Candle wax and Polaroids on the hardwood floor
You and me forevermore

Don't read the last page
But I stay when it's hard or it's wrong or we're making mistakes
I want your midnights
But I'll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year's Day

"New Year's Day"
Taylor Swift

LUCY:

The tentative plan for a Quidditch friendly on New Year's Day spread like wildfire the day after Christmas. Everyone wanted to play, and if they couldn't play, they wanted to watch.

The little idea from Christmas Eve soon became a huge event. The match was scheduled to take place the afternoon of New Year's Eve rather than New Year's Day, and it would be a Hogwarts team versus a Beauxbatons/Durmstrang team.

It was decided that no champions should compete in the case of injury, so Harry and Cedric helped Madam Hooch and Professor McGonagall (the two most Quidditch-crazy professors) with the Hogwarts team tryouts on December 27. The twins were chosen as the Hogwarts Beaters, and I was chosen as Chaser along with Cassius Warrington and Adrian Pucey of Slytherin. (I was initially worried about being the only Gryffindor working with two Slytherins who were three times my size and two years older than me, but these concerns were completely unfounded. Quite the contrary, both were somewhat impressed with me, and I with them.) Henry was chosen as Keeper, of course, and with Cedric and Harry out of the running, Cho easily beat Draco for the position of Seeker.

The 28th, 29th, and 30th were long days --- Hogwarts got the Pitch in the morning, and the Beauxbatons/Durmstrang team got the Pitch in the afternoon, but even when we weren't on the Pitch, we were talking strategy while Cedric and Harry spied on the other team for us. Cassius and Henry assumed the role of co-captains, having the most years of experience on their House teams.

The night before the match, I was just about to wedge myself between the twins at dinner when someone touched the small of my back.

I jumped and turned to look at the boy who had touched me. His green eyes weren't anywhere near as dazzling as Harry's, but something about the way his strawberry blond hair was carefully combed even after what I expected had been a hard Quidditch practice caught my attention.

"I'm sorry I startled you," the boy said in a thick French accent, looking as if he genuinely meant it. "I am Maxence Auclair, and you are Lucy Diggory, correct?"

"That I am," I said, noting offhandedly how plain my name sounded rolling off his tongue in comparison to his own.

He extended a hand. "Our spies have informed us you could perhaps be the greatest threat on the Pitch tomorrow. I thought it only fair to introduce myself, as we will be competing closely."

When our hands touched, he lifted mine to his lips in a gentle kiss. I tried to stop myself from blushing, knowing this was just how some Europeans were, but I couldn't.

"I'm assuming you're a Chaser, too?" I asked.

Maxence smiled, revealing two deep dimples. "That I am."

I smiled back, feeling very flustered at this point. "Well, in that case, good luck tomorrow."

"Good luck to you as well," he replied, flashing one more smile before heading over to the Ravenclaw table.

I watched him walk away for a second too long, because Fred started laughing.

"Oi, Cub, once you pick your jaw up off the floor, you need to eat dinner."

I blinked and returned my attention to the table, blushing all the more when I saw that the twins and Ginny had watched the entirety of the encounter. I immediately hid my face with my goblet as I gulped down pumpkin juice, very glad Harry and Ron and Hermione hadn't arrived yet.

Ginny laughed knowingly. "They don't grow them like that at Hogwarts, do they?"

I choked and set the goblet down. "That is not what that was about."

"Then what was it about?"

"He just wanted to introduce himself before tomorrow since we're both Chasers."

"Alright, and you're blushing because...?"

"Because I'm not used to attention," I mumbled, blushing even more as I lifted a spoon of mashed potatoes to my mouth with a shaking hand.

"You know, if someone is willing to give it to you, maybe you should go after it," Ginny said. "Flirt back. See how far it goes."

"I can't flirt back if he wasn't even flirting with me in the first place!" I protested.

"Ginny might have a point, mate," Fred said in a lower voice. "You can't wait on Harry forever."

I shook my head vehemently, looking down at my plate. "Like I said, Harry is worth waiting for. Besides, you are all reading too much into this. He was probably just doing to me what Cho always does to Harry when they're competing, trying to get in my head. But mark my words, I won't fall for it!"

George laughed. "You tell them, Lucy. Don't fall for everyone who flirts with you."

"Who flirted with Lucy?"

I snapped my head up. Harry had arrived.

"A cute Beauxbatons boy," Ginny answered for me before I could even open my mouth.

"No!" I said, altogether too quickly. I took a deep breath and forced myself to slow down. "I mean, yes, I was talking to a Beauxbatons boy. He just wanted to introduce himself before the match tomorrow. Nobody flirted with anybody, he's just trying to get into my head the way Cho does whenever you two play."

Harry blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Cho knows you have the better broom, so both times you've played Seeker against each other, she's acted more flirtatious in an effort to distract you." I managed a laugh. "And it worked in October, so I'm not surprised Maxence is trying the same tactic." I glanced over at the Ravenclaw table. "Yeah, I see him talking to Cho right now, actually. I'm sure she gave him the idea, and I'm sure that's what's going on."

Harry followed my gaze, and to my surprise, he grew bright red. I mentally kicked myself --- Harry must have felt stupid for falling for Cho's mind games twice.

"It's not your fault," I said, nudging his foot with mine under the table. "She's a Ravenclaw. Thinking outside the box is her thing. And she's a girl. Girls think differently than boys do. We can be sneaky."

He smiled a bit at that. "You being sneaky? I'd love to see it."

"I can be sneaky!"

"Oh yeah? Name one time."

I bit my lip. He raised his eyebrows and smirked. I narrowed my eyes at him. "Give me a minute."

He took a sip of pumpkin juice. "I can wait all night. I can't think of a single time you've been sneaky."

'Okay, okay." I leaned forward. "Since I can't think of any either, how about you watch and see how I try to beat this Maxence kid at his own game tomorrow?"

"Meaning?"

"I'll try to distract him right back."

"Could be risky, Cub," George warned, speaking up for the first time in a while. "You don't want to accidentally lead him on."

"There's no way he'd actually have feelings for me," I said dismissively. I'm too ugly for that. No way someone like him could ever like me. "It's just Quidditch. Strictly business. If he wants to try to play with my emotions for a day, I'll play his right back."

But when the next morning came, Maxence was the furthest thing from my mind. All I could think about was playing the best game possible. The team all sat together at the Hufflepuff table --- Hufflepuff being the friendliest house, of course --- and we had one more meeting in the changing rooms before heading onto the Pitch.

We all decided to wear our House Quidditch robes for the match, making us quite the rainbow assortment of players. But we all wore massive Hogwarts insignias on our backs instead of our numbers, so we were united in that sense.

Cassius delegated the pre-match motivational speech to Henry, who looked terribly nervous at first but grew more confident as he went along. By the time Madam Hooch came in to tell us it was time for the match to begin, we were fired up and ready to play.

The day was cloudy and cold, but not snowy. It was a bit windy, but not distractingly so. In other words, it was a wonderful winter day for a game of Quidditch.

The stands had never been so full. Quidditch matches were usually well-attended, but this time, it seemed every human being on the Hogwarts grounds had come to watch the game. The crowd roared as both teams stepped out onto the Pitch, and I couldn't seem to wipe the smile off my face.

I scanned the stands for Harry. It was odd, really, being on the Pitch without him. It had only happened once before, our first year, and he was too busy being unconscious in the Hospital Wing to see me play. I eventually spotted Ron's red hair and spotted Harry next to him. Cedric was a couple rows up, already laughing and cheering. I smiled again, deciding in that moment that I would make this the best game of Quidditch I had ever played.

I shot up after the Quaffle the second Madam Hooch's whistle sounded. I was first to the Quaffle and immediately darted off in the direction of the other team's hoops.

Warrington appeared on my left, so I fired the Quaffle his way and barrel-rolled out of the way of the Bludger making a beeline for my head. Warrington tried to pass it to Pucey, but it was intercepted by one of the opposing team's Chasers. But he was too busy celebrating the catch he didn't see the Bludger coming, and when it collided with his shoulder, the Quaffle fell right into my waiting arms.

I didn't pass this time, instead making a beeline for the hoops and keeping the Quaffle tucked firmly under my arm.

Just before I was about to score, I became aware of someone coming up behind me on my right. So I switched the Quaffle to my left and let it fly, grinning as it went into the center hoop.

"Nice shot," Maxence said with a smile, "but it won't happen again."

I smiled back, as flirtatiously as I could, suddenly remembering what I had told Harry the night before. "Oh, I think it will. But good luck, pretty boy."

Not giving him room to reply, I flew over to the relative safety of Fred and George while the Keeper retrieved the ball.

I was right. I scored five more goals within the first hour of the game, and Cassius and Adrian each scored four. But unfortunately for us, Maxence scored ten singlehandedly, and with the combined six goals scored by his fellow Chasers, they had a twenty-point lead at the time of our first time-out.

"Not much of a team player, is he?" I commented as soon as we had huddled up.

Cassius shook his head and turned to the twins. "If you two can take him out, we'd be in better shape."

"Well, maybe not 'take him out,'" Henry amended, gentle Hufflepuff that he was. "But keep him busy, will you?"

The twins saluted in unison.

"Any sign of the Snitch?" Henry asked Cho.

She shook her head. "No, but something tells me this Seeker has been receiving lessons from Krum. She's fast, and sharp."

"Fortunately, so are you," I said, smiling. "I may be biased, but you were trained by my brother. I have faith in you."

Cho smiled back. "Thanks, Lucy."

Cassius cracked his knuckles. "So we focus on the Beauxbatons prick and try to get the Snitch as soon as possible. Anything else?"

"Yeah," Fred said with a stupid grin. "Don't let the Beauxbatons prick flirt with you."

I wrinkled my nose. "Never. For today, I flirt with him. Come on, let's show them you don't play Hogwarts on our home pitch and win."

The second hour of the game was even more intense than the first. The Quaffle was never in the same hands for more than ten seconds --- it was either passed, dropped, or knocked loose, and the Keepers also kicked things up a notch, meaning the scores climbed slowly.

Maxence was really doing his best to faze me. I understood another reason for this about halfway through the second hour: I was the only girl on the team other than Cho. And Cho was dating Cedric, meaning she was beyond taken, and he thought I would be vulnerable because of my single-ness. However, this realization just made me all the more determined to distract him as much as possible. I glanced his way after I scored every goal to offer a sassy "Nice try" smile. He seemed to think this was hilarious, laughing quite hard until the Quaffle was back in play.

He didn't laugh when George sent a Bludger straight at his stomach right before he was about to score a goal.

After that, everything happened so fast I don't recall blinking once.

I flew forward and snatched the falling Quaffle, firing it off to Warrington without a second thought.

"Go!" he shouted, giving me a very pointed look. He relayed it to Pucey while I shot in the direction of the other hoops as fast as humanly possible. Being so much smaller than the other two, I was designated sprinter. And it was time to see if the play we had practiced for hours would actually work..

"Three... two... one!" my fellow Chasers called in unison.

Without turning around, I reached up and grabbed the Quaffle. I tucked it under my arm and wove through the other team's players, so fast it was as if I weren't even there. Suddenly, the hoops were wide open in front of me.

I noted with no small amount of satisfaction that the Keeper looked mildly frightened.

I smiled as I launched the Quaffle through the hoop.

"CHO CHANG HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH!" Lee Jordan announced over the screaming crowd. "JUST AS LUCY DIGGORY CATCHES THE QUAFFLE BLINDLY AND SENDS IT THROUGH THE HOOPS! HOGWARTS WINS! HOGWARTS WINS!"

The party that followed in the Gryffindor common room was easily the most, er, explosive party I had yet attended. The Gryffindor common room was packed to the brim, and I found myself pulled from group to group, everyone wanting to talk about how I had managed to catch the Quaffle without even looking.

Among these people was, unsurprisingly, Maxence.

"You played well, Lucy Diggory," he said, smiling as he walked away from his friend group and draped his arm over my shoulders. I fought the urge to either punch him in the stomach or blush. He was friendly, perhaps friendlier than any boy at Hogwarts, and Ginny's words crossed my mind. Flirt back. See how far it goes.

But then I saw Harry across the room. He had his back to me, because he was playing wizard's chess with Ron, but I had butterflies just the same. Maxence was handsome, sure, but no boy could ever be Harry.

"You played well, too," I replied, feeling a bit less flustered now that I had gotten my feet back under me. "Do you play at Beauxbatons?"

"I do," he said. "Have you heard about how it is structured there?"

I shook my head. "No, I haven't."

He leaned up against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. I mimicked his posture, curiosity piqued.

"Well, we have no houses, like you do here at Hogwarts. We still have four teams, though. Students try out during the first week of school, and each team's coach decides to offer positions to students who perform well."

"Coaches?" I repeated. "Do you have staff members leading each team?"

"We do. Do you not?"

"Not really. Heads of Houses, I suppose, technically, but we have students as captains," I replied. "My brother, for example. He's the Hufflepuff Quidditch Captain. What happens if students receive offers from multiple teams?"

He smirked. "Like I did?"

I laughed. "Sure. Like you did."

"We get to choose."

"How did you choose?"

"Well, each team is named after an element of Earth. L'Équipe du Feu, L'Équipe de L'Eau, L'Équipe de la Terre, and L'Équipe de L'Air. You would likely be happiest in L'Équipe du Feu, based on your common room."

"Is it fire?"

He grinned and nodded. "I chose L'Équipe de L'Eau, personally. Or water," he said in his best British accent, "as you would say it."

"L'Équipe de L'Eau-" I tripped over the pronunciation, making his grin widen with amusement. "-is much more, ah..."

"Elegant?"

"Yeah, elegant sounds about right."

"How long have you been playing Quidditch?"

"As long as I can remember," I said, feeling a bit of sorrow pierce me. Having my memories wiped at five years old surely limited how long I was allowed to remember. But it was an easy answer, the easiest I could offer this relative stranger. "Cedric and I would always play together. How about you?"

"The same. Quidditch is my life."

I smiled. "I know the feeling."

"Maxence!" called a voice. "Come back over here! We want to talk to her, too!"

I followed, making polite small talk for a while. The attention was suffocating. My head was pounding, everything was too loud, and I really just wanted to go to bed after four days of being pushed to my athletic limit.

Finally --- and I mean finally --- Hermione grabbed me by the arm and dragged me over to their (relatively) quiet corner of the room.

Harry passed me a cold bottle of butterbeer and moved a bit to his right so I could sit with him against the wall.

"Thanks," I said, sinking to the ground and taking a long sip of butterbeer. "I was not cut out for this. I just wanted to play a game of Quidditch."

Harry patted my knee sympathetically. "Yeah. I know the feeling, trust me."

"What time is it?"

Hermione glanced at her watch. "A little after 11."

I choked on my butterbeer. "What?"

"Well, I was just about to come get you when the Beauxbatons boy started talking to you," she explained. "You seemed to enjoy talking to him, so I let you be for a while."

"I was surprised, honestly," I said with a shrug. "I thought he was only talking to me yesterday because he was trying to get into my head, but he seemed genuinely interested in talking to me tonight. He explained how Quidditch teams work at Beauxbatons, and his friends were interested in hearing about my Quidditch experience here. They liked my story about you catching the Snitch in your mouth, Harry," I added, bumping my shoulder against his.

He smiled, an adorable, mischievous little smile. "I had forgotten about that. That was my first match, wasn't it?"

I nodded. "Still can't believe you pulled that off, honestly."

He chuckled. "I could say the same about you playing with a broken nose."

I reached up and rubbed my nose subconsciously. "Then bloody Lockhart blinding me for a month."

"I wonder how he's doing," Ron wondered aloud.

"Cedric saw him over summer," I said. "Still doesn't have a clue who he is."

"Is that charm permanent?" Harry asked.

"I... I don't know." Is it? In my experience, it is, anyway. Otherwise, Mr. Midgen would have had no reason to collect my memories beforehand... I glanced at Hermione. "Do you know?"

She pursed her lips. "I'm not sure. We haven't learned about those yet. Reckon the library's open?"

Harry laughed. "Don't worry about it, Hermione. It's not terribly urgent, I was just curious."

"Even if the charm isn't typically permanent, I'd imagine his would be," Hermione mused. "The wand backfired on him, after all. I doubt it would work properly in that scenario. You know what, I'm going to go see what I can find."

With that, Hermione jumped up and ran to a nearby bookshelf, scanning the titles for anything relevant.

Ron turned to the two of us. "Mental, that one."

I laughed. "We love our Mione."

He sighed. "That we do. I'm going to go see if the twins have anything planned for midnight. I wouldn't mind helping set off a firework or two. You want to come?"

"I'm just trying to stay awake right now," I admitted. "You can go if you want, Harry."

"It's alright, I'll stay here," he said.

Ron nodded and got to his feet, diving into the crowd in search of his brothers. As I watched him go, I had a realization that made me start giggling.

"What is it?" Harry asked, turning to me with a confused expression.

I tried to stop giggling, but it was difficult. After about ten seconds, I managed to say, "Who knew you and Ron driving the Anglia to school that year and crashing into the Whomping Willow would eventually save us our memories?"

He started laughing, too, and we kept throwing out crazy things that had happened to us in our time at Hogwarts, from Fluffy and Norberta and acromantulas and basilisks and Animagi and blast-ended skrewts to all of the wild Quidditch matches with rogue brooms and Bludgers and plummeting from the sky. We were interrupted by a loud countdown.

"TEN!"

"NINE!"

Harry and I exchanged a glance, then joined in on the counting.

"EIGHT!"

"SEVEN!"

"SIX!"

"FIVE!"

"FOUR!"

"THREE!"

"TWO!"

"ONE!"

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

Like on Christmas Eve, people all around the common room started kissing. For half a second, I considered guiding Harry's face to mine and pressing my lips to his, but instead, I rested my head on his shoulder and let my eyes sink shut.

"Happy New Year, Harry," I murmured.

"Happy New Year, Lu," he replied, resting his cheek against the top of my head. We stayed like that for a couple of minutes before Harry lifted his head and shook my knee gently. "Not asleep yet, are you?"

"Not yet," I said through a yawn. "I made it to midnight. Am I allowed to go to bed now?"

"I'd say so," he said.

I opened my eyes and looked up at him sleepily. "See you in the morning?"

"Of course." I lifted my head from his shoulder as he rose to his feet and extended a hand. I accepted it and let him pull me to my feet.

Hermione came rushing over then, pointing to something on the page of the book in her hand. "The only known examples of memory charms being undone is the pain of torture, specifically the Cruciatus Curse."

"Lovely," I said sarcastically, fighting to keep my eyes open. "Do you know if Ron found out if the twins had anything planned for-"

Before I could finish my question, a hissing sound filled the common room. When the firework exploded, Harry instinctively threw his arms around Hermione and me, but as the sparks began to fall, he sheepishly let go. I smiled as red and blue and gold and green showered around us.

"Now that's a happy start to the new year!" Fred shouted, high-fiving George and Ron at the same time.

"They're going to kill us all one day," Hermione said, smiling nonetheless.

"Not today," I replied with a thumbs-up their direction.

I was incredibly excited for the Hogsmeade visit halfway through January, since it would be my first trip with Harry and Ron and Hermione. As we left the castle, we spotted Viktor Krum's form on the Durmstrang ship, sporting nothing but swim trunks. We all watched as he dove into the water.

Harry laughed in surprise. "He's mad! It must be freezing, it's January!"

"It's a lot colder where he comes from. I suppose it feels quite warm to him," Hermione reasoned.

"Yeah, but there's still the giant squid," Ron pointed out.

I shuddered. As much as I loved creatures, I would be perfectly content to never meet the squid, because meeting the squid would mean entering the Black Lake, and I would never, ever do that. I might have been able to Jet Ski at Tahoe while clinging to Cedric, but that was as far as I was willing to go where water was concerned.

Hermione sighed. "He's really nice, you know. He's not at all like you'd think, coming from Durmstrang. He likes it much better here, he told me."

"He was nice to me on Christmas Eve," I added. "And he was the one who had the idea for the Quidditch match, even if he didn't get to play in it. But anyway," I said, sensing Ron's mounting anger, "where should we go first today? It's the first time all four of us are going together."

"The Three Broomsticks?" Hermione suggested. "Seems a good place to start."

The boys and I voiced our agreement, and we were about to sit down when Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Doesn't he ever go into the office? Look!" She pointed to Ludo Bagman, who was surrounded by goblins.

"I wonder why he's here on a weekend with no event," Harry muttered.

I glanced around, looking for the twins, who I was sure would be thrilled to see Ludo Bagman again. I doubted they'd let him get away again.

I turned back around as soon as Bagman started making his way over, smiling in a way that made me instantly uneasy. "Harry! How are you? Been hoping to run into you! Everything going all right?"

"Fine, thanks," Harry said, clearly on edge too.

"Wonder if I could have a quick, private word, Harry? You couldn't give us a moment, you three, could you?"

I really wanted to say "Not in a million years, you cheating scum," but before I could, Ron managed an "Er, okay," and we hurried off to find a table.

"I trust him as far as I could throw him," I mumbled as soon as we had our butterbeers in hand.

"That is to say, not at all?" Hermione asked knowingly.

I nodded. "He's slimy. A bloody good Beater... but slimy."

After about two minutes, Harry made his way back over and slid into the empty seat next to me.

"What did he want?" Ron asked immediately.

"Let the man have a sip of butterbeer," I chuckled, sliding the tankard his direction.

He laughed a bit, raising it to his lips and chugging about a third of it in one go, making me laugh a bit too.

"Better?" I teased.

"Better," he agreed. "He offered to help me with the golden egg."

Hermione's jaw dropped. "He shouldn't be doing that! He's one of the judges! And anyway, you've already worked it out, haven't you?"

I glanced at Harry hopefully. As soon as Cedric had figured it out, he had given me a clue to pass along to Harry, since I had told Cedric what Harry knew last time. (Being a Hufflepuff, he felt telling Harry directly would have been cheating, but he at least wanted to help. He hadn't even told me what he had done exactly, but I could tell he was worried about whatever the task was.) But as far as I knew, he hadn't actually gone to the prefects' bathroom yet... or had he?

"Er... nearly," he said, avoiding my gaze. I felt a pang of distress. That was definitely a no.

Hermione didn't seem to catch on to his obvious lie. "Well, I don't think Dumbledore would like it if he knew Bagman was trying to persuade you to cheat! I hope he's trying to help Cedric as much!"

"He's not, I asked."

My grip tightened around my tankard. As if I need one more reason to not like Ludo Bagman... "Cedric doesn't need the help," I said acidly, "he's already figured the egg out, but it would still be nice of Ludo Bagman to be an equal-opportunity cheater."

"Those goblins didn't look very friendly. What were they doing here?" Hermione asked, clearly hoping to change the topic before I let my anger get the best of me. I took a sip of butterbeer to try to calm myself.

Harry took a sip as well before answering. "Looking for Crouch, according to Bagman. He's still ill. Hasn't been into work."

Ron snorted. "Maybe Percy's poisoning him. Probably thinks if Crouch snuffs it he'll be made head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation."

"Funny, goblins looking for Mr. Crouch. They'd normally deal with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."

"Crouch can speak loads of different languages, though. Maybe they need an interpreter." Harry took another sip and glanced at me. "Can your dad speak gibberish, or whatever their language is?"

"Gobbledegook?"

"Gesundheit?"

I swatted his arm. "Now you're just being ridiculous."

"Riddikulus?"

I laughed. "Oh, shove it, Potter. I don't think he does --- he's had multiple offers to take jobs across the world, but he really tries to only take temporary jobs in English-speaking countries, like America. He claims he doesn't have an ear for languages, but Mum and I always think he just lacks the patience to learn any."

"Worrying about poor ickle goblins, now, are you, Hermione? Thinking of starting up S.P.U.G. or something?" Ron asked. "Society for the Protection of Ugly Goblins?"

Hermione rolled her eyes in response. "Goblins don't need protection. Haven't you been listening to what Professor Binns has been telling us about goblin rebellions?"

"No," the boys replied in unison, making me laugh again.

"Well, they're quite capable of dealing with wizards. They're very clever. They're not like house-elves, who never stick up for themselves."

Harry sighed, eyes on the door. "Uh oh."

Rita Skeeter had just entered.

I was about to rise to my feet and start giving her a piece of my mind, but suddenly, Harry's hands were on my shoulders and I found myself under the table.

"Harry, what the bloody hell-"

He locked one of his legs around my shoulder to keep me put, his robes effectively blocking me from view. I struggled against him, but when he whispered, "Please just trust me," I stopped.

"Trying to ruin someone else's life?" Harry called in her direction.

"Harry! How lovely! Why don't you come and join-"

"I wouldn't come near you with a ten-foot broomstick. What did you do that to Hagrid for, eh?"

She paused for half a second. I thought she might actually be thinking about the consequences of her actions, but when she spoke again, her words were as sickly sweet as ever. "Our readers have a right to the truth, Harry. I am merely doing my-"

"Who cares if he's half-giant? There's nothing wrong with him!"

In the brief silence that followed, I started to unpack everything he had just said. The conviction with which he said there was nothing wrong with Hagrid, the speed with which he interrupted her... for a second, I thought that maybe telling Harry my secret wouldn't be so bad after all. But as soon as I had the thought, I pushed it away. Werewolves were different. I was different. I could never tell Harry. He had enough on his plate without worrying about me too.

"How about giving me an interview about the Hagrid you know, Harry? The man behind the muscles? Your unlikely friendship and the reasons behind it. Would you call him a father substitute?"

Hermione jumped to her feet, snarling, "You horrible woman, you don't care, do you, anything for a story, and anyone will do, won't they? Even Ludo Bagman-"

"Sit down, you silly little girl, and don't talk about things you don't understand. I know things about Ludo Bagman that would make your hair curl, not that it needs it-"

I started struggling against Harry again, but he kept me even more firmly in place.

"You're not getting a story here today," he said very pointedly to Rita Skeeter. "It might be in your best interest to leave before you lose readers for insulting children, the way you just insulted Hermione. Because in case you hadn't noticed, almost everyone here is listening to you."

There was a tense moment of silence, then I heard the click of heels leaving the pub. As soon as the door slammed shut, the crowd erupted with murmurs and whispers about the standoff that had just occurred.

Harry grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back up. I turned to him incredulously. "Okay, I trusted you, I didn't make a sound. Will you please explain now?"

He nodded, looking one more time over his shoulder to make sure she was gone before explaining in a low voice, "The day of the Hagrid disaster, I went over to confront Malfoy after you had gone down to Hagrid's. He said Rita Skeeter had mentioned you while interviewing him about Hagrid, and I didn't want to risk you getting upset like Hermione did and her deciding to go after you. Especially since it sounds like you've already got a target on your back."

The thought of Rita Skeeter mentioning my name to Malfoy made my anxiety levels skyrocket. I reassured myself I had never used the word "werewolf" that fateful night with Hagrid, but I had mentioned having a secret. But Harry didn't need to know that. He didn't need to even suspect I had a secret. So I smiled and shifted the attention away from myself. "You know I would have loved to give her hell. You did a fine job of it, though." I reached across the table to fist bump Hermione, laughing. "You too."

"She'll be after you next, Hermione," Ron said, looking quite worried.

"Let her try! I'll show her! Silly little girl, am I? Oh, I'll get her back for this. First Harry, then Hagrid?"

Ron shook his head. "You don't want to go upsetting Rita Skeeter. I'm serious, Hermione, she'll dig up something on you-"

"My parents don't read the Daily Prophet. She can't scare me into hiding!"

"Besides, there's nothing she can dig up on you," I added. "You're the top student in our year, you went to the Yule Ball with a Triwizard Champion, you're president of S.P.E.W. Unless you're also brewing poisons under your bed, there's nothing she could possibly find to exploit you."

"Unless she makes something up," Ron pointed out.

I nodded. "True. But if she does, I call dibs on fighting Rita Skeeter next." I glanced at Harry, who was looking at me with amused confusion. I laughed. "What? You and Hermione got your turn today. It's only fair I get to go next. I can go off on her for your article, Hagrid's article, and not mentioning Cedric and spelling Fleur and Viktor's names wrong. And then whatever she does to Hermione, if anything." I lifted my tankard to my lips and downed the rest of my butterbeer. "Come on, let's get out of here before she decides to double back. Where should we go next?"

We all decided Zonko's would be the proper place to lift our spirits. To no one's surprise, the twins were already there, talking to the owner about something, probably their own products. I couldn't help but smile. You go, boys.

In Honeyduke's, I saw Maxence for the first time since New Year's Eve. He was surrounded by his same friends from the party, joking and laughing, and his smile widened when he saw me. I offered a small wave before starting on my way join Ron and Harry by the lollipops.

"I saw that," Hermione whispered in my ear.

"Saw what?" I whispered back.

"You and Maxence!" she hissed, spinning me around so I could see her smirk. "He's very cute."

"Exactly, meaning he's out of my league," I replied, turning back around.

She grabbed me by the arm and turned me to face her again. "Oh, don't talk like that. You should have seen the way every boy in the room was looking at you at the Yule Ball."

"Considering they're the same boys that don't look my way at all on a regular day, I know better than to let that get to my head."

I started to turn back around, but Hermione's grip tightened. "Maxence sure looks your way more often than anyone else."

"Don't get my hopes up," I muttered. "He's cute, sure, but I barely even know him. He barely even knows me. It would never work."

"Never say never!" she singsonged.

I shook my head. "Give it up, Hermione." I glanced over at Maxence one more time. Surely enough, he was still looking at me. An involuntary blush rose to my cheeks, and Hermione Mhmmmed triumphantly. I blinked and wrenched myself free from her vice-like hold on my arm, marching over to where Ron and Harry were now examining the Chocolate Frog cards.

"You know, Lu, I can't find the one you have here," Harry said, holding two up for emphasis. "You know, the special one?"

I swatted his arm, blush intensifying. "Oh, shove off, Potter."

A/N: Hi, everyone! Just a couple of quick things.

1. Please, please, please take care of yourselves in the coming weeks! I know I for one have been extremely stressed about the election, so I'm sure you are all feeling the same way to one extent or another. I hope this story provides a bit of escape for you, because I know it's certainly helped distract me.

2. I've gained an insane number of readers because I decided to plug this story on TikTok for the first time. If you're one of them, welcome! Thank you for checking me out! I hope you all enjoy this story.

3. This week has been brutal for me. My best friend left this morning for a bipolar treatment center, and until she comes back, we'll only be able to communicate through letters. She'll be gone anywhere from one to three months, and she's quite literally the Fred to my George, so I don't know yet how I'll be doing emotionally the next couple of days/weeks/months. Since I was able to write this update today, I think I'll be okay, but I'm sorry in advance if my updates are a little later or slower than usual. I promise I'll do my best to update (because honestly, this fic is a great coping mechanism for me) but I'm sorry if there are a couple of weeks where I'm just too depressed to put in the effort.

But on a brighter note, I hope you liked this chapter! I didn't have the idea of Maxence until Monday, so I hope I did a decent job with this chapter. Normally I have chapters planned weeks in advance, so this was more stressful than usual for me to have an idea so late.

As always, thank you for reading! See you all on Saturday (hopefully!) with Chapter 63!