Johanna Potter and the Whole of the Moon In Which The Situation Isn't Pretty, a harry potter fanfic

Chapter Ten: In Which The Situation Isn't Pretty

Johanna: Okay. Before I do the disclaimer, I have to warn you. This chapter is probably one of the most emotional that will be written in this series, especially the last scene. So you might want to make sure that some tissues are nearby. Proceed with caution. RaFa owns nothing. Continue.

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Thunder crashed like some giant bloke in the sky was playing the snare drums and lightning flashed like another giant bloke in the sky was going, "Lumos, Nox, Lumos, Nox, Lumos, Nox." Rain pounded the window so hard that I thought it was going to break. I watched with my chin in my hand as the silhouette of the Whomping Willow flailed around, trying to fend off the rain.

"You okay?"

I didn't need to turn around to know that it was one of the twins that had spoken. I did, however, have to turn around to tell that it was Fred. I mean, I can tell them apart, but by voice?That's just impossible.

"Yeah. I guess," I replied.

"It's Cindasus, isn't it?"

I looked down at my trainers. "Maybe," I muttered.

There are two extra facts you need to know for this scene. One—Professor Cindasus was our DADA teacher (Professor Pip had gotten sacked because she had been in a relationship with some seventh year). Two—I had decided not to keep it a secret that I was a werewolf. It's not like I was standing on the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, and screaming "I'M A WEREWOLF" but I wasn't being secretive about it. Although, I might as well have, because when Lee poked me with a silver fork at lunch one day, I started screaming at him, and I wasn't at all secretive about it then.

So that's why Cindasus was torturing me even worse than Snape in his classes. He was the second-worst DADA teacher there has ever been (third-worst is Lockhart, fourth-worst is Quirrell, third-best is Moody, second-best is Pip, first-best is Lupin, and I think we all know who first-worst is). He wasn't even subtle about the fact that he was directing his hate at me, like Snape was. He just yammered on about how horrible werewolves were and how if there were no werewolves, almost all the problems in the wizarding world could be fixed. Several Slimerins pointed and sniggered. Ralph Venist really shouldn't've done that, though, because he was sitting next to a certain hobbit. I bet his entire right side was black and blue for the rest of the day.

Anyway, that was why I was so depressed at that particular moment in time. But hey, I'm about to tell you some of the good news.

Fred's mouth turned up in a smile. "Well, then you'll be very glad to hear that we've found a potion that gives the recipient awful boils. Nobody really knows if it works." His smile grew bigger and more mischievous. "Want to test it?"

I grinned right back at him. "What do you think, pea-brain?"

Of course you'll be delighted to know that I didn't have a crush on Fred anymore.

Well, that's not exactly true. It was still there a tiny little bit. But it wasn't a thick, brightly-colored fog anymore, more of a thin mist settling over my thoughts. It still tingled a little when he touched me, and I still wouldn't say no if he asked if I wanted to kiss him. But I didn't daydream about him in class, and his name didn't randomly pop up in my head, and I didn't write "FW" on my notes (like father, like daughter, eh?).

I told all of this to Charli, who smiled and proclaimed very sarcastically, "Well, that's the news of the year! That would make the front page of the Daily Prophet, that would!" She got a whack upside the head for that.

Speaking of her, she and Amanda still weren't talking to each other. I got the feeling that they really, really, really, really wanted to be friends again, but they felt like calling a truce would be admitting defeat. Poor them. I saw Charli sending a longing glance from her empty end of the Slytherin table to where Amanda sat with Megan Vincent and Katrina Polindit and all of their slimy compatriots. It's amazing how much she had to deal with back then. She wasn't speaking to her best friend, nobody else but us wanted to speak to her, and she had the play and school stuff.

You're probably wondering what the rest of the good news is. Well, it all started with an orange.

Let me explain: Angelina and Lee and I had been very awkward ever since I got werewolfified (it's a word, I made it up). We were eating breakfast as usual, when Lee and I reached for an orange at the same time. We realized this before either of us actually grabbed the orange, so our hands sort of stopped in midair, then just hovered there before we withdrew them under the table. Then Lee burst out with, "What is wrong with us? We used to be really, really close, but now we can't even reach for an orange without being awkward about it! Can't we just accept that one of us is a werewolf and two of us are kinda freaked out about that? I mean, it's not like we don't like you anymore!"

"Yeah!" interjected Angelina. "We still wanna be friends with you! Even if you're a—" here she paused, because people were staring at us. "—a—a werewolf. We care about you. We just hate that it's you of all people that's had to go through all of this. You, who's already lost your parents and haven't seen your brother since the night they got killed."

"We'll be your friends, no matter what!" said Lee determinedly. "We don't even care that you're a werewolf!"

I couldn't speak for a moment. I got that prickly feeling at the backs of my eyes again, but I didn't cry. Instead, I slowly started grinning like a madwoman and threw myself on top of both of them, hugging them so tight I bet they were struggling to breathe.

"I LOVE YOU GUYS!" I howled. "I'M SO HAPPY YOU DON'T CARE! IF YOU DON'T CARE, NOBODY ELSE IN THE WORLD MATTERS!"

"GROUP HUG!" screeched the twins, and collapsed on top of us. A tiny blur called Charli got up from the Slytherin table and barreled over, burying herself in the pile of crazy kids on the cold stone floor, green and silver in a mass of red and gold. We stayed like that for a while, twisted and tangled together with the whole of Hogwarts watching us.

We were completely unaware of the giant step back we were about to take.

This day, too, started just like any other day would. It wasn't until we were going up to bed that it happened.

"That's funny," mused Charli. "Amanda's not here." She furrowed her brow. "She was feeling ill this morning. Maybe she's in the hospital wing..."

We just looked at each other, shrugged, and went to bed. Amanda Quail was missing/sick, so what? She was just Charli's ex-best friend. It wasn't our problem.

Oh, how wrong we were.

The next morning, Charli had gone missing too. That was when we started freaking out. We wondered frantically what was wrong with them. So naturally, the first place we checked was the hospital wing. I had a bad feeling even before we opened the door, because I had a werewolf's sense of smell, and the scent that hit my nostrils was horribly sour and informed me that something was Not Right. But we went in anyway.

And the situation wasn't pretty.

There was Charli, rocking back and forth, her face, twice as pale as usual, twisted with terror and anguish. And there was Amanda, lying motionless in the hospital bed, her eyes closed, her hand in Charli's, soft moans escaping her slack mouth.

"What's wrong with her?" we demanded, nauseous at the sight before us.

Madam Pomfrey looked at us, the panic in her eyes all too familiar. "She's sick. I don't know what she has, but she's sick. She hasn't been able to say anything since this morning. None of the potions I've tried work."

She cast an anxious glance at the two of them and softened her voice so that only we could hear. "I—I don't know if she'll make it."

Okay, now we were just plain terrified. If Amanda died, Charli probably would too. Not only that, but what kind of awful malady would have you "feeling ill" one day and on death's doorstep the next?

Whatever it was, one thing was for certain: it was definitely our problem.

The professors wouldn't let Charli stay with Amanda all day. People pointed and stared at her even more than usual because of her swollen, red face and bloodshot eyes. She gave them a very watery version of her signature "you-say-one-word-and-you-die" glare. At least she still had some remnants of her spirit.

The professors did, however, allow her to bunk with the Gryffies for a while, at the very most until Amanda got better. None of us had had any idea that that was possible, but we found out that if a person was given the password, they could hang with their inter-House friends whenever they felt like it. Of course, this wasn't technically allowed, but it was one of those things that everyone just let slide.

Anyway, they didn't conjure up a bed or anything, so Charli alternated sharing a bed with me and Angelina. I think she went with me more often than with Angelina, because you might as well put the two people that wake up screaming in a bed together. I didn't mind, because she barely took up any space at all.

Sometimes Charli didn't sleep with either of us. That was when she fell asleep in the hospital wing. She went down there every single chance she had, sometimes just to quickly kiss Amanda's forehead and squeeze her hand before hurrying off to her next class.

She wasn't the only one to go to the hospital wing to visit Amanda. We saw a sixth-year boy with Amanda's strawberry-blond hair who could only be her older brother standing next to her bed sometimes, his head down to hide his tears.

We went down too during free periods sometimes. We only really knew her through Charli, but who wouldn't visit anyone they knew who had a death malady?

One early December night when everyone else was asleep, I slipped out of bed and down to the hospital. It was one of the nights when Charli had fallen asleep by Amanda's bed, and her small dark head lay on Amanda's stomach. The two girls' fingers were interlaced.

I pulled up a chair next to Charli's and sat down in it. "Hey, Amanda," I said. "I don't really know what to say right now. I know you about as well as you know me." I paused. "Well, I guess you know me better than I know you, 'cuz..." I waved a hand towards my lightning scar, even though I knew she couldn't see me; but then again, I was talking to her, so I guess it wasn't that weird.

"Well, I just want you to know that I want you to get better. Really, really soon. It seems like Charli's dying, too. She needs you. And Amanda, I'm pretty sure you need her too. Without her, you're just another Slimerin. I'm sorry, but it's true. And you already were turning into one of them, before you got sick. You were laughing at her, and saying that word, and hating people because of things they couldn't help.

"But when you were friends with her, you couldn't hate those people, because you knew one of them, and you loved her. And you got to see what it did to her when your stupid little buddies made fun of her.

"She needs you, too. Without you, she didn't have anyone. Well, that's not true. She had us. But it just wasn't the same. We're Gryffindors. Which means she's a Slytherin who hangs out with Gryffindors. We're just another reason for them to laugh at her. But you're not. You're a Slytherin, just like her. She had you to be ambitious and cunning and sly and whatever with. She had someone to sit next to at lunch, and whisper with in the middle of the night, just because she could.

"People like her need people like you, and people like you need people like her. So get better. She doesn't have anyone else like you, and she'll fall apart without you."

"Oh, and before I forget," I added quickly, digging around in my bag. "Here." I pulled out a violet. "I nicked this from Herbology. She told us it was your favourite flower."

I placed the violet on Amanda's chest. I grabbed the hand that wasn't in Charli's and put it over the flower. I found blankets from an unoccupied bed and threw them over Charli.

This action woke her up. She raised her head and opened her bleary eyes. "What time is it?" she slurred groggily.

"About midnight, I reckon," I replied. "I was talking to Amanda."

She blinked owlishly at me. "You were?"

I nodded. "I was."

"What did you say?"

"I said that I wanted her to get better because you need her, and she needs you."

Charli dropped her head back down on Amanda's stomach. "No, she doesn't. She's so much better without me."

"Yes, she does. She needs you because you're you. You need her because she's her. Just like I need you because you're you, and I need Lee because he's him, and I need Angelina because she's her, and..." I took a deep breath. "And most of all, I need Fred and George because they're them. I feel about them how you feel about Amanda. I wouldn't be able to function without them. I'm practically a triplet. If one of them got sick like this, I would maybe take it even worse than you are. If one of them..." I trailed off. I couldn't say it out loud.

She was quiet for a minute. Then—

"Midnight

Not a sound from the pavement

Has the moon lost her memory?

She is smiling alone."

I smiled sadly and continued for her.

"In the lamplight

The withered leaves collect at my feet

And the wind begins to moan."

We sang together.

"Every streetlamp seems to beat

A fatalistic warning

Someone mutters, and a streetlamp gutters

And soon it will be morning."

I think we both had tears in our eyes as we got to the chorus.

"Memory

All alone in the moonlight

I can smile at the old days

I was beautiful then. "

I know I was crying by that point. It was amazing that this song was so appropriate in this situation. Amanda's sickness. My lycanthropy. Charli's Housemates hating her. Heck, even my family a little bit. All the horrible things that had ever happened to us all spiraled down to form this one moment.

"I remember

The time I knew what happiness was

Let the memory

Live again.

Johanna: I...I can't make a joke right now. I'm going now. *walks off after Charli*

RandomFandom: C'mon, guys, don't cry...um...*turns to audience* I'm going to go calm them down. Reviews will cure Amanda. *chases after Johanna and Charli*