This was written for the Prompt of the Day: balloons.

Thanks to Schermionie for helping me with it and thanks to msllamalover for beta-reading it.

they are not the kind to send paper aeroplanes

Lucy is finally back from her summer holidays with the Scamanders. She never, ever spent summer holidays without Molly and she feels relieved to finally be home, she missed her twin sister a lot; usually they were joined at the hip.

It's a surprise when her parents inform her that Molly decided to stay in Romania with their uncle Charlie.

Lucy knows her sister is upset with her because of the holidays; she had told her that she wouldn't speak to her again if she went on holiday with her boyfriend. But she decided to go anyway. She never thought Molly was serious about it, but if Molly wants to play like this, Lucy will play like this.

Lorcan tries to convince her that it's silly, she shouldn't hold grudges against her twin. At least, she should send her a letter, he reasons her.

And so she does. The house is less bright without her sister and her parents seem dull. Everything seems dull in fact. Even the dinners at The Burrow lack joy and light.

So she decides to write a letter, where she apologizes about the fact she went on holiday with Lorcan, instead of her, even though she doesn't think she has to apologize. She understands her, she says, but she misses her too much to be in a row.

The reply comes a week later. Apology accepted, it says, and don't worry, I'm fine. The last words are kind of cryptic, but Lucy is glad to have an answer from her sister.

The atmosphere at home is not the same and she wonders if it's because Molly is away. She never had been separated from her sister for such a long time, and it feels weird. She writes more often to her sister, and each time the replies are signed 'Don't worry, I'm fine'.

She's tired of her parents fighting and everyone in her family looking gloomy. She can tell that they aren't telling her something, and when she talks about it with Lorcan, as reasoning, he brings up her fragile magical state. She's angry at him for bringing it up and she unintentionally blows all the glass out of the windows in his house. Sometime without him will be good; it's kind of because of him she went in a row with Molly in the first place.

But soon she feels lonely, because Molly and Lorcan are the only ones who never paid attention to her state and now both are away from her. And if she has chosen to be away from Lorcan for a while, she hasn't chosen to be away from Molly. So she packs her things and announces her parents she wants to leave for Romania and see Molly.

She misses the rows with her sister; she misses the letters they sent each other from room to room with balloons, and not with plain boring paper-flying aeroplanes like Lysander and Lorcan; she misses the laugher that the house seems to lack lately.

She tells her parents and they won't let her go and she's angry, enervated and her magic boils. She's sent to St Mungo's and none of her family can take it anymore, they cry and yell and breakdown. Lorcan witnesses all of it and understands their sadness: they almost lost a daughter.

But when the doctor tells them Lucy will be okay, the sadness and desperate masks don't leave their faces. And he wonders if something was wrong before, like Lucy told him. He asks Percy, who finally gives up. The older man scares Lorcan when he says, "it was the only option for Lucy, she couldn't have taken it." It leaves the young man confused, asking Percy what's going on. "It was a quidditch accident," Percy sobs and takes Lorcan by the hand, apparating him to a cemetery without giving him any other choice.

Lorcan is perplexed first, but then he spots a grave where the letters are attached to balloons. And then he reads the gold inscription and understands.

Molly Angelina Weasley

January the 23rd, 2005

July the 15th, 2024

The plot was inspired by the French film Don't Worry, I'm Fine.