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The carved pumpkin next to the greenhouse door grimaces at Ginny. She hates these ever-darker mornings. And Halloween! What's fun about all the spooky stuff?
Shrill crowing pierces her... brain! She's back in her nightmare, with one of the cockerels threshing against her chest.
“You don't like cocks?” A girl's voice, oddly both unheeding and tender, drives the horrific clamor away.
“No. Yes! I didn't mean...” Her hands strangled them, but... “Did you hear it?”
Was the sound not only in her head, where everything the evil wizard made her do keeps haunting her?
“A cock's greeting to the dawn, yes. But I can see it scared you. Made you relive something terrifying.”
Are Luna's eyes, wide and wise, invading her mind in the way Riddle did?
No, gentle fingers caress cautiously her hands, which she, hunching, has lifted to her ears. Luna has only interpreted her posture.
“Let's skip Herbology!” Luna says. “You can do without the mandrakes' screaming today.
“We'll find what's soothing. Golden Flutterflies that dance down from birches. And Professor Lupin. If you talk to him about what happened last year with the Chamber, he'll listen, and prove that we can be strong, and stronger together.”