In the Melancholy Moonlight

Chapter XCIV: And I Can Flow

HARRY:

The second I realized Lucy wasn't in the kitchen anymore, I ducked out of the room to find her.

"It's best if she's never alone."

I checked her room first. Not there.

Then mine. Not there, either. But her textbook was gone.

I raced down the stairs, anxiety pressing in on me from all sides. Where was she?

I made a beeline for the living room. As I hurried toward the closed door, there was a loud crack on the other side of it that sent me into a dead sprint.

Someone had apparated.

I nearly pulled the door off its hinges with how violently I opened it, terrified that I would find another empty room, terrified someone had just taken Lucy away again.

But Lucy was sitting there on the couch, breathing hard, staring across the room with a somewhat shocked expression on her pale face.

"Are you okay?" I asked, frozen with one hand on the doorknob still and my other hand supporting my weight on the doorframe.

She blinked, her wild eyes finding mine for a second before looking back at where she had just been staring. "I just... I just threw that book across the room."

I followed her gaze. Surely enough, her textbook was lying on the ground up against the opposite wall.

I'll admit my first thought was Damn. Lucy has a hell of an arm.

The living room was one of the largest in the house. She must have thrown the book — the incredibly heavy Potions textbook — thirty feet, maybe more.

I looked back at Lucy in wonder.

I'd always wondered what it would look like to see her actually let her anger go. I had seen it flash in her eyes for years. Lockhart. Snape. Malfoy, both Draco and Lucius. I had seen it flash in her eyes, I had seen the ring glow scarlet and guessed reasonably enough that it meant she was angry, but I had never really seen her lose control.

My second thought was Damn. I can't believe I missed that.

But as soon as I had the thought, tears filled Lucy's eyes.

"Harry, I'm losing control," she said.

And just like that, everything crashed down.

I had the presence of mind to close the door behind me as I rushed over to where she was.

She buried her face in her hands and cried for the first time.

I didn't try to get her to stop crying. I didn't try to say anything to make it better.

I knew the release was good for her. I knew there was nothing I could have said.

So I just held her through the storm.

LUCY:

The hurricane I had thrown up into the stars, the emotions I had shoved away time and time again, had hunted me down at last.

I cried chronologically.

First I cried for Cedric. For the halls he would never get to walk. For the friends he would never get to meet. For the life he would never get to see.

Second I cried for Mum. She had only wanted to help. She had only wanted to stop others from feeling the same pain our family suffered. She had only wanted to try to stop the war before it even started.