𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 | f. w

viii. family matters*

chapter eight
FAMILY MATTERS

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This chapter contains mentions of self harm, blood, emotional abuse and trauma. Please read with caution.

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» » IT WAS LIKE NOTHING had changed between them. As if time was merely a made up concept that didn't seem to apply to them. Because although it had been four years since they last saw each other, it still felt like yesterday. In some weird way, the universe was pulling them towards each other once again, and history was made insignificant. They spent nearly every day together, revisiting old but happy memories they'd shared and catching up on the things they'd missed out on while being apart for so long.

It was odd, but in a good way, and it somehow took them right back to their Hogwarts days. It was as if they were seventeen again, roaming the halls, on lookout for Filch after having pulled some hilarious prank on the caretaker. At least it was hilarious to them.

Of course, them growing closer, still didn't take away from the fact that Edith had been keeping a massive secret all those years. A secret that seemed to have been the very thing that convinced her to leave in the first place. A secret that threatened to ruin their relationship once more.

She loved him.

Before leaving Diagon Alley four years ago, she had finally admitted to herself that she was in love with him. Perhaps she had always been in love with him, she was just too afraid of the truth to look deeper within herself. She was scared — terrified — that her love would be the very thing that would ruin him. She had seen, first hand, the cause and effect of what happened when her father walked out on her and her mother. It broke the both of them, and she wasn't about to do the same thing to him. Not after everything they'd been through.

Coming back there meant that she had been given a second chance, a new possibility at making things right. At proving to him that she wasn't going to leave again, and that she finally understood what her heart had been trying to tell her for so long.

Unfortunately, that didn't automatically mean that she knew what was going on between the two of them now. All she knew, was that they were in a good place, perhaps one of the best in a very long time, and that she didn't want to spoil it by doing something wrong. Something, like admitting her feelings, feelings she had been carrying around since forever. Feelings she never stopped having.

So whenever they locked eyes and she found herself blushing under his gaze, she'd quickly turn her eyes elsewhere. Whenever she accidentally brushed her skin against his, she'd pull away, pretending that it never happened, and when she caught herself staring a little too long, she'd clear her throat, moving on to talking about something else. It made more sense to her to act this way, because he could never know. She couldn't allow herself to tell him how she truly felt. Not when they were in such a good place.

Because they were, in a good place. Such a good place that Edith had even moved her things into his flat above the shop, so that she could help with restocking, the cash register, and other things that needed doing.

They were best friends again, and she wasn't going to let anything get in the way of it staying so.

"You okay?", Fred asked, as they were sitting by the fire after a very long and hectic day tending to costumers. Edith was staring intensely into the blaze, fidgeting with the silver ring upon her finger. "You seem a bit—I don't know—off".