I know you won't be back quite yet, but I get the feeling I'll be writing for a long time so I'm starting now, there was a lot going on today. You were definitely the best part, as you always are. Anyway, the short story is that I think Draco Malfoy is a Death Eater. First of all, in Madam Malkin's, he was really upset when she tried to adjust the left arm of his robe. In the joke shop, I spotted him in the streets alone, which I thought was odd considering he had been with his mother in Madam Malkin's. I mean, you know the Malfoys, they wouldn't let Draco out of sight easily, especially not his mum, considering his dad's in Azkaban. Anyway, Ron and Hermione and I followed him under the invisibility cloak all the way to Borgin and Burkes, and Ron had Extendable Ears so we could listen in. He was asking the owner about repairing something, and then he threatened him somehow, we couldn't see what he did but it shut him right up, and then Malfoy mentioned that Greyback was a family friend to seal the deal on the threat. Hermione tried to go in and get a couple more details about whatever the object was, but she wasn't very subtle about it so that didn't go anywhere. Lucy, I think he's a Death Eater. It was his left arm that Madam Malkin was working on, I think it was the Dark Mark that he showed Borgin, I think maybe he's replaced his dad. Ron and Hermione think I'm making a big deal out of nothing, but I just can't shake the feeling that I'm right about this. Anyway, I'm sorry for scaring you by leaving unexpectedly, I hope you understand.

I'm just realizing how many times I said "Anyway." Clearly, I'm a great storyteller.

Sorry I'm back so much later than usual, something came up with the twins, let me read everything real quick

No worries, hi Lu

Hi, Harry! That's odd. A sixteen-year-old Death Eater? Malfoy, of all people? I don't know, Harry, but I do agree that seems... a little uncomfortably possible.

Thank you for taking me seriously

The serious/Sirius jokes don't work as well in writing

They really don't

Anyway, yeah, of course, this is odd

Everything alright with the twins?

Yeah, they're alright. For now. They better watch their backs, though, I'm coming for them.

Are you, now? What'd they do?

Time will tell

That's not ominous at all

Sarcasm, on the other hand, works fairly well in writing when it's you. I swear I heard you say that as I read it.

I'm honored, truly, you know me too well

You know me better than anyone else, so I might as well get to know you too even though you're an insufferable git

Very funny, Lu

Ah, there you go again with the sarcasm

What can I say, I know my strengths

🩵💛❤️💜

HARRY:

After bantering back and forth for a couple more minutes, Lucy fell asleep, as evidenced by the one long stripe of ink that suddenly extended across both pages. She had learned to keep her ink farther from her diary, so she didn't knock it onto the pages if or when she fell asleep. She was more likely to fall asleep writing me after the full moon, I'd learned, and it was later than usual. I wrote her a good night before tucking the diary under my pillow and collapsing back onto my bed.

"Ow!" I yelped as something sharp and bulky dug into my back. I jumped up, suddenly remembering that Fred and George had dropped something into my hood.

When I shook my hood out over the bed, two boxes tumbled out onto the top blanket. One was a Daydream Charm, a pirate-themed one from the looks of it. The other box was plain, with a handwritten note scrawled on top reading Use the other one first!

Confused but intrigued, I reached for the Daydream Charm and looked more closely at the image on the box. There were two winking male pirates that looked an awful lot like a disguised Fred and George, but there was a figure in the background too. Even though she had her back to the camera — or whatever they had used to take the picture — there was no mistaking the shiny locks of brown hair as Lucy's. She was in a white dress that billowed out around her elbows and her knees. I squinted at her wrist, but there was no charm bracelet there.

I felt a spark ignite in me at the thought of how she'd looked on my birthday, in the white shirt that left the bracelet on display. That night had been nothing short of incredible, and it was all Lucy's doing.

Merlin, I loved her.

A few seconds later, I realized I had spaced out thinking about Lucy (yet again) and blinked hard.

Remembering that I was sharing Ron's room with him again, I quickly tucked the boxes away. I didn't need him wondering why his brothers had given me free samples and not him. I didn't need to explain that I'd given them my Triwizard winnings for the sole purpose of starting the joke shop. I didn't need to tell him that I had done it for Lucy, really, so she could be happy again. I didn't need anyone else knowing that Lucy's happiness that summer was nothing short of a dream come true for me.

So I went back downstairs, and I played a few rounds of wizard's chess, and then I went to bed. Once I knew Ron was asleep, though, I reached for the boxes again.

I lifted the lid of the Daydream Charm, just to see what was inside, but before I could even register what was happening, the world around me gave way and I was on a ship. It was well-lit by lanterns, and by the stars above. It was like being in a Pensieve memory, except I couldn't actually see my body or speak. I was merely a incorporeal spectator, watching as everything unfolded like a movie before me.

To call the plotline of the daydream elaborate would be an insult. I was utterly sucked into the drama of it all, captivated by Lucy most of all.

I didn't know anything at all about swordmanship, but I did know that Lucy looked lovely as she attacked George, and as she forced Fred overboard. My daydream-self gravitated toward Lucy as she found a treasure chest.

"Here it is. The queen's treasure. There's gold, of course, yet there is one treasure in here more meaningful than all of the gold in the world..." She opened it to reveal that it was empty. "Bollocks! I have been deceived. A decoy chest! The nerve! I will find the real chest, I will, and when I do — "

One of the twins — I couldn't tell which was which, they were both well-disguised, but I was guessing that one was George and the crazy one nicknamed Sir Frederick the Flappable was Fred — interrupted her. "And when you do, what? Did you honestly expect us to leave something of such value in a place that could be so easily discovered?"

"Yeah! Where's the real chest, eh, girl? Where's the real chest?" the other twin (Fred?) asked.

Lucy held her sword to George's neck. "If you will not reveal the location of the chest, I am left with no choice! I reckon there are many fake chests in this world, many on this ship alone to lead me astray, but I can't help but notice that you summoned the fearful Frederick the Flappable when you were standing without a sword above one particular plank of wood."

"Sir Frederick! Sir! Sir! Sir! Sir!"

"That's ma'am to you, if you insist upon formalities," Lucy said, turning her sword to Fred.

I snorted. That was clever.

Lucy pointed her sword at George again. "Step off the plank."

"I believe the terminology is walk the plank, and I will do no such thing on my own ship."

"I think you will," she replied with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

They began to duel again, and Lucy's quickness and stamina won out. She ducked between his legs and uncovered another treasure chest. She'd just hauled it onto the deck when Fred grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her up.

"Got her, got her, got her! Overboard?"

George shook his head as Lucy struggled valiantly against Fred's grip. "No. Send the treasure overboard. If I understand correctly, the bracelet inside that chest was given to the queen by the love of her life." Lucy stilled as George lifted his sword to her neck. "Wait. The queen has your same eyes, blue as the ocean below."

"My eyes are as blue as the sky above!" Lucy declared, wrestling herself free of Fred and diving to the deck.

It was my bracelet that she pulled from the treasure chest. It was my bracelet that she put on her wrist.

The love of her life?

Was I the love of her life?

No, no, surely that was just part of their little story.

Before I could think on it further, Lucy had sheathed her sword and was leaping onto the edge of the boat.

"Thank you, gentlemen, you have been such excellent hosts!" She fixed the boys with a wide smile. "If you'll excuse me, my king and kingdom awaits!"

From there, the daydream faded a bit, then returned full force. The rest of the daydreams weren't quite so structured — my invisible consciousness was free to wander the deck as the three people on board played with the ropes, skirmished with their swords, and so forth and so on. Naturally, I spent my time following Lucy, captivated by the way the lantern light made her eyes glow and the apparent ease she felt even though she was on a ship in the middle of the sea at night. I wanted nothing more than to just reach out and touch her, reach for her hand as if it was mine to hold, but I was content with my view for that night.

After a while, the daydream faded entirely, and I found myself back in Ron's room. I'll admit it was a couple of minutes, maybe several, before I could think clearly again — it was as if Lucy's magnetic presence, even in a daydream, still had my brain in its grasp, its buzzing, gravity-defying, dizzying, electrifying, all-encompassing grasp. In time, though, I had the presence of mind to remember that there was a second Daydream Charm, the one that I was instructed to open second, so I reached for it and lifted the lid.

This time, we weren't on a ship, but in the midst of greens hills and grey rocks beneath a cloudless blue sky.

My invisible form was standing a fair distance behind Lucy, but, like the other one, I was able to glide forward so I could see her face.

She was looking skyward, and she released a high-pitched, happy-sounding "This is incredible!"

It was Charlie Weasley who replied. I hadn't even noticed he was standing there. The conversation between Lucy and Fred and George and Charlie swirled around me, but I couldn't bring myself to listen to the specifics of it.

I couldn't look away from the joy on Lucy's face.

The magic of the memory itself wasn't as refined as that of the pirate Daydream Charm, jolting a bit from location to location, but I didn't mind one bit.

Lucy's joy was infectious in each and every scene.

When she was talking to Charlie, when she was reaching out to Norbert, when she was flying on Norbert, when she was talking to the other dragonologists, when they were walking around the reserve, when she got to fly on Norbert again. Her joy was present through it all. She was absolutely alight with it.

Just before the magic ended, I felt a strange vacuuming sensation, and the scene faded away. I found myself in an unfamiliar kitchen, watching the Weasley twins. George was fiddling with a box while Fred twirled his wand.

"Hey Harry, assuming this works and you're hearing this somehow, hope you enjoyed the show," George said, not looking up from the box.

"We're guessing Lucy told you all about the dragons, but we figured you'd want to see with your own two eyes — in a manner of speaking, anyway — just how happy you made her," Fred continued.

"And before you think anything along the lines of 'Well no, it wasn't me, it was you two, you're the ones who took her,' don't even go there." George whacked the side of the box against the table and continued fiddling. "We would never have been able to do any of this for her without you. This might have been our idea, technically speaking, but this was all possible because of you."

With that, there was another vacuuming sensation, and I was launched back to the reality of Ron's bedroom.

Unsurprisingly, my face was on fire. I thought I was smiling. I couldn't truly tell — emotion was swirling so hot and fast in me that I couldn't even tell how I was feeling other than utterly enamoured with Lucy Everlin Diggory.

I shook my head and pushed myself to a sitting position, clenching my fists around bundles of my top blanket.

In that moment, I knew I was so in love with Lucy that I couldn't possibly keep it to myself anymore.

A plan was formed over the course of the rest of the night.

August 17 seemed like the best day to tell her. It was six months to the day after I had realized for the first time that I was in love with her.

I would tell her using the diary, right at midnight. I'd have to practice what I wanted to write, of course, I'd have to think long and hard about it, but at midnight on August 17, I would tell Lucy exactly how I felt about her.

I couldn't expect her to feel the same way about me. I couldn't possibly reasonably expect that.

I needed her to know anyway just how much I loved her, every part of her, even the parts of her she wanted to hide. I needed her to know anyway that I always felt best when she was at my side, no matter what our circumstances were. I needed her to know anyway that she was my favorite person, the best person, that my whole world would lose its meaning if she wasn't in it. I needed her to know that I loved her for who she was, from the way her eyes reflected the sky she called home to the way she loved so sweetly and unwaveringly and fiercely and wholly. I needed to know that I loved her, all of her, always had, to the end of the world, just for existing as she did, and I always would.

And I was going to tell her in just seven short days. I was going to tell her everything.