Echo | Harry Potter - George Weasley

Chapter 42: The Quidditch World Cup

Year 4 at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Arms wrapped around her knees, Shaye sat at the top of her household staircase, looking down at her parents below. They were standing beside the front door looking at one another, the glints of emotion in their eyes saying more than words ever could. Through tear-soaked eyelashes, Shaye watched as her father hugged her mother goodbye and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

Elise sighed softly, savouring the intimacy before she grabbed Dorian's black jacket from the coat rack and handed it to him. Dorian slipped his arms into the jacket slowly before grabbing his briefcase and clearing his throat. 

"Goodbye," Dorian spoke so quietly that is was barely even audible to Elise, who was right in front of him.

Shaye opened her mouth to speak, to say something, but she couldn't. The words caught in her throat and she pressed her lips into a tight line. Instead, she hugged her legs harder to her chest and wiped her tears away.

Dorian looked up at his daughter for a brief moment. He didn't say anything either. Then, with a curt nod that could have meant a million different things, he opened the front door and disappeared. As soon as the front door shut, Shaye let out a gut-wrenching sob and ran down the stairs. Elise tried to stop her, to embrace her and never let go, but she didn't move quickly enough.

Shaye ripped the front door open and stepped out into a world of darkness. For miles and miles around her, all she saw was black. No houses, no cars, no grass, no sky ... nothing but black. 

"Dad!" Shaye screamed into the nothingness. 

Dorian didn't answer. He was gone. The silence was deafening. The darkness was blinding.

Shaye dropped to her knees and began to cry harder than she ever had before. Her mind filled with all of the things she wished she had said to her father before he had left. When all the sentiments began to spill out at once, they caught in her throat. Shaye began to cough and sputter as her own words began to suffocate her.

She gasped for breath and clawed at her throat but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't fill her lungs with air. The darkness was closing in on her, squeezing her tighter and tighter, trapping her from the outside while her gnawing thoughts trapped her from the inside.

Shaye's mouth hung open like a fish out of water as she gasped for air. She choked and gasped and clawed and prayed and-

Shaye shot up in bed, her body soaked with sweat and her breathing shallow and ragged. Grabbing fistfuls of her bed covers, she looked around at her surroundings, her eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness of the night before she began to recognize the familiar layout of Ginny's room.

Across the room, Ginny and Hermione were in their respective beds, fast asleep. The sight of them grounded Shaye to reality and she reminded herself that it had only been a nightmare— well, most of it had.

Lying back down, her heart rate slowly returning to a normal rhythm, Shaye rolled over and tried to push the thoughts about the day her dad left from her mind. She couldn't help it though; the memory kept returning like an annoying song you just couldn't forget, no matter how hard you tried. 

Shaye had only been home for summer break for about a week when her father had announced that he was leaving. He claimed it was for work but whenever Shaye asked him about any details, he dodged the question or completely ignored her altogether. In fact, Dorian barely spoke a single word to Shaye during the week they spent together unless prompted by Elise.

Before Shaye knew it, he was walking out the door. There were so many things she had wanted to tell her father before he had left but she hadn't, and with his return date unknown, she had no idea when she would finally get the chance to tell him how sorry she was.