When I'm not with you
Think of you always
I miss you
When I'm not with you
Think of me always
Love you, love you

Hey, boy, where do you get it from?
Hey, boy, where did you go?
I learned my passion
In the good old-fashioned school of lover boys

Dining at the Ritz we'll meet at nine precisely
I will pay the bill, you taste the wine
Driving back in style in my saloon will do quite nicely
Just take me back to yours that will be fine

Ooh, love
Ooh, lover boy
What're you doin' tonight, hey, boy?
Everything's all right
Just hold on tight
That's because I'm a good old-fashioned lover boy

"Good Old‐Fashioned Lover Boy"
Queen

~

LUCY:

A chaotic April followed the departure of the twins. While there were a number of people determined to finish what the twins had started, that job fell primarily to Ginny and me. When we returned to our dormitories after filling Umbridge's office with fireworks that day, we discovered large stashes of Dungbombs, Stinkpellets, and Skiving Snackboxes under both of our beds with identical notes in Fred's handwriting reading Raise hell. Don't get caught. See you soon. Going to bed that night, I discovered enough hypothermia candies in my pillowcase to get me through the rest of the school year with notes from both boys telling me to be safe and that they were looking forward to spending the summer with me.

Ginny and I got busy the very next day, slipping reliable people candies left and right with whispered "Use it wisely"s and "Have fun"s. The movement gained its own momentum from there — every time Umbridge set foot in a classroom, several of the students in the room would suddenly grow very ill. Not one person spilled the secret. Nearly every student in the school seemed to be suffering from Umbridge-itis.

Peeves was extremely helpful. He didn't have to go to any classes, so he caused trouble all day long in one form or another, and at night, he always created disruptions on the opposite side of the castle so we could rig whatever we wanted while Filch, Umbridge, and the Inquisitorial Squad were distracted.

A chaotic May started with the full moon, which had a couple more complications than it usually had. The first problem was that prefects no longer monitored the halls; that job had fallen to the Inquisitorial Squad, so Ginny and I knew we couldn't risk getting hurt for fear of causing a scene coming back to the castle, a scene that the Inquisitorial Squad would see instead of Ron and Hermione. That created another problem in and of itself — since Ginny and I wouldn't be at dinner, we had to find someone else to rig that night's prank somewhere in the castle so no one would connect the dots and figure out we had been the ones setting up fireworks and trick steps all along. Harry jumped at the chance to help, though, and Ginny was able to convince Luna to help, so Ginny snuck a dozen Dungbombs to Harry's dormitory while I taught Luna the charm I had invented that would make sure the Dungbombs would only go off if a Slytherin or Umbridge or Filch passed it.

Fortunately, the full moon was devoid of any injuries. When Ginny and I made our way to Hagrid's hut, though, we found that we weren't the only ones there. Harry rushed over to hug me as soon as we closed the door behind us and passed me a wideye potion as he pulled away. Behind him were Ron and Hermione, both looking half-asleep and somewhat disgruntled.

"What's everyone doing here?" Ginny asked through a yawn as she accepted the wideye potion that had been in Harry's other hand.

"I asked Harry ter bring Ron an' Hermione down here with 'im when he brought the potion," Hagrid explained. "I, er, I s'pose I should fill the three of yeh in. Ginny an' Lucy already know everything since they found — well, the best way ter explain is for yeh to follow me."

"D'you want me to come too, Hagrid?" I asked, having figured out that he wanted to introduce the other three to Grawp. "I could help."

Hagrid shook his head. "No, no, yeh look exhausted. You an' Ginny run up to the castle now, the las' thing we need is Umbridge somehow findin' yeh in the forest lookin' that tired after a full moon. The others can tell yeh what I said later."

I opened my mouth to argue again, but Ginny reached forward and shoved the wideye potion in my hand up to my mouth to silence me. "Hagrid's right. We should go before it gets much lighter outside."

Reluctantly, I agreed, and Ginny and I made our way to the castle as the others made their way to the forest. They were back by the time I returned to the common room after getting ready for the day, and Harry turned to face me from his spot on the couch where he was apparently deep in conversation with Ron and Hermione.

"He asked for you by name," he said with a tone that was difficult to read.

I dropped onto the couch next to Harry, dragging a hand down my face. "Did he now?"

"Well, sort of," Ron amended, snickering. "He kept asking for 'Lulu' and we reasoned well enough it was you."

"That would be me, unfortunately. I keep trying to teach him to say 'Lucy,' but I think he finds 'Lulu' more entertaining. Don't get any ideas, though, he is the only one allowed to call me that. I'm sure he was in good spirits after Ginny and I spent the night playing with him?"

"Playing with him?" Harry asked. "Lucy, how long have you been keeping this secret, exactly?"

I shrugged. "A couple of months. I sort of stumbled across him by accident, and we've been friends ever since."

"You're mental," Hermione muttered, her first words all morning. She looked pale and shaken, and she refused to meet my eyes even though her comment was clearly directed at me.

"He reached out to grab Hermione," Ron said as a means of explanation.

"Oh yeah, he does that when I visit him as a human."

Harry blinked. "When you — what?"

"Well, how else do you think he learned my name? I can't exactly talk to him on full moons."

"Right," he replied faintly.

"Look, why do you all look like you're about to be sick?" I asked, sitting up straight and looking at all three — scratched and dirty though they were from their trip to the forest — one by one. "What did Hagrid say?"

"He wanted to introduce us so we could help Grawp in case Hagrid gets fired," Ron answered after a moment. "He said Umbridge thinks he was the one that set the niffler loose in her office and she's looking for any excuse to finally get rid of him."

Hermione began furiously plucking twigs out of her hair and throwing them into the fire. "I can't believe him, I can't believe him, I really can't believe him."

"Calm down," Harry snapped.

"Calm down! A giant! A giant in the forest! And we're supposed to give him English lessons! Always assuming, of course, we can get past the herd of murderous centaurs on the way in and out! I can't believe him!"

I was almost angry enough to end my silent treatment, but I remembered it at the last second and settled for glaring at her. Harry stepped up, though.

"We haven't got to do anything yet! He's not asking us to do anything unless he gets chucked out and that might not even happen—"

"Oh come off it, Harry! Of course he's going to be chucked out and to be perfectly honest, after what we've just seen, who can blame Umbridge?"

My jaw dropped, and Harry and Ron joined me in glaring at her. She blinked a couple of times, then when she realized none of us were about to agree, she hung her head.

Harry's voice was flat and angry. "You didn't mean that." Not a question. A statement.

When Hermione looked up again, she had tears in her eyes. "No... well... alright... I didn't. But why does he have to make life so difficult for himself — for us?"

I wanted to lash out at her. I wanted to slap her and send the rest of the twigs in her hair flying into the fire, I wanted to yell at her about how Grawp was the only family Hagrid had left and I would do anything I could to make sure the brothers could stay together, I wanted to ask her why she thought she had the right to accuse Hagrid of making our lives difficult, I wanted to teach her a new hex. One that wouldn't leave any kind of permanent scarring, of course. But that would all invalidate the efforts I'd put in the for the better part of the past month to ignore her, and I knew nothing I could say or do would get through to her anyway, so I settled for jumping to my feet and storming away.

Rather than heading to breakfast, I wandered down to the Quidditch Pitch. The final match, against Ravenclaw, was three weeks away, and practice was scheduled for immediately after breakfast, so I figured I'd squeeze in a bit of extra time on my broom since it always made me feel better. Despite the wideye potion, I was still tired after the full moon. I left the bat and Bludgers in my locker and opted just to fly. It had been so long since I had just taken the time to fly for the sake of flying.

I flew out of the stadium and let my magic lead the way as I soared over the grounds. I returned in time for practice, and it was there that I was able to unleash my anger at Hermione in the form of pummeling Bludgers, tampered though my anger was by my exhaustion. I was so tired by the end of practice I wanted to scrap my study plans for the day and sleep instead, but as soon as I left the changing tent, Harry was there.

"Walk with me?" he asked, green eyes gentle.

"She'd love to!" Ginny answered on my behalf as she shoved me forward.

I sent a wandless "Ventus!" her way as she walked past, just to ruffle her hair a bit. When she whirled around, I grinned. "I was going to say yes anyway, Weasley."

"Happy to hear it, Diggory," she replied with a grin, turning on her heel and walking away.

"So what's on your mind?" I asked Harry as we wandered up to the castle at a much slower pace.

"I'm sorry about this morning," he said. "None of us were terribly fair to you. I didn't realize until too late just how much Grawp means to you."

I shrugged. "It's alright. Today was the first time you found out about Grawp, and it sounds like you sort of found out the hard way. I don't expect anyone to understand everything about me, especially not right away."

"I still want to." The suddenness with which this sentiment tumbled from his lips seemed to catch us both by surprise. He blinked, then cleared his throat. "Anyway, I went at it with Hermione a bit over her last comment there. She's never seemed terribly understanding of what she considers... well, monsters."

"She has her moments," I said softly. I remembered with bittersweet fondness how kind she'd been when she'd first learned of my lycanthropy. I then remembered her comments our second year about Hagrid and monsters. It was something of a tug-of-war with her. More often than not, all was well. But when the balance was thrown off, it always seemed to hurt me the most.

"You know," Harry said after a long moment, "Hagrid thinks the world of you for all of the help you've been over the years. When I was in the Three Broomsticks in February, I got there before Hermione and the others and sat with Hagrid for a bit. He wasn't entirely sober, but he was telling me about what a good friend you are and how much we all need you. I already knew all of that, of course, but, well, I guess what I'm trying to say is that you matter to all of us even if we forget just how much sometimes."

I swallowed hard. "Thanks. Well, since none of you seemed too thrilled about helping with Grawp, I'm more than happy to do it by myself if — if Hagrid..."

"What? No, we — well I, at least, wouldn't mind helping. This morning was just a bit overwhelming is all."

"That's fair," I said with a shrug. "The morning after I found Grawp, the first words out of Ginny's mouth were along the lines of 'You're alright and you're lucky to be, what were you thinking?'"

"And what was your answer?" he asked, amused.

"I think I just said we needed to talk to Hagrid. I don't know, I'm not terribly coherent after a full moon, in case you haven't noticed."

"Oh, I've noticed, trust me. Are you cold, by the way? I realized I forgot to give you my jumper in the blur that was this morning, but I've left it on since, just in case."

Truthfully, I wasn't freezing, but I never said no to one of Harry's jumpers, so when I got back to my dormitory fifteen minutes later and collapsed on top of my bed, I fell asleep in a jumper that smelled of Harry.

~

The next three weeks passed in a blur. A couple of nights a week, Luna started helping Ginny set up pranks so I could spend more time studying, and her contributions were among my favorites. Quidditch practice was picking up, too, and tensions were on the rise. Hufflepuff absolutely demolished Slytherin in the match they played a week before our match against Ravenclaw, so the Cup would come down to how well we played. I was so focused on the final match and on O.W.L.s right after the match I didn't have the mental capacity to think about much else.

I was the only one in the common room late one Tuesday night, "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" by Queen playing softly from my Walkman, when the door to the boys' dormitories creaked open. Harry's head appeared nearby a couple of seconds later.

"You don't really want to stay up all night reading about the uses of the Herbivicus Charm, do you?" he asked with a grin.

I blinked and checked my watch. It was nearly midnight. "I, er — I — did you have something else in mind, Mr. Invisibility Cloak?"

"I did, as a matter of fact, if you're up for a little adventure?"

"I could be persuaded," I replied, feeling heat crawl up my neck as I shoved my books away. "What exactly did you have in mind?"

"Well, my original plan was to sneak down to the kitchens by myself and bake something and steal — I mean borrow — your broom and fly up to your window and wake you up and take you to our hill and have a little picnic out there just the two of us, but now you're down here studying and I know better than to try to sneak past you, so would you like to come with me?"

I didn't even think to ask why he would do something like that out of the blue. It took me a second to respond because I was so flustered by his usage of the term our hill, but I eventually caught up with him and managed a smile. "I — er, yeah, that sounds good."

"Oh, you can bring that with you," he said with a smile as I started to tuck away my Walkman. "It was fun having it last time. Besides, this song is a lot of fun."

I grinned. "You think so, lover boy?"

I nearly choked once I realized what had just left my mouth, but Harry looked even more flustered than I did for a second. We both pulled ourselves together, though, and I shoved my bookbag under the chair and shoved the Walkman in my pocket. With that, Harry and I were off on our little adventure.

The kitchens were dark and deserted, but with magic, we didn't need light from wall candles or help from the house elves. We decided to just make enough cookies for the two of us, since we were the only ones in the entire castle other than the Inquisitorial Squad members on duty who were awake. That meant once I placed the tray in the oven, we had a bit of free time on our hands.

I turned away from the oven and had to catch my breath. Harry had lit his wand to help me see, and he was radiant in its glow, his eyes so, so, so, so green.

I wasn't sure what the next day would bring, or the day after that, or the day after that, or the day after that. All I knew was that, in that moment, Harry James was looking at me like I was his favorite person in the world and nothing else mattered.

We'd both grown in the past year, in more ways than one. So much had changed. The world had stopped turning.

So much had changed, but Harry was still there. The world had stopped turning, but it had started to turn again.

Suddenly, I giggled, a bit breathless. "What on earth are we doing?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, sounding a bit breathless as well.

"I have a Quidditch match on Saturday and O.W.L.s shortly thereafter and the world as we know it outside of the castle seems to be falling apart. What are we doing in the kitchens baking cookies at midnight on a random day in May?"

He glanced down at his watch and met my eyes again, smile widening. "Happy birthday, Lucy."

I had forgotten.

I found myself running into his arms. He didn't seem to mind one bit, even lifting me off the ground a bit and spinning me around once.

I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.

I pulled away, breathless as could be, and just gazed up at him for a moment. He was taller than me again, after a few months of being the same height, but I didn't really mind all that much.

"I forgot," I said after a minute.

"I didn't." Harry reached down and grabbed my wrist, the one with the charm bracelet, and secured a new charm to it, leaving his hand hovering over it so I couldn't see it. "I had to think outside the box a bit this time around. Christmas was easy with the Beater's bat since you had just started, but, well... I guess I should let you see what it is."

I summoned sparks with my free hand — yellow and red — and sent them swirling around our hands, which were still touching. Neither of us seemed to want to let go.

Finally, I looked away from our hands and studied the charm. It was a phoenix.

I smiled. "For the Order? Since we both want to join so badly?"

"Yes and no," he said, twisting the charm between his index finger and thumb, still loosely holding my wrist with his other fingers. "That was part of it. You also mentioned once you've always wanted a phoenix, and I figured this got you one step closer to that dream."

"Merlin, that must have been second year. How on earth did you remember that?"

He shrugged and tried — and failed — to not look smug. "I may be a below-average student, but I can remember details about people who matter to me."

"You're not a below-average student," I said.

"Nowhere near as good as you, Miss I-Was-So-Busy-Studying-I-Forgot-My-Birthday."

"You're still not a below-average student," I muttered, face reddening.

"Poor word choice, then. Anyway, moving on, another reason was that the phoenix somewhat reminds me of you."

I blinked. "What do you mean? How so?"

"No matter what happens, you still have your hope. You still get back up again. I mean, I know we couldn't have known a year ago what would happen, but you're still here. And, well, obviously I'm glad about that," he finished shyly as he met my eyes again.

"Who else would come bake cookies with you at midnight on a random Wednesday?" I asked jokingly, breathless yet again.

"Who else would run Dumbledore's Army with me? Who else would be brave enough to talk to Rita Skeeter, then be nice to her after everything she's done?" He persisted, not acknowledging my admittedly-weak attempt at humor. "Who else would be able to stop me from running out of Grimmauld Place? Who else would sit with me and listen to me and actually understand me and care about me at the end of it all? Just you, Lucy, I swear."

I wanted to point out all of the dark parts of myself as well, everything I kept hidden, but something about the earnest look in his eyes led me to just be silent for a spell.

"Were you really forgetting your birthday?" he asked.

I glanced away and shrugged, reluctantly pulling my hands away and fiddling with the new charm for myself. "I reckon I would have remembered once I wrote the date tomorrow, but I... well, you know I've never been terribly fond of my birthday, and this will be the first without Cedric, so I guess I sort of blocked it from memory." I sighed. "But that's alright. I'm glad I'm here with you. Those cookies are starting to smell good."

He smiled. "Definitely. I think we still have a couple minutes, though, so..." Harry reached over and turned the volume up on the Walkman.

I smiled right back at him and wordlessly summoned sparks into my hands, tossing all of the colors his direction. His smile widened as they swirled around his head, still yellow and red.

"Do the colors mean anything?" he inquired. "Do you summon certain ones on purpose?"

I felt my face heat. Yellow was joy, but red was love. I would have loved to admit the former, but not the latter. "Er, no, I don't summon certain ones on purpose. I think the colors go along with the mood rings Hermione and I have, but I haven't worn mine since she — you know — so I'm a bit out of practice. But that doesn't matter," I added hastily, "because it's apparently my birthday and we're here and I don't want anything or anyone to ruin this."

I sent more sparks into the air, red and yellow streams dancing with each other. I only had eyes for Harry, though, who was watching my little show with wonder.

In time, the cookies were ready and we got back under the cloak and grabbed my broom from the Pitch and made our way to our hill. We stayed there for hours, talking about anything and everything and eating the fruits of our labor and inching closer and closer and closer and closer the longer we were there and forgetting that there was a world outside the two of us in that moment.

It was beautiful.

~

The Quidditch match was incredibly fun.

With the full moon exactly a week away, my swings were a bit stronger and my focus was a bit sharper. Ginny was on fire too during the match, and the two of us combined wreaked absolute havoc on the Ravenclaw team.

Angelina was a force to be reckoned with. Following her break-up with Fred, she had been pouring herself into training — Ginny and I had suggested turning her anger into something productive the way we had started doing, and she went to the Pitch every day after that. Alicia and Katie had impressive performances, too, but Angelina was an absolute powerhouse.

Ron let in a few goals in the beginning of the game, but suddenly, something changed. Bradley tried to feint, but Ron saved it. The Gryffindors in the stands erupted with cheers, Harry and Hermione loudest of all — and, interestingly, I could have sworn I heard a dog howling excitedly. I didn't pay this any mind, however, and flashed a quick grin at Harry, who was looking right at me.

Every time I looked at him during the match, he was looking right at me, with the most curious expression on his face. I could have sworn he was looking at me in a way similar to how he once looked at Cho, but there was something about this look that was different, too. I didn't let myself think about it too much — we had a match to win, after all.

And win we did. Dennis Creevey, the second-year Muggle-born wonder, grabbed the Snitch right out from under Cho's nose. Cho was not thrilled about it either, immediately bursting into tears and throwing her broom as soon as she landed. Part of me wanted to go comfort her, but a larger part of me understood that I was the last person she would have wanted to see in that moment.

A new song was rising from the crowd, to the same tune as the horrible Slytherin one though it couldn't have been more different.

"Weasley is our King,

Weasley is our King,

He didn't let the Quaffle in,

Weasley is our King!

Weasley can save anything,

He never leaves a single ring.

That's why Gryffindors all sing:

Weasley is our King!"

"I'm so proud of you, Ron!" I shouted, rushing toward him and hugging him tightly. The rest of the team joined me a second later, and soon enough, the Gryffindors in the stands had swarmed the field. Seamus and Dean and Neville all hoisted Ron upon their shoulders, several others joining their effort and carrying Ron off. Before I could follow him, someone draped their arms around my shoulders and held on tight.

"You were brilliant, go get the Cup!" Harry said in my ear, releasing me a second later and shoving me forward.

I smiled at him over my shoulder and looked around for Ginny. I spied her red braid with the golden bow flying in the direction of her Ravenclaw boyfriend, who looked rather disgruntled. I watched for a moment, and Harry stepped up next to me, sensing my concern.

Ginny either didn't notice the look on Michael's face or didn't care, because she jumped up, expecting him to catch her. He didn't, though. He forced a smile as she landed on the grass in front of him again. This smile vanished seconds later, and even though I couldn't hear what they were saying over the roar of the crowd, it didn't look good. Ginny waved her hands animatedly, a sharp contrast to Michael's sulkiness.

"Why don't you just run off and comfort Cho, then?" Ginny shouted, the first words I was able to hear.

"Maybe I will!" he shouted back.

Ginny fell quiet again, and less than a minute later, Ginny spun on her heel and marched over to me with a fire in her eyes.

"What a sore loser," she muttered. "Can't believe I ever dated him."

"Mistakes happen, trust me," Harry said gently.

"Maybe our mistakes will be happy together."

Harry cracked a grin. "Maybe."

"Are you alright?" I asked, finding my voice for the first time. "I mean, I think we just sort of witnessed your first break-up—"

"Who cares? We won the Quidditch Cup, let's go party!"

With that, Ginny grabbed my hand and started dragging me through the crowd in the direction of the rest of the team. We were swept up just as Angelina reached out to seize it. She held it high above her head, earning a loud cheer from the crowd, then passed it to Alicia, who passed it to Katie, who passed it to Ron, who passed it to me, who passed it to Ginny, who passed it to Dennis. Dennis was lifted onto people's shoulders, too, and the masses began to move toward the castle in droves.

Ginny and I started to join the throngs, but before we could, a paper airplane whizzed directly between us, turned around, and dove into my pocket. We both whirled around, looking for the source, but when we didn't spot anything or anyone out of the ordinary, I reached into my pocket and unfolded it.

"'Go to your lockers, and tell Angie to go to hers too, please! Love you all! Sincerely, Gred and Forge,'" I read aloud. "Merlin's beard, did they really sneak onto the grounds?"

"They were here for my match," Henry said in a low voice, suddenly coming to stand in between us. "How they got in, Merlin only knows. George just slipped me that note while I was in the stands and disappeared without saying much else other than how well you two were playing. Anyway, I second that, you two were brilliant and I hope I get the chance to play with you when you're both playing professional Quidditch! I'd be the safest Keeper in the whole league."

"You won't be safe when we're the Beaters for the Holyhead Harpies!" Ginny said with a laugh. "You'd better watch your back, Furls, because your flattery now won't save you then."

"Merlin help me," he replied, grinning and giving me a brief side hug and Ginny a fist bump before disappearing into the crowd again.

"Reckon we should check it out?" I asked.

"Yes, of course," Ginny replied. "C'mon, let's grab Angelina too."

While Angelina wasn't terribly thrilled about the prospect, the three of us slipped away from the crowd and investigated our lockers. Mine was stuffed with fireworks, with various labels and specific instructions. A couple were new prototypes, but the others were more of our old favorites. At the bottom, behind the fireworks, were two letters, one from each twin. I shoved those into my pockets, making a mental note to read them later, and went to check out Ginny's stash of Dungbombs and Skiving Snackboxes.

"We can borrow Harry's cloak later and smuggle these up to the castle," I whispered to her.

She nodded. "Good plan. What do you think Angelina has?"

We both glanced over to see that she was holding a massive bouquet of flowers that were shooting off sparks, a lengthy piece of parchment in her hand. She was occasionally sniffling, so Ginny and I made a quiet exit from the tent so she could have her privacy.

The Gryffindor party was even more crazy than the one that we'd had after beating Hufflepuff. The Queen music was already in full swing, and it appeared that the twins had taken the liberty of running to Honeyduke's and stocking the common room one last time. How they'd managed it, I had no idea, but I figured it would be better for me to pretend not to know they'd been there at all.

"I want to party until I forget Michael Corner's name," Ginny announced, marching onto the dance floor in search of anyone who would help with that endeavor. I was thirsty, so I made my way over to one of the buckets of butterbeer instead of following her.

The fact that Harry was already there and holding out an unopened bottle of butterbeer to me might have been a factor in my decision as well.

As fun as the post-victory party had been in February, I was glad that Dennis and Ron were the heroes of the game and thus the centers of attention. When Angelina returned, looking upset but too excited about winning to really care, Harry and I struck up a conversation with her about what it was like being Quidditch Captain. We all knew it was going to be one of the two of us, but we figured it couldn't hurt to both pick her brain a bit.

Once she drained her butterbeer and decided to go dance, I was suddenly reminded of the letters from the twins I still had in my pocket. Just before I could tell Harry I was going to slip away, "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" started playing and his face lit up.

I vanished our empty bottles and boldly grabbed his hand. Without missing a beat, he spun me around, then spun me back. I couldn't stop the giggle that escaped me, and this only encouraged him, so then he grabbed my other hand, pulled me close to him, then pushed me away and spun me again.

"You're ridiculous," I said, face flaming.

"You started it," he pointed out.

He spun me a third time, and then a fourth. Just before the fifth one, we were stopped by a call from nearby.

"Having fun, you two?" Ron asked with a wide grin.

I stuck my tongue out at him with my back to Harry when he spun me again.

"Don't be jealous, I'll dance with you too, Weasley!" Harry called. He grabbed both of my hands, and the two of us spun in a circle until we reached the dance floor. He tossed my hands in Ginny's direction, and she grabbed them without second thought and picked up right where Harry left off. Shortly after that, Harry had managed to drag Ron into the dance floor, and Ginny tossed my hands in their direction. This time, Ron grabbed my hands, and Harry grabbed Ginny's. We kept up with that for a while longer, and soon enough, everyone on the floor was following our lead, and people switched partners left and right. As the song ended, though, Ron tossed me to Harry, Harry tossed Ginny to Dean, and Harry and I were suddenly partnerless.

There was only one reasonable course of action then, of course, and we finished the song hand-in-hand.

Once that song ended, I slipped off to the dormitories to read the letters from the twins. Fred's explained in details their plans for the summer, products they wanted me to help develop, a more specific job description, a question about the measurements for my uniform, and a vague allusion to what he called "ridiculous and risky but fun and foundational life experiences." He ended by promising the summer would be one I'd never forget, and I didn't doubt that for a second. George's was less logistical and more personal — How are you? I hope the moons have been alright. How's Umbridge? She's a cow. Have you been killing yourself over O.W.L.s? I hope not. Wait, you can't answer these questions anyway. Well, just tell me when I see you in person in a little over a month. — and ended with a plea to stay safe and stay out of (too much) trouble until summer because he swore their flat would really come to life with me in it. I tucked both away with enough security charms to guarantee their words were truly for my eyes only and just laid on my bed staring into nothingness for a while.

I knew the next couple weeks would be hell with O.W.L.s, but I knew that a whole summer with the Weasley twins was waiting for me on the other side of it. I just had to hold on tight in the meantime to all of the happiness of the past days and hope it was enough to carry me through until my happiness stores could be replenished with brand new memories. Or, as Fred so mysteriously said, "ridiculous and risky but fun and foundational life experiences" — whatever that meant.

~

A/N: OH MY GOSH, I ACTUALLY FINISHED THIS CHAPTER! Anyway, hi there! I'm so so so so sorry for disappearing like that. I moved to my college apartment and had finals week and started a job among other less-exciting happenings, but I finally had time and energy to write today and I DID IT! I sincerely hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! I am exhausted, so I'm sorry for not having a longer author's note, but thank you for your patience and your encouragement. My writing schedule will likely be a bit screwy for a little while longer, but I'll do my best to publish chapters as often as I possibly can! Thank you for being amazing, and I'll see you soon!