In the Melancholy Moonlight

Chapter XLIV: Long Live

Long live all the mountains we moved
I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you
I was screaming, "Long live the look on your face"
And bring on all the pretenders
One day, we will be remembered

"Long Live"
Taylor Swift

LUCY:

Hermione and Ron still refused to speak to each other, but I was thankfully still on decent terms with both of them. Ron appreciated that I was trying to keep a closer eye on Crookshanks, and I had secretly confided to him that I believed Crookshanks was definitely responsible for the disappearance of Scabbers (the blood on the sheets didn't look like a fatal amount to me, but he remained unconvinced of that). Despite Hermione's continued hostility toward Ron, she admitted to me through tears after midnight that she really did feel awful that Scabbers had gone missing because of her cat, knowing how much he meant to Ron. But despite their friendliness toward me, their fury with each other made it impossible to be around them.

I woke up early the morning of the Quidditch match against Ravenclaw. I was nervous, but not really for the match itself.

Harry's Firebolt virtually guaranteed a victory. That is, as long as the dementors didn't return. If they did... we might have problems.

After about six weeks of patronus lessons, Harry and I were certainly far better than we had been in January. But to my surprise, I was progressing much faster than Harry. I still hadn't produced a fully corporeal patronus, but my non-corporeal patronus was strong enough to actively push the dementor away from me. Harry's, on the other hand, formed only a thin shield, and he had to fight hard to keep it in one place. I knew he was frustrated with himself, and I wanted so badly to help, but he had built himself an internal barrier that I knew only he could tear down. So I remained at his side, encouraging him as well as I could and hoping for the best if the time came to use a patronus.

Harry was planning to wear a t-shirt under his robes so he could keep his wand on him. When he asked what I was planning to do, I turned into a blushing mess and said I'd just tuck it in my bra. For what it was worth, he turned bright red too, and we both got a good laugh out of it. I offered to loan him one if he wanted to keep his wand in a bra like me, but he said he'd pass. Imagine that.

I gave up on the idea of sleep around 6:30 and got out of bed, carefully tucking my wand into my bra, as I had told Harry I planned to do. By some miracle, I only had three chapters of reading homework left that weekend, so I grabbed my ancient runes textbook and made my way to the common room, curling up in the window seat to try to finish as much as possible.

I was halfway through the final chapter of reading when I heard someone coming down the stairs. I glanced up just as Harry walked into the room in a t-shirt and jeans, broom tucked under his arm and his wand sticking out of his pocket.

"Did you come down early to escape the crowds of broom admirers?" I teased.

He smiled and half-nodded. "Yeah, essentially." He came and leaned his broom against the wall before sliding into the window seat next to me, his back against the wall opposite mine.

"Godric, that looks so uncomfortable. We can move to the couch or something, you know."

"No, no, this is fine," he insisted, shifting so his legs were as straight as possible. "You get a better view of the grounds from here anyway."

"Can't argue with that." I tucked my photograph bookmark into the textbook and was about to close it, but Harry reached forward and stopped me. His hand was warm against my cold one, but he didn't seem to notice.