In the Melancholy Moonlight

Chapter XXXII: Some Truths Are Sharper Than Knives

Some truths, over time, can learn to play nice
Some truths are sharper than knives
Some truths we only see in the corners of our eyes
Some truths we wish we could hide

Some truths can save us
Some take our lives
Some truths are fire
And some truths are ice
No matter what category you fit into
Truth's got its sight set on you

"South"
Sleeping At Last

The morning after March's full moon, Hermione Granger was waiting on pins and needles for her best friend to meet her in the Hospital Wing. She hoped that maybe exhausted, cold, post full moon Lucy might finally see reason and agree that Rubeus Hagrid was in fact responsible for the Chamber of Secrets.

She'd tried and tried and tried again to talk to her after the Valentine's Day disaster where Lucy fled the room nearly in tears, but it seemed everything she said went in one ear and out the other. Ron Weasley tried to talk sense into Lucy himself, but the same thing happened. Harry Potter knew better than to try to convince her of something he himself found nearly impossible to believe, so he instead gave her a bit of space.

They weren't angry with each other. They didn't go out of their way to avoid each other. To anyone on the outside, nothing had really changed among the four of them. But they all knew that invisible walls had been erected separating Lucy from the other three, and that it would take something drastic to tear them down.

When Hermione dropped the ring into Lucy's hand, the soft "Thank you" that followed didn't come with the smile it always did. When she secured it around her finger, her half glowed blue and purple, but there was no scarlet anger. Just sadness and fear. Hermione's soon matched, and they left the Hospital Wing in silence.

The month between moons passed the same way. Lucy built her walls higher and higher, trying to protect herself. But she found that the higher the walls climbed, the more Hermione's words echoed in her mind until she could hear nothing else her best friend said.

Monster. Monster. Monster. Monster.

That one word was all it took.

LUCY:

In the weeks that followed the horrible night T.M. Riddle convinced Harry -- and by extension, Hermione and Ron --- that Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets, I needed time to myself as often as I could find it. More often than not, I sat at the Hufflepuff table with Cedric. Many other kids sat with their siblings, too; Padma Patil often joined Parvati and Lavender at the Gryffindor table, and the prefects table was empty so each prefect could spend more time with their house mates. There hadn't been any more attacks, but since the culprit had never been caught, nobody really wanted to be alone.

I seemed to be the only exception. Every chance I got, I made my way down to the Quidditch Pitch for a couple hours of silence and solitude. Most of the time, I would do homework or study in the stairwells, but from time to time, I would fetch my broom from the lockers and fly around the grounds to clear my head.

There was no doubt in my mind that Hagrid was innocent. I wasn't angry with the others for questioning him, not really; Riddle had made it pretty clear that he thought Hagrid was the one who had opened the Chamber of Secrets, and the attacks had stopped when he was expelled from Hogwarts. But it seemed easy to believe, too easy to believe. I still couldn't shake the feeling that I was missing something obvious, something right under my nose. I would ponder this as I flew around the castle, over the Forbidden Forest, through the Pitch, but for all of my hours in the spring sunshine, I could never place my finger on what exactly was bothering me.