Lucy's POV:
I froze in the middle of the kitchen, heart sinking.
Only now had I realised how hard it was to watch Harry and the others go off to school, while I should too.
I think it was obvious I was somewhere else with my mind, because George called out to me.
"Are you OK, Lucy?" Everyone turned to me in worry. Harry looked hurt: he knew what was wrong.
"Do you need to talk?" He asked. I shook my head, he deserved this and I wouldn't ruin this for him.
Or for Ginny, who had just gotten hold of her first letter.
"I got it Dad!" She shrieked. Mr. Weasley hugged her tightly. "I'm proud of you kid."
"Dad, Harry's is here..." Ron suddenly said. "Where's Lucy's?"
I didn't dare look up as I felt my heart sink deeper and deeper. My throat went dry as Mr. Weasley rummaged around the table, looking for a letter I knew wouldn't be there.
After every inch of the table was searched and all Weasleys were looking at me in confusion, Harry stood up and tugged me along out of the room.
We went outside. "Lu, I am so sorry..." he started. "If I could change anything in my life right now, I'd change this."
I looked up.
"It's fine, we already knew, right? Minnie has made it quite clear." He hugged me shakily. "We'll figure something out, you're not going back to the Dursleys."
"I am, I won't stay here, I can't do that, Harry..." I sighed. "Look, we knew there would be a chance I wouldn't get in, it's the stigma."
"I didn't know it was this big..." he sighed shakily.
"I did. It was just weird in front of the Weasleys. What do we tell them?"
"No idea, you're usually the one who knows what to say." Harry said after a while.
I'd known it, I'd prepaired for it. And it still hit hard. I couldn't help but be hurt by this hidden hate message.
I'd been bullied, hated, people moved to the other side of the road to not cross me. And yet, it still pained me that even in this world, they would.
I thought this world, and specifically Hogwarts, would be different.
"Lucy!" Ginny ran out of the house. "We've found it! Apparantly Errol dropped it in the owlery and not in the kitchen!"
Harry looked excited out of his mind, but I knew better. "I know it's not true y'know, I know I didn't get it..."
"What? No, I mean it! Come see it for yourself!" She dragged me back in, to the kitchen.
"Gin, it's OK really, I alreasy knew-"
Mr. Weasley held out a letter. Not just a letter, a Hogwarts letter. An unopened one. Without the Weasley name on it.
It had my name on it.
Mr. Weasley was still holding the letter, for me to take it. Harry had now joined us too.
"Lucy...!"
With a shaking hand, I took the letter and opened it.
They must've written about how they could- n't let a monster come to Hogwarts. How it just wasn't possible and too dangerous. And bad for their reputation if people found out.
But that wasn't what it said.
'Dear Ms Potter,
We are pleaschcrafted to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A list with required equipment has been attached.
"Wait..." I said quietly in realization. "Does this mean I got... accepted?"
Harry was beaming so hard now that I knew it must actually hurt. After the news really had dawned on me, I shrieked of happiness and hugged Harry so hard, but if it hurt, he didn't show that, he was just beaming.
"Didn't I tell you they would!" He said, still beaming like a madman. And I think I was too.
"I'M GOING TO HOGWARTS!" I shrieked happily.
"YES YOU ARE!" Harry answered laughing. "I knew they'd accept you in!"
The Weasleys were all staring at us and how surprised and happy we were I got ac- cepted.
It got kind of quiet and awkward around us.
Ginny's POV:
I was surprised to see Lucy had not even expected a Hogwarts letter. Why wouldn't she be accepted? She's Lucy bloody Potter!
I noticed the quietness around the room. It felt very weird and a bit uneasy.
Luckily, we have Fred and George, who you can always count on to lift the mood. "Let's party!" George suddenly called. "To cele- brate Ginny and Lucy's first Hogwarts letter!"
We all kind of agreed and toasted, the aw- kwardness forgotten. The twins could always brighten up anything around them. I admired it a lot secretly.
I totally was into the same stuff as my two big brothers: I loved pranks and pulling them. I was also obsessed with quidditch and was always up for an adventure.
But I never had anyone mu own age who shared thwis interest with me, just the twins. They would never let me join in on their pranks. They wouldn't even let me play quidditch with them.
But now there was Lucy. She was like me in many ways: she was younger sister which brought pressure. She was Harry Potter's sister, I had 6 older brothers.
She too, was mischievous and wanted to be her own person, apart from who her family was, even if she loved them dearly. She never had many friends, and though I had friends, my best friend was Luna Lovegood, who was an amazing, sweet girl, but we were just... different.
Which was OK, but I never got the feeling she understood my longing to get out of the cage.
In a way, I could tell Lucy would.
"Ginny, come on!" Fred brought me back to reality by toasting his glass to mine. "Happy, sis?"
I smiled brightly and nodded. "Very. Thanks bro."
"I see you and Lucy have been bonding." He looked at me with a smug look. "What?"
"Nothing. Just thinking," he said with a certain look that unnerved me a little.
"Congrats Gin!" Lucy came to us and hugged me, which took me a little by surprise. It seemed she was also a bit taken aback by it.
"S-sorry, I don't know-"
"It's fine Lu, I don't mind!" To assure her more, I hugged her back. She sort of froze at first, but was also kind of relieved.
What was going on with her?
"Hey Lucy?" Ron waved her over. "Sorry, gotta go," she said.
"Hi Ginny," I looked up and I was petrified yet again. Before me, stood Harry. God, what was wrong with me?
"Congratulations on your letter," he said awkwardly. No, I was making things awkward, not him!
"T-thanks Harry..." I stuttered. I was men- tally face-palming myself right now. I felt my face heat up, to top it all off.
He looked away uneasily and it was very awkward. "Harry, wanna go play quidditch?" Ron asked him.
"Yeah sure!" He left and went with Ron and the twins to go and play. I once more, was not invited, but neither was Lucy.
"What shall we do?" I asked my new friend. She looked a bit torn when I asked the question.
"Well... I'm actually er... a bit tired, so could we do something not too physical?"
"Fine by me. We could just chat. Get to know each other better and all." She smiled and agreed, so we went outside, with some sweets and sat in the grass.
"So why don't you play quidditch with the boys?" Lucy asked. "I've seen your room, you love quidditch."
"Well, they wouldn't allow me to, maybe because I'm a girl, or because they treat me like a baby, I'm not really sure."
"That sucks," Lucy said, looking into the distance. "My brother also kinda does that. He thinks I can't take care of myself and he's way too overprotective."
I laughed. "Overprotective brothers are the worst. But I do get why in your case. I mean, you're the only family he has left, except for your aunt and uncle, that must be hard."
Lucy sighed. "I know and most of the time, I just let him be, but sometimes it's just a bit too much, y'know?"
"Yeah... my brothers do it too. Gets on me too sometimes. More like, all the time."
The conversation luckily became less ser- ious after that and we laughed together for the rest of the afternoon.
Lucy's POV:
After dinner, I went to bed really soon. I was gonna need that bit of rest.
The moon would be up long before every- one had gone to bed, so I needed a plan to get out. And where was I gonna go? I was not at all familiar with the area.
I needed help.
I was having a hard time not crying out, my entire body was hurting already and I felt horribly tired by now.
Should I go to Mrs. Weasley? Or Ginny?
No. I couldn't. I had to find a solution myself.
With quite the struggle, I managed to get out of the bed Mrs. Weasley had made for me in Bill's room.
I'd said I wasn't feeling well and had asked for a seperate room, so when Ginny would go to bed, she wouldn't see I wasn't in bed anymore.
Now, how to get out of the house. I could just take a bedroom on the other side of the house on the first floor and climb out a window. I wasn't strong enough right now, but I really didn't have much of a choice on the matter.
So, I went to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's bedroom and took their window. I landed a bit too hard, so I did fall, but I was OK. great.
Now, I had to run away from humanity as far and as fast as I could. I started running in the direction of the forest, when I heard a sound.
I looked around and saw the figure of a tall man. He went to the front door of the Burrow (the Weasley house).
When I looked closer, I recognised him: it was Remus. Remus Lupin had come here! Probably for me and now he was gonna knock and ask for me. Oh shit.
"Remus!" I called and he turned around. Lucky a werewolf's senses were sharpened just before a full moon.
He recognised me and jogged towards me, probably in much pain. "How are you doing Lucy?"
"I'm great!" I said ecstatic. I needed to tell him the news of my Hogwarts letter. "I got my acceptence letter for Hogwarts today!"
Remus smiled brightly. "That's great! You deserve it, so much." He had a fond smile on his face.
We started walking away from the house, to the woods. "Where do we go?" I asked him. "I don't know where other houses are here..."
Remus said nothing, but kept walking. "Lovegoods are north, Diggorys bit west," Remus muttered under his breath. "Do let's go south."
"Why did you come here, Remus?" I asked. "I mean, this is so far from Little Whinging. How'd you get here?"
"I used Muggle's transportation. I took the bus to the village and walked the rest."
I stopped to stare at him in shock. "But that's still far! You must have been on your way for half the day!"
"It's OK, I'm fine really," he said quickly. "Not really tired, so..."
I scowled. "You do look tired Remus! Why did you do this to yourself?"
"Because I didn't want you to do this alone." He looked away. "This is still one of your first times. I would've loved to have had company for my first times. Doesn't it make it easier?"
If I was honest, it did make it better. To have someone, - no not someone, a friend - there with me, was a calming thought.
"This isn't about me, it's about you!" I said, but sighed in defeat afterwards. He was here now and it was actually pretty kind of him to come.
We were now in the middle of the forest and I was exhausted, so Remus must've been almost dead of exhaustion by now.
"We could stay here." Remus agreed silently and we sat down on the ground, waiting.
"So how were the Dursleys?" Remus asked carefully. I didn't dare look him in the eye.
"It was OK, they weren't too bad this mon- th." If he didn't believe me, he didn't show it.
"Have you had any luck in finding a job?" I looked at him with a hopeful look. He deserved to get a job, and he needed it a lot, I coud tell.
He sighed heavily and looked down. "Not really. I should probably look for a job in the muggle world..."
"I'm sorry, Remus..." the worst pain started. I tried to keep quiet, to not cry out and act cool.
But I couldn't, it just hurt too badly. I cried and screamed. I had to get out of these clothes!
I quickly removed my clothes and stayed as still as possible. Remus had moved away now for a bit.
The shifting would start very soon and I slowly felt it coming, making me scream more.
Let another full moon begin...