𝔪𝔢𝔱𝔞𝔪𝔬𝔯𝔭𝔥𝔬𝔰𝔦𝔰
huit. — astronomy tower!

( — tw: slight mentions of suicidal thoughts )

Even when Druella had transfigured her wings away, Persephone could still feel the darkness from them inside her, that familiar darkness of his making itself at home with the darkness already festering in her heart. It made her skin itch and her heart pound. She wasn't sure why she was so effected by his touch his words. All she knew was that she had to avoid the boy, but the more she tried to the more she noticed him hovering around her — in the common room, in the library, in classes. His presence was heavy and impossible to ignore, though he never directly bothered her his mere presence was enough to to unsettle her.

Perhaps she just didn't want to admit how deeply his words had affected her.

On top of that Abraxas had been distant since that ball, it was subtle, but she could feel him pulling away from her and it stung. Shaking her thoughts off she glanced at Dumbledore with a tired sigh, "Absolutely nothing!" The two occasionally had sessions in his office looking through records of family trees and such trying to see if they could find her or jog her memory, "This is pointless, it's been weeks and we've found nothing!"

Slamming the book shut she tossed it on the desk, hands covering her face as she tried to hold in her tears, "I know this feels like an uphill battle right now Persephone — but I promised to help you and I will. No matter how long it takes."

Persephone nodded her head with a small embarrassed smile, "Of course, thank you sir," standing from the chair hastily she packed her bag, "I think I'll retire to bed now."

Without giving him a chance to reply she was out the door eyes stinging with tears that she refused to let loose in the corridors. Stumbling up to the astronomy tower she peered over the ledge, as she tried to take in stuttered breaths — crystalline tears falling down her soft cheeks.

It truly was a beautiful view. The lush verdant of the trees, and the smell of the grass after rain overwhelming her senses. Being up that high gave her the instinctive urge to jump, it wasn't that she wanted to, but she felt an innate primal urge as she stared down at the hard ground. And then she wondered who would miss her if she did jump, who would truly miss her? The relationships she had formed were still relatively new, untethered and obviously if she had a family they weren't in any hurry to look for her.

It made her feel like a feather floating through the wind, unattached to anything with no start point and no destination. Persephone felt lost.

"Seph? What are you doing up here?" Druella's worried voice came from behind her. "You're freezing! You'll catch your death up here you idiot!"

Druella pulled Persephone away from the ledge and back into the room, wrapping her robes around Persephone as she tried to warm her up, "What are you doing up here? It's past curfew." Of course Druella had been doing her prefect rounds.

Persephone hadn't noticed the hours going by.

"I was thinking."

"Thinking? And you couldn't have done that in the common room sat by the nice warm fire?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "I guess not."

"Okay spill what's going on with you? You've been acting weird since Samhain." Druella grabbed her hands, "You know you can talk to me right?"

"I know," blowing a breath out, Persephone nodded, "I guess I've just been a bit down it's been weeks now and I still haven't got my memories back. I don't even know who I am — not really."

Druella shook her head with a smile as she played with a piece of Persephone's hair, "Your handwriting, the way you walk, the way you scrunch your nose when you laugh. The fact that you love blueberries but hate strawberries, and the way you get so invested in your work you don't notice that you've missed meal times and I have to drag you to the kitchens for food. It's all giving you away. Everything you do shows your hand, everything is a self portrait. And yeah maybe some of the important stuff is missing — but you can't ever lose these things, they're yours. They're you."

Her voice became a quiet whisper, "And I like who you are."

"You do?" Persephone questioned hesitantly as the dark haired girls words sunk in.

"I do."

Before Persephone could respond the other witch leaned closer, her lips hovering hesitantly over her own for a second before crashing against her own. For all Persephone knew this was her first kiss. And it was nice. Druella's lips were soft and so were the hands on her face, the faint scent of strawberries filling her senses. All too abruptly it was over and Druella pulled back an embarrassed look on her face, "I'm so sorry," Persephone reached out a hand only for the other girl to flinch away, "I'm sorry, I've got to go."

"Druella wait!" Persephone tried to go after the witch, but she was surprisingly fast and all too soon Persephone was along again, "what the hell just happened?"

—————

The next morning Persephone sat next to Tom in potions, unfortunately she was stuck with him for the rest of the year. She kept glancing behind her at the table where Druella and Walburga were working, when she had awoken that morning Druella had greeted her like normal and acted like nothing had ever happened.

"I'd like to apologise if I offended you at the Ball the other night." Tom spoke offhandedly as he tossed a few ingredients into the cauldron with a calculated precision.

Persephone nodded with a polite smile, "It's quite alright Tom, I actually did some more research on angels and you were right. While they're beautiful and curious they're also soldiers and they would just as soon destroy something as they would learn about it."

"And would you?"

"Would I what?" She questioned in confusion as she chopped the ginger root.

"Destroy." She opened her mouth in shock, going to reply — though she wasn't sure of what she would say — when her hand slipped and she sliced her finger.

Staring down at the wound in shock she was relieved when Tom wrapped a handkerchief around her hand shielding it from view as Slughorn rushed over at the sound of her pained yelp, "Are you quite alright, my dear?"

"It's fine," she had completely paled and she was so sure that the panic in her eyes was evident, "could I be excused to the hospital wing please?"

"Of course, would you like someone to escort you?"

"No!" Her reply had him blanching in shock, packing her bag with one hand she tried to backtrack, "I wouldn't want anyone missing out on your class, besides it's not too bad I'm sure I can make it on my own."

"Very well." Persephone was out the door immediately, darting in the opposite direction of the hospital wing.

Finding a deserted corridor she slid down the wall until she was sat on the floor, with shaking hands she hesitantly lifted the handkerchief from around her pale hand a confused sob escaping her. The cut skin of her finger was stitching itself together before her eyes till all that was left was the smooth unblemished skin, though that was not the worst of it.

Tom's handkerchief was not stained with the bright rouge she was expecting. No, a glittering gold liquid that had come from inside her stained the white fabric. Placing her face in her hands she let out a frustrated shout.

Who was she? And more importantly... what was she?

AUTHORS NOTE!
Yes I did just decide to make Seph's identity more confusing. I'm so sorry I just can't stop myself. However I will give you guys a small hint the myth this was inspired by is from Metamorphoses by Ovid... which is technically 250 stories but like it's still a hint,

Also thank you thank you thank you lovelies so much for 1k reads!! It's so exciting I can't believe it <333

( if anyone was wondering what seph and tom looked like at the ball this is the closest i could edit to it )

Stay safe! And remember to vote, comment and or share please lovelies!

Unedited
-summer