In the Melancholy Moonlight, Part 5: Dark Matter

Chapter 227: Take My Hand, We'll Make It, I Swear

HENRY:

"You should go to the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff match!" Fred had said over dinner one night.

"It'll be fun!" George had said, nodding enthusiastically.

"I'd love to see you!" Gretch had said in her letter to me.

"Of course you're welcome, your housemates would be very happy to see you!" Professor Sprout had said when I'd asked permission.

"Go see if that Cadawallader kid is up to snuff, but take Maddock with you," Cormack McLeod had said, wagging his finger at me like a cartoon villain. "I doubt you'd recognize a Chaser with talent considering the number of goals that get past you."

And so I went. I got the same permissions Oliver had gotten to watch me a year prior and watched the match from the stands with my sister and her friends while Alasdair watched from the commentary box with the professors and Luna. And then when the match was over, I hugged my sister tight and hurtled up to the castle to check on Lucy and Harry.

"I'm so glad you're here, Henry. Do you have any way of contacting the Weasley twins as well?" Professor McGonagall said when I arrived in the Hospital Wing.

"I'm going to go fetch a couple of Cedric's jumpers," Hermione said, jumping from her chair between Harry's bed and Ron's bed and running past me.

"You're the closest people Lucy has to family outside of those of us here at school," Ron said with a sad shrug.

"I sure hope she's going to be alright, that was a nasty hit," Hagrid said when he arrived carrying the unconscious Lucy.

"She's going to be okay, but I'm sure she'd appreciate seeing a couple more friendly faces whenever she wakes up," Madam Pomfrey said, waving her wand over Lucy's still form on the bed. "Especially since Potter's is, er, heavily bandaged at the moment."

And so I left the Hospital Wing. I returned mere minutes later to find that the Hospital Wing was quite empty except for Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Lucy — the latter two of whom were still either unconscious or asleep — and there was a curtain drawn suspiciously around a bed in the corner of the room.

Ron and Hermione were speaking in low tones as I approached, but Ron lifted his hand in greeting when he saw me, and Hermione turned around to acknowledge me too.

"Fred and George will be here shortly," I said as I pulled up a chair to sit next to Hermione. "I may have, er, understated the severity of the injuries so that they didn't panic and rush over here. Anyway, hi, good to see you both, how are you doing?"

"It's good to see you too, Henry," Hermione replied, offering me a half-smile.

"I'm set to be released tomorrow, so there was really no need for Harry and Lucy to keep me company tonight," Ron said. "We obviously didn't see anything, but we could hear Luna's commentary and Pomfrey's fussing so we know it was bad. How bad was it to watch?"

I sighed and lifted my hands to illustrate. "For Harry's, he was here, and Lucy and Cormac were here. The Bludger came from here, and hit him like this."

"Oh, damn!" Ron lifted a fist to his mouth as he cringed. "That explains the cracked skull."

"Zacharias Smith is behind that curtain, Madam Pomfrey is taking care of him now," Hermione whispered. "Please tell me Lucy made him pay for everything he said during the last match."

"She certainly did," I whispered back. I spoke at a normal volume, a little louder than necessary, just to make sure he could hear me. I was upset with the substitute Gryffindor Keeper for what he had done, but I was livid with Zacharias for everything I'd heard about what he'd done the past few months. "Lucy's shot at Zacharias was beautiful, truly. He was reaching out his arm like this, and Lucy was way up here, and she hit the Bludger right here — "