Disclaimer: Not Mine. Of Course it's not. Don't be silly.
I've been away a while. It's due to my laptop spacking out, and school, and being ill, and a million other things. You'll not want stupid excuses though, you'd rather read my apology chapters, wouldn't you?
Please review. I do love you guys.
I promise.
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Prologue: A Letter To The Editor
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Dear Fred,
You'll remember now, in ten or fifteen years time, but I doubt it'll be accurate. You'll think back on it, and probably wonder, first off, when the hell I was writing this. Well, as I look at the clock on the wall, it appears to be 11:27 PM, and about... nine hours ago, episode eight of Potterwatch was broadcast.
You were sitting next to Katie, who... Fred, me, you, whoever you are. This is very hard to write. So very difficult. I don't know why I let her rope me into this. I don't know why she's... so sure we'll want to see this in a decade's time. Katie thinks we'll be alive in ten years. Honestly? I'm worried about the next ten minutes. Today went bad. Like, really bad. At the end of it, Katie was in tears, Kingsley was curled up on our sofa staring at the ceiling, and Lee was speechless. Lee was fucking speechless. And that shit doesn't happen to Lee Jordan. It just doesn't. You of all people should know that.
Clockwatching pisses me off, you know. I've just spent twenty minutes staring like a lunatic. George and Katie have both come and looked at me, and though my twin shrugged and left to make dinner, Katie's been sitting opposite me, scribbling in her little notebook too...
I just asked her what she was doing. She shrugged and showed me that she was sketching a picture of the room. Her drawing's amazing. Steal some, if you're still friends with her now. It's really quite worth it. And she smells good. She makes me roll my eyes and laugh my head off when we're recording for everything, and then she makes us dinner and lets me put my head in her lap when she's reading...
I suppose this letter should say... dear me, don't let the best thing that's ever happened to you... go.
You. A decade ago.
Katie, Hun.
Let me tell you this. You'll have forgotten by now, because you forget everything, but the 23rd October was probably the worst night of your life. Unless Fred dies in this war, I pretty much guarantee it. When you heard that voice back through the radio, I think your heart stopped and ... you leapt into Fred's arms, and burst into tears.
Probably the only positive of tonight is that when you're all calm again, you look over at Fred and you think you were really stupid to have let go. He was warm, and your hands were freezing, you were wearing his scarf and trying to stop sniffing it every thirty seconds. The closing line for Potterwatch was "Ohfuckno," and you disconnected everything magical and electric in the house as soon as you realised who was talking back at you through the speakers.
George is making dinner. You're frightened right now, because you don't think you'll make it through tonight, let alone the war, and now you're suggesting writing into the future to make sure you stay alive. Hell, you've probably lost this letter. Some... goat is probably reading it and you're probably in Antigua raving it up on a beach, and forgetting the night before, because that's what you have to do.
That's what you've always done, what you'll do until you find strength in someone else. Don't leave Fred on his own after this war, Katie. Please, if there's any way you can do it, make sure you're still together in a decade. He's the best thing that's ever happened to you. Don't forget that.
Please remember...
Me, you, her, it, thing, Bell.