For Maddie, my darling Billy Elliot!Twinny and amazing friend, here's a LucyLouis for you. I've used a different headcanon to your own because I wanted to experiment, and I really liked this one. Here's to hoping you do too! ;)

disclaimer: i don't own harry potter

warnings: cousincest and strong language.

April 21st, 2010

Lucy's bright green eyes light up as she is introduced to her younger cousin. She places her hand inside his cradle and puts it near his hand, watching as his fingers reach up and tighten around her own.

"What's he called, Uncle Bill?" she asks, staring down at the baby boy in the cradle, his eyes smiling at her, his lips not yet curving to make that expression.

"'Louis Charles Weasley,'" Bill tells her, and Lucy nods, showing him that she likes the name.

She's disappointed when her mother insists that she can't hold the baby, as she's three years old and not capable of that yet, but she stays by his cradle throughout the whole time they're in the hospital, feeling his hand clutching her little finger.

August, 2015

"Maman! Dom is teasing me!" Louis yells.

"Dominique!" Fleur yells, standing at the door with a bowl in her hands, her hair tied back as she attempts to make Victoire's favourite cookies for her birthday.

Dominique shoots a poisonous glare at Louis before storming to the door, clearly annoyed by the situation. Louis sits on his own, watching Hugo and Lily play together and observing Lucy sitting in a corner on her own, reading a book with a title he can't quite make out from his vantage point. She loves to read, he notices. He hardly ever sees her without a work of fiction open on her lap, and when he does, she always seems as though she's in another world.

Part of him wants to go over to her, but she's three years older than him—she's eight, he's five—and he doesn't think she'd like him anyway. He's the youngest of all the Weasley-Potter children, and although it's only by three years, the gap seems vast, impossible to breach, and so Louis sits on his own, watching the butterflies dip and dive, listening to the waves break against the shore, feeling the rough earth beneath his fingers. He's content to just sit and be for a while. He doesn't mind the isolation.

June, 2017

Her fingers dance along the ivory keys, playing a tune that Louis recognises but can't quite name. He stands in the corner, pretending that he's admiring the family photos, but he's looking at Lucy out of the corner of his eye, watching her blonde hair fall across her eyes, and the way she irritably shakes her head to move it out of the way as she plays. He thinks to himself that, come September, she'll be gone, she'll be at Hogwarts, out of his sight, but never out of his mind. It'll be three years until he can join her, three years. He doesn't know if he has it in him to wait, but he'll have to. Dominique is leaving for Hogwarts the same year as Lucy, but Louis doesn't mind so much about her. He's never really gotten along with his older sisters.

At least he'll have Lily and Hugo as company for a year, until both of them head off to Hogwarts a year before him.

He begins to hate the fact that he's the youngest Weasley child. A happy accident indeed, he thinks bitterly to himself.

October, 2019

The waves lap up onto the beach as Louis lies there, completely on his own. He's the only remaining one of his cousins still not at Hogwarts, and so he keeps mainly to himself these days. He's the same age as two twins, Lorcan and Lysander, whose parents are friends with many of the Weasleys and Potters, but they don't interest him in the slightest, and both of them seem rather boring, so he chooses to go to the beach whenever they visit.

He sits up, startled, as an owl lands on his shoulder, and he winces as the claws cut into his shoulder, not breaking into his skin but still landing hard enough that he knows he'll have a killer bruise in that spot tomorrow. The owl is a tawny owl, and he recognises it as the owl that Molly and Lucy share. He spots the parcel that the owl was carrying, dropped on the sandy floor. He picks it up and reads the note attached to it.

Dear Louis,

I was thinking about you today. Now that Lily and Hugo are at Hogwarts, you're the only one of still at home, so I thought I'd send you something to help keep your thoughts clear—I've been helped by one of these many a time.

Lucy

A green book falls out of the packaging, and he opens it up to find only blank pages. It clicks in his mind that she's sent him a diary. It doesn't seem like a very manly thing to own, but he likes the sentiment of it, and he flicks through the creamy white pages, fingers itching to find ink and a quill so that he can fill them.

He can't bring himself to get up and head back to Shell Cottage—the sun is shining brightly and he's warm and content lying on the sand, and so he waits for a while until his mother calls him into dinner, and he carries the diary with him underneath his shirt. It's personal, he decides, even though it has never been written in.

July, 2020

When the children at Hogwarts return for the summer holidays, a reunion at the Burrow is called. Louis usually hates these reunions, seeing as most of his cousins tend to ignore him, discounting him as just a little kid. He's happy that he'll see Lucy again; he wants to thank her in person for the diary.

Louis doesn't understand why Uncle Ron keeps sending Dominique and Lucy strange looks across the table. He notices his Aunt Hermione whisper something sharply at him, but the only word he can catch is Slytherin. He notes that Dominique and Lucy are both in Slytherin, but he doesn't see what that has to do with anything. They're just the same as everyone else, just more ambitious and slightly more opinionated. He knows about the war, of course, but he can't understand the prejudice still going on.

After Ron makes a slightly bigoted comment, Dominique proclaims that he is a bastard and storms out, knocking Ron's glass of wine onto the pristine white tablecloth. Lucy follows her, sending a look of daggers at Ron and whispering to Hermione that she could at least try to control him.

The Weasley-Potters stay silent. They watch Ron looking guilty, dabbing at the tablecloth with a crumpled tissue from his pocket.

Shortly, the reunion is abandoned. Louis realises he never got to thank Lucy.

September, 2021

He boards the Hogwarts express, smiling more than he's smiled in a long time. The engine gleams brightly, and he's finally going to Hogwarts. He ignores his mother's tears, her cries of 'ma cheri! and he waves at her one last time before he tries to find a compartment.

He meets some guys whom he supposes he'll be friends with, but he doesn't really engage in their conversations. Lucy is sitting in the compartment across from him with her third-year friends, and he notices that she looks different from when she was at home with the Weasley-Potters. She looks more grown up, she holds herself differently, with more pride, and she sits next to Dominique as though the two of them rule the world. He looks away for a while, and engages in a discussion of the Houses of Hogwarts and which one he'd like to be in most.

The train journey is over before he knows it, and he's heading into the place that he's been told tales of for years. He gasps as he sees the candles that light up the ceiling, and he stands among the throng of first years, waiting to be Sorted.

;;;

Lucy walks across from the Slytherin table and slides onto the bench beside Louis, causing heads to turn and wonder why she's crossed tables.

"Hufflepuff, huh?" she comments, twirling a lock of her golden hair around a finger.

Louis shuffles away a little awkwardly and mumbles a yes to her question.

"Let me know if you need anything, yeah?" she says. "Us Weasleys have got to stick together, right?"

Louis smiles. "Sure. Thanks, Lucy."

She walks away, heading back to the Slytherin table and tuning back into a conversation with Dominique, the two girls bursting into laughter every five seconds.

Louis turns back to his toast. He wonders why Lucy is being so nice. He often wonders why she was put in Slytherin when she acts so nice around him. He supposes that she acts differently around others. He likes this Lucy, though. He decides that he prefers her over the one that is usually seen around school.

May, 2024

Louis' first year at Hogwarts goes by so fast that he barely even notices it, and he's returning on the red steam engine, bound for his second year, faster than he can even think about it. The first year went well—he made friends, got good grades, and made sure that Hufflepuff's last-place finish wasn't as embarrassing as it would've been if he didn't get so many points. Second year rushes by as rapidly as the first year, and Louis is shocked to find himself entering third year, thirteen years old, and rapidly approaching turning fourteen.

When he returns, he feels as if Hogwarts has changed. Not enough for it to be noticeable, but something has shifted, moved ever so slightly, and it doesn't feel quite right. Everything looks the same, but he feels as if there's something running beneath the surface that makes it eerier, more creepy, and less like his second home.

He stumbles upon a conversation being had by two sixth-year Gryffindors—the same year as Lucy and Dominique, he thinks.

"Oh my God. She's such a slut!" one of them exclaims.

A brunette speaks up. "Two-timer. I heard Boot saying he wouldn't touch her with a four-foot pole."

"Godric, who would?" the other one replies.

"Goldstein isn't speaking to anyone now, and Thomas is just going round with that arrogant smirk on his face," the other one comments. "Who does she think she is? Just because she's Lucy Weasley doesn't mean she can rule the world."

Louis stays behind a pillar as he watches them walk out of sight, shaking with indignant rage. How dare they say that about Lucy? How dare they say those things?

As soon as they are out of sight, he makes his way to Potions. He doesn't succeed in making his Swelling Solution, his mind is on other things. Lucy is his cousin, and he loves her, but are the things those sixth years said really true?

;;;

Louis is restless, and he tosses and turns while the other third-year Hufflepuffs are fast asleep. Toby Creevey is in the bed to his left, and Louis tries to ignore his best friend's snores, trying to alter his position in bed to get comfortable. After a while, he realises that it's no use—he's simply not getting to sleep tonight. It crosses his mind that he could leave the dorm and visit the house-elves in the Kitchens—even get some food—but the thought seems too rebellious for a Hufflepuff, and he's pretty sure that's why the Hufflepuff dorm was located next to the kitchens in the first place, as pretty much all of the Hufflepuffs are law-abiding.

After a while of no sleep, he decides that he'll go against his Hufflepuff instincts, and try and find his inner Gryffindor to head out to the kitchens. Maybe the house-elves will have a chocolate muffin, or something he can eat to keep himself occupied. Silently, he slips out of bed, taking care not to rouse his dorm mates, and he tiptoes down into the common room, making his way through the round entrance and down the hallway to the kitchens.

There is already someone there when he enters, and Louis draws back for a minute, nervous to meet whoever is in there. He debates with himself for a moment as to whether he should proceed or head back to his warm, cosy bed. The warm bed wins until, just before he turns on his heel and leaves, he hears a soft crying sound coming from the kitchen, and he notices a blonde head of hair that looks eerily familiar.

"Lucy?" he speaks out into the kitchen, wondering if his instincts could be right.

He's answered by a sob, and then a few choked-out words. "Louis? Is that you?"

He makes his way over to the illuminated section of the kitchen, and sits down next to Lucy, who is leaning against the wall in a white nightdress, making herself look innocent—which they both know she is not. Louis wraps his arm around her shoulder, doing his best to try and be comforting and kind, because that's what Hufflepuffs are like, right? He's not very good at comforting people—besides, she's sixteen, nearly seventeen, and he's only fourteen. He's only been fourteen for a month now. He doesn't think he'll understand whatever is going on, but he decides that he'll try. He cares about her.

"Listen, Luce," Louis begins, awkwardly trying to get some coherent sentence out. "What's the matter?"

"I'm a bitch," Lucy spits out. "I'm a stone-cold bitch."

Louis tries to stroke her shoulder comfortingly and, to his surprise, she doesn't brush him away. "Lucy, that's just what people are saying. It's not true."

"But I am!" she exclaims, turning her head to look at him, the tears she was crying only seconds previously dried on her pale cheeks. "I cheated, Louis, I cheated, and I swore that I'd never do that! I really am a Slytherin."

Silence reigns whilst Louis tries to figure out what he could say. He isn't very tactful, and he doesn't know what he could tell her that could convince her that she hasn't done wrong, because both of them know that she has.

"Do you love him?" he asks. "The one you cheated with?"

"Oliver Thomas. He's Oliver Thomas," she says. She pauses for a moment. "No. I don't know. I don't think so." She pauses again, leaving Louis with the sense that she's gong to say something else soon, something important. "I don't think I loved any of them," she whispers.

"Why did you do it, Lucy?" Louis asks, not sure what direction he's going in, but knowing that he has to say something, even if it's all making it worse. Most of all, he wants to understand why she did it.

Lucy looks him in the eye, those green eyes staring at him as if they're going to the centre of his very soul. He realises then that Lucy isn't the angel that he's always made her out to be, and that stings him more than he can say. He's always sort of hero-worshipped her; she was perfect to him. Three years older, pretty, talented, wonderful. To find that she isn't the perfect being he always saw her as, hurts.

"I don't know," she answers his question. "I just don't know."

Louis stands up, taking his arm away from Lucy's shoulder. She looks at him questioningly.

"Louis, where are you going?"

"I'm not hungry anymore," he tells her. He's not sure why his appetite has suddenly gone, but he can't stomach the thought of food any more than he can stomach the thought that Lucy isn't who he thought she was. "Goodnight, Lucy."

He walks to the door and lingers with his hand on the door for a moment, making Lucy think that he's going to look back, maybe change his mind and stay.

He doesn't.

;;;

The rumours continue to circulate Hogwarts until the whole school is aware of the Goldstein-Weasley-Thomas situation, as it comes to be known. Wherever Louis goes, he hears rumours about Lucy, a lot of them too outrageous ever to be true.

"I hear Lucy Weasley is dating Professor Lupin! She calls him 'Teddy!'"

"Owen Patil tutors her in Charms…if you know what I mean."

"I hear she's trying to make out with every guy over fourteen by the end of sixth year."

"Please. She's already done that!"

Louis hates the rumours, but what can he do? He's not the type to stand up against them, to stand up for Lucy, because he's just a measly little Hufflepuff, and what could someone like him do? Every time he sees Lucy around school she looks more dejected and alone. Dominique stays by her side, but even James can tell that Dominique thinks that Lucy is a bitch, just like the rest of Hogwarts do. Dominique and Lucy aren't as close as they were before, and Louis often spots Dominique going off with people that she knows Lucy hates. Louis himself is disappointed, but he can't bring himself to think that Lucy a bitch, because, deep down, he knows that she's not. Deep down, he knows that she's just like the rest of them—frightened, and trying to find her place in a strange world.

He knows that she's having a hard time, yet he can't bring himself to talk to her. A part of him insists that she doesn't want to talk to him right now—she needs time alone—but he knows that he's only telling himself that so that he doesn't have to face up to talking to her about it. Besides, she has Dominique. She'll be okay.

(He's lying to himself, and he knows it. He's got into that habit now; he just can't stop.)

June, 2024

Louis approaches Dominique one day, and she knows that he means business. He's an okay little brother, as little brothers go, she thinks. At least he's not annoying all of the time.

"What do you want?" she asks, tapping her quill as she tries to write her Potions essay last minute at the breakfast table.

Louis sighs. "You know what I want."

"You want me to pretend that Lucy isn't a two-timing bitch? Do you even know the full story, Louis? Or did you just pick that all up from listening in on the sixth years?"

Louis sits next to her, shell-shocked.

"I thought so." Dominique comments. "She knew that I liked Oliver Thomas. I was going to ask him out, and I did, and then he told me about Lucy. And I was just so angry, Louis, I had to do something. So I spread the rumour."

Louis sighs. Everyone seems to be disappointing him lately. He tells himself that maybe he shouldn't set them up on such high pedestals, because then he won't be so upset when they fall.

"You did that? To your cousin? Your best friend?" he asks, knowing the answer but asking anyway.

"What was I supposed to do?" Dominique hissed.

Louis sighed. "The least you can do is talk to her."

"Why don't you talk to her, Louis?" Dominique shouts. "Why don't you tell her that it's okay that she cheated on her boyfriend with her best friend's crush? Why don't you tell her that it's okay, because she's fucking perfect?"

"She's not perfect," Louis whispers.

"No," Dominique hisses. "No, she's not. Can you see that now? Can you see that she's not the angel you made her out to be?"

Louis' face crumples. He can't stand even knowing these things, let alone his own sister telling him. He stands up.

"Tell her I'm in the grounds," he tells her.

He makes his way up there, waiting, hoping that he can talk to her. He's realised that she needs him, and he's willing to admit it. He's hoping that he can change who he is, to try and fit with the change of his view of Lucy.

He's willing to try. For her.

;;;

"You wanted to talk to me?" Lucy says, coming up to the tree beside the lake.

"No." Louis tells her. "I wanted you to know that I'm here and that if you want to talk, you can."

Lucy sighs. "And why are you skipping class?"

"Divination," he tells her, and she nods knowingly.

There is a pause for a moment as the sun beats down on them. It's only June and yet the sun seems as if it's trying to boil the pair of them alive.

"Lucy, can I ask you something?" Louis says.

Lucy nods and watches as Louis brings out a green book from his schoolbag. It's obviously been written in a lot and had things glued in from the way it looks bigger than it would be normally. A look of realisation crosses Lucy's face when she recognises it as the diary she sent to Louis three years ago.

"Do you still use yours?" he asks her.

"Ye- no," Lucy replies. "Louis, you wouldn't understand. You're too young."

"Too young?" he asks. "I'm fourteen, Lucy. I'm not a kid."

"Look, Louis, this has nothing to do with you! You're just a kid, you don't understand what's going on, and I really don't care about you anymore." Lucy tells him, trying to keep her voice calm, but they both know she's about to explode.

"Lucy," Louis pleads. "Lucy, wait."

She's already turning on her heel and walking back towards the castle. She stops for a moment, her foot stopping still on the grass and, for a moment, Louis thinks that she's going to turn back, change her mind and stay with him.

She doesn't.

;;;

They don't speak for the rest of the year. Every time Louis comes near Lucy she walks away at top speed, murmuring about a class she has to get to, even if it's the middle of lunchtime. He tries to talk to her, he sends her owls, and he tries to send her messages through Dominique, but after a while his sister takes him aside and refuses to deliver them anymore.

The summer after that year is spent apart, as Lucy fakes sick for every family reunion, and those that she can't get away with, she finds a spot in the garden where nobody can find her but her sister Molly. Molly always tracks her down, but Lucy doesn't seem to mind her sister finding her. Molly is a Gryffindor, but the two sisters get along well. Louis is jealous of Molly—she's the only person that Lucy talks to, and he misses Lucy more than anything.

When Louis returns to Hogwarts for his fourth year, and Lucy and Dominique's final year, he doesn't make any attempt to talk to Lucy. He's realised that if she wants to talk to him, she will.

He carries on writing in his diary, and it's beginning to get fuller, and he worries about what he'll do when it fills up. The pages are filled with his inner thoughts and feelings, and he draws in it, too.

It's embarrassing, he thinks, how he draws things, but he can't stop. He sees the world more clearly when he has a pencil in his hand. He can make light of situations; when he puts a pencil to paper he can understand everything.

It never helps him understand why Lucy is ignoring him, though. He supposes that he can't understand everything.

October, 2030

The sand crunches beneath Louis' feet as he makes his way to the Weasley-Potter family reunion. He's twenty-one years old now, and he's been in Australia for two years since he left Hogwarts. He's looking forwards to seeing them all again, but he's nervous. He hasn't spoken to most of them for two years, but he hasn't spoken to Lucy for seven years, and that's a long time, even for Louis. He's not sure what he'll say when he sees her—he's not sure that he'll say anything at all.

It's surprisingly warm for October—global warming, Louis reckons—and so the family reunion is held outside. He knows that it'll be strange without Grandma Molly and Grandpa Arthur, and Louis will still finds himself looking around for them, even though he knows that they died a few years ago.

The reunion is held at Shell Cottage, and Louis is glad to see his home again. It really was a beautiful place to grow up, and it brings back memories that Louis had forgotten he didn't remember. Before he heads up to the cottage, he spends some time on the beach, remembering the days he spent lying there before he went to Hogwarts. He remembers lying on his front and scratching away at his diary, and then he thinks of Lucy. He realises that he's extremely nervous to see her again, but he knows he can't procrastinate any longer, and so he makes his way up to the cottage.

"Louis!" Victoire exclaims, and embraces him. Her French accent is more pronounced than usual—she's been spending time working as a Wizarding fashion designer in Paris all year.

"Vic!" he greets her, and hugs her back. He's really missed her, even though he was never extremely close to her, what with the nine year age gap.

Victoire moves on to greet the rest of the family, and Louis does the same, still noticing the absence of his grandparents, and noticing that everyone avoids mentioning Fred, since the fateful events that happened two years ago. George still shudders about giving Fred a reused name. Roxanne is walking around as if something is haunting her, and, given Roxie's state, Louis wouldn't be surprised if something was. Everything has changed between the Weasley-Potters. Lily is a famous singer, and now she needs a bodyguard to go everywhere she goes, James is famous too; he's playing chaser for some team the name of which Louis can't remember. Molly and Teddy are married, and they're adults, they're not the carefree kids they used to be. Rose and Scorpius are engaged, and everyone knows that Dominique and Lysander are dating, even though they strive to keep it a secret. Albus, Hugo and Lorcan are adventuring someplace far off, and so they aren't seen at the gathering. They've all grown up, they've all got their fancy new jobs, and whilst Louis knows that that's just the way things go, he doesn't like it at all. It's not like the days when they used to play hide-and-seek-tag around the Burrow, the days when they were young and carefree. They're all adult, grown up, responsible.

Louis doesn't like that one little bit.

He looks around, and he realises that Lucy has just arrived. She's wearing a white dress that stops just before her knees, and her hair is curled, and Louis thinks that she looks a little like an angel. Then he tells himself to stop, because he knows that she isn't, and that she never will be. Even Lucy knows that she's no saint, and Louis thought that he'd already accepted that.

Maybe he never will.

The meal is awkward, and the majority of it passes in silence. The whole family has changed, even the parents of those who were once kids, playing with each other, and so nobody really knows what to say, once they've updated each other on just how well—or not well—their jobs and lives are going.

The night begins to turn blurry as the alcohol comes out, and Louis drinks more and more and more, focusing on Lucy as she eats and tosses her head to get her curled hair out of her face. She looks so beautiful in the candlelight, Louis thinks, and he wonders what it would be like to put his hands through her hair, or what it would be like to kiss her underneath the moonlight. He would jolt himself out of this state that he's quite sure is illegal, or at least frowned upon, but he's drunk, and he's not thinking clearly at all.

He only just registers her falling into his arms, and taking her up to his bedroom, and their falling to his bed in a tangle of limbs and lust.

She looks so very beautiful, he thinks.

;;;

He wakes up with a killer headache and a blonde lying next to him in bed. He groans and rolls over, clutching a blanket to cover himself up as he realises he's naked, as is the girl next to him. The girl has her back to him, and he thinks of just how beautiful she is—if only he could remember just who it was.

With a jolt, he remembers who is next to him, and he sits up, internally screaming. He has Lucy Weasley in his bed, and judging by the fact that they're both naked…

Shit.

Louis has just slept with his cousin. His flesh and blood. They even have the same initials—Lucy Charlotte Weasley and Louis Charles Weasley—and it's just wrong. He knows this, and yet a little part of him can't help not regretting what he did last night. She's beautiful, and he missed her like hell.

If only they weren't related…

He watches as Lucy begins to stir and slowly roll over to face him. Her eyes are barely open, but she recognises him straight away.

"Louis?" she whispers. "Louis, can you remember what we did last night?"

"Can you?" he asks, still shocked at their situation.

Lucy pauses. "Yes. You're better than Scamander," she notes.

There is a silence as both of them begin to realise the gravity of the situation.

"What do we do now?" Louis asks.

"Now that we've slept with each other?" Lucy asks, stating the obvious.

"Well, yes." Louis replies. "Do we forget, or do we…" He trails off, realising that what he's about to suggest is preposterous, stupid, unthinkable...

"Do we what, Louis?" Lucy asks, her voice harsher than usual.

"Forget it," Louis says, brushing aside the idea.

"No, Louis, I…" Lucy tries to speak. "Louis, last night was good. I… Louis, does this have to end here?"

"Do you want it to end?" he asks. "Or..."

That is how it begins, on an October morning when the sun is streaming through the window, lighting up the room. Does it really have to end there? Or could it be something more, something magical, just for the two of them?

Maybe it doesn't have to end there. Maybe it could work, maybe they could put back together what they had, and make it more.

;;;

It starts as something that's wrong, but they are making it right, they were turning it into something worthwhile, something real, something that could even be love. Together, they're in a place where past mistakes are forgiven and forgotten, a place where love is real, where dreams come true, where dazzling starry nights are a pleasant reality, not a long-lost dream. They know that what they're doing is wrong; they know that they can't tell anyone, but maybe they can make it right, somehow.

They sneak around, they meet in Muggle coffee shops, they take time on the beach, and they find secluded spots where it's only the two of them and the sky, the two of them and the sky against the whole world. Maybe it's enough, maybe they can take on the world—just the two of them, the two of them and the sky.

They speak of secrets that they dare not divulge to anyone else, they talk of nights where it's all been too much, when they've wished that it would just all end, and they talk of hope, they talk of a better life, a clearer dream, and together they wish on every shooting star they see.

She plays piano in the mornings, and he watches her as he did all those years ago. She tries to teach him, but he messes up the notes, and she laughs kindly at him. They're not the kids they were all those years ago. Louis is more spontaneous, more open to breaking the rules, but Lucy has changed the most, Louis thinks. She's changed for the better.

Louis tells her of the songs he's written; he shows her that he's learnt to play guitar. They fit together, they really work, and they know that maybe it's wrong, but both of them can't help feeling that it's always just right.

She makes him feel alive when she's with him, when she seizes him passionately and kisses him, trying to put across every single thing she feels for him in one kiss and, somehow, she succeeds.

Maybe it's not enough for everyone else, but it's enough for them.

February, 2031

With the lengths they went to trying to hide themselves, they didn't expect this. They didn't expect a glaring headline on the front page of The Daily Prophet, or a picture of the two of them kissing. They were so careful, but they obviously weren't careful enough.

Within hours, the whole Wizarding community knows—not just their family, not just the Ministry, but every Witch and Wizard in Britain. They daren't go out anymore for fear of comments being made, more headlines appearing about their supposedly "scandalous" relationship.

The starry nights, the secluded spots, the calm and peaceful days are all gone. Now, they are forced to hide away from the Wizarding community. They can only be together behind closed doors, away from the public eye.

"I hate this," Lucy says, as she paces up and down in the flat that she shares with Louis.

"I know," he replies, knowing that nothing he says or does can make it better.

"Why can't they accept us? Why can't they accept that I'm in love with you?"

Louis pauses, thinking of how best to phrase it. "We're wrong, Lucy, we both know that. This is screwed up—it was never meant to happen."

The look that crosses her face is unmistakable. "You think that we're wrong? Maybe we shouldn't do this anymore, Louis."

"No!" Louis shouts. "Lucy, don't do this. I was only saying… I just meant that that's what they think, but they're wrong! They're wrong about us, Lucy."

Lucy turns to face him. "What if they're right, Louis? What then?"

"I love you," he tells her.

"Do you? Do you really?" she asks. "Or are you just afraid that nobody else will love you as I do?"

She turns around, making her way towards the door. She lingers for a moment, but Louis doesn't allow himself to hope that she'll turn back, change her mind and stay.

She opens the door and walks out, closing it softly behind her.

"Goodbye, Louis." she whispers to herself. "I love you, too."

;;;

The next day, Louis boards a plane for Paris. Victoire is staying there, and she's told him that he can share her apartment until he sorts some things out. Frankly, he's surprised that Victoire is still single, but she tells him that she's not really interested in dating—she's in love with her career. He tells himself that he'll forget about Lucy. Maybe it was a mistake; maybe they were never meant to be.

Maybe it's okay that they're not together anymore.

He leaves for Paris, and he knows that he's leaving everything behind. He's leaving Lucy behind, he's leaving the Weasley-Potters behind—he's leaving his childhood behind. He's leaving behind those days where he was innocent, oh-so-Hufflepuff. He's changed, and maybe that's for the better. Maybe now he can move on, be his own person, and not be dependent on Lucy for once.

Now, he can accept that nobody is perfect—least of all Lucy, or any of the Weasley-Potters.

His dreams of perfection are gone. He's ready to move on into the real world, where love is only temporary and starlit nights are only masking just how flawed the whole world is.

He's not going to cling to Lucy. He's going to forget.

;;;

Victoire welcomes him with open arms, and he gets into the swing of living in Paris. He wakes up every day and sees the Eiffel Tower out of his bedroom window. He likes France, and he's been fluent in French since he was young, so he can communicate with the pretty French girls, and there are a lot of them.

But he can't feel anything with these French girls. Even when they're lying next to him in his bed, he can't feel a thing.

They're beautiful, they're mature, and they're not related to him.

But none of them are Lucy. Their hair isn't beautiful and blonde; they don't roll over in the morning with a bleary look in their eyes. They don't say "I love you" the same way, they don't play the piano every morning. They don't make Louis feel alive as Lucy had.

He needs her. He needs Lucy Weasley, or else he's not sure if he'll survive.

;;;

Lucy stays with her sister, Molly, but she never ventures out of the house anymore. She can tell that Molly would prefer it if she left, she misses having time alone with Teddy, but Lucy can't leave, because she has nowhere else to go. Besides, she can't step out of the door without the Wizarding paparazzi rushing at her, asking her questions about her feelings, her life, her love, and what she wants to do next. She hasn't a clue what she wants to do next. All that she knows is that she screwed her one chance of happiness up, and all she really wants to do is lie next to Louis again, and listen to him tell her that he loves her.

It's never going to happen, and so she dismisses the thought. She needs to move on with her life, do something else, be someone else.

She can do this, she can move on.

(She's telling herself this, even when she knows that she can never love anyone else quite like she loved Louis.)

December, 2032

When the owl brings Lucy Witch Weekly, she can't quite believe the second article in it. Louis Weasley is back in England. She glares at the magazine as she reads the article, recapping what caused him to flee, using words like "scandalous" to describe the one relationship she ever had that was true love. She hates the way that the Wizarding journalists describe their relationship, because it was the best thing Lucy ever had.

She wonders what he's doing back in England, and she wonders what he did when he was in Paris. He probably has a girlfriend now, she thinks. After all, Paris is the city of love. She doesn't know if she'll see Louis when he's back in England, and she's not sure whether or not she'd want to see him. He doesn't love her anymore, she's sure of that, and so seeing him would only break her heart again.

She can content herself with dreaming of him, thinking of the way he used to touch her, how he'd make her smile, the way he'd play his guitar and sing to her, and the way he'd make her laugh with his sense of humour she insisted was terrible.

She'll be okay. She can survive without him.

("Yeah, right," the voice in the back of her mind says.)

;;;

Louis hasn't been in England for over a year now, and he's nervous to head back. He ran away from all of his troubles, instead of confronting them as he should have. It's very Hufflepuff of him, he knows, but then again, Lucy was never a Gryffindor either. Both of them were never brave—not apart, at least.

Victoire stays in Paris, and he knows that she's not heading back to England any time soon. It brings back memories of the days where Teddy loved her, and now he's married to Molly; she doesn't want that. She's content in Paris, and Louis is glad that she's got something to keep her from going crazy—he just wishes he had something like that for himself. Something that made him happy; such as how he felt when he was with Lucy.

He's not quite sure what he's going to do in England, but he wants to talk to Lucy. He wants to let her know how he feels, and screw the consequences. Maybe she doesn't feel the same way, but at least then he'll know, and he can move on. But there's one thing he's not going to do, and that's give up on her. He'll keep believing until she says that she doesn't love him.

He knows that she's staying with Molly and Teddy, and so he makes his way to their house, shaking with unrealised nerves. He gets there without being spotted by the paparazzi—thank Helga—and he rings the doorbell, waiting for someone to answer it.

"Louis," Molly says, opening the door. "Come in, I heard you were coming back to England. Welcome home!"

"It's not home," he tells her, but he steps inside anyway, Molly ushering him through to the living room where a cup of coffee sits on a table, still steaming.

"You're here for Lucy."

It's not a question, but he nods anyway. "Yes, I am."

"Do you love her?" Molly asks, and Louis is surprised. He was expecting Molly to tell him to leave, to find someone to love who wasn't his cousin.

"I do," he replies, pausing before adding, "more than anything."

"She's upstairs," Molly tells him.

"Do you think you could ask her to meet me in the Meadow outside?" Louis asks, referring to the back garden of the Lupin-Weasley house, which is named "The Meadow" because of its vast size.

"Of course," Molly says, and she ushers Louis out of the back door before going upstairs to fetch Lucy.

Louis makes his way out to the Meadow, trying to control his nerves. He hasn't seen Lucy for over a year—what if she's changed? Worst of all, what if he's changed? What if he's a different man compared to the one he was last year?

What if Lucy doesn't love him anymore?

Lucy comes into the Meadow, and she's wearing only jeans and a t-shirt, but she looks beautiful all the same. She looks thinner than before, and there are dark circles under her eyes, like she's not been sleeping well. Louis wonders what's caused it.

"Hey," Lucy says, making her way towards Louis, where he leans against the dry-stone wall.

"Um, yeah." Louis replies—then realising how awkward he's coming across as, he rushes, "I mean, hey."

"What are you doing?" Lucy asks, her voice not cold but merely questioning.

"I'm here to tell you that I love you," he tells her. "I love you, Lucy."

She stares at him, and he notices her eyes light up, and her hands move as if she's going to hug him, but then she holds herself back. "You do?" she questions.

"How could I not?" he replies.

They are silent for a moment, a moment in which the world stops for a while and looks at both of them, a moment in which the world waits for everything to change, one way or another, with an "I love you, too", or another phrase, one that would drive him away.

"I missed you," she says, stating a clear, simple fact as though it's a proclamation of her undying love.

She hugs him, and their bodies mold together as one, and for that moment, everything is perfect, until they tear away and they're left standing facing each other, waiting for something to happen, something to be said that could make it all better.

"Can we start again?" Lucy asks.

They do.

April, 2035

In the end, they weren't just cousins, weren't just friends, weren't just lovers. Beneath all of the labels that people tried to stick on them, they were always something more. They were the sunlight streaming through the window in the early mornings, the dew on the grass in the meadow. They were the pink and the orange in the sunset, the rain that pattered lightly against the window. They were everything when they were together, and more than that, more than anything that could tie them down and restrain them from being all of the things they truly were.

They lie under the sunset, holding hands tightly. They look at all the different colours in the sky, and they dare to dream, because if one dream came true, why can't all the rest of them come true as well?

It's just the two of them and the sky against the world and, with each other by their side, they know that they can make it.

Thanks to Mew (mew-tsubski) for beta'ing and helping me sort out the timeline.

Thanks to Pearl (PrincessPearl) for the beautiful story cover. There I have Dianna Agron & Chord Overstreet as my playbys for Lucy and Louis.

This is the longest fic I've ever written; I'd appreciate it if you didn't favourite without leaving a review.