In the Melancholy Moonlight, Part 5: Dark Matter

Chapter 231: Pretend It's Enough

GINNY:

I was in my dormitory long after curfew, sprawled on the floor surrounded by Herbology textbooks and manuals, my study space lit by candlelight, when the door creaked open to reveal the curly-haired silhouette of Hermione Jean Granger.

"Ginny? Can I come in?" she asked shyly.

I hurriedly gathered up my materials into a pile, nodding. "Of course. What's wrong?"

"Well, Ron and Lavender just broke up because of me," she replied as she walked into the room and cast a silencing spell so we could talk freely.

"Oh, really? Well... I'm not surprised, but I'm sorry you got dragged into the mess. I can't imagine that you're terribly disappointed — "

"Not exactly," Hermione confessed. "But, well, I'd rather not be in that dormitory right now, so I was wondering if I could stay here with you until it can be reasonably assumed that they're asleep."

I nodded. "Of course, absolutely. Do you want to talk about any of it?"

"I'll admit it was, er, somewhat entertaining, and a total misunderstanding, but... they're over regardless."

"Tell me everything," I said, propping my chin on my hands.

"Well, er, long story short, I walked out of the boys' dormitory with Ron, seemingly alone — "

I laughed. "Yeah, that'll do it. I know you two weren't getting up to anything scandalous, but — "

"It sure looked that way," Hermione replied, turning bright red. "We both denied it, obviously, but, well, Lavender wouldn't hear any of it."

"That's understandable," I said with a shrug. "Not that I'm complaining about hearing this juicy gossip firsthand, but don't you usually talk to Lucy about your feelings most of the time?"

"She's down at Hagrid's with Harry. Hagrid's favorite acromantula died."

"Ooh, let me guess, Lucy was upset about it and Harry wanted to help however he could?"

Hermione nodded. "Something like that. Anyway, we were all up in the boys' dormitory getting the invisibility cloak because we were still deciding who should go to the acromantula funeral, they went down under the invisibility cloak, Ron and I did not, and you can imagine the rest. Anyway, that's that. What were you reviewing just now?"

"Just general O.W.L. revision," I lied. I shoved the Herbology stack closer to my trunk and reached for my magical creatures notes. "Speaking of, what do I need to know about acromantulas for the magical creatures O.W.L.?"

"Acromantulas aren't covered, don't worry," Hermione said, coming to kneel beside me on the floor. "They're not even in Lucy's N.E.W.T. curriculum. For our O.W.L. exam, we had to identify a knarl in a group of hedgehogs, handle bowtruckles and firecrabs without agitating them or injuring ourselves, then explain the proper diet for a sick unicorn."

"Lucy — Professor Captain, I mean — just went over knarls with us," I said. I flipped through my notes until I found the parchment from Lucy's lesson. "She said knarls will always accept an offer of milk, whereas hedgehogs won't."

"She's correct, per usual," Hermione confirmed with a nod. "She seemed to really enjoy filling in for Hagrid as Care of Magical Creatures teacher. We haven't talked much the past couple weeks because she's been so busy between helping Hagrid and doing her extra magic training, but I noticed her half of the mood ring was a very bright shade of yellow during those periods she was teaching."

I smiled. "She did a great job. It felt like Dumbledore's Army, but more fun. Her enthusiasm for creatures was contagious. She was never really that happy during the D.A., for obvious reasons." I glanced down at Hermione's mood ring. "I've never been able to crack that color code. What does it mean?"