A/N: Just a cute, fun, and funny one-shot about a friendship that's ever so misunderstood.
Lucy was the middle child, the gap between the oldest of the cousins and the youngest of the cousins, and she'd ended up kind of getting left out of both groups. Sure, she was the quirky, snarky child who was much more like her spunky American mother than her persnickety British father, and everyone liked her, but she never really got to be friends with the others- not the way James, Al, Rose, Lily and Hugo stuck together, or the way Vicky, Louis, Dom, Fred, and Roxi did. Molly wasn't in either group either, but that was more because she was Molly.
And okay- Al and Rose were best friends, and Hugo and Lily the same, and James was kind of off on his own, and the twins and Dom were super close, and Vicky and Louis were inseparable, but the larger groups specified before were the template generally used.
Forget what you're thinking though- she didn't care. She had her own friends, and frankly she considered it a plus that none of them are her family members. Actually, her favorite part was that they're all guys, because she got all the good guy gossip from them and all the good girl gossip from Lily and Rose. It was the perfect situation.
Lucy had three best friends, but her real best friend (you know how that goes, having a whole group but being closest to one single person) was Lysander Scamander. His twin brother Lorcan and a muggleborn named Jim were the other two in their posse (she liked that word).
Lysander was… different, to say the least. He was a lot like his mother- scatterbrained, slightly insane, and determined to do exactly the opposite of what anyone expected him to do, even the ones who expected him to do the opposite of what they expected him to do- but he was also a complete guy. He made stupid jokes, laughed at slapstick comedy, and drooled over girls.
No, not Lucy. It was purely platonic, and a lot of people say that (her Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, for example) but it's really, honestly true for them. Lucy and Lysander often joked that she was supposed to have been born his twin, not the less kooky and more bespectacled Lorcan, who was just enough like his mother to show family resemblance but not enough to stand out as insane.
So one sunny evening in late August, Lucy lay sprawled across the grass, reading a Muggle book about some kids walking through a wardrobe and ending up in some mystical world. She had her feet in Lysander's lap, and he had his in Lorcan's- much to the blonde seventh year's discomfort- and Jim was feeling left out because Lorcan refused to continue the chain and Lucy threatened to punch him if he put his feet on her.
"They really smell quite nice, Luce, I swear," Jim complained (he had to be a bit of a kook himself, of course, to be best friends with these three), waving his toes in her face.
"It's not their smell I care about, it's your feet being on my stomach!" she pushed his foot away, rolling her eyes. "I have to pee, mate, but I don't want to get up, and if you put your feet on my stomach then I'll have to."
"Well, why didn't you just say so?" Jim pulled his socks back on and frowned, looking around as he tried to remember what he'd done with his shoes. "That makes perfect sense!"
"Well, at first I just didn't want your feet on me, then I realized I had to pee and that was a better excuse." She grinned impishly at him.
"You can put your feet on my lap, too, Jim," Lysander said, looking down from his contemplation of the tree leaves above him to smile dreamily at his friend.
"Why, thank you, Lysander, that's so nice of you," he looked pointedly at the redhead (who was ignoring him just as pointedly) and plopped his feet down on top of hers.
They were most certainly a sight, Lucy thought to herself, grinning widely. Hogwarts may have had funkier, more prankster-esque groups of friends, but it couldn't have ever seen anything quite like them. Through the strange way that her mind worked, that thought reminded her of an obligation she'd been avoiding, and she squealed, snapping her book shut and retracting her feet. "Oh, boys, I forgot that James was holding Quidditch try-outs today and the whole team was supposed to be there! What did I do with my- hell, nevermind!"
She tossed her book onto Lysander's head and took off sprinting across the grounds in her bare feet. "I'll see you after dinner, boys!" she yelled back over her shoulder. With a wince she imagined the look James would have on his face when she arrived, twenty-six minutes late, out of breath, and barefoot. It wouldn't be pretty.
Oh, she was also supposed to have been wearing her robes. "Bull!" she hissed, smacking herself in the forehead as she vaulted a set of fourth years that were attempting to sunbathe- barely two hours before sunset, and in long-sleeve t-shirts they had rolled up to just under their bras. She rolled her eyes as she imagined the tan lines they were going to have.
"Jamsie-poo, don't be mad at me!" she yelled as she entered the pitch. She skidded to a stop in front of the captain- just in time to realize he was that Scorpius bloke, Al's best friend, and this was the Ravenclaw Quidditch try-outs. She doubled over laughing, clutching her sides. When she straightened, the blonde fifth year was staring at her in concern, mouth slightly open. "I'm a day early," she explained.
"Oh… Jamsie-poo?" He raised an eyebrow, a look that he'd perfected to a T- maybe it was a Malfoy family gene, the one time she'd met his father he'd had the exact same expression.
She was still trying to catch her breath, both after the mad dash and her laughing fit, and she held up a finger for him to wait one moment. When she decided she was ready, she answered."I figured I was in deep enough horse crap already, I might as well use my favorite nickname for him."
"I like it. How do you think he'd respond if I used it on him?"
"Well, first of all you're a Malfoy, even if you're Allie's little friend. Second of all, he almost murdered me for it, and you're not family. So…"
"Not well?"
"No, he'd take it perfectly, he likes you more than me." She beamed, clapped him on the shoulder, and skipped off.
The boys weren't there anymore when she got back to the tree, but she wasn't concerned. They were in the common room, more than likely, and… No, they were definitely in the common room. Lysander had probably moved on from studying the tree to studying some girl and dragged the others off in pursuit. At least they'd taken her book and her shoes, so she didn't have to carry them.
She pranced through the halls, the picture of carefree innocence. She had the same wavy red hair as her father did, and it fell bouncily to just below her chin. Her bright blue eyes and freckles were also from the Weasley side, but her long legs and clear skin were all her mother. More than one weird look was thrown her way- mostly after they spotted her bare feet- but she didn't care about that.
Lucy didn't really care about much of anything regarding the way people saw her.
"Lysander Bear, Lorcan Oak, Jimmy Beanster," she sang, hopping into the common room. Jim and Lorcan waved her over frantically, grinning widely.
"He's on a roll," Jim whispered, pointing across the room to where Lysander conversed with a pretty blonde sixth year Lucy couldn't quite place the name of.
"Why are you whispering?" she whispered back, chuckling softly. "He's on the other side of the room."
"I- just- it felt weird to speak out loud, okay?" he muttered, slouching back in his seat.
"Yeah, well, now that you've got me started I can't stop. So we're whispering until he comes back, okay?" Lucy grinned at Jim as he perked back up, like a puppy that's heard the word treat.
Jim beamed at her, and Lorcan kicked them both under the table. "Act cool, guys, he's coming back!" he hissed, and cleared his throat loudly a few times. "So, Luce, what were you saying about the way James looked when you got there?"
"Oh, actually, I got the day wrong. What did you guy do with my shoes?" she wriggled until she got her foot up on the table so she could wiggle her toes at them.
"We gave them to little Rosie to put in your dorm," Lysander said, taking the seat next to her. "You got the day wrong?"
She rolled her eyes at his faux nonchalance. "Cut the crap, boy, and spill on your lady friend. Date, broom closet, or slapped you on the spot?"
"Date," he beamed. "I'm taking her to Hogsmeade tomorrow."
"My boy got moves!" she crowed, high fiving him.
Lorcan and Jim exchanged glances, and Jim was pouting. "She never high fives me when I get a date."
"Stop whining, you loser," Lorcan rolled his eyes, giving him a slight shove. Scowling, Jim responded with one that sent him tumbling from his seat.
Ignoring the fist-fight that commenced on the other side of the table, Lucy nudged Lysander with her elbow. "So. Did my eyes mistake me or was that the Alysha that you've been making eyes at since you were fifteen?" (she'd finally placed the blonde.)
"It was her," Lysander grinned confidently. "Finally, I am able to snag the girl that most understands me." She cleared her throat, glaring at him. "Other than my best friend," he clarified.
"Good boy." Lucy patted him on the head, then finally noticed the two boys were fighting as James' friend Peter started a betting ring on who was going to win. "We should probably break that up," she remarked mildly."
"Yeah." Lysander leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his chest, watching with a mildly interested expression on his face. "Two galleons on Lorcan."
"You're on."
Lucy didn't mind losing two galleons that day, because it was freaking hilarious to see Lorcan knee Jim in the crotch, and even funnier to see Lysander trying to dress for his date the next day. She would have gone to Hogsmeade to stalk him through the streets, but James made her swear to hang out with him all day so she'd actually remember they had try-outs that afternoon. She suggested they just put every Weasley currently in Hogwarts on the team and then find a Keeper, because it seemed so much easier, but little Rosie refused to play and Lily didn't feel like it that year, and, as James pointed out, they would need to have at least one extra person to train with them on a regular basis because she almost always forgot when they had a game.
So they needed four people for the team, and she unfortunately had to be there. So depressing.
Lucy glided back and forth on her broom, glad she'd decided to forego her robes. It had made James pissed, but it was so much more comfortable to lie down on a broom when you didn't have all that weird padding poking into your back. Below her, James was inspecting the kids who'd come out for Chaser- they already had three, but as mentioned he needed a back-up for Lucy- which weren't all that many since they'd only sort of be on the team. The Beaters and Keeper had already been taken care of, so this was all that was left.
That was a good thing; she was completely and utterly bored.
Lucy flew down to stand next to James and the other members of the team- a fourth year Kelly who'd just been chosen as Keeper, Hugo, Al, and these two big ol' blokes that were now Beaters. "Can I go?" she whined, pouting at him. "It's not like you need the two of us to get along; it's you and Lily the extra Keeper's going to have to work with."
"You just want to know how Lysander's date went," James rolled his eyes, but he waved her off.
"You know me so well, Jamsie-poo," she sang, kissing him on the cheek and skipping away.
She left her broom outside the closet- Al was nice enough, he'd put it up for her- and raced back to the castle. The sun was just high enough in the sky to coat the world in an orange glow, and she found herself slowing down to just enjoy the moment. It had been a beautiful day since she woke up, but she always enjoyed sunset more than any other time.
Lysander was probably in the common room with the boys, recounting his exploits with a great deal of embellishment, so that's where she was headed. She ran into Peeves on the way up, held a brief but pleasant conversation with the bloke (he thought she was funny and so didn't pick on her), and barreled past a short third year to enter the common room before the portrait hole swung closed.
She promptly tripped over a chair and went crashing into the arms of her best friend's twin brother.
"Nice entrance, Luce." Lorcan grinned down at her.
"Oh, my knight, thank you for rescuing me!" Lucy said breathily, pretending to swoon so that he was tipping her back as if they'd just finished the tango.
Chuckling, he answered, "Of course, fair damsel, how could I leave you to hit your head against that side table right there?"
"If only there were some way I could repay you!" Lucy straightened abruptly and then continued the momentum back the other way, forcing him into the same dip she'd just experienced. "I hear the proper protocol for these things is that the damsel honors her savior with a kiss."
Lorcan blinked, mouth dropping open.
She smirked at him. "Alas. You're not my type." She dropped him to the floor and stepped over him, winking at Jim and Lysander who were both roaring with laughter.
"Well played, Red," Jim grinned as she joined them. She glanced back, seeing Lorcan picking himself off the floor, and grinned herself.
"Where's the rest of the team?" Lorcan asked, rejoining the group. He'd forgotten what he'd gotten up to do after hitting his head on the ground.
"Jamsie-poo let me out early because he can't resist my puppy-dog face." She punched the dreamy-faced Lysander on the arm, scowling. "Let me have it, mate!"
"She's wonderful," he sighed, resting his chin on his hand. "I love her."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Mate, we've been over this; you're not in love with a girl until you're willing to let her meet me and Jim."
"But I want you to meet her!"
"Wow, really, you want to scare her off this early? Imagine if Jim stuck his feet in her face the way he did to me the other day. I almost broke up with you just to get away from him." She grinned cheekily at Jim as he stuck his tongue out at her.
"Think this through some, mate. All of your girlfriends end up being jealous of Lucy; you need to establish a base with the girl before you introduce your hot best friend." Jim held up a hand to stall Lucy's teasing. "Seriously, Lysander, take her out at least once more before she meets us."
"All his girlfriends get jealous of me?" Lucy frowned. (Apparently she hadn't been intending to comment on the part of Jim's comment that he'd thought.)
"Well, erm, yeah. You two are inseparable, and they all seem to think that you're secretly carrying on some kind of romance."
Lucy scoffed. "Please. That's what I have you for, Jim. Where is this girl? I can tell her here and now that I have absolutely nothing even resembling an inkling of romantic interest for this bloke. I mean, honestly, look at those ears." She gave a light tug on Lysander's right ear and stood on her chair, frowning, as she looked around the room.
The three boys exchanged concerned glances as she made an "Aha!" sound and leapt down off her chair to set off with a determined stride.
"Alysha, might we talk for a moment?" she said, business like, as she grabbed the blonde's arm and dragged her off.
"Ow! What the heck, Lucy?" she yanked her arm out of the girl's grip and looked up at her in confusion.
"I've been informed that many of Lysander's past girlfriends have been jealous of my relationship with him, so I'd like to nip this in the bud. Alysha, Lysander and I have been best friends since we were five, and we grew up together. I'm closer to him than his twin brother is, and I'm sure he talked about the idiot so you know how close they are. We talk about everything- grades, girls, boys, spaghetti, and the weird way Jim eats it. He eats the noodles plain and then drinks the sauce. But that's not the point- no, Alysha, my darling, my point is this: when you know a guy as well as I know Lysander, there is absolutely no way you would ever date him because it would be too weird. Besides," she shrugged, "I'm just one of the guys to those blokes. Hmm." She stopped, thinking.
"What?" Alysha prompted, curious despite her complete bewilderment over what Lucy was talking about.
"I've realized that our friendship could be best defined as a bromance. We love each other, but we're not in love, and even hugging is awkward… Yes. A bromance is exactly what we have." Lucy nodded decisively.
"It's not a bromance… You're not a guy…"
"It still counts."
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Three years later, Lucy married Jim. It kind of surprised all of them, because despite all of their talk concerning "WE'RE HONESTLY JUST BEST FRIENDS, YOU PEOPLE ARE CRAZY; PLEASE LEAVE US ALONE!" the whole group had still expected romance to brew one day. After all, that's the way it worked for Weasleys; they insisted for years that the person they bickered with constantly was just a friend, and then suddenly they realized they'd been deeply in love with each other for years. But no, Lucy had fallen for Jim, and Lysander was enjoying being a free agent (Alysha hadn't lasted a week).
Both of the twins had a spot in the wedding, of course; friendships didn't dissolve just because half the group fell in love with each other. Lorcan was Jim's best man- over the years they'd become almost as close as Lucy and Lysander had- and Lysander was Lucy's Maid of Honor.
And yes, she made him wear a dress.