In the Melancholy Moonlight

Chapter XXVIII: Your Light is a Seed

Maybe your light is a seed
And the darkness the dirtIn spite of the uneven odds
Beauty lifts from the earth

"Uneven Odds"
Sleeping At Last

LUCY:

The next couple of days passed in a haze of fever and pain and restlessness. I wasn't allowed to leave my bed because of, well, the hazards of being completely blind, but with nowhere to channel the nervous energy that accompanied the days leading up to a full moon, I found myself instead somewhere between being asleep and awake. People would come and people would go, some talking to me and others merely about me. Cedric remained my most constant comfort; it was most often his hand on my forehead or on top of my own hand.

I reckoned it was the night of the full moon when I was roused from sleep by what seemed to be a serious discussion.

"If she can't see, she'd be no danger to any of us. She would be safe here." Cedric's voice was tight, worried. I knew his face wouldn't show any of these emotions, but his voice betrayed him.

I had gotten very good at identifying people's voices even in just the three short days I had been blind. I was beginning to be able to see faint patches of light in my vision. No shapes, no colors, not even a full picture. But there were a couple of spots of light at the edges of my vision, which was something to cling to. In this moment, though, my eyes were closed. I had also gotten very good at pretending to be asleep when the people around me were talking about me.

"We cannot take that risk, Cedric, I'm sorry. So little is known about the logistical aspect of these transformations. Professor Dumbledore doesn't want her going down to the Shrieking Shack following the most recent attack," said Madam Pomfrey from my right, "and we all know staying in the castle wouldn't be safe. We don't know what she might encounter, and it would be horrible if someone were to stumble across her."

"But that leaves..."

He didn't need to say it. I knew the only option was the Forbidden Forest.

"If you come back here an hour before sunset, you can walk her down yourself, if you'd like."

"I will. But how will we find her in the morning?"

Madam Pomfrey sighed. "Hagrid already knows of the plan. Not happy about it in the slightest, mind you, but he knows. He'll find her as quickly as he can and bring her back, hopefully without anyone seeing her."

"Alright." I felt Cedric's fingers graze my forehead as Madam Pomfrey walked away from my bedside and crossed the room. His fingers disappeared, and I heard him quietly drag a chair to my bedside and lower himself onto it. "I'm sorry you've had to spend so much of your time at Hogwarts here in this room," he whispered. "You deserve so much more."

I drifted back off to sleep a couple minutes later, and found myself in another hazy fever dream that I forgot the second I was shaken awake.

It was Cedric again, his voice much louder this time. "Lucy? Lu, are you awake?"

"Yeah," I murmured. I rubbed my eyes and opened them, but I still couldn't see more than a little bit of light.

"I'm sorry, but you have to come with us. It's time to go."

"Us?" I asked, pushing myself to a sitting position and fighting the dizziness I already felt.

"I'm here too, Lucy," Hermione said. "Cedric managed to convince Ron that I'd be safe if the two of us came to visit you together. He hasn't left my side since you've been here!"