A new day you can go
You can do anything you wanna
It's your place, wing low, go high
Anywhere you wanna
You can reach for the moon
Anywhere your dreams can take you
Go astray, fade away

"Yesterday"
Imagine Dragons

LUCY:

The feast felt like a fever dream, and for all I know, it might have been --- the full moon was less than a week away and my birthday gift from Cedric was in the chest at the foot of my bed in my dormitory. Everyone was in their pajamas except for those who had just been brought back with Mandrake juice and those of us who had just come back from the Chamber itself, though I did use a couple of charms to clean the blood and slime from our robes. Hermione asked question after question about everything she had missed; Harry and Ron answered most of the questions, because quite frankly, I was eager to forget this awful year as soon as possible.

A little after one in the morning, Ginny entered the Great Hall. I jumped up to give her a proper hug, and her brothers all piled on top of the two of us. I tried to convince her to sit between me and Harry, but she blushed bright red and firmly plopped herself between Hermione and me and refused to move.

We stopped talking about the Chamber once Ginny appeared, not wanting to risk upsetting her anymore, but free of Riddle's hold on her, she seemed nearly as vibrant as ever. She was especially happy when final exams were cancelled and when Gryffindor won the House Cup again.

I was excited, too, don't get me wrong, but the several sleepless, anxious nights of the past couple months had finally seemed to catch up with me. The bright lights and loud talking all around me made my head pound, and I was about to leave when Hermione switched seats with Ginny and clutched my hand.

"Look at me," she said.

I turned my head and gave her a confused look. She studied my face for about five seconds before narrowing her eyes. "What?" I asked.

"Where'd you get that cut on your forehead?"

"Down in the Chamber," I said. "It's where the rock hit me."

"Did anything else happen while I was gone?"

I shook my head and offered a grin. "No more sleepwalking incidents," I said loudly, to dispel any suspicion. As much as I appreciated Hermione's concern that something had gone wrong on a full moon, she hadn't exactly been subtle.

Harry huffed, and I turned to face him. "Yeah, because you never slept," he remarked with a grin.

"You didn't?" Hermione inquired, narrowing her eyes further.

I cleared my throat awkwardly. "I-"

I was spared from answering by the doors to the Great Hall opening with a bang. Everyone whirled their heads to see who it was.

"Hagrid!" I exclaimed, bouncing up and sprinting to the door. I threw my arms around him (or at least as much as I could, given the fact that he was massive and I was tiny) and held on tight as he clapped my back violently.

I pulled away and beamed up at him. "Hagrid, Aragog's family was incredible! I've never seen anything like it! I'd love to go back sometime."

"Speak for yourself," Ron said from behind me as he and Harry and Hermione rushed up to Hagrid. He thumped their backs too, sending them crashing into me. The entire room cheered as Hagrid returned to the table at the front of the room, making the huge man turn a bright red as he helped himself to a sandwich. I turned to my friends with a smile.

"Well, now that he's back, I think I'll head to bed."

Ron looked appalled. "Are you kidding? There's still so much food left!"

"There's more for you if I leave," I chuckled, rubbing the back of my neck. "I'll see you all in the morning. Er... maybe in the afternoon."

Hermione wagged her finger in my face. "You better sleep until you're not tired anymore." She turned to Harry. "Yeah, I see it now. The dark circles under her eyes are a dead giveaway. She never slept."

I wrapped Hermione into one last tight hug. "Promise you'll be there when I wake up?" I whispered.

She nodded. "Of course."

I made my way up to the common room, tripping over my own feet in my sleepy stupor. I didn't even change out of my robes before collapsing on my bed, sound asleep.

As promised, Hermione was there when I woke up twelve hours later, buried in textbooks and scribbling notes as rapidly as her hand would allow. She was there the next morning, too, and the morning after that, and the morning after that. She was the one who walked me to the Room of Requirement on the evening of June 4, and she was the one waiting in the corridor for me on the morning of June 5. She was there when I almost beat Ron at wizard's chess, and she was there when the Weasley twins changed my hair to red again just to prove to Ginny that they could. She was there when I taught Ginny the disarming charm, and she was there when I managed to disarm Harry in a friendly duel for the first time. Hermione was there, and I had never been so glad to have her by my side in everything.

Well... not quite everything. Two weeks before the end of term, I had an idea for Harry's birthday gift, an idea I kept entirely to myself.

I had to work fast, but I also wanted it to be a secret, so I returned to my habit of spending late nights and early mornings in the common room. I sat in the same dark corner every night, with one book in front of me, one to my left, and one to my right.

My days were surprisingly busy. As much as I wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep the day away after trying to keep everyone else afloat all year, my job seemed to be far from over. I helped Hermione and Justin and Colin catch up on what they missed while petrified --- and I noticed with satisfaction that Percy often disappeared to the library for hours at a time and returned blushing and smiling after helping Penelope Clearwater with her assignments.

"We're dating," he whispered to Ginny and me one night at dinner. "I'd still like to keep it a secret, but we're official now."

We had grinned at him as he left, and we were careful to keep his secret. Ginny and I did like to talk about them from time to time, however, when the two of us were alone. We often liked to head down to the Quidditch Pitch together after lunch just to enjoy the warm summer sun for an hour or so before heading back up to the crowded common room. Sometimes we'd fly, but other times, we'd just lie on our backs on the grass and watch the puffy white clouds drift across the sky. When we weren't talking about Percy and Penny (as he always called her), we'd talk about Quidditch or her brothers. She never talked about the diary or the Chamber, and I never asked. We were grateful for the respite, because frankly, it was impossible for us to find any reason to be upset while we were on the Pitch.

My busyness made the rest of the year fly by. Before I knew it, the last night of term was upon us again. Hermione was already yawning by nine o'clock, heading up to the dormitory and saying she'd see us all in the morning. Ron followed soon after --- the two of them had been quite inseparable since Hermione had returned. Part of me understood that he still felt horrible about not going with her to the library that fateful day, but part of me had to wonder if there was something more under the surface. I considered asking him about it, but confrontation had never been my strong suit.

It was for that exact reason that Harry's gift had remained in my bookbag, even though it had been finished for three days at that point. I had wanted to catch him alone and give it to him as soon as I was done, but I had been too scared. Scared of it not working, scared of him not liking it, scared of someone else overhearing our conversation and assuming more than what was meant. But more so than that, I was scared of what had happened to him last summer happening again, and I hoped that my gift would be able to prevent that from coming to pass.

I knew I had the perfect opportunity right in front of me, but the silence was too sweet. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye as if trying to read his mind, as if looking for confirmation that the time was right, but he wasn't looking at me. He was looking at the fire, still holding one of Ron's chess pieces in his hand and absently tracing its base with his thumb. He looked deep in thought. I didn't want to interrupt, so I tucked my legs under me and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear, waiting for him to speak first.

When another minute passed silently, I didn't need to see a mood ring to know he was troubled. I considered asking what was wrong, but I reckoned I understood well enough without asking. So instead, I turned to face him and smiled.

"Hey, Harry?"

"Mhm?" He glanced toward me with those intense green eyes of his, and my heart suddenly lurched against my chest. Why was I so nervous?

I swallowed hard and reached into my bag. "I know your birthday is still quite a while away," I said, getting out the gift wrapped in red wrapping paper and handed it to him, "but I wanted you to have this now. Just so you know," I added quickly as he started to rip the paper off, "it's completely harmless. I-I'm actually hoping it'll be helpful."

The diary slid out of the paper into his hand. The front and back covers were maroon leather, the binding and the strap holding it closed a gentle gold.

"I can explain, I promise." I reached into the bag and pulled out a second diary, with golden leather covers and maroon accents. I popped the button apart and opened my own diary. I skimmed the instructions I had written, trying to grab the most important details out so I didn't overwhelm him. "Well, it's not exactly like Tom Riddle's diary. For one, it's not Dark magic-"

"That's good," he replied with a wry grin. "You had me worried there for a second."

I returned the smile, teasing, "You really think I'd do that?"

"Of course not, but you are full of surprises, Lu."

His comment caught me off guard, but I shook my head, blushing furiously, and continued, "I'll ask what you mean by that later. But the diaries are linked. Whatever you write in yours shows up in mine, and whatever I write in mine shows up in yours." I flipped to the first page of instructions and nodded toward his. "If you open yours, you'll see the exact same thing."

As he did so, I reached into my bag again and grabbed two quills, handing him one. "It will work with any old quill," I said, "and it should work with Muggle pens. I don't know about pencils, though, Archie didn't have any I could try out. But I thought, well, I don't want what happened to you last summer happening again. So if anything goes even slightly wrong, just tell me and I'll come get you. And, um..." I felt my blush growing hotter and hotter. "Please don't tell anyone else about it. I don't want Ron or Hermione feeling left out. I mean, I have the ring for Hermione, and Ron lives just a five-minute walk away, but still, I, well, yeah. And well, I... I hope you like it."

His gaze went from me to the diary in his hands and back to me. "Lucy, this is amazing. I love it. Thank you."

"Of course," I said with a quick nod. "Try it out, let's make sure it works. I-I mean, I've tested it a lot, but-"

He chuckled. "You don't have to doubt yourself so much, Lu."

He flipped a couple of pages, so I flipped to the same page and watched as his words appeared on my page.

See? It works.

I giggled and wrote back, What do you mean, 'see?' You can't see my page to know it works.

But I can see your response on mine, so now I know for sure it works.

You do realize you could have said that to my face, right?

He laughed. "Well, yeah, but it's not every day your friend recreates something identical to the diary of, what did Dumbledore call Tom Riddle? 'Probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen?'"

I laughed too, still blushing furiously. "Harry, to be quite honest, I don't remember much of what was said that night."

"I wouldn't expect you to." He grinned. "That's why I reminded you just now."

"I'm not brilliant," I mumbled, "just concerned and trying to prevent another disaster. The Anglia is in the Forbidden Forest now, at any rate, and my family doesn't have a flying car we could use to rescue you."

Harry laughed way harder than I was expecting him to at that.

"What is it?" I asked, giggling even though I didn't see what was so funny. His laugh was contagious. I couldn't help it.

"I just-" He laughed again and took a deep breath to calm himself. "Your dad's a creature expert, isn't he?"

I nodded, eyes widening as I realized what he was probably thinking. "You know I'd love to show up in your suburban neighborhood riding on a dragon, right? Like, that would actually be something of a dream come true."

He nodded, twitching with laughter. "I'm just imagining you swooping down from the sky, landing a massive dragon on the lawn."

"Are the Weasleys with me in your mind's eye?"

Harry shook his head. "They'd call you crazy and say they'd wait for you at the Burrow."

"Would you call me crazy?"

He smiled. "I said you're full of surprises for a reason."

"You didn't answer my question," I protested with a laugh. "Would you call me crazy?"

"I don't think so." He leaned back against the couch and looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "I know you well enough to know you're not."

"Then how am I still 'full of surprises?'" I teased, leaning back with him and extending my stockinged feet in front of me.

"I'll admit I was surprised when you just launched yourself into the Chamber of Secrets. Ron and I would have shoved Lockhart down first, you know, you didn't have to do that."

"I'm surprised with myself thinking back on it," I admitted, "but it's not like I was the hero or anything. You were the one who got Ginny and destroyed the diary and killed the basilisk and... well, you get the idea."

"You were unconscious, so I think you get a free pass on missing the action. See, that's another surprise. You didn't seem all that hurt, at least not at first, when that could have very well killed you. Did you hit your head a lot as a kid?"

I laughed. "That might explain why my early childhood is so fuzzy, if I did. And I guess I just have high pain tolerance," I said with a shrug, trying to play it off as casual.

If he suspected anything, he didn't let on that he did. "I guess so," he agreed. He sighed. "Remember a year ago when you predicted that the Philosopher's Stone was just the beginning? I'm beginning to think you were right."

"Quite possibly. What do you think next year's life-threatening danger will be? Revenge of the acromantulas, perhaps?"

"Oh, dear Merlin, I hope not."

"What do you think, then? A dragon loose in the Great Hall? Muggle tourists somehow breaking through the barrier and invading the school? The moon falling from the sky?"

He laughed harder and harder with every prediction. I grinned, deciding to push this as long as I could. It was so good to see him laugh after the year we had.

"An Abraxan stampede during a Quidditch match? Hagrid breeding half-troll, half-mermaid creatures? Oh, wait! I've just remembered!"

He stopped laughing long enough to look mildly alarmed, though the smile remained on his face. "What?"

"You'll be in Divination! You can warn us of all of this before it happens! Your crystal ball will show all of that, mark my words."

He was laughing so hard it took him a couple moments to gather himself long enough to reply. "Too bad you're not taking Divination with us. You'd make it so fun."

"You're welcome to join me in Ancient Runes, but no offense, I doubt anyone could make that class fun based on what I've heard. I will admit I have a head start, though."

"Have you read any more of that book from Dumbledore?" he asked, becoming more serious.

"I've been busy," I admitted sheepishly. "I scanned it looking for Chamber of Secrets information, but I stopped when it didn't have anything useful. Something to do over summer, I guess."

"Once you finish the mountains of homework, you mean," he grumbled.

I sighed. "Let's not worry about that now. Let's just..."

"Be us?" he asked.

I nodded. "Be us. After the year we've had, I reckon we deserve it."

Silence settled again, but his eyes weren't troubled anymore. Quite the contrary, the ghost of a smile was on his face as he looked at me out of the corner of his eye.

"It'd be nice if it could just stay like this," he said after a moment. "Just us, here, knowing everyone we love most is sound asleep in their own beds and... yeah. It would be so nice if it just stayed like this."

"Well..." I shifted my legs and turned to face him fully. I had the random urge to reach out and grab his hand. I considered denying it, but I didn't. I hesitantly laid my hand on top of his, and smiled as he responded by curling his fingers around mine. "I can't promise that it'll stay like this next year, but I do know that a year from now, we'll be here again, just the two of us, staying up way too late the night before we go home talking about who-knows-what. It's something of a tradition at this point, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I suppose it is."

"And I can promise that I'll be right there with you, whatever comes next. As long as, well, you know, no massive rocks come to take me out before anything exciting happens."

He laughed again. "Sounds like a plan. Maybe you should start wearing a helmet."

"Honestly? That's not the worst idea I've heard today," I said.

He raised his eyebrows curiously. "What is the worst idea you've heard today?"

I snickered. "The twins wanted to transfigure one of Ron's chess pieces into a spider. I managed to talk them out of it at the last second."

Harry shook his head with a chuckle. "You spared our entire dormitory from a night of Ron screaming about spiders in his nightmares."

"He does that?"

He smiled shyly. "Don't tell him I told you that, but it's been known to happen."

"Oh man," I replied, "next time I sleep over at their house, I'll have to convince someone to wait outside his door with me. That I need to hear for myself."

A/N: Hi everyone! Sorry this chapter was so short (at least by my standards, anyway). I've been debating how to break everything up, and I think this will be the best way to go about it. I've wrestled with it all day, but I'm more or less happy with how this chapter turned out. I hope you all like Harry's gift. I can't wait to explore the possibilities of the new means of communication they'll share!

I hope you're all excited for the summer of 1993! I know I for one am excited to write it.