Healed & Broken (HP) {Book 4 of the Wild & Free Series}

14. Foreboding

Exhausted but delighted with his night's work, Harry and I told Ron, Rowan and Hermione everything that had happened during next morning's Charms lesson (having first cast the Muffliato spell upon those nearest us). They were satisfyingly impressed by the way Harry had wheedled the memory out of Slughorn and positively awed when we told them about Voldemort's Horcruxes and Dumbledore's promise to take Harry and me along, should he find another one.

"Wow," said Ron, when Harry and I had finally finished telling them everything; Ron was waving his wand very vaguely in the direction of the ceiling without paying the slightest bit of attention to what he was doing. "Wow. You're actually going to go with Dumbledore... and try and destroy... wow."

"Ron, you're making it snow," said Hermione patiently, grabbing his wrist and redirecting his wand away from the ceiling from which, sure enough, large white flakes had started to fall. Lucy, I noticed, glared at Hermione from a neighbouring table through very red eyes, and Hermione immediately let go of Ron's arm.

"Oh yeah," said Ron, looking down at his shoulders in vague surprise. "Sorry... looks like we've all got horrible dandruff now..."

He brushed some of the fake snow off Hermione's shoulder. Lucy burst into tears. Ron looked immensely guilty and turned his back on her.

"We split up," Ron told Harry, Rowan and me out of the corner of his mouth. "Last night. When she saw me coming out of the dormitory with Hermione. Obviously she couldn't see you, Harry, so she thought it had just been the two of us."

Rowan cast Lucy a worried look.

"Ah," said Harry. "Well — you don't mind it's over, do you?"

"No," Ron admitted. "It was pretty bad while she was yelling, but at least I didn't have to finish it."

"Coward," said Hermione, though she looked amused. "Well, it was a bad night for romance all around. Ginny and Dean split up too, Harry."

Keeping his face as immobile and his voice as indifferent as he could, Harry asked, "How come?"

"Oh, something really silly... She said he was always trying to help her through the portrait hole, like she couldn't climb in herself... but they've been a bit rocky for ages."

I glanced over at Dean on the other side of the classroom. He certainly looked unhappy.

"Of course, this puts you in a bit of a dilemma, doesn't it?" said Hermione.

"What d'you mean?" said Harry quickly.

"The Quidditch team," said Hermione. "If Ginny and Dean aren't speaking..."

"Oh — oh yeah," said Harry.

"So, what about you and Lucy?" I asked Rowan, whispering, so that Harry, Ron and Hermione couldn't hear.

"What about it?" Rowan asked indifferently, but I knew he knew perfectly well what I was talking about.

"Well... Talk to her!" I said. "She needs you."

Rowan turned his head to look at Lucy, who was fiercely swining her wand at her flask with vinegar. He sighed, grabbed his stuff, got up and sat down next to Lucy, who was sitting lonely in a corner.

"Flitwick," said Ron in a warning tone. The tiny little Charms master was bobbing his way toward us, and Hermione was the only one who had managed to turn vinegar into wine; her glass flask was full of deep crimson liquid, whereas the contents of Harry's, Ron's and mine were still murky brown.