Lucy's POV:
"Are you sure you're okay?" Marley is still holding on to my shoulder, as if I might topple over any moment. For God's sake, please.
"I'm good Marley, stop worrying so much!" I look to Liliana for support, but she looks just as concerned and I don't even bother trying Vanessa. "You don't have to try to hold me up, I won't faint again."
"Did you faint Lucy?!" Dean, Seamus and Neville are walking right behind us and they seem to have caught some part of the conversation. "Because of those things?"
"It was pretty scary," 'Nessa answered Dean. "It was like she had a stroke or something."
"I know what you mean," Neville looks to me. "Harry had one too. He also heard some woman screaming, but no one screamed..."
"What?!" Seamus turns to Neville incredulo- usly. "What's gotten into him?" I shake my head at the boys.
"He's not crazy, it was part of the attack from the monster."
"Seriously? Did you hear it too?!" Vanessa turned hyper-worried again. Lucky for me, Marley left to meet some other friends when she thought I was alright.
"Not that, I had a... flashback." I give Vanessa a look, which she picks up on and she nods. "I guess he did too. No idea to what though."
"What kind of scream was it?" Liliana asks Neville, who seems stunned to be asked. He shrugs, saying Harry didn't elaborate much.
"Luckily the new DADA professor was there too. He chased the dementor away." We all turn to Neville in curiosity.
"What's the new one like?" Seamus asks him now. He leans in, as if we're whispering. Neville looks happy with the new staff addition though, it should be fine.
"As long as it's not an idiot or a murderer, I'm happy." Liliana laughs at my joke, but the others look slightly disturbed and wor- ried.
I get into a carriage with Liliana, Vanessa and Neville, while Dean and Seamus get the next. It's raining tonight, so as soon as we get to the castle, we all rush inside.
"We should go and find Luna before the feast starts." I start looking around for our blonde friend. Finally, I see her walking on her own, lost in her own little world.
I grin and run over to her, the others follow- ing me closely. Luna notices me just as I arrive and I give her the biggest hug I can manage.
"Hi Lucy!"
"How've you been Luna? Been on any wild adventures?" A bright smile comes over Luna's face as the other girls hug her. She starts telling us all about how she went on a trip with her dad to look for one of the many creatures she loves.
"Hey!" Ginny joins us and turns to me after greeting Luna. "McGonnagal wants to speak with you. I heard you were attacked as well! Are you okay?"
"I'm good now. Her office I guess?"
When I arrive at Minnie's office, I meet Harry and Hermione there. "Hello there, how was your ride?" It was meant as a joke, but Harry and Hermione both look very worried.
"Did you have a fit too?!" I roll my eyes at my overprotective brother, but nod. "It's OK though. I'll be fine in a bit."
"Did you have chocolate yet?" Minnie is standing in the doorway. Harry and Hermione say they did, but I shake my head.
"I've got it, here you go!" Poppy walks out with chocolate that she hands to me. "Good summer Poppy? Minnie?" Poppy rolls her eyes and all but shoves the piece of choco- late into my mouth.
"We already got some from the new profes- sor," Hermione says as Poppy offers them too. Poppy and Minnie look to each other with content faces.
"Finally a decent one again." They seem very pleased.
"You two can go back to the feast now."
"Did you hear something too?" Harry asks when we're definitely alone in the hallway.
"You're not going crazy," I tell him about what I heard. Talking about it makes the flashback even worse, it seems. I better not get plagued with nightmares again.
"God Lu I'm sorry..." I shrug off his apology. "There's nothing to be sorry for, Harry."
"Yes there is. I've been way to busy worrying about the secret and not at all about what you went through that night."
"Well, if it's any help, I also kinda shoved the memory away until now. I was way too pre- occupied with the other part of the problem."
When we get to the Great Hall, we split up: Harry goes to Ron, who's talking to Seamus and Dean and I go over to the girls.
"What did McGonnagal want?" Marley pours me a glass of pumpkin juice as she asks. I roll my eyes and take over. "I can do that myself, I'm totally fine now! Minnie wanted Poppy to check on me and Harry."
"Relax a little Marley," Liliana smirks at the other girl, who scoffs in response. 'Thank Liliana.'
'No problem Lu.'
"That's so scary I swear," Marley looks bet- ween me and Liliana. "It's like you can read each other's minds..."
"We kinda can though," Liliana smirks again, this time to me. And I smirk right back. Marley huffs at us. "I really need other friends."
"You have other frirnds," Ginny reasons. It came out a bit weird, but luckily Marley ignores that by now. Or rather for now.
"Which is because you're good at making friends," Vanessa quickly comes with the rescue, if Marley were to decide to react to Ginny.
Instead, Marley raises her eyebrows. "Says you. You're the embodiment of a social but- terfly." True though.
"Can I have your attention?" Dumbledore stands up and the Great Hall falls into an absolute silence immediately. "Before we start the feast, I would like to make a few announcements."
"First of all, I would like to remind the first years of the rule that the Forbidden Forest is strictly off limits for all students. This also counts as a reminder for some of the older students."
I exchange wicked glances with Liliana, Gin- ny and Vanessa, which earns us a scowl from Marley. For the sake of not interrup- ting the headmaster though, she doesn't say anything.
"Other than that, using magic in the halls is still forbidden, which includes using a few magical objects. The list can be found in Mr. Filch's office. Now for the more pressing matters. You most likely noticed the Demen- tors on the train journey here. They will be staying around here, because of Sirius Black's escape from Azkaban. I would like to warn you not to cross them. Dementors are among the darkest creatures in existence and they will not hesitate to attack you if you upset them."
Great, they're going to be here until Black is caught. And God knows when that happens.
"Lastly, there's been some changes and addi- tions in staff. First of all, Professor Kettle- burn has retired last year. I am pleased to say our very own Hagrid will be taking this job!"
"No way!" Vanessa gasps in pure surprise. Once we all see it's not actually a joke, we start cheering loudly for our game keeper. Hagrid is one of the few adults that I almost fully trust, right up there with Poppy and Minnie. In other words: Hagrid is amazing.
I look at Harry, who catches my look. I silently ask him if he knew, but he shrugs. Ron, Hermione and him cheer as well and I can see Hagrid become all shy.
"McGonnagal looks so happy too!" Ginny gestures to Minnie, who is sitting next to Hagrid with a proud smile on her face. "As she sould!" Liliana yells over the noise.
"Second, I would like to introduce our newest staff member. Put your hands toget- her for our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Lupin!"
While people around us carefully and pol- itely clap, I proceed to choke on absolutely nothing when I hear his name. Everyone around us turns to me in curiosity and the girls all frown.
"What the hell Lu?" Vanessa claps on my back a few times. "What is it?"
I ignore their looks as I lift myself slightly off the bench to see the stage better. Merlin, it's actually true.
Remus John Lupin has come to Hogwarts.
"Holy bloody hell," I mutter. Marley scrunches up her face. "I didn't know you liked older guys Lucy."
If I wouldn't have been way too preoccupied at that moment, I would have choked all over again, of pure laughter.
"I don't think that's what this is about Marley," Vanessa whispers, sending Liliana into a fit of laughter.
Remus is here. At Hogwarts. That means he finally has an actual, stable job!
"You little shit," I mutter as I'm still looking at him. When he feels my burning eyes on him, he catches my eyes and looks right back. "You bloody did it."
"I don't think I understand a bit of what this is all about," Liliana huffs, as if she's giving up trying. 'Nessa shrugs in agreement and I go back to my eye contact game with Moony.
He actually bloody did it.
*~*
Vanessa's POV:
Lucy is fairly absent and distracted during all of dinner. I plan on asking her all about it once we're alone, or at least have lost Mar- ley. Don't get me wrong I love the girl, but she doesn't know Lucy like we do.
"Ginny, are you feeling ill or something?" I notice Ginny is very quiet again, which feels wrong, since she was finally opening up a little after last year.
She looks up at me and smiles. It's a fake smile and we can all see it. Ginny isn't bad at lying at all, or at pretending, but faking a smile is something Lucy does like a pro. And I can see through that sometimes now, so Ginny has a hard time beating it.
"What is it Gin?" The question and lack of a response caught Lucy's attention too. Ginny avoids our eyes persistently. Time to go.
"Lili, d'you need the bathroom too?" I ask her smoothly. Lili is good at catching onto hints and she comes with us immediately.
"Where are we going?" Ginny asks while we're walking down the halls, not to the bathroom. "Shouldn't we go back to the feast?"
"The feast can wait," I respond, taking the lead on our route to I don't even know where. "In here."
We end up in an empty classroom. Lili claims the teacher's chair as I sit on a student's desk and Lucy settles herself on the window sill.
"So, what's going on in that head of yours Gin?" Ginny flushes and quickly looks down to her shoes.
"Those shoes are great Gin, but we only wanna help." I roll my eyes at Lili's joke, which was bad timing.
"There's nothing going on in my head," Ginny tries, but we all know it's not true. "And what about Lu? She's awfully quiet too."
"This isn't about me Gin!"
"I mean, it partly is," I say. I meet Lili's eye and we both know this is about both of our friends. "We also wanna know what happened with you back there."
"I don't know what you mean."
"Yes you do Lu."
"No, I really don't!"
"Before this turns into some stupid argue- ment, let's calm down," Lili sends me a stern look. Never thought Lili would be the respon- sible one. "Let's start with Ginny for now. What happened on the train?"
Ginny crooks one brow at Lili. "You know what happened on the train." I roll my eyes at Ginny's denial, but something seems to dawn on Lucy. "You relived what happened last year."
"You did?!" Lili shoots up from her chair and I sit up straighter on the desk. "Why didn't you tell us? Are you-"
"No, of course you're not okay," I cut Lili off. "You relived your fresh trauma! Gin, you should have told us, you know you can right?"
Ginny takes a shuddering breath. I hop off the table and proceed to hug her. She sur- prisingly accepts the hug and leans into it. I'm closely followed by Lili.
"He was speaking to me again," Ginny says, reliving the memory once more. "He was saying that I left him and that I betrayed him."
"You did not betray Tom Riddle," Lucy's voice is icy. I can hear in a beat that she thinks what she's hearing is total bullshit. Which it of course is. The thing is that Ginny doesn't really feel that way yet.
"You're right," Ginny sniffs. "I just can't help it. Sometimes I just kind of feel like I did. And other times I know it's ridiculous."
We stay in the classroom all evening, skip- ping the rest of the feast. We decide to go back to the Common Room, since none of us feel like doing anything more than go sleep.
I really need to talk to Lucy tomorrow.
*
I fell asleep fairly easy, but I'm woken up halfway through the night. At first I have no idea what woke me up. Until I hear the strangled noises coming from the bed next to mine. Lucy.
I quickly get out of bed to go see what's going on. The others didn't wake up, but than again, my bed is closest to Lucy's. "Lu? Are you alright?"
She doesn't respond, but the noises keep coming. With a quick move, I have the curtains to her bed open. Lucy's sleeping, but I'm guessing not for long.
"I knew something was wrong," I curse under my breath so no one wakes up. I try to be as quiet and careful as possible to get onto her bed and close the curtains. "Silencio."
Before I get a chance to wake her up myself, she shoots up, so fast she flies straight into me and I topple over on the bed.
"Oh God I'm so sorry 'Nessa!" Lucy sits me up again before I even really realise I fell over. "I didn't mean to hit you I swear!"
"No, that's my fault, don't worry about that!" Lucy is immediately silent and frowns at me, seemingly only now realising I'm on her bed. "What is it? Are you OK?"
"I'm fine Lu, you know this isn't about me, so stop changing the subject." Lucy sighs and starts rubbing over her left arm, or rather over the scar running down it.
"Fine, I had a nightmare, seen it? You can laugh at how pathetic I am now." Anger boils inside me at her statement. Who told her having nightmares is pathetic?
"Lu, what did you see when the Dementor came?"
"I heard the Wolf," Lucy shivers and screws her eyes shut.
"Hey, you can talk to me," I grab her shoul- der lightly, so she won't flinch at me. "D'you mean your wolf side or the one that bit you?"
"The scary thing is... I don't know," she opens her eyes and looks up at me. "I can't even tell the difference between me and him! I sound just like him, I am just like him."
"You aren't a monster like him, Lu," I hug her, just like I hugged Ginny only a few hours ago. Lucy doesn't react as easily to the touch, but after half a minute, she relaxes a bit. "You might be a werewolf, but you are no monster, like him."
"Not yet anyway," Lucy mutters into my shoulder. "I bet he wasn't like this when he was a child either."
"You're different from him Lu, I just know that. You could never do what he did to you, to anyone. Not now, not in ten, or twenty years."
"Today made me realise how much I've been avoiding thinking about that night," Lucy sighs again. "And now that I relived it, I crash right into it, without any preparation."
"At least now you have me. And I bet Lili and Gin are always there for you too."
"I know, you're amazing."
"What're friends for, huh?"
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A/N:
Hi guys! I hope you're all doing well!
I'm going to try to put more emphasize on the trauma in the fanfic, because I realised that I have not done so yet. And also, I think the Harry Potter series overlooks Ginny's trauma, so I'm gonna change that.