Always

Chapter IX. Truth revealed

"OH SHIT!!!", I heard Draco, Blaise and Enzo say in unison.

I fell to the floor.

Raising a hand to my mouth, cleaning it with the back of it. It came out smeared with blood. I looked up and Theo was there with clenched fists, jaw locked, bared teeth and eyes protruding from its sockets. Did he just fucking punch me?

"She almost did last night you fucking asshole!", he shouted, staring me down. My eyes widened in confusion. My mouth agape.

What? What was he talking about?

"I don't know what the fuck you told her last night but she stormed out of the Three Broomsticks without knowing there was a storm coming. I thought she was going back to school. To the dungeons, to her dorm. She didn't... She was nowhere to be found. So, I went out to Hogsmead again to look for her. I found her passed out, completely soaked, her body freezing cold on the stone ground of a garden just outside the village." Theo closed his eyes and shook his head, like if that image of her pained him deeply and he was trying to erased it of his mind. And then he added.

"If I had taken longer to find her there... If I had arrived a little later... I don't know what could have happened to her."

Guilt. Overwhelming, crushing and palpable guilt washed over me. 

Bloody hell... What have I done?

I was starting to feel so sick I wanted to vomit. My hand flew towards my chest, clutching the shirt between my fingers. The pain there was unbearable. The pain I felt when Valdemort was beating and torturing was not even close to the ache I was feeling now. It spread all over my body. My chest was rising and falling fast in shallow breaths. I couldn't breathe. The air had been sucked right out of my lungs.

Slowly and clumsy, I got up onto my feet and grabbed Theo by his shirt collar, pushing him against the wall on his back. My whole body was shaking.

"Where is she? Is she ok?" I could hear the panic and desperation in my voice and when he didn't answer me, I pushed him again against the wall, harder now. "IS. SHE. OK?"

I felt a hand touching my shoulder.

"She's ok now. Theo took her to the Hospital Wing. Nurse Pomfrey discharged her yesterday afternoon. She has been in her dorm resting since." Sage's voice was quiet but also filled with sorrow. "She's ok!"

I unhurriedly released Theo and stumble back, sitting on one of the locker room benches. I leaned forward, placing my elbows on my knees. My fingers went through my hair, my head bowed.

I almost lost her! For good!

She leaving school was one thing but... It hurt, yes! But knowing she could have di... I forced down the lump that was stuck in my throat. Merlin, I couldn't even think about that word. A world without her was not a world in which I wanted to keep on living. I was lost inside my thoughts when Theo's voice brought me out of it.

"I'm really tired of this... Is time for you to know the truth!"

"Theo, no... Anna...", Sage warned him.

"I don't care if she's going to be angry with me Sage." Theo shouted towards her; frustration evident in every single word that he said. "They're both hurting. They are both in a spiral descent, just shadows of they used to be."

I shook my head from side to side, trying to gather my thoughts. My head tilted hup up and I looked between Sage and Theo, who were staring at each other attentively. Behind them, closer to the door, Draco, Blaise and Enzo watched the scene unfold, paying attention to every word and every movement.