Luna stands in the winding hallway, studying her friend as she brushes by. Ginny is pale - almost as faded as Luna's Mum had been before they took her away. The comparison makes Luna shudder; she does not relish the idea of her Mum shut inside a coffin: she'd always hated enclosed spaces.
There is something fierce and wild in Ginny's eyes. It drags Luna in. For a few seconds she understands what it is like to drown, to see the surface of the water shimmer above her head and know that she will never reach it in time. Her chest burns from lack of oxygen.
Then, just as suddenly as it took her in, she is thrown back. She takes in great gulps of air more delicious than any Butterbeer. The world spins too much, but she can see something other than darkness.
Exhausted, Luna sags against the wall, relieved beyond all words.
It takes a moment for her to become aware of two significant factors. First, she is sitting against the wall where Filch's cat was found hanging from a torch bracket; and second, her watch shows a time half an hour later than it should be. Time does not bother her very much, but Professor Flitwick will take points off her for being so late to class and it will further depress her housemates who are concerned about house points.
Someone grabs her arm and unceremoniously hauls her to her feet. She looks up to find Ginny's prefect brother, Percy, staring at her with a mixture of concern and annoyance.
He opens his mouth to reprimand her for wandering off alone when he sees something in her face that stops him cold. All at once his manner softens and Percy asks gently, "Are you all right?"
Her mouth is not working properly. All she can do is grab onto a protruding stone in the wall to support herself.
Percy follows her hand with his eyes. Then his gaze catches on something just to the right of her head and his blue eyes widen.
"Her skeleton will lie forever in the Chamber," Percy reads aloud with horror in his face. He grabs Luna's arm and shakes her like a rag doll. She's distantly surprised that the shaking doesn't bother her.
"Who?" He demands sharply. Luna suspects he already knows. "Whose skeleton?"
She can't look at him. His hair, the shape of his ears, the little indentation in the chin - those are Ginny's too. She can remember Percy helping the two of them clean up after play.
She must have whispered something because Percy dropped her and took off running down the hall. It occurs to Luna that she has never seen Percy run, she has seen him snap at others for running, but never run himself.
"Percy!" Professor McGongall's voice reflected her surprise. Apparently she didn't see Percy Weasley as the sort to run in the halls either.
"It's Ginny... Professor, you have to see this!"
As people arrive to stare at the new message, Luna slips into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. It may be silly, a 'foolish vanity' to quote her father, but she doesn't like to cry in front of other people. The other girls hate using it, but Myrtle has never bothered her. On the contrary - Luna bothers Myrtle with her incessant questions about death and dying.
"Oh," the ghost says peering from behind a stall door. She seems disappointed. "It's you."
"It's me," the girl agrees dully.
Just outside the door, Luna hears Professor Flitwick's voice asking after her. He must have cancelled his last class.
"I'm not going to tell you what its like to die," Myrtle says in a sing-song voice.
"Good," Luna says dully, wondering if Ginny was on the other side of the veil. She knows it is useless to rail against death - it happens to everyone sooner or later - but Ginny is one of her few friends. "I don't really want to know right now."
As Myrtle watched in astonishment, Luna sank to the floor, pulled her knees to her chest and began to cry.