In the Melancholy Moonlight

Chapter LXXXIX: For a Moment

HARRY:

We were still in the kitchen when Professor Lupin appeared. The look on his face immediately spiked my heart rate, already significantly higher than normal.

He looked around the room, gnawing on his lower lip for a second before speaking.

"To say Lucy's been through hell would be a severe understatement. You cannot — and I mean cannot — ask her to talk about any of it until she is ready, which might not be for quite a while. Right now, she just needs as much normalcy as you can offer her. Oh, and be gentle with her. She'll likely be in a fair amount of pain for a while, though we all know she'd be loath to admit it." He sighed. "You should all find something to do for the time being. She's cleaning up and packing a bag now, so it may be a while before she's ready to come."

"Let's go play Exploding Snap," Fred suggested. "We got her to play with us on the train."

Every other kid nodded and stood, but I remained firmly in my chair. "I'll wait for her," I said quietly.

Ron looked for half a second as if he'd try to change my mind, but he seemed to think it wise not to press me. Professor Lupin asked to speak with Mrs. Weasley privately, leaving me alone in the kitchen since Sirius was upstairs taking care of Buckbeak.

I pulled Lucy's bracelet from my pocket and studied each charm.

I had gotten the bear first, more on impulse than anything. It made sense, being her patronus and all. Then came the Quaffle, for winning the Quidditch Cup together. Then the dragon, for obvious reasons. Then the Gemini constellation, for even more obvious reasons.

I couldn't imagine a world without her.

Everyone was worried, of course. Ginny was jumpy, looking hopefully at every person who walked into the room for half a second before shaking her head. The twins were trying to keep our spirits up with their typical jokes and small pranks, but I could see from the way their efforts were less enthusiastic than usual and the way their smiles faded more quickly than usual that they were worried, too. Hermione seemed constantly on the verge of a breakdown, sometimes trying to lose herself in books but usually staring off into space with tears glistening in her eyes as she twisted the ring — half purple and half blank silver — around her finger. Where his brothers tried to make us laugh, Ron sat with us in silence, keeping his own anxiety carefully masked so as not to add to ours.

And as for me... I was doing my best. I was glad to be with friends again, and with Sirius, but the bad feeling in the pit of my stomach only intensified after every day without news. The bad feeling kept me up late at night and woke me up early in the morning. It was hard to eat, and it was harder still to breathe.

Part of the bad feeling had gone away when Mrs. Weasley disapparated suddenly and came back a couple minutes later saying Lucy was safe. But I doubted it would disappear entirely until she was in my arms again, and even then...

I'd sworn to myself the day after Cedric died that I'd never let anything hurt her like that again.

That thought punched a hole through my chest.

I needed her in my arms again. It was the only way I felt I could protect her, insignificant though it was.

I was jerked from my thoughts by an uproar in the other room. I glanced at the clock, shook my head because it had only been ten minutes, and rose to my feet to go see what had happened.

LUCY:

An explosion of laughter masked the loud crack of apparation, so everyone was too shocked to react for half a second when Professor Lupin and I arrived in the center of the room.