𝕮hristmas came and went without a word, without a single tear. She awoke, seeing presents sitting on the bottom of her chosen bed with her eyes sore from the heartache that choked her heart. She was quick to note that there wasn't a single present from her parents, her sister, nor her cousin, she wasn't exactly sure what hurt worse. Nothing from her parents or nothing from Cordelia, it only twisted her misery into anger. At least she had a jumper that Molly knitted her for Christmas. ( A dark navy blue with silver thread marking her knitted W in the middle. She had thrown it on almost instantly, her heart swelling with something she hadn't felt in ages. Comfort. )

  She had continued throughout Christmas day with the jumper wrapped tightly around her, her fingers tugging on the sleeves with the twist of her silver ring on her finger. The picture tucked into the pocket of her jeans, all things kept on her. Though she'd never admit it, she had a small broken compact tucked in her front pocket. And she especially didn't ask questions nor worry when Harry appeared after visiting Arthur and told her 'they're both okay.'

Despite the fact that she wanted to, despite the fact that the need was so great she was sure she would die from the pain, she didn't ask.

It wasn't until New Year's Eve rolled around that she managed to escape her room of self pity, her feet covered in fuzzy red socks skipped downstairs. Loud music and voices swirled around her ears as she paused, hand holding the handle. It felt like a different life, one that was surely never able to be hers. One where family was just that, loud laughter and comfort wrapped in one. This world couldn't be hers, she was raised in a world where a hug was used as a way to whisper something full of disappointment in your ears and not just simply for comfort. She was raised in a world where children get their faces and entire beings burnt off the tree.

"There you are Poppins, I was worried you'd forget the way down," Sirius' voice trailed around her, loud and cheery in a way she hadn't heard from him. She turned her head to him, watching him lean against the first steps of the stairs, a glass full of ginger tinted liquid in his hands.

"So did I," she whispered, watching as the male's smile faltered for a moment before she recovered. "What's going on?" She questioned, her hand falling to her side, feeling the edges of her ring scrap against her finger.. An easy bubble of warmth circled her from the action, her shoulders relaxed.

"It's New Year's Eve, time for celebration," he spoke as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and with the little she knew of Sirius, she had a feeling that it was. But it was the shadow of realization that hit her square in the chest, they would be returning to Hogwarts soon. Where everything became as real as the breaths she sucked in. "Come join us, it'll be good for you."

She almost chuckled at the fact, she had no idea what was good for her. She spent her days reading or staring at the broken compact, dread filling her bloodstream and circling her ears. Guilt was the primary emotion she experienced these days, guilt that she didn't tell Cordelia beforehand. She had her chances, and yet every time she froze, covered. She thought she was still doing the right thing, if she were to be honest, she still did.

"Alright, you don't have a say, Poppins. I'll drag you if I have to, so let's go," Sirius spoke suddenly, catching her attention from where it was staring at the kitchen door, his hand reaching up and snagging around her wrist as he tugged her down. She had the single thought to stubbornly stay put, but she wasn't raised as a heathen. So she gave in, with a grumbled sigh and a frown jutting across her lips.

Almost instantly, the cheers and music coming from the kitchen grew louder as the door opened. Exposing them to a world of redheads who were all laughing, food piled upon tables as her eyes caught upon it all. She wasn't a stranger to parties, her family threw one every Christmas Eve. She used to attend the Malfoy's New Year's Eve ball as a child, and their Summer Solstice parties. It was all fancy dresses, overly rich people with too much money falling out of their asses. Ballroom dances which haunted her everywhere she went, she had been paired with Draco one year, where she made a point to step on his toes at least three times.

But this, this was a scene so forgein to her it made her head spin. There was no dancing, besides for what she supposed was an Irish gig that the twins and Ginny were doing in the corner. The table was lined with what looked like a game of cards, her eyes trailed towards the stove, where she noticed someone she hadn't seen since third year standing there with a blue mug. His clothes patched and face scarred and worn down, except now there was a smile on his face, in a way that screamed pure happiness in the bliss of a moment.

"Is that Professor Lupin?" Winnie questioned suddenly, her eyes turning to Sirius who was watching said ex Professor in a way that reminded her of Harry and Cordelia. It was the same way Harry watched Cordelia whenever she was around, with adoration, as if the sun was set in the sky by them and them only. Winnie's eyebrows drawn down, her eyes turning back to the werewolf who was now leaning down and pointing to something on Harry's cards, the two laughing before Harry nodded. Her eyes trailed back to Sirius then, watching as the tattooed, tired man smiled. A smile that was full of relaxation and love, she remembered how he was Harry's Godfather, and in the way he was watching them now, it was bliss. "They're your family."

That caught his attention then, his smile faltering as he turned to look at her. Watching as she watched him intently, before her eyes turned to Lupin and Harry. "I've never seen that before, I mean I know my family. Or at least I thought so, but nobody in my family has looked at us like that, or anyone like that. I doubt they would know what it was if it hit them in the face," she admitted, leaning against the door as Sirius copied her again. Mirroring their stance just a few days prior.

"My friends were my family, it wasn't by blood but it was enough. Now they are," he spoke, nodding his head towards where the pair as Lupin noticed them standing there. His eyes pointed at Sirius first, and with the look that fell across his face it mirrored the way Sirius looked at him. Adoration, pure happiness singing around that one person. "I meant what I said, you can stay here."

"It's not that easy," she shook her head, staring down at the socks she wore against her feet. Fuzzy and fluffy with false fur. She wrapped her arms around herself, twisting her ring as she pressed her lips into a line.

"Oh but Poppins, it is," Sirius hummed, a grin crossing his features just as another body joined their small huddle of people.

"Winifred, nice to see you again," Lupin spoke, his face twisted with a smile as the brunette grimaced, glancing at Sirius who was mouthing Winifred silently with a grin.

"Professor, nice to see you as well. Please call me Winnie though," she spoke, offering him the best smile he could muster as she watched him chuckle, bringing his mug to his lips as he took a sip, before speaking once more.

"Call me Remus then, I'm not your Professor anymore," he smiled, leaning against the counter next to them as she nodded.

"Moony as a Professor, James would get a kick out of that," Winnie almost paused at the action of Sirius mentioning their late friend, Harry's father to be exact, but her body stayed relaxed as Remus snorted almost exactly after the comment.

"He was still the best Professor we've ever had," Winnie hummed, her head leaning against the doorframe just as the mother hen of the heads of red seemed to notice she was in the room and out of the dust filled room she boarded herself in the past few days.

"Oh! Winnie dear, there you are," Molly's voice carried around the room in a way that was full of honey, dripping with so much kindness and warmth it was almost suffocating to her. But this was the woman who helped heal her when she showed up out of the blue, so when Molly appeared in front of her and pulled her smaller body into a tight hug, she let her. "You look starving, come in and sit down, I'll warm you up with some soup."

"Oi! You didn't offer to warm me up with soup," Ron Weasley spoke from the long table, where cards sat in his hands and a glass of butterbeer was half gone. Winnie glanced back at Sirius and Remus, who were standing next to each other and watching her be pulled into the burning pits of overwhelming care. She watched with narrowed eyes as Sirius mouthed 'good luck.'

"That's because you've already eaten that full bowl of crisps just about," Molly directed her to sit next to Ginny, an empty seat near their huddled card game that she never saw before. She watched as the redhead women tsked at her son whose ears suddenly went as red as his hair.

"We're playing some Muggle card game Hermione knows," Ginny spoke suddenly, her knees up to her chest as she rested her forearms on her knees. Winnie realized this was one of the first times the redhead had ever spoken to her, and now she was addressing her as if they were old friends. It caused her stomach to stir and before she knew it, she was twisting the silver ring laying upon her finger. Offering the small bubble of warmth and comfort that came from it whenever she touched it.

"Oh, uhm ... what game?" She questioned slowly, tilting her head as she watched the redhead's brown eyes trace her cards. Before she looked up at her with a sly smile, eyes flickering to Hermione who sat across from the pair with her hair tied in a messy bun.

"Bullshite," Ginny replied with a click of her tongue as she brought her Butterbeer to her lips. Winnie's body froze, her eyes narrowing slightly at the redhead who just very much swore at her.

"Excuse me?" She spoke defensively, gripping her wrist tighter as the freckled girl looked over at her before she snorted.

"No, Bullshite is the name of the game," she explained, her face dotted with freckles across the ivory of her skin, she took a strand of red hair behind her ear before popping a piece of chocolate in her mouth. To Winnie's surprise, she held up the chocolate bar towards her, "want a piece? It's Lupin's but we always steal them whenever he comes, I think he secretly likes being able to give us something." She added with a shrug of her shoulder as Winnie's lips formed a line. Looking over at Remus who was whispering to Sirius by the kettle now.

"Thank you," she whispered quietly, breaking off a piece of chocolate before popping it in her mouth. Milk Chocolate. Her favourite. For a moment, she allowed her eyes to close as she sighed, she didn't remember when was the last time she had chocolate. She had been far too busy worrying about living and dying to think about such things. But now, she realized how much she missed it.

Molly laid a bowl of soap in front of her when she opened her eyes again, steam curling up around her face, causing a flush to move across her face. The smell of chicken and vegetables swirled around her nose, causing her mouth to practically water. She had been so caught up in sleeping and existing as merely a mirage of herself, she forgot how much she just so happened to love eating food. She thanked the redhead who simply patted her on the shoulder before moving, the blonde picked up the spoon, before shoving her face in a mouthful of soup.

"So, Winnie," George Weasley appeared beside her, almost causing her to choke on a lump of carrot if she didn't catch herself. Eyes wide, she turned her gaze to the set of twins who were watching her with identical shit eating grins.

Oh boy.

"So we see that you traded the life of snakes for the lion den," Fred drawled, grinning as he held a box in his hands, her eyes watching them and then the box. Continuing to flick between each of them.

"But, you should know there's a very important ritual you have to enter before being a part of this family," George had spoken this time, his eyes darting down to the box as her world spinned. She felt her stomach swirl dangerously, and she wondered for a moment if she would throw up. Family. There's that word again. The word that followed her around everywhere she went and choked her dry.

"Just ask Harry and Mione, they had to do it," Fred spoke, throwing a wink over at the said pair. Harry's reaction was ... well there wasn't any, he wasn't paying attention at that particular moment. Hermione, however, was flushing red and avoiding Fred's eye, but she was staring rather pointly at George.

"Don't listen to them, they're being idiots," Hermione spoke matter-of-factly as she turned to look at her cards.

"Yes but why would we wanna be anything else, love?" Fred spoke, eyeing Hermione with a smirk as she glanced up at him, her face now flushing furiously red as she shifted in her seat. Odd.

"Just ask Harry, he did it, didn't you Harry?" George spoke louder now, catching the boy's attention as he looked up from his cards. Emerald green eyes wide and darting between the twins and her. Where she started with a raised eyebrow and her hand wrapped around her silver spoon. She watched as his face twisted into clear confusion, clearly having no idea what was going on.

"Er ... right yeah," and yet he answered for some reason. Winnie's eyes rolling, because she clearly figured out that they were all bullshite ( the word, not the game. ) But it was a challenge of something other than her mind, so she accepted it as she dropped her spoon. Twisting her body towards the twins who looked at her with wide grins.

"Alright then, what is this ritual that clearly everyone has done?" She questioned, clasping her hands together as she cocked an eyebrow. Watching as they each looked at each other, identical grins mirroring their faces before they opened a box. She eyed them a moment longer, before leaning forward. Inside sat two small candies, one was wrapped in shiny purple wrapping, while the other was simple silver with black lines running through it. "What is this?"

"Georgie, did you hear her? She asked what is this," Fred sighed dramatically, slumping in his chair as George patted him on the shoulder.

"Poor innocent Winnie," George sighed, jutting out his bottom lip as Winnie's lips fell open. Before she clamped them shut and narrowed her eyes at them both.

"Well? That seems like a perfectly reasonable question," she spoke defensively, having half the mind to stuff each of the candies in her mouth, but decided better on it when she remembered the many times they sold their products to people in the tower.

"Okay, okay I guess it will have to be explained," George sighed again, eating a glare which he returned with a wink.

"Basically, dear Winnie, all you have to do is pick the right candy and you'll be accepted into our little bundle of home," Fred explained as he held up the tiny box further, Winnie almost had responded with the fact that this wasn't even their home but decided against it.

"Winnie, you don't have to eat any of that, you two are gits," Ginny spoke suddenly, her head appearing beside Winnie's shoulder as she glared at the twins. The blonde eyed the two candies, her finger twisting her ring as she considered what exactly she was getting herself into. She remembered once when a third year's face had sagged twice its size and stayed that way for almost two days. Winnie didn't care for much, but she at least cared about her appearance. But then she looked up at the twins, who were each watching her like a hawk. Eyes twirling with their minds almost as if they were testing her, testing the girl who was supposed to be an enemy by all means with her family.

That thought sent a chill down her spine, and before she knew it, she was reaching in and grabbing the purple candy. She watched, as flashes of surprise circled their faces before disappearing. She unwrapped it, throwing the wrapper on the table as she held a hard purple candy between her fingers. Words of hesitation whispered in her mind, trying to get her to save herself from whatever horror was in that candy. But almost as if she was trying to prove something to that voice, she popped the candy in her mouth and chewed.

At first there was nothing, just the sugary taste of grape in her mouth as she swallowed the chewed up candy. Her eyebrows furrowed down as she waited for something to happen, for a tingle of perhaps horns growing on her head, or maybe even her body to suddenly float in the air. But nothing happened. Confused, she looked over at the twins who were each watching her with emotions she couldn't detect.

"What—" her voice cut off just as a tingling sensation took over in her throat, a hiccup sounded through the room just as a small bubble appeared from her lips and into the air.

"Aha! It worked!" Fred spoke loudly, clapping and punching the air as Winnie hiccuped again, causing another bubble to come out of her mouth and float in the air. Her eyes wide and staring at them just as George reached over and softly clapped her on the back.

"Welcome to the hen, warning, you can't ever get out," he grinned, before standing up and laughing as she hiccuped again with another bubble. "That won't last long, we don't want you to be too annoyed, you might hex us."

To be fair, she did try exactly that when she managed to say an actual word again that didn't start with a hiccup and end with a bubble floating from her mouth. Except, her version of hexing was running after them with a fork and threading to stab them. Of course, she didn't, for they all tried to run up the stairs at once, causing them to tumble down like weed in the wind. Landing in tangles of limps and laughter, her eyes closing and the forgotten fork she dropped on the way down resting against the wood. The laughter grew louder as Walgbura's portrait opened up, screaming about mudbloods and blood traitors.

While the New Year rolled in with everyone raising their glasses in the air and screaming, — once again — she found herself in a haze of temporary peace. Laughing and talking so loudly she felt like her throat would burn, with tears in her eyes from clutching her stomach with laughter, she didn't think of anything else other than that moment. She let her worries vanish and simply existed.

༺♥༻

          𝕿here was a saying that sisters were the other half's of each other's souls. There's a special bond between sisters that is like no other, you depend on each other in a way that breaks the wall of trust and privacy. They know your every move, you watch and know their next move like the back of a hand. You could hate them with every fibre but wish them no harm, it's a catalyst. Hate storms the depths of your soul, enchanted with overruling every logical thought. But with sisters it's different, you may wish to see their favourite shirt burned or maybe for their heart to be broken, but you never wish for them to die.

Winnie believed that whenever it came to Millie, the blonde would wish for her death. It certainly seemed that way when Millie dragged her into the loo on the Hogwarts Express. Then proceeded to wash her hands as if touching her was like touching a slug, she chose not to allow herself to look hurt by that. Though she was, she was hurt by a lot of things but chose not to allow herself to feel it.

"Here's your stuff," Millie spoke, before tossing her a charmed down size of her trunk. Winnie only barely caught it, if she didn't it would've ended up plopped right into the toilet.

"Did you get stuff from my room?" She questioned quietly, her mind was admittedly elsewhere at the moment. Thinking of a dark haired female that vanished in a cloud of pink the last she saw her, she wondered if Cordelia would be okay now. If they could talk reasonably and sort this out, she had spent the whole night beforehand just running over scenarios in her head. All of which ended with them being okay again, the only solution she could see in her eyes. Cordelia was always there, she was always a constant through the mayhem that uprooted her life, in truth, she didn't know how to do this without her.

"No, it's not your stuff. Technically in the family's possession, and since you aren't in this family anymore, it's ours," Millie shrugged, picking at her nails with a look of pure nonchalance that caught her attention then. The total act of not caring at all that she was burned off the family tree. The family trees were a vital thing in pureblood families, it kept track of family members, every arranged marriage, every child born to that line. It never failed and it never lied, if you were to be burned off it ... then well, in the eyes of everyone and the tree, you weren't a part of it anymore. You were nothing. The fact her sister was acting as if she truly didn't care, was enough for Winnie to believe that if she died, Millie surely wouldn't blink an eye.

It was the last stab in her heart that she needed to feel herself crumble, in a blink of an eye she lost everything just to keep herself or someone else alive. It was exhausting, if she were to be honest, and all she wanted to do was break and never be put back together.

"Why do you hate me so much?" She whispered so softly she wasn't sure if she actually did speak, but her eyes watched as Millie paused, looking up at her with confusion drawn across her features. Two sisters who took nappies with their hands intertwined, two sisters who were inseparable growing, divided by jealousy and pettiness. Standing four feet away, but felt as if they were oceans away from each other.

"Because you're, you," and with that, the blonde left. Swiping out of the loo with a flick of her hair, shutting the door with a click as she left Winnie completely alone. The female's lip trembled in her hast, staring at the spot Millie once sat as tears threatened to spill out of her lips. She was so tired, so exhausted and eaten away with guilt and worry that she practically could feel her hair falling out.

Her fingers trembled as she approached the mirror, staring at her reflection with beady eyes that stung so furiously it grew red and irritated. Irritated from crying, irritated from not sleeping, irritated by her life and everything it became. The familiar feeling of dread curled its bony fingers around her shoulder, gripping her harshly and keeping her locked in under its bitter touch as she stared emptilessly at the scar in her eyebrow. Creating a small divide in her eyebrow hairs, it was unable to be fully healed fast enough, and now she had a constant reminder of the day.

Her vision blurred for a moment, before dread wrapped its cold hands around her throat and her vision cleared. This time, beside her in the mirror stood a man with red seering eyes. A wide, sinister grin coating his sickeningly grey face, teeth sharpened to look like fangs. Her body filled with bitter coldness as her chest heaved, sucked in breath after breath before a scream left her mouth. Her fingers wrapped in on itself, smashing into the mirror and creating thousands shards to shatter down onto the white sink below it. Crimson seeping into the mirror from her knuckles as she fell to the floor. Hands pressing against her head as she shook.

"He's not real. He's not real. He's not real." Left the surface of her lips in a whispered paranoia created by herself and only herself, she realized she was to blame for it all.

Her blood pounded in her ears at the thought, her eyes squeezing shut to try and block out red eyes that burned her soul. Her heart thudded in her chest, hands shaking against its hold against her head, blood seeping into her hair from her torn knuckles, but her mind was anywhere else but there. Her vision was disfigured, as if she were looking through a fish-eye lens. He wasn't there. He wasn't real. Tears kissed her cheeks as her eyes squeezed shut again, body rocking itself against the ground like a child cradles itself. Trying to breathe was like trying to breathe while underwater, impossible, with every breath she sucked in, every cry came out louder, harder. Beating down on her until there wasn't a thing left in its wake.

It left as quickly as it came, leaving her a shaking pitiful mess with blood caked into her hair and bleeding knuckles. Her eyes opened slowly, lungs burning as she continued to suck in breaths as if it was water and she was a fish. She flinched as she heard the sound of someone knocking on the door, catching her off guard and creating a spasm of panic once more at the mess she created.

"J-Just a minute!" She called, cursing herself at the fact her voice croaked, she wiped her nose with the sleeve of her school robes, before slipping her wand out of her pocket. She grimaced looking at the cut wounds against her knuckles, running in jagged lines and cross crossing each other, dried blood caking against her skin as new blood slowly trickled out. She was never the best at healing spells, but she mumbled Episkey all the same. Not bothering to pay attention if the wounds completely healed, she vanished the blood before fixing the broken shards of the mirror. Just as she turned to look at herself another knock came from the door, along with a threat of breaking the door down if she didn't open. Grimacing, as her heart pounded louder she opened the door without a second thought, freezing as she came face to face with a brunet boy she hadn't faced since the carriages.

"Finally, was someone dy—" his words trailed off as he realized who was in front of him. While his lips titled into a smile, that quickly vanished as well as the current state was held in. Dried tears coating flushed cheeks, a small scar tracing the eyebrow that he knew for a fact wasn't scarred before. Her eyes blew wide and body shuddered every few minutes like she was stepping out of a freezer. She watched as his eyes ran to her head then, noting the dried blood smeared against her blonde locks, but before he could question her current state, her arms were around him.

She felt him stumble back in surprise as her arms wrapped themselves around the back of her neck. Her toes barely breached the ground as she held onto him, as if he was the oxygen and she could hardly breath. Holding onto one normal thing that stayed with her over the break of pure insanity. After a break where everyone broke around her besides that one thing, him. She clutched onto him like a lifeline, and when he hugged her back, she felt her body come back to earth.

"Winnie, what's going on?" He whispered, full of concern as she shook her head, holding onto him tighter. His arms moved tighter against her waist, holding her to him as she squeezed her eyes shut. This time she saw no red eyes, just her and him standing in a field with a Hummingbird and a Serpent shaking around them. She didn't wish to talk, though she knew reasonably she had to answer, she looked like she walked off the bloody war ground when really she was just walking out of a bathroom. But she felt as if for days all she did was answer questions that she didn't know the answer to, she couldn't give him an answer he would want, especially not now. So she settled for silence, for comfort that she lacked.

"Theo, I thought you were going to—" her comfort vanished just as quickly as it came, for a voice she knew like the back of her hand surrounded her bubble and popped it. Throwing her back into reality, her eyes shot open, meeting with a pair of bright blue ones. Cordelia Flint stood just six feet away from them, her school robes on and violet bags sticking out from under her eyes. Winnie felt Theo's hold on her slacken, as her feet met the floor once again. Her arms falling to his arms as she continued to stare at Cordelia. If the male knew of anything that was going on between them, he didn't show it.

"Oh yeah, I was going to, but," he trailed off, apparently he wasn't even able to make a joke, which was ironic considering he made a joke out of every possible thing. But this, this felt far beyond a joking matter, this felt like life and death watching each other. Winnie's fingers clenched against Theo's robes unwillingly, holding onto him like an anchor, she suspected he figured this out, for his arm stayed resting on her waist. She didn't dare look at him though, instead she kept her eyes trained on her cousin who was doing the same.

Cordelia Flint was a person very few knew, at least the real her. Winnie knew deep down she cared too much for those around her, she loved her family more than anything else in the world, she would go down in a whirl of blood if it meant keeping them alive. She cared so much her heart was almost always bleeding, it was one of the things Winnie admired about her cousin. Her ability to love unconditionally, and it was that fact that made her speak next.

"Lia," it was a nickname Winnie had made for her so many years ago, when they still wore sundresses and had their year twirled in pigtails. Back when the world was just them and nothing awful could ever touch them. She watched as Cordelia flinched slightly, her eyes hardened as she stood taller, almost as if she was bracing herself not to react, not to fall. Winnie took notice in the way her cousin's eyes trailed to the spot on her hair where blood sat, bright crimson against platinum blonde hair. A sharp contrast that stood out, almost begging for your attention, it was hard to miss. "Can we please talk?" Winnie whispered, daring to take a step closer as Cordelia's eyes faltered to her.

It was like she was falling through the air, plummeting a thousand feet with a robe dangling from a mere inches away from her fingertips. She reached, perpiled her body upwards to grasp onto it, even as her lungs screamed even as gravity tugged its own rope on her, pulling her down just as furiously as she tried to stop the fall. That's what watching Cordelia now felt like to Winnie, watching as blue eyes stared endlessly into her face. Flashing with grief and emotion, Winnie's fingers grazed the ropes edge the same time Cordelia took a step forward. But just as quickly as that step forward took place, they each fell two steps backwards. Cordelia's eyes flickered to Theo instead, leaving Winnie behind in the cold to fall a victim to gravity.

"Right, we're almost at Hogwarts so I'll wait for you at the carriages," Cordelia spoke sternly, void of emotion besides the flicker of a smile towards Theo. Without sending another glance towards the blonde, she left. Winnie thought her knees would've given out if it wasn't for the fact Theo was still holding her closely, her fingers just clenched tighter around his robe, crinkling it in a way she knew might annoy him. But she wasn't aware of anything, just Cordelia leaving her behind with nothing but a word.

"Winnie, what—" the sound of his voice brought her back to reality quicker than expected, her eyes blinking as she quickly removed her hands from his robes. Fingers twisting her ring as she blinked furiously, willing herself to control her breathing despite the lump that grew in her throat.

"I should go, my..." she paused, sucking on her front teeth as she trailed her eyes up to his own. Watching mossy green watch her so closely she wondered if he could see every lie she ever told the past few days. Not willing to let herself be seen, she pushed everything until it felt like a simple tear in her heart that would surely burst by tonight. "I should go." She nodded, speaking more clearly as she cleared her throat. Leaving to turn around just as his hand clasped around her wrist. Her body physically tensed then, waiting for the questions she couldn't answer to come from his mouth.

Instead she heard nothing. Turning her head to the side, she watched as his hand brought her wrist up between them, his fingers lifting the sleeve of her shirt and robes up around her arm. He dropped her wrist softly then, his eyes landing on the spot on her head, before his wand was pulled out of his pocket. Almost instantly her body flinched in a way that she truly hated, memories of the last time a wand was pointed at her so suddenly flashed in her mind, causing her to squeeze her eyes shut and to recoil in on herself.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm going to take that blood out of your hair, I figure you don't want anyone to ask about it," he spoke softly, his free hand coming down to touch the spot where her ring sat. Creating a blanket of calmness over her as she relaxed, eyes slowly opening to look at him as she nodded. She watched as his eyebrows drawn down on his forehead, concentration pelting across his face. It only took a second for him to pull his wand away, smiling down at her softly as he slipped his wand into his pocket. "There, all new." It was a half -hearted attempt to sound kind or comforting, she knew this, but managed to only welcome it with a nod and a quiet thank you before she turned again.

This time she managed to get only a few feet before he spoke again, "you know you can talk to me right?" Her head turned to look at him over her shoulder, watching him stand with his hands in his pockets, head titled as he watched her. To say she was overwhelmed was a vast understatement, and a reply like that from someone she spent the better half of her life hating sent an odd wave of comfort down her body.

If he was looking for a reply, he didn't get one, well not in the form of words at least. She simply managed to offer him a smallest smile, a smile in a way that clearly showed how exhausted her body was, but a smile nevertheless. It was the most she could manage right now, and she hoped it was enough. She truly didn't know if she could handle another disappointment.

EDITED APRIL 25TH 2024.