In the Melancholy Moonlight, Part 5: Dark Matter

Chapter 238: That'll Be the Day

LUCY:

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to sleep until Monday, like I'd so optimistically told George I would. The full moon was Thursday, so my body woke me up somewhat early on Sunday, and it was only once I was awake that I remembered that Neville and I had rescheduled the Herbology O.W.L. group for Sunday because of the match. Hermione was already awake, so we made our way down to breakfast together, two of the only people in the whole school awake at such an hour on a weekend.

Hermione was slicing a banana for her porridge when the mail arrived, so I reached for the Daily Prophet with one hand while I accepted a small scrap of parchment from an owl I recognized from the joke shop with the other.

"George, you didn't have to reply so quickly," I said to the rolled-up parchment, a pleased smile nevertheless tugging at my mouth.

"George replied to you already?" Hermione asked.

I nodded, skimming the note. "He said he's sorry about everything that happened with Harry, and that he's proud of me for how I dealt with Snape, and that if Snape's a prick to me again he'd like to know about it so they could have a turn terrorizing him, and... that whatever I hear the next couple of days, they're all okay — hold on."

Panic surged in me as I shoved the parchment into my pocket and reached for the Daily Prophet.

"'Attack at the Magpies-Bats Match?'" Hermione read aloud, dropping the banana, peel and all, into her porridge as she wrenched the newspaper out of my hands.

"George said they're all okay," I said. "What does the article say?"

"That a 'rogue group' of Death Eaters attended the match, spread out in the stands, and started attacking as soon as the game was tied, meaning everyone would be distracted because the stakes were highest, according to one of the Death Eaters that the Aurors managed to catch," Hermione reported. "There were about a hundred casualties, but there would have been more if not for the players who helped fly people to safety and a bunch of Aurors and other highly-trained wizards who are apparently Magpies fans. Do you think — "

"The Order must have been there," I whispered, nodding. "I wonder if they knew something was going to happen or not. Anyway, don't worry, everyone we care about is okay, according to George."

Hermione nodded, flipping through the rest of the newspaper, so engrossed that she didn't notice me fishing the banana out of the porridge and slicing it for her before starting on my own breakfast. Neville joined us a couple minutes later, and we talked about the match while we ate. Neville wasted no time in telling me that Harry was so focused on me that he was worried Cho would get to the Snitch first, which was news to me, but Hermione nodded enthusiastically and said that Lavender and Parvati had noticed as well. I cracked a joke about how I would have stopped fancying him if we'd lost the match just because he was too busy fancying me, but Neville and Hermione didn't believe me for a second.

Soon enough, Neville and I started to make our way down to the greenhouses to set up.

"Beautiful day," Neville commented. "Normally I'm not one to talk about the weather, but Merlin, what a beautiful day."

I nodded, taking a deep breath of the cool morning air. The sky was cloudless, meaning the sun was free to warm the world as it saw fit. There was no wind, just the slightest breeze, just enough to make the grass whisper under our feet. "I'm glad we rescheduled for today instead of canceling this week. I would have just been cooped up in the castle all day if I didn't have this planned."

"Ah, right, the moon's coming up, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Thursday."

"I'm sorry."