✩ 〈 childhood 〉 born in the spring to parents who were, quite honestly, not expecting her for another month, lucy cedrella greeted the world with a scream and the well-known weasley appetite. her older sister by two years, molly ii, was enamored by the small, pale thing in her mother's arms - lucy, a few months into life outside the womb, was equally such with her sister. for the first six years of her life, molly ii was the center of lucy's life; anything molly ii did, lucy wanted (and tried) to do, too. on some counts this imitation was dangerous, but there was never an adult far from the sisters, and their parents (and other adult relatives) found lucy's idolization of molly ii to be cute and endearing. all too soon, though, the appeal of being "just like molly" would wear off, and lucy would start trying to pave her own way in life, deciding that if seven was truly a lucky number, then that birthday would have to help her out. she wanted to stand out, do things first, and just overall be greater than her sister, who'd done so many things before her with her two year advantage. (never mind the sheer number of cousins they had - she'd start with molly and work her way around.) molly ii, for all of her adventures, was just as happy to read books with their parents, listen to stories, listen to the wizarding radio, do puzzles, play wizard chess - lucy was not so keen. ✩ her dissatisfaction with being "another weasley" only grew, and by her eighth birthday, she sought more time with her relatives, from tales of dragons and "dragonologist training" with uncle charlie (her mother nearly broke the fine china when she found out) to french lessons with aunt fleur and adventures on the beach outside shell cottage. uncle george, ever the opportunist, put her increasingly restless energy to "good use" with his products, encouraging her to wreak havoc on relatives at dinners alongside her like-minded cousins, and the sparks turned into a flame. but all of these things had been done before, and lucy wanted to pave her own way, make her own name, and break out of the "family of war heroes" shadow she felt herself losing her light in. it was her ninth birthday, eyeing her cousins' brooms with envy that uncle ron suggested quidditch - something that the majority of her relatives were all too eager to encourage. she hadn't voiced why she kept pursuing new things, acting out more and more and trying to be so independent, but they figured she just had a lot of energy to release, and some good-natured ribbing at her ministry worker parents for their lack of understanding led to lucy's first "real" introduction to quidditch - not just as a sport to watch, but a sport to play. with aunt ginny and aunt angelina prominent quidditch players - not to mention uncle charlie and uncle harry's legacies from as players in school - lucy came to realize that if she couldn't find unbroken ground to make her name on, then she'd just have to make it herself. awfully ambitious, seeing as she'd not even begun attending hogwarts yet, but growing up post-war left a lot to be desired in her expanding world. ✩ 〈 hogwarts 〉 among weasleys, one thing has often held true - a place in gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart. for lucy's father, percy, and her older sister, molly ii, the sorting hat took but a beat of silence to declare their place in the house of lions. for her mother, ravenclaw was her calling, and audrey worked to instill that same love of knowledge in both of her daughters. despite the success, molly ii wrote home after her sorting that the hat had called her "too daring for the likes of ravenclaw" before placing her in gryffindor, something that made her feel just a little closer to aunt hermione. when it came lucy's turn two years later to be sorted, the weight of her relatives' eyes on her made her skin crawl, more so than the many other peers in the great hall. in the midst of what she'd find out a few years later was a panic attack, lucy was called up to the stool, and for as long as it felt she sat there with a guillotine over her head, it was only twenty seconds at the most before the sorting hat declared her fit for slytherin, the deputy headmaster ushering her towards the table so the sorting could continue and be wrapped up. (she'd nearly feared being a hatstall, everything too close, too loud, too quiet, too much, but such fears proved unfounded.) ✩ at first, she was shell-shocked - anything that the hat may have said to her while she sat on that stool, vision obscured by the ratty old magical fabric, having gone in one ear and out the other. but as the world came rushing back to her with a seat at the table of silver and green, something new was blooming in lucy's chest. she'd broken the mould, gone as opposite of molly ii as their age difference would allow, and while not all of her cousins looked supportive of where she found herself sitting, albus had been sorted into slytherin, too. didn't that count for anything? rather than rely on her cousin's friendship with scorpius and latch onto the boys, lucy chose to stand alone as she'd decided a few years prior, and carve her own place in slytherin. with gawain by her side - the fierce barn owl she'd pleaded for her mother to buy her from eeylops owl emporium - and her supple new dogwood wand in hand, her housemates would learn not to judge her by her family's name soon enough. (it helped, too, that she'd visited her uncle george's shop on that very same trip to diagon alley to stock up on much-needed supplies for her first year at hogwarts.) ✩ 〈 present 〉 as first years are not permitted their own brooms, lucy spent her first year at hogwarts focusing on her studies and her social standing, though as soon as her second year arrived, she placed for reserve [chaser/seeker] on slytherin's quidditch team. it wasn't what she was hoping for, but when the opening came in for [chaser/seeker] in her third year, she was never prouder to wear her house's colours. over the years, she hoped to make quidditch captain, and it left a bitter taste in her mouth for the position to be given to someone else in both her sixth year and this final year. the extra time, as she views it, is at least useful for studying for her n.e.w.t.s. lucy has found that her academic strengths lie in hands-on classes, like potions, herbology, alchemy, and care of magical creatures. by the demand placed on her, she works hard to excel nearly as much in classes like charms and defence against the dark arts, but finds that she falls a little short in transfiguration. she just can't seem to visualize the transformations properly, leading her to struggle to keep up with the class for another n.e.w.t. she's nothing if not ambitious and over-achieving, and saw dropping the class after taking her o.w.l.s as nothing less than a failure. for every class that she qualified to take at a n.e.w.t.-level, she took it. she may not have achieved as many o.w.l.s as her father and her uncle bill, but she intends to receive just as many n.e.w.t.s as she did o.w.l.s. she'll never admit it aloud, but for lucy, her parents' approval means a lot. for as much as she's flourished in slytherin, she feels like she's let them down by not being sorted into either of their houses. through academics, aside from the self-gratification high scores bring her, she seeks their praise; though she denies it when the possibility is brought up. she hasn't decided what she wants to pursue professionally more - quidditch or potions - as both are appealing, promising career options. her n.e.w.t.-level classes will help her achieve a mastery in potions, yes, but she needs to continue dedicating time on the pitch as well. she has no shortage of books to crack open in the library and maneuvers to practice on the pitch, so her seventh year is no time to start slacking.
