Obsidian & Bronze {Fred Weasley}

36. Through his eyes

Fred POV

I had never seen such agony. I have never witnessed such relentless torment swimming in the depth of someone's eyes. I have never seen such pain sketched into the contortions of someone's achingly hollow face.

Of course this face would have been easier to view had the mirror not been shattered, missing fragments of shining reflection lost in the sink, or on the floor. But despite this inconvenience, my reflection was clear enough to see that I could note one very important factor.

I had no idea who was looking back at me.

I don't think I had recognised that boy for a long time. Except, of course, when I was with Ardelle, because that girl pulled me from a darkness I wasn't even sure how I wound up in. She tore my life apart and pieced it back together so seamlessly that you would have never known it was broken.

But now, those seams are showing, the delicate threads she wound around the things I possessed no knowledge on how to handle have snapped, or rather I snapped them, and these gaping holes are invading their way into each element of my life, it becoming only a matter of time before Ardelle is consumed by them also.

And I know that damage, I felt that damage, and I refuse to let Ardelle become victim to my mistakes.

Maybe letting her go, and, in turn, tearing myself apart, was the only way to ensure her pieces stayed together. Breaking myself to keep her whole, in a tragic hero kind of way I suppose. A villain masking empath.

But I was the villain, wasn't I? In this story of our lives. Boy meets girl, boy gains girl's trust after she makes it clear she is scared to let him in, boy and girl fall in love, boy leaves, girl is broken.

I did that. I wrote that story, or altered it to be more precise, because it wasn't always heading the way it happened to end, but my mistakes modified what should have been a love story, but instead is quite the opposite. It was still a love story I suppose, just not one that ends with a big spring wedding and a happily ever after.

"Not every single moment will come with an H.E.A" (happily ever after) Hermione once told me. She'd always been great at coaching me through the hard shit, she never make a fuss of how much she helped, knowing full well how it would wind Ron up to see her spending copious amounts of time with me, but nonetheless I owe a lot to Miss Granger, and I was daft to think that this time would differ.

"Can I come in?" Her melodic and gentle tone whispered in the crack of the door to my dormitory, where I was laying flat on my back, sprawled across the floor, as I absentmindedly threw a ball of screwed up parchment in the air, just to catch it and then repeat the action over again.

"Only if you have chocolate" I only half joked, still my eyes fixated on the makeshift ball I threw into the air again.

"It's your lucky day Weasley" Hermione chuckled sweetly, tossing me a chocolate frog and catching my unawares when a purple box landed in my outstretched palm as opposed to the ball of parchment.

I remained silent, sitting myself up and leaning back against the edge of my bed, pulling my knees to my chest and unwrapping the chocolate, slipping the card into my bedside drawer for Ron.

"Why are you not in Defence against the Dark Arts with George?" Hermione asked, coming to sit beside me, mirroring my position as she pulled her own legs up, purposefully knocking her knee with mine.

"I'm being expelled in a week, only a damned fool would still show up to classes" I explained with a scoff, running my hand through my disheveled hair and down my face, biting into the chocolate Hermione had given me.