Only the soft glow of the lanterns and the bright stars illuminated the black night and water. Lysander's pale blue eyes searched through the water for the mermaids and the giant squid that his father told him about. He looked at the castle and sighed.
"Do you think you'll figure out where you belong here?" a girl asked. Her voice seemed a bit too soft for such scathing honesty. "My dad says he didn't think he did.
He turned around to see Lucy Weasley. She had short straight brown hair and her father's freckles. Her eyes sparkled in the darkness. She had blue eyes that seemed to see every hue of color and every perspective.
"I would imagine so," he replied.
He walked into the Ravenclaw common room. Every table, shelf, and vase was covered and stuffed with yellow flowers with green leaves. He noticed Lucy as she jumped off the coffee table as she smiled at him.
"Lucy, what...what is this?" he asked as he marvelled at her creation. He met her eyes that were as bright as the sun.
"You said you used to relax in your mother's garden. I thought it would help you study," she explained as if he should have known the answer. Before he could thank her, she disappeared from sight.
"I have to see this garden," Lucy insisted before dinner. His father had insisted Lysander invite her over since he wrote to her every day.
She raced across the cobblestone bridge that crossed over a small creek. He followed her and found her by a fountain as she stared at the flowers hanging from the trees and around her. "This is beautiful," she whispered and he tucked a white flower in her hair. She wrapped her arms around his waist, and he felt the paralyzing fear that his life would permanently alter.
"You're my best friend," he said.
Those four words had ruined his fifth and sixth year of Hogwarts, and he regretted saying them. He had held her after Niles Finnigan broke her heart. Every new relationship made him want to vomit.
He didn't look for her at Platform nine and three-quarters. He followed his brother onto the Hogwarts Express. He sat down in an empty compartment and closed his eyes.
Then, she appeared in the doorway. Her brown hair lays against her back and a few braids could be seen. Her eyes could see the fragments of his mind as she sat down beside him. "Stop fighting it. You know I know," she said a bit too honestly to sound so soft.
The girl with kaliedoscope eyes plants a kiss on his cheek and rested her head on his shoulder. He realized he had found himself and her on the journey, and he would never run away.