November 23, 1997

Dear Cedric,
   I know you'll never read this, and I'm sorry, I just... I have a lot on my mind, and seeing as I can't say any of it to Henry or to Lucy, I figured I should tell you. I reckon there's a lot you want to know anyway.
   Lucy's okay. As okay as she can be, anyway. She doesn't have to worry about full moons anymore, mate. How incredible is that? All someone has to do is say her name with love, nothing but love, and she'll transform back. I think it has something to do with looking at Lucy in her wolf form and still only seeing Lucy, just Lucy. I know you'd be awfully sad that no one knew that while you were still here, because we all know you would have loved her enough to be able to do it, but I think you'd be glad that there's something we can do about it now regardless. Harry's been the one doing it the past three months. They're on the run, off to save the world, those stupid self-sacrificing Gryffindors. Fred and I did our best to equip those kids with anything and everything they might need, and they seem to be doing alright so far. They're alive at any rate, which counts in my book.
   Henry's okay too. I think. He's on the run too. Lucy saw him and told me he's alive too, Henry and Archie both, they're both on the run. Oh, and Lucy gave us your balls orbs, the ones you gifted her for Christmas a couple years ago, she said? They've been helping us keep in touch while she's off saving the world and we're not. I'm sorry you're not the one on the receiving end of it, but, well, thanks for inventing the orbs regardless. They've helped me worry a little less. Anyway, that's how she was able to tell us Henry's alright. I miss him so much. He's my boyfriend, you know. Sorry you missed your chance, mate. I'm sure Cho's great and all, but Henry's... you know how Henry is. He's the best. I love him so much. I miss him so much.
   We Weasleys have done our best to look after Lucy in your stead. We know we'd never replace you, ever, and we've never tried, but Lucy still deserves people and places that feel as close to home as possible, and we've tried to be that for her. Harry and Henry and Hermione too, of course, but she's stayed with us here in the joke shop (WE OPENED A JOKE SHOP!) and at the Burrow whenever she's not been in school. She's doing well in school too, got all Os on her O.W.L.s, that swot. You'd be so proud of her.
   You'd be proud of Henry too. He was a Montrose Magpie. Cormack McLeod is a massive dick though, which is unfortunate considering I'm quite sure his actual one is rather small. He's a Death Eater. And a bully, just for the hell of it, on top of being a blood supremacist. He's hunting Henry and Archie. Fred and I have been thinking about hunting him ourselves, but it's... complicated. Ginny's at school by herself. We know that anything we do could impact her too. We've had to be SO careful, for once in our lives. We can't just throw ourselves into trouble and hope the detention isn't too bad anymore. It's all so real now. I miss the way it used to be. I hate growing up.
   Sorry, Merlin, I shouldn't have said that. I know you're not actually reading this anyway, but I'm still sorry. You should have gotten to grow up. You would have done it a lot more gracefully than I have. You always knew what you wanted. You wanted to be Head Boy and Quidditch Captain, you wanted to be a healer, you wanted to cure lycanthropy, you wanted to keep Lucy safe, you had all of these dreams and ambitions and Cedric, you would have accomplished it all. You were good, you were too good, and you knew what you wanted and you had the work ethic to get you there and you were so cruelly robbed from us too soon. That'll never be fucking fair. I'm so sorry.
I'm sorry I never got to know you as well as it feels like everyone else did. I think I would have enjoyed considering you a true friend rather than just the friendly brother of my true friend. Still, I'll do my best to do right by you and keep Lucy safe and happy as much as I can. It's a bit tricky to do that right now, but I'll keep trying regardless. Same goes for Henry. As long as their safety and happiness are my burden, I'll bear it gladly.
   Anyway, I think that's a brief summary of all you've missed. You're still missed. You're still loved. I hope you're doing alright, wherever you are.
      Sincerely, George Weasley

🩵💛❤️💜🩷

November 23, 1997

Dear Cedric,
   I just woke up to find a little package from your sister with a note attached. They're okay. Sounds like they're doing better than we are.
   Sorry this letter is so short and so poorly-written. I'm writing on top of my backpack with a broken quill. Oh yeah, I'm on the run. I'm with Archie, and Dean Thomas, and Ted Tonks, and Dirk Cresswell, and two goblins named Griphook and Gornuk. I was only with Archie for a long time, but we bumped into Dean and Ted this morning, and Dirk and the goblins in the afternoon. I don't know how long our group will stick together, because Archie and me being so close could put everyone else in even more danger since Cormack McLeod specifically is hunting us down, but Archie thought it would be good if we stayed at least one night with other people.
   I got sick, I've been sick for a few days now. Nothing a little Pepperup Potion wouldn't fix, I'm sure, but that's been rather hard to find or brew on the run. I can tell Archie's worried, no matter how much I try to assure him I'm fine. We've been doing okay for ourselves. I'm glad I'm not on the run alone, and he feels the same way. He's a good friend.
   I miss you. I miss George. I miss Dad. I miss Mum. I miss Gretch. I miss Lucy. I miss feeling warm, in a not-feverish way. I miss my flat, and the joke shop, and sleeping in my own bed. I miss the way life used to be. Now it's just headaches and fevers, hiding from the rain and looking over my shoulder, missing people and places I have to avoid for their own safety.
   I should either keep watch or go back to sleep, but Lucy's letter reminded me of you. I ought to stop crying before I make my headache worse, but I'm just so tired of being this sad and scared.
   I love you I miss you I love you.
      Love, Henry

🩵💛❤️💜🩷

November 23, 1997

Dear Cedric,
   Hi. It's Gretchen again, Henry's sister. I know it's been quite a long time. I've been missing my mum a little less. Well, no, I miss her the same amount, but it feels less overwhelming now. There is more to me now than just missing Mum. There is so much more, for better and for worse.
   Henry's not safe. He's on the run. George said it's because his mean Magpies manager turned out to be a Death Eater, and Henry and Archie had to run as fast as they could as far as they could to avoid being killed by him. I miss Henry so much. I worry about him so much. Dad, too. If going to school wasn't legally required, I would have stayed home with Dad. We can't lose anyone else. I hope Henry knows that. Dad's a widower. Henry can't make me an only child.
School is awful. It's so scary. The Carrows are monsters. I want to help Ginny and Neville and Luna and Hannah and Cam and the others, they're being so brave and standing up to the Carrows however they can, but they won't let me help. They say that they're not letting me help as a way of protecting me, since my brother isn't here to protect me himself, but I don't care how dangerous it is, I want to help. What's happening here is wrong. I want to take a stand. Maybe I'll find a way to do it by myself, prove myself to the older kids. I'm not sure how, exactly, but I'd like to try.
   I miss Lucy. If she was here, she'd be here in the common room right now with me, talking to your portrait. She always did that on Sunday mornings. That's why I decided to write you. I'll go talk to your portrait once I'm done writing. I thought maybe you'd be lonely, wherever you are, whichever one is closer to you. I hope Lucy's okay. I think I'd know if she wasn't. It would be big news if the Ministry caught her, or any of the Undesirables. "No news is good news," or whatever. I think that's silly. I want news. I hate feeling so left out. I want to do something important. I'm so tired of feeling so small and scared and powerless.
   I wish you were still here. We'd all be happier if you were. I wish a lot of people were still here. The world would be better.
   We miss you. All of you.
      Sincerely, Gretchen Furls

🩵💛❤️💜🩷

November 23, 1997

Dear Cedric,
   Well, almost four months on the run now and we're still alive. I don't know how, and I don't know how much longer we'll last, but we're alive, and Lucy thinks that counts for something. We don't know what we're doing, Ron left us last night and I'm afraid Hermione will do the same sooner than later. I can't blame Ron, not really, and I wouldn't blame Hermione either. We haven't accomplished much, aside from staying alive.
   That's not entirely true, actually. Our biggest accomplishment, if it could even be called that, isn't Horcrux-related, but it's even better. Lucy's transformations only last a couple of seconds now. All I have to do is say her name. I'm the only one who can do it right now, but I know you could have done it too. All I have to do is look at Lucy after she's transformed and say her name, focusing on the fact that she's my Lucy no matter what shape she is and that I love her. I love her so much. I love her so much there's no room for fear or doubt, even when she's in her wolf form. She's still just Lucy to me.
   The transformations are still awful. We haven't found a way to stop the transformations. (Yet? Yet.) Her screams are... horrific. I know you know that, I know you heard her screams, but... Merlin. They're gut-wrenching. And the actual transformation itself... I don't know if you ever watched it. I know you likely witnessed horrors in your time as an intern at St. Mungo's, but... Cedric, I see it in my nightmares now. It haunts me. I don't regret watching, because I know I'd regret looking away. Seeing the transformation is not even comparably painful to how it must be to experience it, but... did you know that the transformation starts with her bones breaking? And that the broken bones pierce through her skin? The bones are what change first, they shift too fast for the skin to keep up, her werewolf skin does cover her bones in time and her fur sprouts to cover it all, but for a couple of seconds she's all sharp angles of red blood and white bone. Screaming. As glad as I am that we found something that transforms her back so she spends less time as a werewolf, I can't help but feel guilty at the same time. Experiencing the transformations back-to-back is hard on her, I can tell. Her bones break even worse when she transforms back to human. They rip her skin to shreds. Her screams are even worse the second time. I know it's for the better, but it kills me, Cedric. I can only imagine how much it would have killed you, as her brother. I've loved Lucy for a long time and I'd like to think I've loved her well, but you loved her longer and better. You're her brother.
   I hope you're happy, wherever you are, and doing better than we are. I promise I'm still doing everything I can to keep Lucy as safe and happy as possible. We're alive. We're still trying. That has to count for something.
      Sincerely, Harry

🩵💛❤️💜🩷

November 23, 1997

Dear Cedric,
   It's a Sunday morning. I should be at school, talking to your portrait, but instead I'm writing this from outside the tent. We're camped on a hill. It's pretty. You camped here with Henry once. You showed me pictures. I wonder if the heather remembers you. I wonder if this ground has any traces of your magic. I don't know. I keep reaching out, trying to feel you, but the wind is all that replies.
   Hermione's sleeping inside. I think Harry's reading something. Ron left. I hope he's alright. Henry's in the woods somewhere with Archie and a couple other people. I hope the note and the supplies I left are helpful.
   We're doing our best to find the fucking Horcruxes. It's not going well. I can't believe the world-renowned Albus Dumbledore couldn't offer us more assistance before his untimely demise. It's not his fault, but FUCK, we're just kids, we don't know what we're doing, we have one Horcrux, we've had it for almost three months now, and we only just accidentally figured out how to destroy it last night. But you know what, we don't even know where the fancy fucking Gryffindor sword is, anyway, so it's not exactly helping us yet. I'm just so angry. You know what, I HOPE we run into Voldemort at this point. I want to personally hex him to oblivion for putting us all in this fucking situation. I'm just so angry, Cedric. Everything is a mess, the world is so broken. Why are we the ones who have to fix it? I hate feeling so powerless.
   That's not what you want to hear, is it? The group who's supposed to be saving the world feeling powerless? That's a bad fucking omen, huh?
   Sorry, Ced. I wish you were here. I'm still angry that you're not. I'm not angry with you, of course, nor Harry. It's Voldemort's fault, all of it. I hope we run into him. I just want to punch him. We don't have all of his Horcruxes destroyed yet, and with any luck we won't actually encounter him until his Horcruxes have all been destroyed, but at this point I'd settle for a brief encounter where I can just punch him and run. It would feel good to do SOMETHING that has a tangible impact. It would be a nice change of pace. I hate feeling so powerless, it's driving me insane. I'm trying to keep my head up and my hopes up for the sake of Harry and Hermione, because I know they're feeling even more dejected than I am, but Merlin it's hard. I should go trade spots with Harry. I'm getting restless. I want to read. He can keep watch.
   Thanks for letting me vent to you. Not that you had much of a choice in the matter, but still.
Other than the fact that we've accomplished next to nothing, this little Camping Trip of Doom has been alright. It's not ALL bad. We have enough food to eat and a surprisingly nice tent to call home. And I don't pose a danger on full moons anymore, Ced. Harry saying my name transforms me back. I got to see the full moon with my own human eyes. I got to see MOONCALVES with my own human eyes. I still can't wrap my head around any of it. It's incredible.
   I love you. I miss you. I always do and I always will.
      Love always, Lucy