Within You, Without You

I woke up early in the morning with both excitement and nervousness playing a game within my stomach. I intended to sleep more, but I knew I wouldn't be able to. Creeping past so as not to awaken the other sleeping beauties that slept in the same room as me, I made my way to take a bath. I was happy that the magical world was able to have bandages that were waterproof, because it made bathing that much easier. Once I was clean I picked out a simple outfit composed of dark jeans, boots, and a light brown shoulder-cut sweater. By the time I was walking out of the common room only a couple people were awake (and none of them being my Quidditch coaches for the day).

I walked to the hospital wing and when I arrived, Madam Pomfrey scurried over to me right away. "Ah yes dear yes. Let me check your hands." She sat me on one of the many beds in the wing, and started to unwrap my hands. Not having a friend around for it this time, I just sat and watched in silence. When my hands were out in the open Pomfrey inspected them closely. "Well, the healing seems to be going smoothly. It looks like we don't need to bandage your fingers anymore, see?" She took my hands and show me my fingers, looking completely normal. She started to dump the ointment on the rags and enveloped my hands into it and I sucked in air to deal with the pain. "Now the healing of the hands will take longer and you shouldn't expect them 100% for a good month or so. The fingers are extremities, and were the easiest. You'll just need patience and need to come down to me every morning to change the bandages." Soon enough I was newly bandaged with my fingers free, and walking back up to the Gryffindor common room. As I came in, I saw that Ginny Weasley was in there, fidgeting with her sleeve. When she saw me she smiled. "Mornin' Lucy,"

I walked over by her and smiled. She was two years younger, but she had that Weasley endearing soul that I apparently gravitated towards. "Morning. Slept well?"

She nodded. "Why are you awake so early?"

"I have a habit of waking up early that I find hard to break. I had to get my bandages redone and so I did that quick-" I started to explain, but she interrupted me. "Is it true that Fred saved you?" She bursted out with, and then quickly blushed, feeling intrusive.

I laughed. I know that she cared, and just wanted to know, and wasn't going to go to her brother for the story because that would most likely not end well. But she was embarrassed by her curiosity. I didn't get mad about it; I'd be curious to, in her place. I went to sit down on the couch and she sat next to me. "Yes, your brother Fred saved me. And although I was passed out he apparently also carried me to the Hospital Wing."

She stared at me wide eyed, apparently getting a new view of her comical brother. "Fred did? Are you sure it wasn't...someone else?" And we both laughed.

"You have a good family, Ginny Weasley. Always remember that," I told her as we stopped laughing. She nodded and smiled, and asked me what else I was doing this morning before she interrupted me. "Well now I just have to wait for your nonsensical brothers to wake up along with Lee because they have decided to teach me the wonders of Quidditch."

"They're going to teach you Quidditch. Good luck to you," She told me earnestly. We sat there for a good while talking and bonding. She was telling me growing up in Weasley household stories, and I told her some stories of my wars against Peeves and such. Finally, Fred, George, and Lee came down from their beds, stretching and yawning.

"It's about time you lazy bones are awake," I said to them, standing up. Ginny stood up next to me.

"Ginny, what are you talking to Lucy about?" Fred asked.

"I'm telling her all about the holes in your knickers," She said, rolling her eyes, and we all laughed. She bid us farewell, not wanting to interfere in our activities, and we started to make our descent to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"My knickers do not have holes in them," Fred muttered to me as we were walking. George and Lee were in front of us having some grand conversation. I looked over at Fred and saw that he was looking down and a bit of a blush was threatening to splash across his face.

The sight made me laugh. To think that his little sister was the one that was able to make him embarrassed was terribly hilarious. "Ginny wasn't telling me about holed knickers, and besides, that business is between you and your knickers," I told him, snickering. He blushed, the red going up to his ears. "My god, you're turning the same color as your hair."

He glared at me, but then it turned into a devilish smirk. "The day we talk about my knickers is the day we talk of yours, Lucy. So don't go looking to laugh at my expense. Tell me, do you go for the granny panties?"

It was my turn to blush. "You are right, this is no time to speak of knickers. Let us never bring it up again." This conversation was not going in a way in which I wanted to see the end. Thankfully we at that point made it into the Great Hall. We sat ourselves down, filled up our plates, and began eating.

"So who do you think is going to be the Hogwarts champion for the Tri-Wizard tournament?" Lee asked.

"Me," Fred and George replied at the same time, and smiled at each other.

"Isn't there an age limit on it though?" I asked. I didn't remember most of the details that Dumbledore went into over the fact of being overwhelmed, but I distinctly remembered there being an age limit and many people getting angered over that, including these two.

"That was more of guidelines, you know? Like, maybe you shouldn't enter if you aren't this old," George told me.

"They have to say that, legally," Fred piped in.

I looked at the two of them and shook my head. "So you're not old enough to enter, but you still plan to. And how do you plan to accomplish that?"

"My dear Lucy, if we told you all of our plans, where would the fun in life be?" George asked me seriously, and I just shook my head.

"You won't be able to do it," I stated plainly.

"Never say never Lucy. Especially to us two," Fred told me, and I shook my head again.

Soon enough, we were walking out onto the lawn, broomsticks in the two Weasley's hands. The sky was clear for the most part and there was a slight wind. Overall a good day to try out Quidditch.

"Okay well the first thing of Quidditch that you need to do is fly. Have you ever flown a broomstick, Lucy?" George asked me.

"Well, when I was younger I had a toy broomstick that my parents let me fly in the house....but other than that, no."

"Alright well then step one: fly," Fred thrusted his broomstick into my face. "Here, you use mine. It's not state of the art, but it's a good broom and it does what it needs to do."

I took the broom warily, hoping that I wouldn't make a fool of myself. After only a couple of minutes of fumbling around, I was in the air. It may sound cliche, but flying is freeing. I wasn't a great flyer, but I was good enough, and they seemed to think that I was able to catch on quick enough. My mind was completely blank of bad thoughts as I was in the sky and the only thing that I really thought about was where I was going. After about ten minutes of me flying around I landed down near the three of them and they all applauded me on my graceful flying and my ability to pick it up easily.

Back on the ground, my mind came back to me, along with all of my thoughts. "Ow," I said, rubbing my hands. Gripping the wood of the broom was apparently not the greatest idea of a thing to do and now with my feet on solid ground the pain came over me.

"Hands not ready for broom handling?" Fred asked me, looking concerned.

"I guess you'll have to teach me Quidditch another day" I answered, disappointed. After flying, I was looking forward to a sport which involved it.

"Guess again," Fred said, putting one leg over his broomstick. "Get on."

"What?"

"Get on. We're going to teach you Quidditch. Today. I'm a hell of a flyer and a Quidditch player, so you don't need to be scared. Georgie will join us and we'll show you some things of it and I'll explain it to you. Alright?"

"....Alright," I answered, hoping I wouldn't regret this. I got on the broomstick right behind Fred. There wasn't much room so I was right up against him, and I wrapped my arms around his waist, hoping we wouldn't fall. "Ready?" Fred asked.

Before I could even say yes we were off. Fred started to explain the rules to me and tell me about the team. Him and George were beaters, which from the name you could probably guess what they do. They passed the quaffle amongst one another, and showed some techniques you could do with two people. They then took the bludgers out and beat them back and forth, turning into a sort of in air ping pong match. It was rather thrilling, and I was anxious to get to the point where it didn't hurt my hands to be on a broomstick because I wanted to be able to try these things on my own. Lee stayed on the ground and commented the whole time, saying that he needed to stay in practice of it since there was to be no Quidditch this year. I didn't care about that before, but after just a taste of flying and the sport, I was mildly disappointed.

George landed on the ground. "Alright, that's good enough lesson for the day," He called out to Fred. Fred nodded and I was smiling. Flying was, well, magical. Sounds stupid, considering the world I live in, but the feeling of flying is unlike any spell, any potion, anything. It was the best feeling in the world, and I never wanted it to end. Fred circled by George and threw him his batton and continued to circle.

"Hey Lucy, you ready to really fly?" Fred asked me, turning his head to look at me.

"What?" I asked, confused. He just grinned and turned back around. Oh no.

We shot up straight into the clouds, and I clutched as tight as possibly to Fred. "What are you doing Fred?!"

"I'm showing you how to really fly, since you can't on your own. Given we would have better speed if I had a newer broom, but it'll do."

Straight up we flew, until George and Lee were little ants. The lake even looked tiny. Fred straightened us out, and we weaved in and out of low flying clouds. I took a couple of breaths, getting rid of the initial panic I had. And then, I started laughing. Fred joined in and laughed with me. And it was even more magical, because it was as if we were alone just with the clouds and the sound of our laughter.

"Hold on," Fred said, and I listened. He started weaving faster and faster through the clouds, and then did a corkscrew. I screamed when we went upside down, so he did it a couple of more times. And then he turned the broom downwards and we started plummeting to the ground.

"Fred we better not crash if you kill us-" I started to say, getting nervous again. The ground came closer.

"Relax and trust me, Luc."

I took a deep breath, and trusted him. Even though my head was screaming not to. The ground was close, too close. But I kept calm, and by doing that it was fun. Fred pulled on the broom stick and we evened out and slowed down, and soon enough our feet were planted on the ground.

"Lucy, you're on the ground now. You can let go of Fred," Lee said. I didn't even realize my arms were still around my waist. Blush, I muttered a sorry and let go, and stepped off the broom. George just shook his head, and Fred smirked. My hands were hurting a bit, but I didn't care. Flying was worth it. I had a smile on my face for the rest of the day.