a/n: for camp potter's tech discovery challenge. i apologize for the weirdness and bad ending of this fic but i hope you enjoy! c:
I always wondered about Lucy Weasley from a distance. How whenever the school year started she was your classic popular girl, and when it ended you could hardly talk to her. How she dressed prim and proper in her uniform at first, and by spring she was dressed in ripped clothes and displaying tattoos for all to see. I would try to talk to her, but she was popular and had no time for a nobody like me, or, alternately, would glower at me and practically spit her words until I would step away and mumble apologies. She was an enigma, and I was determined to figure her out.
-:-
"Lu! Lucy! Come over here, doll," I watch as a brawny, dumb Quidditch champion—the best in Slytherin House—waves at her. I guess that's her new boyfriend. She has a few every year, and she'll leave them soon enough. But she slinks over to him and curls up in the chair with him, her petite, curvy frame contrasting with his bulky one. She didn't really need the makeup that framed her dark green eyes.
"Hey there, honey," she winks at him, "how are you tonight?"
"A lot better now that you're here,"
"Of course." She purrs. She smiles and winks at people, laughing and talking. This Lucy differs so much from the one that will inevitably appear, come the spring. I keep watching her; no one will notice, and I see her bite her lip and look down suddenly. But then she's back, magnetic as always, eyes shining brightly as she regales the crowd with another story. What changed in the room? As far as I can tell, nothing. More people arrived, some departed, but nothing significant. Call me strange for pursuing Lucy Weasley so intently, but I've always been a curious soul. And when I wanted to find out about something, I would stop at nothing to solve the whole mystery.
So I kept listening.
-:-
It was winter now, and the descent had begun. Lucy was given detention a couple times for attitude in class, and she had stopped wearing uniform. She was still friendly enough in the hall, but that would all change, I knew. She had broken up with the aforementioned Quidditch player, and many boys an even some girls were trying to get her attention, but she was having none of it. She proclaimed that she was "trying to stay away from boys", but we all knew that would change as soon as fall rolled around.
I had tried to talk to her but she had brushed me off, and I was too nervous to try again. Life went on. I watched from afar, scored perfectly on schoolwork, and had no friends. I was ignored and I tried to make the best of it. I knew everything about everyone in the school, and yet I didn't know a thing about Lucy. She was right in front of me and she remained a conundrum.
"Hey, you," she snaps at me. I turn around; surprised she would bother to talk to me. "Come with me."
"I have poti—"
"No one cares about your stupid potions class. Come with me." Meekly, I follow her. I know I'll get in trouble but my curiosity overtakes me. We walk to a deserted corridor and she spins around. "So. Why have you been stalking me?"
"I—uh, I don't know what y—"
"Sure. Yeah. Sure you don't. Don't pretend that I haven't noticed you. You're always watching me. Why?"
I decide that being honest would be my best way out. "Because I was curious. Now could I please leave?"
"What were you curious about?"
A smile can't help but show on my face. "So what now, you're curious about my curiosity?"
"Shut up."
"Okay, fine. I was curious because every year you seem to be popular at first and then get…" I try to think of a word that wouldn't seem insulting, "grumpy."
"Grumpy is the least of it," she mutters under her breath. "Go on."
"That's basically it." Somehow, my usual cowardice is gone and I'm behaving normally.
Suddenly, she breaks down. Tears are streaming down her face and she nearly falls to the ground.
"Lucy!" I shout, "Are you okay? What's wrong?" I bend down and look at her, brushing hair off her eyes.
"Don't touch me." She hisses, clumsily pushing my hand off her forehead.
"I-I'm sorry-"
"—Get Roxanne."
"Who?"
"My cousin. Roxanne. Obviously. Who else would I be talking about?" She laughs bitterly. "She's in Transfiguration, on the sixth floor. GO." She hisses. So I run up stairs and burst into the classroom, embarrassing myself. "Sir. Aren't you supposed to be in potions?"
"I need—I need Roxanne Weasley." The dark-haired girl stands up, giving me a strange look. "It's for Lucy," I say to her, and a look of panic, confusion, and suspicion is on her face. She immediately walks out the door and whispers, "Where is she? And who are you? How do you know about us? What's your name?"
"She's on the second floor, in an empty corridor. I can bring you back there. My name is Lorcan Scamander. And u-us?" For some reason, this new version of the usually mild-mannered Roxanne is far more intimidating than Lucy.
"Never mind. Just take me to her!"
She follows me down the stairs and I bring her to the red-haired girl. "Oh, Lu…" Roxanne cradles the smaller girl in her arms. "It's okay. It's okay." She looks up at me. "Go away, Lorcan." There's a sad look in her eyes. I step away from the two girls.
-:-
"Excuse me? Lucy? Are you feeling okay?" I smile slightly at her.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Yesterday doesn't make us friends, okay? What happened is my business."
"Okay. I'm sorry. But if I may ask… are you okay with Roxanne?"
She pauses. "A-also none of your business. I said go away!"
I never figured out that puzzle. She left Hogwarts the next year and I never really heard from her again. I always wondered about her and where she had gone, the one enigma I couldn't crack.