𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝑺𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒔 (𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒐 𝑹𝒊𝒅𝒅𝒍𝒆 𝒙 𝒐𝒄)

𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐕 - 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒃𝒚 𝒔𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒚, 𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑬𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒂. 𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒚 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒌𝒆, 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝑨𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒂 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑷𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒚 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈.

𝑬𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒓𝒂'𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒗:

I sighed, getting up from the bed, tired of waiting for them to wake up.

I was reading my book but I've been sitting there in silence reading it for over an hour, so I couldn't wait any longer.

I quietly got ready, just putting some casual clothes on, brushed my hair and teeth and put some light makeup on, my everyday makeup.

I walked down the stairs of the dorms, entering the Common Room.

"Hey, I was waiting for you." Theodore says looking at me from a couch.

"Me? Why?" I ask.

"Are you busy?" he asks.

"No, not at all." I say, sitting next to him.

"How are you?" he asks.

"Fine, what about you?" I ask.

"I'm good." he says.

"What do you need?" I ask.

"It's just that we haven't spent any time together this last week. We haven't had the brother-sister talk, you know?" he says.

"What's the 'brother-sister' talk?" I ask, laughing, looking at the fireplace.

"How are you?" he asks.

I looked at him with furrowed eyebrows only to see him looking dead serious at me.

"Again? You already asked that." I say.

"Now for real. Look, I care about you. You saying that you're fine doesn't convince me. I need to make sure you actually are." he says.

"Well, I'm okay. Do you need anything or...?" I ask, just knowing where this conversation was going.

"Are you kidding? To start, you haven't eaten practically anything since you got here. Did you know Tom already knows about it?" he asks, looking at me dead in the eye.

I scoffed and looked away.

"That's not true." I say.

"Oh it's not? Then tell me, please, what was your dinner yesterday? Or lunch? Or dinner the day before?" he asks.

I sat there, not daring to look at him, just looking at the fireplace.

"You want everyone to know about it? Is that it? You want to end in a hospital bed because you don't eat? Huh? Ellora, I'm worried about you, even if I don't say it out loud." he says.

"Okay, thanks. But I'm okay, really. I have eaten, you just didn't see. Also, no one knows about it." I say.

"Oh, no one knows? That's probably the reason Tom asked to talk to me and tell me he noticed it too. It's most likely only our imagination." he says.

"Just forget it, okay? There's nothing to worry about." I say.

"Nothing to worry about? Ellora, you haven't eaten anything, you've been losing weight pretty quickly, I noticed it, all right? Just because I don't say it it doesn't mean I don't notice. We don't talk much about that stuff but I'm still your brother, you know? I care for you." he says.