In the Melancholy Moonlight

Chapter LXXXVII: I'm Not Done Yet

LUCY:

Someone danced across my vision, bathed in golden light.

Cedric was there with me again, standing in front of me, just out of reach.

"You need to go, Lucy," he said softly.

I lunged forward with a hand extended, but no matter how far forward I strained, he was always just an inch away from my fingertips.

"I want you," I choked out. "Cedric, please, I just want you."

He shook his head. "Not yet, Lu. You're not done yet."

"You weren't done yet, either!" I cried.

"That's life," he said with a sad smile. "It doesn't always go the way we think it will. But you're not done yet. There's still more for you to do."

"What am I supposed to do without you? Please don't leave me again, Cedric, I don't know what I'll do, I don't know what to do without you, I just want to be with you again, I don't care what it takes anymore, I just want to be with you again-" I paused to catch my breath. I pulled my hand back to my chest, looking at the boy in front of me with a more critical eye. "It's not really you, is it? Cedric would never have let me spiral so long, uninterrupted. He... he always stopped me. He always knew when to stop me."

The Cedric who wasn't really Cedric stepped closer. I didn't reach out again.

Just the same, his eyes were soft.

"You know you need to leave the cave. You know you're not done yet."

"I just needed to hear it from Cedric?"

"Exactly," he replied with an encouraging nod. "Here. Maybe you need to hear it from a couple other people, too."

Cedric vanished in a flash, and the scene around me shifted.

The Gryffindor common room.

"Well, there you are!" George called from across the room.

"Get over here, Cub!" Fred shouted, laughing. "It's your turn!"

I hesitated. I glanced behind me. The Cedric who wasn't really Cedric was standing behind me, gesturing for me to walk forward.

"This feels too much like moving on," I said in a voice little more than a whisper.

The Cedric who wasn't really Cedric nodded at someone over my shoulder. I turned back around to see Harry standing in front of me.

"That's okay," he said. Merlin, the sound of his voice... "You don't have to move on by yourself. We can take the first step together."

He extended his hand. I found it hard to breathe.

I'm not done yet.

I closed my eyes, and reached forward.

Harry's hand touched mine, and in that moment, the dream disappeared like a bursting bubble.

I'm not done yet.

I was still lying on my back on the floor of the cave. A dim light was reaching me through the opening, so far off.

Cedric was right. I needed to go.

I'm not done yet.

I couldn't wait here for Voldemort to come. He would kill me for refusing to join him.

I wanted to see Cedric again. Mum and Dad, too. But I had other people I wanted to see first.

I'm not done yet.