In the Melancholy Moonlight, Part 5: Dark Matter

Chapter 234: I Want to Talk to You, All of You

LUCY:

I was in high spirits after getting to fly the hippogriffs. I knew I'd missed dinner, so I joined Hagrid for a bit of beef stew, sneaking Tuck the fattiest chunks under the table when Hagrid wasn't paying attention. Once the stew was gone and Tuck was the happiest dog in the world, I helped Hagrid with the dishes and kissed Tuck on top of the head before stepping out into the night with a spring in my step the same way spring was in the air.

In eleven days' time, I'd turn seventeen. I was approaching the day with a bit of dread — I was going to be an adult, I was going to turn the same age Cedric would forever be, I wasn't sure what the hell the twins had planned for the day since it was the first year they knew — but I was excited too. I was remembering my birthday that year. I'd be able to take my apparition test once I was a legal adult. I could use magic freely outside of school once I turned seventeen. And yeah, Harry James was my boyfriend — that helped too.

I had nearly reached the castle when the strangest scent caught my nose. Harry James, and the metallic tang of blood.

"Harry?" I called quietly. "Where are you? Are you okay?"

"I'm here," his small voice replied from a short distance ahead of me.

I held my hand out for him to take.

The cool fabric of the invisibility cloak grazed my hand as his shaking fingers wrapped around mine. "We need to talk."

"Alright," I replied, letting him lead me to a dark corner just inside the castle. "Why are you hiding?"

"I didn't want you to be alarmed." The cloak fell away to reveal Harry, utterly soaked in blood with a wild, pained look in his eyes.

My hands shot forward for him right away, searching his body for wounds and his clothes for tears. "What happened?" When he didn't answer me, and I didn't find anything that appeared to be bleeding, I looked back up at him. "Is this even your blood?"

Harry shook his head slowly.

"Harry..." My panic mounted. "Whose blood is it? Are our friends all safe?"

Harry nodded. "They're safe. This is — er — Draco's."

"Draco's?" I repeated.

"Yeah. It's — a long story. And I don't exactly — know how to tell you."

"Did you kill him?" I asked, half-joking.

"I could have... accidentally. I didn't, but it was... close. Too close. He's going to be okay, though. He — I don't think he's even going to have scars like yours, Snape said he shouldn't."

"Like... mine." I felt the blood slowly drain from my face. "Like mine? Harry, what happened?"

He recounted the story of his fight with Draco in the bathroom in great detail, spell for spell, but there was something he was holding back, I could tell. Then, finally, at the end of the story, the horrible truth tumbled out.

"I think — I think it was the same spell," he said, gently reaching out, gently tracing one of the scars on my cheek. His hand was shaking so badly it was a wonder he could trace a line at all. "I didn't — I never would have done something like that on purpose — "

I stepped backward, away from his hand, feeling as if I'd been punched in the stomach.

"Lucy, I'm sorry." Harry's voice was nothing more than a tight whisper. Tears glimmered in his eyes.

I stepped backward again. Afraid. Betrayed. Hurt. Angry. Bewildered. "Where did you even learn it — how did you even know it?"

"It was in the Half-Blood Prince's book, it said it was for enemies — "