In the Melancholy Moonlight, Part 5: Dark Matter

Chapter 261: Like I'm Still Here With You

GINNY:

I was still awake the night of the full moon when something hit the window nearest my bed.

I jumped out of bed and rushed to the window, wand drawn, to see what it was, since my roommates were all asleep and seemed like they'd stay that way. The night was cloudy, meaning it was almost pitch black outside though I knew it was a full moon, but I could see the faintest blue glow in the blurry shape of a hyena darting away from the window. I watched it run, then come to a stop at the edge of the grounds.

I stared at it for a long second, and once it had dissipated, a small stream of orange sparks shot into the sky.

Fred. He was there, somehow.

I donned my somewhat-effective attempt at an invisibility cloak, and wasted no time in making my way outside.

I was careful. I'd gotten comfortable with sneaking out with Lucy in the lead, and I'd gotten comfortable with sneaking out with the help of Harry's invisibility cloak, but without Lucy's werewolf senses to guide me or Harry's cloak to shield me, I'd gotten good at a number of spells that got me as close as possible to having both of those comforts. I cast spells left and right to alert me to any potential human presences in the corridors ahead of me as I slunk along under silencing spells, relying on both the cover of night and the enchanted cloak. It was nowhere near as good as Harry's invisibility cloak, but I had been working diligently to try to find spells that would come close enough. In the dark, I was practically invisible, but the cloak didn't hold up in daylight or firelight, a faint outline of whatever the cloak was trying to hide was still visible if I squinted. Luna was working in the demiguise habitat trying to gather enough of their hair to make an invisibility cloak of her own, but we shared mine in the meantime.

It was slow going, getting outside, but as soon as I neared the spot where I'd seen the orange sparks, I shed the cloak and lifted my wand, pointing it at the hyena crouching in front of me.

"Fred?"

He transformed into his human self and rushed forward to hug me. "Gin. Thank Merlin you're alright. I'm sorry for just showing up like this, I'm sorry for potentially getting you into trouble, but this couldn't wait, I had to tell you in person, this is an earth-shatteringly big deal, it's about Lucy."

"What?" My blood ran cold. "Is she — "

"She's okay," he interrupted.

Something about the tone of his voice made me fall silent for a long second.

"But..." I looked up at the sky and found the faint outline of the full moon. "It's..."

"I know."

I stared at Fred. "So did they cure it, or...?"

"I don't know. She said Luna was right and that we had to tell Remus and Sloane. That's all she told us."

"And I'm guessing you're still not going to tell me how exactly you talked to her?" I asked.

Fred winced. "Merlin, Gin, I'm sorry, but Harry's shown just how easy it is for You-Know-Who to get into someone's mind, and — "

"Forget it," I cut in. "I understand." I didn't, or, well, I did, but I didn't care, but he didn't need to know that. "She's... okay? Really?"

"Yeah. This is the first we've heard from her since the beginning of the month. She's okay."

"And you're sure it was her?" I pressed. "It wasn't just someone pretending to be her?"

Fred nodded. "Yes, we're certain. It's not possible that it was anyone else. Anyway, I'm here to either talk to Luna myself or to ask you to talk to her and tell us whatever she told Lucy. She said we needed to tell the others as soon as possible."