I Know The End {Fred Weasley, ACT I}

Chapter 4- Percy (I.)

Click, click, click.

The corridor was so much colder than the Great Hall had been. Eleanor could see her breath pouring out in small wisps as she walked quickly down the hall, maneuvering around happy couples. She wanted to get as much distance between herself and the hall as humanly possible. She could feel the tears she had been holding back stinging in her eyes. She'd have to find an empty classroom soon or she would explode into sobs right smack in the middle of the school for anyone to see.

Click, click, click.

Her heels were so loud. If Peeves heard her coming, he would certainly rush after her, making matters much worse. Her heel caught the hem of her emerald dress and she tripped, catching herself just in time on the wall. She could no longer hold it in. She staggered, blurry eyed, into the first classroom on her left.

The moment she closed the door behind herself, a desperate sob escaped past her lips. She pressed her hands to her face, tears streaming behind her fingers. Blindly guiding herself through the room, she stumbled over to the desk at the very front. She was finding it hard to keep herself upright, her whole body now shaking with every sob. Her arms collapsed upon the desk, her legs folding beneath her. She shrank slowly to the floor, hugging her chest tight. A part of her worried that now that she had started crying, she would never be able to stop.

Everything hurt. Everything. Her throat felt constricted from stifling her cries for so long. Her eyes stung under mascara laced tears. She was worried she would puke if she kept on crying in this manner. Her heart felt like it had been ripped from her body, torn into a million, tiny pieces, and then carelessly stowed back inside her chest. Every particle of her being seemed so weak. Physically, she wasn't sure how she would make it back to her dormitory, not that she was keen to go back anytime soon. Emotionally, she could no longer endure how heartbroken she felt. A small part of herself hated that she was crying this hard over a boy. Over a stupid, stupid boy.

He danced with her all night, she thought miserably. All night. There had been no compliments, no requests for a dance, not even a single look in my general direction. He must love her. Certainly, I should have seen this coming. I mean they've been fucking all year! But he'd been fucking every girl in the sixth year, hadn't he? How could I have expected him to decide definitively on her. Of course, he hadn't been fucking me, so why I ever considered myself an option, who's to say.

She had never felt so stupid, so worthless, in her entire life. She hadn't even wanted to go to the Yule Ball. Certainly not if she wasn't going with him. Ron had been the one that convinced her to even go in the end.

Show him up! He had said.

Well, it looked like she hadn't shown anyone up at all. She wanted to rip her goddamn dress off her body and throw it off the top of the astronomy tower.

"Eleanor?"

Eleanor jumped up off the ground, stumbling backwards into the desk she had been leaning on. Her eyes blurry, she wasn't sure who had called her name. She heard the classroom door close behind the intruder as she wiped tears off her face furiously, trying to regain some resemblance of composure.

"Oh, hi Percy," she said weakly, after clearing her vision.

Percy stood at the door, surveying her with discomfort. He walked slowly in her direction, passing through the web of student desks. At last, he stopped behind a desk directly opposite her. He rapped it with his knuckles a few times, still looking quite uneasy. Finally, he cleared his throat.

"Are you okay?"

"Mhm." That was the best she could muster, as she choked back a dry sob. Her sadness was slowly fading to embarrassment. "What are you doing here?"