𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐒, james potter

00. prologue

HE STANDS IN front of her, glistening tears streaming down his soft cheeks. She yearns to rub her thumbs underneath his eyes. Yearns to take away the pain for him that she is unable to take away from herself.

"Why?" he asks, his voice so broken that she almost wishes she could take back the words. "Why do we have to break up?"

She can't even look at his face right now. It is so dejected and defeated that she can feel her own heart crumbling.

She stares down at her feet. "We just do. I'm sorry, okay?" She wills her voice not to break. If he hears the heartbreak in her voice, he will know that she does not want this any more than he does. But she has to end this now. It is not fair to either him or her.

"I want to know the reason." He is adamant, as if he knows she is somehow messing with him.

She hates herself for what she is about to say. "We don't work. We never did. This was just supposed to be a casual thing. It's gone on long enough. It doesn't make sense to continue this. Whatever it was."

There is a pinch between his brows. "How can you say that?" he questions softly. He shakes his head lightly. "It was never a casual thing. It was real. It has always been real."

She is on the verge of tears. So close to crying that it seems nearly impossible to keep going with this careless facade she is putting on. But she has to. For him.

"No, it hasn't. It's not." She stares at him with a blank face, her eyes void of any emotion. She reaches her hands behind her neck and unclasps the necklace she has worn every day for nearly a year. She observes it one last time before she holds it out to him. He doesn't reach out to grab it. Instead, he looks at her with a pleading look on his face.

"Don't do this," he whispers.

She grabs his hand, ignoring the sparks, and places the necklace in it. She knows that if she keeps it, she will end up coming back to him. She can't.

"Please don't stop me. I'm leaving."

Her body turns, but before she can even take a step, a hand curls around her wrist. Warmth spreads through her body despite how cold the temperature is. It is so easy, then. So easy in that moment to just wrap her arms around his body and plant her face in his chest and never move again.

"Don't leave. I'm in love with you."

His voice cracks.

She cannot hold it back anymore.

The tears are falling before she can stop them. Gently, she pulls her hand away from him without looking back. He calls for her, several times. She doesn't turn back for him. Even when she hears his heartwrenching sobs echoing through the walls. She does her best not to let out a sound until she reaches a safe distance away from him. Tucking herself behind a corner and hiding herself within the shadows, the tears start falling and they don't stop for the next year.

Sometimes, she wonders, what would have happened if she had just turned back. If she had just told him she loved him too.