HARRY:

The Gryffindor party was absolutely electric. Which was funny, in hindsight, because I knew only about half of the people in attendance had any idea what electricity was.

As soon as Dennis saw Angelina and Alicia reaching for my mum's record player, which had been safely stowed under a sofa after Dom the DJ had graduated, he raced up to his dormitory and returned with a stack of Queen vinyls he said he had received for Christmas. Colin helped him rig everything up, and soon enough, "We Will Rock You" was echoing through the common room. It caught on quickly even among the pure-bloods who had never heard the song before, and we were on our fourth repetition of the song when all four Beaters, current and former, appeared.

Lucy and Ginny slipped off with Fred and George immediately after the match to run to Hogsmeade for butterbeer and candy, but as soon as they returned, the party truly started.

Lucy grabbed two butterbeers and tossed me one. She locked eyes with me and, smirking, she blew gently on the lid of hers, and it popped clean off into her free hand.

"You're getting good at that whole wandless magic business," I remarked with a grin, twisting my own lid off and holding up my bottle in her direction. "Cheers."

"To magic?" she asked.

"To magic," I agreed, and we clinked our glass bottles together before drawing hearty swigs of the sweet liquid gold.

I was about to ask Lucy how she had actually done the little trick with the lid, but before I got the chance, Fred attempted to sneak up behind Lucy with a handful of ice clearly intended to go down her back. But even over the increasing volume of the party, Lucy heard him approaching and whirled to face him just in time. In a single motion, she drew her wand out from somewhere in her uniform and flicked it Fred's direction. He didn't even get the chance to blink before the ice cubes shot into the air and went directly down his pants.

Fred swore and began a frenzied sort of dance to shimmy the ice cubes out, his outburst attracting the attention of everyone around us, and Lucy looked exceedingly proud of herself as people began to howl with laughter.

"That's what you get for trying to pull a fast one on me, Weasley," she said with an impish grin. "I'm prank-proof."

"Oh, you're going to regret saying that," George said, coming up behind her and draping an arm around her shoulders as he chuckled at his twin's dilemma.

"Challenge accepted," Fred panted as he continued the frenzied stamping of his feet.

George grinned. "Exactly. You're going to have to watch your back, Cub."

"I've done alright so far," she replied with no shortage of smugness. "You're going to have to try harder if you want to successfully prank me before you graduate in June. After that, I'm free."

The twins exchanged a look, but neither said anything aloud so I wasn't entirely sure what they meant by it. Finally, Fred sighed with relief.

"You're a cruel witch, Lucy Diggory," he said, reaching forward to ruffle her hair fondly. "We've trained you well."

"That we have," George agreed, straightening up and tugging on her braid. "C'mon, Freddie, let's go bother our former captain and her rather smashing first mate."

The twins were replaced in a hurry with Hermione, who threw her arms around Lucy's neck and giggled more excitedly than I had heard in years.

"You really showed that old hag!" she exclaimed. "You should have seen the look on Umbridge's face when Dennis caught the Snitch and you were the one who set him up for it! I'm so proud of you!"

Before Lucy could do anything beyond turning bright red, Ginny rushed over and seized her by the hand.

"C'mon, dance with me!" she insisted, dragging Lucy in the direction of the center of the common room where an informal dance floor was forming.

"Wait!" Lucy downed the rest of her bottle of butterbeer. She grinned at me, blue eyes positively sparkling in the glow of the common room lights. "Cheers, to magic, and to best friends." She held up the empty bottle and vanished it with a flick of her wrist, beaming so widely I could see the dimple in her chin that meant she was really smiling.

With that, she let Ginny drag her away. The sound of her laugh as Ginny said something in her ear brought a smile to my face, and I was nearly overcome by the sudden impulse to follow her. I didn't, though, instead chuckling and having another sip of butterbeer.

"I'm not really in a dancing mood," I said to Ron and Hermione. "Want to see if anyone's interested in Exploding Snap?"

Ron nodded. "Sounds good to me!"

"Oh, I don't know," Hermione said, tugging on her sleeves. "I really ought to get back to studying, now that I've gotten to let everyone know how proud I am."

"C'mon, Mione, you've earned a break," Ron insisted. "We can play on a team. You're faster at spotting matches than I am, you can tap my hand when you see a match and I'll do all of the wandwork. Think of it like practicing with... what are those Muggle study tools called? Spark cards?"

"Flash cards," she corrected. "Okay, okay, I'll play if we can find more people. You're right, it can help me with my flash cards."

As it turned out, quite a few people were in for Exploding Snap, and a tournament was soon underway. I was normally decent at Exploding Snap, being a Seeker and all, but I was rather distracted that day. I kept stealing glances at Lucy over Katie's shoulder across the circle.

I'd never seen her in such high spirits at a Quidditch party. Whether she was overwhelmed by everything or nursing injuries or a combination of the two, she tended to stick to the walls, if she didn't leave the common room altogether. As the party went on, however, she seemed to come more and more and more and more out of her shell.

Her long braid with the golden bow at the end whipped around her as she let Fred take her hands and spin her around the dance floor, and she shrieked with laughter as she dodged George's attempts to trip her so he could quite literally sweep her off her feet. She disappeared for a few minutes, and when she appeared again, I saw her nose and cheeks had been decorated with glittering red and gold stars, and soon Ginny appeared sporting identical face paint. Once they returned, Michael grabbed his girlfriend and pulled her close for a slow dance, so Lucy turned her attention to our corner of the room. Her eyes lit up when she saw what we were playing. She tugged the golden bow out of her hair so it tumbled past her shoulders as she started hurrying over.

At that exact moment, the game exploded, completely covering my glasses in a film of ash.

"Mind dealing me in on the next round, Harry?" Lucy asked, wedging herself next to me in the circle.

I blinked as the sweet aroma of vanilla and sugar and something else hit me. I realized half a second later that the smell of our baking endeavor of the night before must have still been clinging to Lucy, but I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed something so wonderful sooner.

Another half a second later, I realized I hadn't answered her question.

"Oh, yeah, of course," I said, the words leaving me in a rush. I inched closer to Ron to make more room from Lucy and passed him the deck. "I need to clean my glasses, so you can deal."

I wiped my glasses clean with the sleeve of my robe and put them back on.

All of a sudden, I found myself incredibly aware of everything about Lucy as the new game started.

I was incredibly aware of the way her shoulder remained pressed against mine even with that extra space I had made.

I was incredibly aware of the melody of her laugh and the sense of pride I felt when I was the reason for it.

Above all, I was incredibly aware of how happy she was. How magnetic she was. How bright she was. How beautiful she was.

I blinked. Sweet Merlin.

She's beautiful.

I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed something so wonderful sooner.

No wonder I looked to Lucy every time the world turned upside down. No wonder Cho had never felt quite right. No wonder I always offered my shoulder for catching Lucy's tears but had no patience for Cho's. No wonder I had used a memory of Lucy to cast the Patronus that had saved my life in the alley in August, yet Cho had never once crossed my mind.

I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed something so wonderful sooner.

Lucy had always been right next to me. The seat next to me on the train was always open for her. The seat next to me in class was always open for her. I always felt stronger when she was at my side. I always felt happier when she was at my side. Lucy had always been right next to me.

I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed something so wonderful sooner.

Once a couple more rounds of Exploding Snap had come and gone, the music died down and everyone started to disperse. A few people headed down to the Great Hall for dinner, Ron among them, a few people headed up to their dormitories to continue the party more privately, Fred among them, and a couple of particularly studious people headed to the library, Hermione among them.

Lucy struck up a conversation with the Creevey brothers about how vinyl records and record players worked, so I grabbed a now-warm bottle of butterbeer and made my way over to one of the sofas in the corner of the room. I sipped the drink slowly, letting the sweetness dance across my tongue and pondering the epiphany I'd just had.

Warmth flooded my entire body, and I got the feeling it wasn't just the butterbeer.

I was still in something of a daze when Lucy appeared again, hopping over the back of the sofa with a bottle of butterbeer in one hand and a couple of boxes of Bertie Bott's in the other.

"Hey," she said breathlessly.

I fought to keep my voice normal as I replied, feeling a bit breathless myself. "Hey." I shifted on the couch so I was facing her. Her hair fell down all around her in gentle waves, and the glittery stars on her face caught the light so perfectly it danced in her eyes. Merlin. "Someone seemed to be enjoying herself at a Quidditch party for once."

"It was a bit of a rush," she admitted with a soft laugh, "but the sobering reality of everything is beginning to hit and I'm afraid I'm out of party tricks. Well, except for..."

Lucy tossed the boxes of jellybeans onto the table and moved so close to me my stomach flipped as vanilla and sugar and something else became all I could smell. She held the bottle of butterbeer by the neck and pointed the base of the bottle my direction.

"Go on, grab it. I'll do the cap trick again, we can do it together."

I set my own bottle of butterbeer next to the jellybeans on the table and did as she instructed, wrapping my hand around the label. I was about to ask what to do next when she laid her hand over mine. She said something about this charm and that charm, but I was too distracted by the rush of magic that had suddenly coursed through me to catch a word of her explanation.

"Now just blow on the lid," she said with a smile, eyes twinkling in the candlelight. "It should come right off."

I did, and surely enough, the lid popped off directly into her waiting hand. Her smile widened, and she tugged the bottle from my hand to take a sip.

Lucy settled back against the cushions, dangerously close to where my arm was resting across the top of them. "One day, I'll figure out how to do real magic with this power of mine, but until then, I don't mind the party tricks."

"You just did real magic, Lu."

"Well, technically, yes, but I mean real magic. Imagine how useful I could be if I could turn Umbridge's desk upside down with just a flick of my wrist."

"You can do that?" I asked incredulously.

She shrugged, a mischievous grin coming to her face. "I won't know until I try. And I intend to try until it works."

"Now there's the Lucy we all know and love," I said before I even knew what I was saying.

Lucy flushed bright red — she'd been doing it more as of late — and looked down at her bottle.

"Not that we haven't always loved you, even when you lost your fire," I stammered, trying to recover as best I could, "but, well, you know we all prefer seeing you happy to seeing you sad, and—"

"Don't worry, I knew what you meant. I guess I'm just wondering if I'm really still me."

I opened my mouth to try to assure her that she was, but I thought better of it and opted to let her explain. She was more eloquent than she gave herself credit for being, and when Lucy started talking, I had learned it was worth listening.

"I don't know if I'm becoming more of myself, or becoming someone else entirely," she said after a moment. "Playing Beater feels right, being more adventurous at parties feels right, standing up for myself as well as other people feels right, but considering this is all coming after losing Cedric, how right can it be?" Lucy looked up at me earnestly. "How can I trust myself to know what's right and what's wrong in a world where everything is so backwards?"

I pondered this for a moment, not wanting to make a mess of it when she was being so vulnerable with me. She trusted me. I didn't trust myself not to screw it all up.

My gaze wandered to the boxes of Bertie Bott's on the table. I reached over and grabbed one.

I tore the top off and held it out to her. "Grab a good one out of the box."

"Why?" she asked, a bemused smile slowly spreading across her face.

"Trust the process. Once you grab one, I'll grab one."

"You do know I can tell what they all are, right? As soon as I pull one out of the box, I'll know what it is?"

I nodded. "I know. Grab one, and I'll grab one too. Don't tell me if mine is good or bad, though, I have to be surprised for this analogy to work."

"Whatever you say, Potter," Lucy said with a sigh as she reached in and pulled out a yellow bean.

I reached into the box without looking and pulled out a red one. Lucy kept her face a careful blank as she looked from hers to mine and back again.

"Okay, now trade me," I said.

Lucy bit her lips together but didn't protest. My fingers tingled where our skin touched, but I didn't let it distract me — too much, anyway.

"Alright, now eat it."

We both popped the jellybeans into our mouths. I smiled when mine was lemon, but Lucy looked immensely dissatisfied with hers.

"What was yours?" I asked.

"Strawberry," she replied with a grimace. "I hate strawberries. How was the lemon?"

"You hate—? You know what, we can discuss that later. My lemon was fantastic, you made a great choice. Okay, let's do it again, you pick and I'll pick and we'll switch."

"No thanks, I'll pass."

"Why?"

"I chose one I wanted, you chose one at random, and then we switched. It's ridiculous, it makes no sense. Why would I do that again?"

"Aw, come on, Lu," I said, flashing my most winning smile. "All for the sake of the analogy. Let's do it again. You know what, I won't choose randomly this time, I'll actually look and try to find a good one for you."

She shook her head as she reached into the box again. "Alright..."

Lucy grabbed a red bean this time, and I reached to the bottom of the box for a white one that I thought might have smelled like coconut or maybe marshmallow. We switched again, and again, I smiled as Lucy grimaced.

"Cinnamon, excellent," I said. "What was yours?"

"Mayonnaise," she replied. "Not bad in its original form, but dreadful as a jellybean. Can the analogy be over now?"

"No, we need a third round. Go on, grab your favorite in this box, you get to keep it this time."

Lucy looked reluctant, but she reached in and grabbed a brown jellybean. I reached in after her and grabbed a green one.

"Are you sure you want that one?" I asked immediately.

Lucy raised her eyebrows at me. "Yes."

"Are you sure it's a good one?"

"Yes, of course I am."

"How do you know?" I pushed. "You're absolutely positive you've chosen a good one? It's not a bad one?"

"I'm absolutely positive," she said.

I nodded. "Alright. It wasn't a trick, we aren't switching switching this time, you eat yours and I'll eat mine."

"Oh, thank Merlin," she muttered as she tossed hers into her mouth. "Chocolate is a far better flavor than frog legs."

My hand froze halfway to my mouth. "What?"

Lucy laughed. "I'm just kidding. I wouldn't have minded switching this round. Yours is kiwi."

I popped it into my mouth, and surely enough, it was.

"Alright, I played your game," Lucy said. "Now what's your point?"

"Which round was your favorite?"

"The third one, obviously."

"Why?"

"Because chocolate jellybeans are good and strawberry and mayonnaise ones are not?"

"Beyond that."

"I don't know, Potter, it's been a long day," she replied with a sleepy smile. "Humor me. Tell me. Why was the third round my favorite?"

"Because you chose your favorite jellybean, and you chose it by yourself for yourself even after I questioned you."

Lucy shrugged. "I thought it might be a trick, so I chose one I thought you'd like too in case we switched again."

"What? No! Come on, go again." I shoved the box at her. "Choose another one. By yourself, for yourself."

"Alright. Watermelon it is, then."

I narrowed my eyes at her as she fished around for the right jellybean. "That's your favorite? You're sure? No tricks this time, I promise."

"I believe you, I believe you," she said. She popped the jellybean into her mouth. "Alright, anyway, go on. I think you were about to say something profound."

I huffed. "Certainly not anything profound, but — well, this fourth round was most likely your favorite because you chose by yourself for yourself. You knew what you wanted, you knew what was right, and you went with it. You didn't reach in and grab the dirty socks flavor, you grabbed the watermelon one. Do you know why you didn't like either of the first two rounds?"

"Why?" Lucy asked with an entertained smile.

"Because I chose for you. I chose poorly, didn't I?"

"Well, it wasn't your fault," she interjected. "You didn't know any better, and you actually tried to pick a good one the second time."

"I didn't pick a good one, though."

"Correct, you didn't. You picked mayonnaise."

"I meant well, though, and you're right, I really did try. But Lucy, I didn't know what was best for you. No one else does except you. Just think of your life's decisions like playing a game with a box of Bertie Bott's. You're good at this game because you know it in a way the rest of us don't, and the same goes for whatever happens... in there," I said with a general gesture in her direction. "Mind, heart, body, soul, you know yourself best, yeah?"

Lucy nodded, understanding dawning on her face. "Yeah. I know myself best."

"There you have it, then. Sometimes you need a bit of prodding to get you to make a decision for yourself instead of for other people—" I leaned forward and fixed her with a playful pointed look that made her blush again. "—but I think you're starting to get the idea. If Beater feels right to you, then it's right."

"I think I said something awfully similar to that when we were talking about Cho," she commented. She lifted a red bean. "D'you want this other strawberry one?"

"Yes, I'm no fool," I replied, catching it when she tossed it my way. "I can't believe you don't like strawberries. Anyway, yes, I think you did say something like that, and I think it was smart. And I think you should start taking your own advice, you're good at giving it."

"I do my best." Lucy studied the box in her hands for a second before tossing it to me. She cupped her hands in front of her and summoned a cluster of sparks, red and yellow and orange and pink and white as they swirled in front of her and made her entire face glow. She looked up at me and grinned. "You said something about fire?"

I'll admit she took my breath away for a long second. Eventually, I recovered my wits enough to attempt to nod. "Yeah. I did."

Lucy looked back at the sparks in her hands, beaming. "I think it's coming back."

"I'd say so." Something about the radiance of her smile made me smile, too. "And it's brilliant."

"You're brilliant," she said, not glancing up from the mesmerizing magic she held in her hands.

"So are you," I replied. Merlin, so are you.

I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed something so wonderful sooner.

~

I don't want clever conversation
I never want to work that hard
I just want someone that I can talk to
I want you just the way you are

I need to know that you will always be
The same old someone that I knew
Oh, but what will it take till you believe in me
The way that I believe in you?

I said I love you, that's forever
And this I promise from the heart
I couldn't love you any better
I love you just the way you are

"Just the Way You Are"
Billy Joel