In the Melancholy Moonlight, Part 5: Dark Matter

Chapter 262: Calm Beside the Storm

LUCY:

A sense of relieved disbelief defined the days after the full moon. The transformation had still taken a toll on my body, so I spent the better part of the next day resting, but I didn't feel defeated the same way I always had after full moons. I slept soundly, comforted by the love of my friends who'd held onto hope for me when I had abandoned it for myself.

Harry loved me in a way that defied all known laws of lycanthropy. It was indescribable.

If Ron and Hermione suspected that what Harry and I shared was more than just a profound bond of friendship, they didn't say so aloud, for which I was grateful. If anything, they were likely even more shocked than we were that it had worked, stunned into silence for fear of saying anything to change the dynamic that had reached through to my very soul and pulled me back to the surface of myself, somehow, miraculously, when I was in the throes of lycanthropy.

Once the initial shock wore off, though, there was work to be done. We still only had one Horcrux, and we had not yet come even close to destroying it. We just kept trying to brainstorm people and places worth investigating in the hopes of finding either another Horcrux or a way to destroy the one we had.

A couple of days after the full moon, Harry and Hermione went to London in search of the orphanage Tom Riddle had once, reluctantly, called home. I was allowed to wear the Horcrux for the first time in a week while they were gone, and Ron joined me outside to keep an eye out, since it was just the two of us. We were camping in the crevice of a cliff, and the sea was a nice change of pace from the woods. I looked forward to being able to take the Horcrux off so I could properly enjoy it.

After brooding and staring at the sea in silence for an unknown length of time, clutching the Horcrux in my hand, I realized I was likely being poor company and turned to Ron.

"So, er, what's on your mind?" I asked, in a feeble attempt to make conversation.

"Pirates," he replied.

I blinked. "What?"

"You know, pirates. Like we discussed all those months ago when we first heard about this Merlin-forsaken quest. We're proper Horcrux Hunting Pirates now, aren't we? All we're missing is a ship, I reckon."

"I wonder if the Death Eaters have thought to search the seas for us," I replied. "Might not be a bad idea to add the coast to our apparition rotation."

"Anyway, we need a ship, in order to be proper Horcrux Hunting Pirates. We could nick one the same way you and the twins nicked one last summer, when your were working on the Daydream Charm," Ron remarked. He frowned. "I can't believe I acquired yet another wicked scar, but it's not on my face, so I still haven't earned Order of Godric, first class."

I swatted his good arm. "Oi, you better hope it stays that way."

"I suppose George and Archie already have Order of Godric, first class, even though they don't even know what Horcruxes are yet," Ron groused.

"Hm, I suppose so."

I fell silent then, thinking about Archie, and George, and Henry, and Fred, and everyone at school. Fred and George had replied right away to my rushed message the night of the full moon, but I hadn't contacted them again since. I missed the companionship I'd managed to maintain with George and Fred during our stay at Grimmauld Place, but since camping afforded me a lot less privacy and introduced a lot more anxiety, I had only sent the one message, buried beneath my covers after the full moon while Harry, Ron, and Hermione were outside the tent making sure all of the wards had remained intact and no one had seen or heard the events of the transformation. I hoped they'd been able to get a hold of Luna somehow. i hoped they'd been able to tell Remus and Sloane somehow. Remus. Tonks. Sloane. Jabari. My anxiety spiked, thinking of all of the other people I'd forgotten in my initial mental list of people whose unknown fates worried me. I was supposed to be a protector, I was supposed to keep everyone I loved safe, but I had deserted everyone except Harry, and Hermione, and Ron —