsticks and grass and healing potions and fireplace smoke. It was a lot stronger than I'd been expecting, but then again, I hadn't been in the boys' dormitory since I'd started training my werewolf magic more seriously. My heightened senses were no longer limited to just the week before the full moon — there had been a couple of instances in the past two months where I'd fled the common room because it was too loud, too bright, too much all at once.