In the Melancholy Moonlight, Part 5: Dark Matter

Chapter 240: Blood, Sweat, and Tears

LUCY:

Before I knew it, I was seventeen, I had my apparition license, I had finished my final exams, and the last full moon of the school year was upon me. I'd been too busy preparing for my exams to spend much time training my magic, so the full moon itself was fairly standard, I didn't have excessive amounts of energy or any higher of a fever than what was typical for me.

When I opened my eyes the next morning, Ginny was already standing in front of me with a hand extended to haul me up.

"Well, that was boring. I beat you in every race," she said.

I laughed as I accepted her hand up. "Why do you sound disappointed?"

"I'm not disappointed, boring full moons beat the alternative," she explained. "I do enjoy a good competitive event, though, and you severely underperformed."

"My apologies," I replied. "Rest assured, it won't happen again. Next September, after a whole summer of magic with the twins, mark my words, Weasley, I will run circles around you."

"I'd like to see you try." Ginny grinned and draped an arm over my shoulders. "I'm going to miss you."

"I'll miss you too. It's just for a couple months, though, and I'm sure we'll keep coming over for dinner every week."

"Multiple times a week, I hope," she muttered. "Hermione said she wants to go home and be with her parents for the first couple weeks at least, so I know I'm going to be bored out of my mind with just Ron for company."

"I'll come by as often as I can, I promise. And we can try to steal you from the Burrow, but, well, considering how scared your mum was a year ago, I can't imagine she's feeling much better about you leaving the house this summer."

Ginny snorted. "Yeah. Rumor has it she tried begging Fred and George to let you stay at the Burrow with the rest of us, but they were able to assure her after a couple of weeks of arguing that you'd be safest at the joke shop. Don't tell anyone I told you, though. They seemed to think it'd upset you, but I think they underestimate you in a way I don't."

"I — I do feel bad that they were arguing because of me," I admitted, blushing and looking down at my feet, "but I won't lose sleep over it. It's for your mum's own good, anyway, assuming she still doesn't know about, well, what just happened to me?"

"Oh, of course not, the twins would have won the argument much sooner if they'd just told her that you'd be safest in their flat because of the transformation room." Ginny shook her head. "They kept your secret, don't worry."

I nodded, breathing a small sigh of relief. "I was sure they had, but... thanks."

"I'm sorry you're still not comfortable telling her," Ginny said after a moment, kicking a rock on the forest floor and sending it flying directly into a hole in a nearby tree. "I understand why, I know she makes comments about werewolves from time to time that aren't exactly progressive, but, well, she's still my mum, and I reckon she more or less considers herself yours too at this point. I'm sorry you haven't really gotten to experience the fullest love of Molly Weasley yet. It's not perfect, nothing ever is, but something tells me it'd be better than whatever you got at your house growing up."

"Yeah, it definitely would be," I replied with a bitter laugh. "It's okay, though. I — well — honestly, Ginny, I am more loved right now than I ever thought I would be. Growing up, I always thought it would just be Cedric and me against the world. I never imagined a world without him, let alone a love-filled world without him. I never thought I could be loved by so many people in so many ways, but I am, and it's brilliant and beautiful and I wouldn't change it."