the girl with all of the choices

n i n e t y - f o u r

9812 words

september twenty-sixth- recollections

~ Addison ~

The Astronomy Tower looked different. It was the old and abandoned one surrounding me, the same one that Draco had fixed up for me following the Yule Ball. Our spot. 

Except, while all the furniture he had brought up there was still there, everything was white. There was light streaming in through every window, my eye catching on the balcony where we shared our first kiss.

I started over towards it, placing my hands on the iron of the balcony when I arrived. I expected to look out on the grounds and see the Black Lake and the Quidditch pitch in the distance, but instead, I saw nothing but white.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps from behind me, so I turned. What I saw deceived me.

"C-Ced?" I questioned incredulously. "Is that you? ... What are you doing here?"

He came to a stop over by the sofa I had come to know well, his hand resting on the back as he looked at me and spoke.

"Hey Addie," he grinned. "I missed you."

He was holding a bouquet of flowers, so I inquired. "You brought me flowers?" He nodded, extending them out to me, a bouquet of brilliant purple petals that I took from him and admired. "Lilacs, my favourite. But, why are you here Ced?"

"I wanted to come say hi," he smiled running his hand through his hair, a habit he had developed during fourth year. "You're putting everyone through quite the doozy right now."

"Am I? I had no idea. What happened?"

His expression darkened slightly, but his smirk was still there. Warm, inviting, everything he had been before he left. "You were with the Carrows, remember? Detention. They did some really awful things to you. I've been debating coming back as a ghost just to haunt them for the rest of their days," he chuckled. "I'm supposed to ask if you want to come with me."

I shook my head in confusion. "Come with you? Where?"

"Wherever it is that we go after," he replied with a shrug. "It's different for everyone, with a few general overarching themes. I'm sure you'd be with me, though."

I didn't know what he was talking about exactly, but my body filled with the sensation that I shouldn't go with him. 

"I'm sorry," I exhaled. "I can't."

"Why not?" he asked, his voice tinged with hurt. "I'm your best friend."

I looked around at the strange version of the familiar space as my thoughts filled with memories of my Slytherin. It was him. I didn't know where I was, but Draco wasn't here. I couldn't go anywhere without him.

"I can't leave him," I explained, my voice breathless. "I don't know what this is, but I know I shouldn't go with you. I have to choose, I think, and I choose him, Ced. I choose Draco."

He deliberated for a minute, the hurt from his voice revealing itself in full in his expression. "You choose him over me? Really?"

"You've been gone, Ced. It's been two years without you. Not a day goes by that I don't think of you, but too much has happened. I can't choose you. He needs me."

"You choose him," he repeated, his face dropping in defeat. 

"I choose him."

He paused a moment before continuing. "You're supposed to come with me, you know. I don't think they'll like it if I go back without you."