Lucy tried to push her chin up as she strolled into the great hall for lunch, her bag clutched to her side.
"Lucy..." Molly breathed.
Lucy winked and sat down next to her.
"You're serious about this?" Molly whispered, trying to move her lips as little as possible.
Lucy nodded before looking around, grabbing a handful of chicken and quickly shoving it in the bag.
"Help?"
Molly looked upset, but copied her sister's actions; looking and grabbing as she slipped the red bag in the middle of them.
The routine was mimicked the next day. Molly managed to bring herself to help again, seeing the excitement in her sister's eyes that was completely new – Of course, Molly herself didn't really understand why it was so important. But... She had never seen Lucy so happy, and that was all that stopped her from going straight to the headmaster. There was so much danger, and Molly had attempted to inform Lucy of this, but the naive first year was having none of it.
"How long will your little adventure last?" Molly asked after sitting in the common room while Lucy silently checked her plan over and over in her head.
"Dunno. Few days at least." Lucy mumbled, digging around in her red bag. Plenty of food, quite a lot of water in little containers and a little smelly thing that someone had given her as a gift (She wasn't completely sure what it was, but it seemed to be a Muggle object intended to make things smell nicer).
Molly jumped up and flung her arms around Lucy again. She seemed to have suddenly grown so much. Molly was sure she wasn't that tall at the start of the year.
"You be careful, okay? Promise me you'll be careful!" Molly said, tears in her eyes.
"I will be."
"Oh, Luce," Molly cried. "I hope you accomplish whatever you need to on this silly adventure. It's not too late to change your mind! What's the point anyway?"
Lucy sighed, not bothering to correct Molly on her name. "It'll be fun. I'll be fine. I promise."
Lucy stood up, took a deep breath and picked up her bag. Was this really happening? She started to feel nervous.
No.
There was nothing to worry about. Nothing went wrong last time, so why should it now.
"Wait, Lucy!" Molly yelled. She pointed to the dorm. "Your wand!"
Lucy shook her head. "I can't. Have you heard about the trace? If I do magic, and Flitwick gets desperate to find me, he'll be able to get the ministry on me." Lucy smirked. "And what's the fun in that?"
Molly looked away. "So I can't communicate with you at all?"
Lucy shook her head.
"What about my owl? Barley? He's quite small, so he won't get noticed very easily." Molly enquired.
Lucy wasn't sure. She had all these plans of doing everything by herself, but she realised that it would be stupid of her to push the one person who cared for her away.
'More so than I have the past eleven years.'
Lucy slowly nodded. "Okay. But keep letters vague, in case someone reads them You can't tell anyone where I am." Lucy looked serious. "Please."
"You have some strange logic, Lucy." Molly smiled. Lucy wasn't sure whether to take offense or not, so she nodded and muttered "Bye, Molly," as she left the common room with nothing but a little red bag and thoughts of adventure.