3. July-
Bobbie:
I got a second letter from Draco today. I have been somewhat bored around the house the past few days, as I have not been able to convince Andi that I really need to get out of here for a while. I know it's not entirely safe, but I would rather live a little dangerously and see something different than sit entirely still while Tonks and Dad are out on missions and such.
Anyway, the letter.
Wilde-
Things have been far too calm the past few days. Father reappeared and then nothing has come of it. Something terrible is coming, or I may be entirely paranoid...you get that way when you live so long being afraid of what may come next. I suppose I am just so terrified of what He has planned to punish my family for Father's failure in the Ministry a year ago. The Dark Lord is NOT kind and is not at all forgiving. We may have been shamed in the rest of the wizarding world, but we have not yet been humiliated in front of the Death Eaters. Please, Lewellyn, be sending your happy thoughts our way...I don't know if we'll make it out of here alive without some positive energies or prayers or whatever it is that you believe in coming our direction.
I love you, L'elly.
O.G.
I love you, too, Draco.
~L'elly.
5. July-
Bobbie:
Dad and Tonks are getting married tomorrow. I'll have someone to call 'Mom', if I feel like it. It just seems weird to call someone that I've known by her name for so long by anything different.
Tonks gave me a little ring to wear on my pinky. Apparently, it comes from her family and was passed to her by Ted. It's this little amethyst stone set in silver. It's gorgeous and simple and will go with my yellow sundress that I am wearing for the very small wedding tomorrow. Ted is officiating. It is going to be quick, simple, and involve all of us heading over to the Burrow for coffee after.
I have to go keep Tonks sane now- she's freaking out a little about what colour her hair should be for tomorrow. I'm encouraging hot pink.
~L'elly.
6. July-
Bobbie:
The wedding today was simple and short. We did as planned and had coffee at the Burrow after. I then went home with Andi and Ted while Dad and Tonks went off for a week in France.
I am so tired, I just want to sleep for two days.
~L'elly.
8. July-
Bobbie:
Dad and Tonks are depressing...I mean, they sent us an owl today with a picture of them in Paris and they're just so disgustingly adorable and happy. Usually this wouldn't bother me so much, but when I'm missing Draco and worried so much about him...it's just way too much to watch happy lovers that are so damned cute when you don't have your other half, you know? It's just sad!
You know, I think I'm jealous. Damn it! I want!
Bah.
~L'elly.
9. July-
Bobbie:
So...Andi asked me today why I was so blue...and I told her everything. Not that she hadn't figured it out already, I mean, she was there in London and all. I'm not exactly good at hiding much from family and they're here all the time, watching me and figuring things out. Andi asked if it was alright if she shared with Ted, and of course, I consented. Everyone who knows about us (Tonks, Dad, Andi, Ted, Molly) knows that, for safety's sake, they have to keep mum. I suppose that these dangerous times do have that one bright side- it is a lot easier for people to believe that some secrets simply must be kept, well, secret.
Anyway, I should go and rejoin the family. We're having pizza night!
~L'elly.
11. July-
Bobbie:
Since about ten this morning, I've had this sinking feeling...something's wrong, but I can't tell what or with who...is it Dad? Is it Draco? Is it something with Molly or Luna or Neville? It's strong...I'm queasy. I feel sick...I've been in bed for most of the day.
~L'elly.
12. July-
Bobbie:
Dad and Tonks got home today and Tonks noticed that I'm a little...twitchy. You remember the 'bad feeling' from yesterday? It's still lurking. It's lurking so intensely that I felt sick after lunch. Something out there is seriously wrong. I mean, what kind of ick sticks around like this unless it is either serious bad, or bad fish?
Anyway, I got the chance to corner Tonks after tea and I grilled her madly about she and Dad's trip. Ooooo! I got some juicy stuff, but she made me promise NOT to write it down! She's all blushing and she's got her hair bright pink for the moment and she's terribly excited to be home.
Ooo! More big news! We got an invitation on Friday to Bill and Fleur's wedding! I am so spectacularly excited to go. I wonder what I should wear? No idea!
On a downer note, I won't be taking a date. I hate to only grump and moan in here about how I don't get to see Draco over the holiday, and that is what it feels like I keep doing.
That's it! Lewellyn needs a new look...maybe I'll chop my hair even shorter, or get my ears pierced...or get a tattoo? I wonder how Dad would feel about his little L'elly getting herself some big-girl ink? That could be fun, and I could totally freak out my classmates when I get back to classes! Even better!
Alright, so planning how to make people at school totally flip their lids is helping tone down the ick and all- yay! Here's to a new, bold, and freaky L'elly heading to take Hogwarts by storm!
~L'elly "Wilde Thing!"
14. July-
Bobbie:
I got a letter today that explained the ominous feeling of the past few days. I'm worried. I've got to call on all that defiant strength that Papa instilled in me in order to get through this one and not turn into a bawling, quivering, soggy mess. First clue something was wrong? His introductory paragraph and the whole formality of his letter. It is SO not like him.
L'elly-
Wherever you are, I hope this finds you eventually. Knowing you, you're getting ready to go back to Hogwards, ready to fight through whatever is happening there. I hope you are staying strong. I hope you are still in one piece, both physically and emotionally. I'm not doing well...I'm still alive, but...having HIM here...it's terrifying. My family is in utter disgrace within His company, and that's saying something. When a nobility of evil, disgraced already, can form cast-offs...there's something utterly worthless. He's set up His headquarters in our house. He wants to make sure we don't do anything beyond what he asks of us. I'm sorry, but this fall is not going to be easy on either of us.
Don't try to write back. Not here- I'll find a way to reach you again. Just hold on.
I...I've seen things this summer that I never thought I would see and that I had hoped to avoid. I knew these people were evil. I knew they would kill a whim, but I never thought they would use death as though it were a plaything. I mean, Dumbledore was strategic, right? I mean, He feared him, that's why I was asked, but I failed. I didn't really realise, I suppose, just how willing some of these people are to kill for pleasure, rather than out of some strategic need- not that it's right, either way, but at least one of those ways makes some sense.
Professor Burbage is dead. Don't tell anyone how you know, but if anyone asks what happened to her, well, if you say, they'll interrogate you until you tell and then we'll both probably end up dead and that's a chance I don't want to take. I shouldn't tell you that she's gone, but you deserve to know the truth, not whatever the papers end up saying. He had her killed. He used it as part of our torment. She was a prop in His game, as if it wasn't hard enough to see Dumbledore die. I can't see an end to this and I don't know how to get out- I can't even flee. They would find me. They would kill me over a long period of torture, like only He knows how to execute.
Please, for the love of anything that may be holy (and with what I've seen...if there is a god, it doesn't intervene), stay out of their way. Run from the fight, if you have to, just do anything you can to keep safe.
If you want to write back, and after all you've seen I can understand why you wouldn't, I will find a way. I'll send instructions. I know your mail is probably going to be read. I'll try to keep hiding the letters in the feathers of this very patient and very subversive owl. I would charm it, but any magic done in this house sets off some sort of alarm and He knows about it. I just hope He can't read my thoughts from this far off- there are some spaces I can still find to be alone in...and I can occasionally slip off to go walking on the estate. Maybe I'm safe to write out here. I guess we'll find out.
Draco.
Oh god.
Shit.
He's at their manor? He's made that His base of operations? If there is a deity out there, I really hope it or its minions are watching over Draco right now, because it sounds like he and his family really need it.
I feel like I should tell someone about Professor Burbage, but at the same time, he's trusting me with this. I just hope that the papers report it soon enough so I can at least feel a little better with it out in the air. We're growing up too fast.
Of course, I want to write back- I just hope there's someone left for me to write back TO.
Why the heck does everything have to get so dramatic around here? Can't one of these letters be strange, telling me that Luna wandered onto the Malfoy property and placed an Imperio curse on HIM so He started tapdancing on the table with a lampshade on His head while singing about being a teapot? Really, is that too much to ask?
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that it is some very zany spell like that which will bring Him down. Maybe He's one of those crazy creatures that can be killed with laughter.
I wish.
~L'elly.
17. July-
Bobbie:
I've decided today that I'm getting a tattoo. I even decided on a design. It is going to be an opening lotus flower with the following phrase under it:
"Bloom where you are planted".
It's perfect. No matter where we are planted in life, we can thrive. I think it is something that we all need to be reminded of. I'm getting it on the back of my left shoulder.
Now for the tough part- talking someone in to taking me to get it done. I think I'll work on Tonks...
Mission: Ink!
~L'elly.
19. July-
Bobbie:
Full moon tonight. Tonks and I are going to spend the night at the beach. I'll report tomorrow morning.
~L'elly
20. July-
Bobbie:
Tonks thinks the ink idea is great. She's going to talk to Dad. She says that as soon as she convinces him, we'll go and get it done.
Whoo hoo!
~L'elly.
24. July-
Bobbie:
Mission accomplished! I have been inked, just like I wanted! It felt TOTALLY WEIRD to get that tattoo- there were some spots that it felt like my whole shoulder blade was just going to vibrate off, but I have it now and it's mine! I am so excited and I am so happy and I want to wear tank tops the entire rest of the summer so I can show it off. It looks like bruise right now, but when it heals, it is going to be the most bad-ass tattoo in the history of L'elly kind.
Tonks and I sat down in the park after and got ourselves snack food so we could chill and watch the ducks for a while. I was content, but she was obviously a bit antsy. She got all serious and asked me what I would do if she ended up pregnant.
BIG CLUE- people don't usually ask this kind of question unless they already are.
I told her that I'd be fine with it. I told her that if she was, she should just come out and say it. She told me she thought she was, but hadn't had it confirmed by a medi-witch yet. She told me she was scared to tell Dad because she wasn't sure how he was going to react. I nearly dropped my snacks. For hell's sake, woman, tell him! He's going to be so happy, even if he's terrified at first. She says she wants to get herself checked out to be 100% sure first.
Aren't I just the receptacle for secrets these days!
~L'elly.
26. July-
Bobbie:
So,apparently, today is Operation: Move Harry. The Order is getting together a ton of people and there's polyjuice potion involved and everything. This should be interesting.
~L'elly.
Post Operation: MH-
Bobbie:
Things went terribly wrong and the Order was ambushed. I don't know details yet, other than Harry's owl is dead. I was in the attic when people got here. I stayed there, watching the bustle on the front lawn. I couldn't really make out who was where. I've got to talk to Andi.
~L'elly
Later-
Bobbie:
Ok, so Dad is safe, for the present, or at least he's alive. Everyone is over at the Burrow. Mad-Eye Moody didn't make it. George Weasley lost an ear- apparently Snape did something that cut it off- probably that spell that Harry used on Draco last school year. George and Fred are, from what Andi gleaned from Tonks, taking things a lot better than everyone else is. They're already making tacky ear jokes about it.
Things are getting more dangerous. I guess it really seems official now, since Moody, one of the toughest people I knew, is gone, that anyone in the Order could end up dead, just like Papa. Dad could be next. Tonks could be next...anyone. I guess death just seems a little more likely and a little more certain.
The sad thing is that I am coming to accept this as entirely normal. I wish it weren't and I could go back to being a kid again, with Dad and Papa and all the crazy days that we had at home. It's not that I would wish Tonks away, but I really miss Papa.
Anyway, I have to go figure out how to calm Andi. Ted's having a rough time of it and we're all a bit stressed by the ambush tonight. This wasn't just the Order that was attacked, this was our family.
~L'elly.
29. July-
Bobbie:
Tonks and Dad picked me up this morning to head to the Burrow for dinner so some of us could stay over in preparation for Bill and Fleur's wedding. Though my folks have business to attend to, I'm going to be crashing here, which is awesome, because I've been missing Molly a TON. It's evening now, and I've been hiding for most of my time here, tucking in corners and trying to stay out of everyone's way. This place is insane (more so than usual)!
I overheard the Trio talking about their plans for Hogwarts next year. They, it seems, are not planning on returning to school, but are going to be questing for the means by which to defeat HIM. More power to them. I'll be keeping up morale on the home front, thank you. From what I've been able to gather, there's no telling if we'll have a new headmaster next year, or if McGonagall is just going to step up and run the school. I hope she does- it would be nice to have someone familiar in charge, and not some stranger who will probably be Ministry sent and hell-bent on following all sorts of rules.
That's one of the things I guess I liked most about Dumbledore- he knew there were exceptions to rules and he knew that they existed for good reasons.
I miss him.
~L'elly.
30. July-
Bobbie:
The Delacour family arrived today and we all got a little more squished. Thank god the wedding is the day after tomorrow!
Speaking of tomorrow, it is Harry's birthday. Is it wrong of me to want to ask Molly if I can write something snarky on his cake?
Maybe it is, but it feels so right...
Te he he!
~L'elly.
31. July (St. Potter's Day)-
Bobbie:
Alright, so I know I sound spiteful and bitter, but I really don't like Harry. I mean, it's not even just what happened when he used that spell on Draco and nearly killed him (though that doesn't help his case any). It's the way he talked to me in the tower after Dumbledore died and the way he tends to forget that Sirius had more family than just him. It's the way he acts like the whole weight of the world is on his shoulders. Maybe it is- maybe he has to kill HIM, but that doesn't give him the right to discount what others try to do to help out. We can all contribute something to the fight, whether that's Molly contributing her home and her cookies or the physical fighting and undercover footwork that Dad and Tonks bring to the table. We all do SOMETHING to keep this battle possible to win and Harry goes and acts like it's all him.
So Ginny and Harry got all cute today and kissed and now everyone knows they're a couple, but Harry's not committing because he's afraid he'll go and die or something (welcome to our world...) and then the Minister shows up. POLITICS! Yep, he just dropped by to give things to the Trio that Dumbledore left them in his will...and to try to recruit Harry to be the Ministry's poster boy. Of course, he said he wouldn't.
I've stayed in hiding most of the day. I'm going to keep it that way.
Oh- I've decided on what to wear to the wedding tomorrow! I have a pair of ballet flats that I can wear with my Gunne Sax dress and my straw hat. I'm so excited! I'm throwing extra clothes in a backpack, though, so if I want to get funky with my bad self late into the reception (you know, once the party really gets wild), I have something to toss on behind a bush or something- you know, without any thought as to having to come back to the house.
Ooo- Tonks also told Dad about being pregnant and all. It's official, she is! So excited!
Anyway, big day tomorrow, I should get some sleep or something- you know, be practical about all this instead of sitting up with tea and scones, scribbling in my diary.
Night!
~L'elly.