Flower Crowns For The Broken

forget me not

December 5th, 1976

-Celia-

Celia Miriam Valencia was no stranger to misery. 

From her mother's lack of love to the world around her seeing her as a monster, the girl has experienced her fair share of anguish. Nothing matched the emptiness she's felt for the past nine days. She wasn't regretting her actions per se, she still believed they were all better off without her, it was just that her soul hurt every second she spent without them. Yes, she missed them all dreadfully but couldn't bring herself to force the misery of her existence onto them any longer. 

It didn't help that the only company she couldn't hide from was her three dormmates that were terribly cruel. The girl hated labeling people with such harsh terms but their once cold treatment had turned frigid and pierced her heart with every snide comment and ghastly name. She'd made a bad habit of falling asleep in the common room, slipping into slumber as she wished for the crushed velvet of her favorite chair in Gryffindor. 

It was about to be dinner time and the majority of her house had made their way to the Great Hall. She would wait until she was sure all the food had been sent out to make her way to the kitchens. As she watched the clock tick by a loud banging on the barrel door coming from outside rang through the abandoned common room. 

Somehow she just knew... though the shouts confirmed it.

"CELIA MIRIAM! YOU WILL OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW! THIS HAS GONE ON LONG ENOUGH! YOU WILL LET US IN!"

Tommy's voice at such an octave carrying such bite startled her. While she suspected Tommy would fight her decision, the notion that he wasn't alone surprised her. More banging sounded and the fear that somehow the Andet boy would break in a literal magic door caused her to get up and crack the barrel open. 

Celia blinked in shock at the four furious faces of her once best friends.

"Has the blonde made you lose brain cells?" The Slytherin snapped as James slid into the doorway, blocking the barrel so she wouldn't be able to shut it on them. Tommy's angry face turned vulnerable as the pain in his voice became more apparent. "You abandoned me. We promised we'd never do that to one another. You promised me, Li. You broke that promise."

His eyes brimmed with tears as she shook her head, "I didn't want to hurt you, none of you."

"But you did, Puffball. You did hurt us." James Potter had never sounded so sad. She'd sat with him as he cried over his fears of the future, that with the war looming the people he loved would be hurt and there was nothing he could do about it. She'd held his hand as he spoke of how he'd never earn Lily's love and debated on if he should let her go or not. There had been many times when James had expressed his sadness, but the genuine hurt laced in his words hit her hard. 

"I am sorry, I just thought..."

"That we'd be better off without your problems?" Sirius asked gently. Her nod was all he needed before stepping forward and pulling her into a tight embrace. His whispers resided deep within her as she circled her arms around his waist. "You don't have to carry this by yourself. You have always shouldered our troubles, let us return the favor." 

A choked sob tore through her throat as her grip tightened. The thought that they'd want to stay with her knowing the baggage she carried never crossed her mind. She thought in a way, she had them all fooled, in her mind they had no idea how deep her misery ran, how consuming it was. In reality, they didn't care. They saw her, really saw her, yet they still care. They cared for her anyway, they wanted her around, problems and all.