There are wires in between
Human heart and machine
I will wait for mountains
To tell me you're okay

On paper my future will lay
I'll fold every failure into a crane

LUCY:

Oh Merlin, oh Merlin, oh Merlin, oh Merlin.

The ink crept over the paper.

This can't be happening.

I crumpled up the unfinished letter and sent it flying into the fire.

I want Cedric. I want Cedric. I want Cedric. I want Cedric.

I watched the flames lick up the sides of the ink-soaked parchment ball.

I can't believe it's taken me this long to realize what Draco meant.

The blackened edges collapsed in on themselves.

Draco knows I'm a werewolf and that I was bitten almost exactly ten years ago.

The ball of parchment went up in flames.

If he knows I'm a werewolf, he knows I'm a Muggle-born too.

The fireball sank into the rest of the fire with a small sigh.

Rose told Voldemort and Voldemort told Lucius and Lucius told Draco.

I shuddered and stared into the fire.

I'm not safe. I'm not safe. I'm not safe. I'm not safe.

The world around me was spiraling out of control.

"Lucy?"

I turned just as Harry closed the door behind him.

"I, er, heard something down here. Figured I'd come check it out." He rubbed his neck, glasses crooked on his nose and the collar of his pajama shirt lopsided around his neck, higher on the right than the left. "Are you alright? You... don't look like it."

I gnawed on my lower lip.

I approached the invisible barrier.

I shouldn't tell him.

He would want to know that Draco Malfoy knows.

I shouldn't tell him.

He's the person I've ever willingly told the whole truth.

I shouldn't tell him.

He would want to protect me from Draco Malfoy however possible.

I shouldn't tell him.

I trust Harry with my life. More importantly, I trust him with the truth.

I punched a hole through the barrier, and it shattered.

Trust is quicksand
Claiming everything I have
All to give me life, all to give me life

I jumped up from the couch and flung myself at Harry, burying my face against his neck as the panic surged, hot and fast, and tore through my chest.

He wrapped his arms around me, and he didn't even stumble when I collided with him. "Hey, hey, hey, what's wrong, Lu? What's wrong?"

"Malfoy knows," I choked out.

He stiffened. "What do you mean?"

I held tighter for half a second before reluctantly pulling away. "Th-The note. From this m-morning." I hurried over to the couch where my bookbag was still sitting and rifled through it with shaking hands until I found it. Harry dropped onto the couch next to me and read it for himself in a hushed whisper.

"'Your third detention is tonight at 5. I would have told you this face-to-face, but Professor Umbridge seemed concerned for my safety if I did considering the way you nearly attacked me again when I informed you of your second detention. How's the hand? From what I hear, your collection of scars is almost ten years in the making. Got another one on the way now?'" He looked up at me, eyes wide, mouth moving but no more words coming out.

I managed the slightest nod. My heart was about to pound out of my chest.

"Th-This c-c-can't be ha-happening," I stammered. "H-H-He knows, a-and he's g-g-going to tell everybody, a-and Umbridge will- will-" I jumped to my feet and slammed my fist into the stone surrounding the fireplace. "A-And everyone's going t-t-to hate me, and-" I wound up for another swing, but Harry caught me by the wrist.

"Stop!"

"No!" I wrenched myself free and yanked a book off the bookshelf. I sent it flying across the room. It landed on a window seat with a soft thud. "A-After everything, after how c-c-careful I've been for so many bloody years-" I grabbed another book and sent it flying to a window seat on the opposite side of the room. "He knows everything, he knows about Rose and me and my family, my families, whatever the bloody hell it is!"

I grabbed another book, but I just held it in my hands, everything within me trembling. Hot tears, furious tears, burned the backs of my eyes. The book suddenly seemed heavy, too heavy, and I would have dropped it on my feet if Harry hadn't taken it from me just in time.

"Lucy?"

His voice was far gentler than I deserved. I couldn't look at him.

Harry put the book back on the shelf, walked so he was in front of me, and tipped my chin up. His hand was shaking.

"Lu, where's your broom? Your trunk or your locker?"

"Locker," I managed after half a second.

He nodded and dropped his hand. "Okay. Give me... twenty-three seconds. Can you count to twenty-three for me?"

"Harry, wh-what-"

"Please? I promise I'll be back by the time you get to twenty-three, and if I'm not, you can, er, throw the book at me. Okay?"

Slow down, hide your eyes
The sun is setting fire
Through glass, branches deep
I cough only to breathe

The earnest look in his eyes made me start counting.

"One."

Harry looked relieved and started running in the direction of the boys' dormitory door.

"Two."

What is he doing?

"Three."

He disappeared, leaving the door slightly ajar as he raced up the stairs.

"Four."

I can't breathe.

"Five."

The room was spinning.

"Six."

That was Cedric's Quidditch number, six.

"Seven."

My fingers were tingling.

"Eight."

I'm not safe here.

"Nine."

The walls started to close in.

"Ten."

I need Cedric.

"Eleven."

My eyes landed on the now-empty ink bottle.

"Twelve."

If I hadn't knocked it over, Harry would never have come down.

"Thirteen."

I realized I was glad Harry had come down.

"Fourteen."

What if he thinks I'm a monster for the way I started throwing those books?

"Fifteen."

My arms were shaking from the effort after so many months without Quidditch practice.

"Sixteen."

I think that's how old Claire is now.

"Seventeen."

I wrapped my arms around my waist.

"Eighteen."

Cedric never got to turn eighteen.

"Nineteen."

I released my arms.

"Twenty."

At least I'm not alone in the caves right now.

"Twenty-one."

I realized my fingers weren't quite so tingly.

"Twenty-two."

I can breathe again.

"Twenty-three."

Harry appeared, the Invisibility Cloak over his arm and wand in his hand.

"Perfect. Good job, Lu, that worked out perfectly," he said, crossing the room in a few long strides as he talked. His words were clipped from barely-restrained emotion. "We're going to the Quidditch Pitch. I'm too angry to think straight, but I want to help, and I think we could both benefit from a bit of Quaffle work."

"H-Harry, I can't, I c-can't throw a-"

"Lucy, those books are infinitely more difficult to throw than any Quaffle." Harry leveled me with a serious look before throwing the cloak over our heads. Under the cloak, eye to eye, we were so close I could see the way the enraged flush in his cheeks was deepening bit by bit. He clenched his jaw and grabbed my hand. "I promised Cedric I would take care of you. This is me keeping that promise. Now let's go figure this out."

Trust is quicksand
Claiming everything I have
All to give me life, all to give me life
One thousand more to go
I'll send every prayer from below

We stole silently through the halls of Hogwarts, our footsteps light against the stone as we made our way to the Quidditch Pitch, still hand-in-hand. When we reached the changing tent, we ducked in and shed the cloak. He tossed it into his locker and yanked out his broom. My hands acted of their own accord as I pulled my broom out of my own locker.

"You go, I'll get the Quaffle," he said.

I didn't need to be told twice.

As soon as my feet hit the grass, I climbed onto my broom and kicked off. I shot straight up into the sky.

If I go high enough, Cedric, can I find you?

Before I could find an answer for myself, Harry was beside me, Quaffle under his arm.

"I doubt anyone will see us, but we should probably try to stay low," he said softly.

"Right," I replied, a sense of resigned disappointment creeping into the pit of my stomach.

It was instantly replaced by anger when I remembered why Harry and I were out on the Quidditch Pitch in the middle of the Merlin-forsaken night.

Harry flew backwards a few feet and tossed the Quaffle at me. "How does he know?"

I tossed it back. "His father. I'm sure of it."

He tossed it back. "Was he one of the people in the caves?"

I tossed it back. "Yes."

We fell into an easy rhythm, back and forth, with nothing but empty space between us. No more invisible barrier. No more unnecessary shield charm. Just us.

"So he knows when you were attacked?"

"Yes."

"Do you think his dad might have been involved ten years ago, too?"

"I doubt it. I've always thought it seems like more of an accident than anything."

"Are you sure?"

"As sure as I can be, Harry, I don't know."

"Alright. Do you think he's told Umbridge?"

"Merlin, I hope not."

"I hope not either, but do you think so?"

"I don't think so."

"Are you sure?"

I held onto the Quaffle for a bit, turning it over in my hands. "I'm not about to ask her and find out, but I think we would know by now if she knew."

"What makes you say that?"

I tossed the Quaffle back to him. "She wouldn't have let me off detentions for a while. I feel like she'd give me detentions every day just to try to keep my temper in check."

"But that's ridiculous, you're not dangerous!"

"I could be."

"No." Harry held onto the Quaffle. "Lucy, don't tell me you honestly believe that."

I bit the inside of my cheek.

Slow down, you're all words
And love is made of yarn, scissors
A slip of the hand, a slip of the tongue
God knows I meant no harm, I meant no harm

His knuckles turned white as he gripped the ball tighter. "Lucy, I... you're not."

The image of ropes in the Room of Requirement rose to the surface of my mind. The way I'd tried to kill Sirius on Halloween our third year. The way the healers at St. Mungo's always kept a wide radius around me after I'd stayed overnight on full moons for observations or training exercises.

I shook my head and held my hand out for the Quaffle. "Just pass it back."

He did so reluctantly, his expression unreadable.

I tossed the Quaffle back to him. "But why hasn't he said anything to Umbridge? To anyone, as far as we know?"

"I don't know. Maybe he just found out."

"I find that hard to believe. This happened more than a month ago, and if what happened to my family was a premeditated attack... he's probably known a while."

"So why wait until now to bring it up?"

"I don't know. What do you think?"

"I don't know either."

I sighed and tossed the Quaffle back and forth between my hands. "I suppose I could just ask him tomorrow."

"Ask him? As in, just walk up to him and ask why he hasn't told the entire school?"

"Well, I'd be a bit more tactful than that, Harry," I replied with a tiny smile as I passed the ball back to him. "I just... I don't know. Do you have a better idea?"

He waited a moment for an idea to come before sighing. "No, I guess not."

I glanced up at the stars for half a second. Part of me was hoping to see another osprey, but the night was still and quiet.

Cedric would probably have the perfect solution.

I made the mistake of glancing down at the ground.

Then just like that, something changed.

My breath hitched in my throat, and I couldn't look away from the grass so far below.

"What is it?" Harry asked. His voice sounded distant, much farther away than the ten feet or so he actually was. "Lucy, what is it? Do you see something I can't?"

"We're so high," I managed, dizzy, lightheaded.

"Lucy, we... we're only half as high as we normally are when we're playing Quidditch. Maybe even less than half."

I didn't reply, my hands growing ever tighter around my broom.

I can wrap my hands around the object holding me up.

One of my hands slipped, and I gasped as the broom pitched beneath me.

Harry dropped the Quaffle and sped over, stabilizing my broom with his.

"What is it?"

"We're so high," I said again.

"We're going down," he replied. He swung his leg over the back of my broom and wrapped an arm around my midsection, holding his broom with his other hand as he guided us downward. As soon as our feet hit the grass again, Harry's arm tightened around me as he dropped his broom and kicked mine down. "Are you okay? What just happened?"

I blinked, head spinning still. "I-I don't know what happened. Sorry, I-I don't know why I just... why I..."

"Lucy, you missed my first question." Harry dropped his arm and stepped around so we were eye-to-eye again. "Are you okay?"

My lower lip trembled, and he understood. He grabbed our brooms and gestured for me to follow him. I did, wiping away the rogue tears slipping down my cheeks.

"I-I can put my broom away-"

"I got it," he replied gently, placing it in my locker before heading to his. He tossed the cloak over our heads a minute later and wiped a tear from my cheek with his thumb in the same motion. "Where do you want to go?"

"Back in time," I admitted in a whisper.

I could have sworn I saw his heart breaking.

The storm within me surged anew, and before I knew it, I was crying again and Harry had his arms wrapped around me again.

We made our way back up to the castle once I managed to stop crying. I had been awake for more than 24 hours at that point, and I was shaking, and my eyes were burning, and everything was wrong. Once we were back through the portrait hole, Harry peeled the cloak off of us, and I half-walked, half-stumbled to the couch, where I sat down heavily and stared into the fire.

Harry sat down beside me, and I buried my face against his chest.

"I don't want to leave," I said after a moment.

"Leave? Lucy, who said anything about leaving?"

"H-Harry, you saw what happened to Professor Lupin when everyone found out about him. Once Draco tells everyone about me-"

"You're not leaving."

"B-But Harry, I'm-"

"You're not dangerous."

I wanted to protest. I wanted to tell him exactly how dangerous I was. But I... I couldn't. Harry was the only friend I had who knew everything about me and stayed my friend anyway. Selfishly, I didn't want to lose him.

So instead of protesting, I tried to focus on Harry instead. The gentle weight of his hand on my shoulder. The warmth of his chest against my cheek.

He was there. He was right there.

Anchors in reverse
Lead us back to birth

"Quicksand"
Sleeping At Last

HARRY:

Thankfully, she didn't protest. I watched her eyes sink shut, and after a couple of minutes, her shaking slowed a bit.

"You're the furthest thing from dangerous," I whispered, "and you're not leaving. I promise."

I wasn't sure if she was awake or asleep, because she made no reply, but I was glad I had said something anyway. I held her a little tighter and rested my cheek against the top of her head.

It was late, but I wasn't tired. I was furious.

I had been trying to hold it together for her, trying to keep myself steady so she could feel whatever she needed to feel without holding back on my behalf, trying to do what needed to be done to keep her calm before she exploded from the emotion of it all.

But as soon as I didn't have to put up a strong front anymore, my own emotions started tumbling down like the collapse of a brick wall.

Why is Malfoy so determined to make Lucy's life a living hell?

First the incident on the train, then the completely unmerited detention, then the threatening note and the promise of more horrific detentions.

Is it just because he knows she's Muggle-born now?

I thought back further. He had always gone out of his way to mean to her, come to think of it.

Maxence. Buckbeak. His obsession with comparing her to Cedric.

Why is Malfoy so determined to make Lucy's life a living hell? Hasn't she been through enough?

It was late, but I wasn't tired. I was furious.

It wasn't fair that someone so good had to suffer so much.

My mind wandered, and I found myself fantasizing about all of the new hexes I could use to keep Malfoy quiet. I remembered with a rush that just a couple hours ago, Lucy and I had agreed to teach Ron and Hermione some of that same type of defensive magic, and I then fantasized about all four of us teaming up to keep him quiet.

I was jolted from my wishful thinking by the creaking of a door. I turned my head carefully so I didn't bother Lucy.

"Oh, I'm glad you were here with her," Hermione said, shuffling across the floor in her slippers. "I was worried she'd wandered off alone again."

"Alone? Again? You know she's not supposed to-"

"I know," she interrupted in a whisper, settling in the armchair perpendicular to the couch. "She slipped out last night without waking Lavender or Parvati up, and Ron and I were on patrol, but we didn't see her. I didn't know about it until the Fat Friar found us at the end of our shift. He said he hadn't seen her head back up to the common room, but I correctly assumed she'd just gone down to Hagrid's."

I didn't have a reply, so I just moved my thumb in circles against Lucy's shoulder.

"What happened this time?"

I sighed. "Malfoy knows. Said something in the note this morning — well, yesterday morning, probably, at this time of night — that makes it obvious he knows when she was bitten, which is..."

Hermione's hands flew to her mouth. "And she didn't tell any of us all day?"

"I don't think she realized until after we all went to bed," I said. "I heard what sounded like an ink bottle being knocked over, so I came down to make sure she was okay, and she stared at me for about three seconds before launching herself at me. I grabbed the cloak, and we went down to the Quidditch Pitch for a bit to calm down, we were both bloody pissed about this..."

I remembered how suddenly Lucy had gone from alright to terrified. I had never seen her look like that on a broom. Never.

She had looked... afraid.

Lucy was never afraid on a broom.

Why is she suddenly so terrified of heights?

I pushed that thought away, seeing as there was nothing I could do about it at that very moment, and continued on.

"She wants to ask him tomorrow why he hasn't said anything yet, because she reckons he's known for longer than he's let on."

"It wouldn't surprise me... he sat next to her for two years, and he's not dumb- no offense, Harry, I didn't mean-"

"It's fine," I said dismissively, though I'll admit I felt a bit attacked.

Should I have realized sooner that Lucy was a werewolf? Well, yeah. But, well, I hadn't because, well, I'd never questioned her. She told me she was sick, so I believed her, and that was all there was to it. I wasn't sure if everyone who already knew thought I was stupid, or didn't care, or both, but it wasn't that. I did care, a lot. And yeah, maybe I could have pieced it together like everyone else did, but... well, I hadn't. But I was determined to do as much as I could to help from then on.

"She seems to think she'll have to leave if Malfoy tells anyone," I said after a moment with half of a laugh, expecting Hermione to have the same reaction to something so ridiculous.

But, to the contrary, she bit her lip and nodded.

A fiery mixture of anger and panic immediately flared in my chest. "She's not leaving. She can't."

"Harry... with Umbridge here, it might be safest for her to leave." She saw the look on my face and immediately backtracked. "I don't want her to leave, trust me, it would kill me, but it might be safest-"

"It would be safest for Malfoy to keep his mouth shut," I snapped. "Safest for him, safest for us, safest for her. We wouldn't last a second without her. Do you remember how miserable we all were for those couple of days where we thought she-" The memory was too horrible to even verbalize again. I faltered, fell silent, and tightened my arm around Lucy's shoulders.

"I remember." Hermione studied Lucy, tears suddenly filling her eyes. "You're right. We'll focus on keeping Malfoy quiet. Then... well, if that fails-"

"It won't. I won't let it. We can't risk losing her again, Hermione, not for real."

She nodded, and a moment passed in silence.

"I'll stand on the stairs so you can bring her up," she said after a moment. "Her bed would be more comfortable, no offense."

I snorted quietly. "None taken."

I carefully, gently, carefully scooped Lucy up, one arm under her knees and the other behind her shoulders, and crept up the stairs to her dorm. To my surprise, Parvati and Lavender were awake and whispering when I walked in, and I felt my cheeks flush a bit.

"Just thought her bed would be more comfortable than the common room couch," I said awkwardly as I rested Lucy's sleeping form on the bed.

Parvati nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Hermione woke us up in her panicked rush to the common room... is Lucy alright?"

There was a snarky reply on the tip of my tongue as I looked at Lavender and remembered she didn't believe me, just like Seamus. Something along the lines of "Oh yeah, she's swell, her brother being murdered by Voldemort is definitely on her list of top five best life experiences." But I didn't say any of that.

I could see from the look on her face as she stared at Lucy that even though Lavender might not believe me, she sure cared a lot about Lucy. Parvati, too.

Everyone did, really, or... well, almost everyone. Everyone worth being loved by loved Lucy.

How can Lucy possibly think she's dangerous when there are so many people who love her so much?

"She will be," I replied in complete confidence.

A/N: Hey everyone! I'm so so so sorry this is late. I 100% intended for this chapter to be posted on Wednesday, but my mental health said "Nope" and peaced out for the week. Just the same, thank you for reading and sticking with me through everything! I hope you still enjoyed this chapter. :)