He'd seen her about the gardens, running her nimble fingertips along the cattails beside the pond. Her hair was down, falling in waves about her face, and he was never able to capture her true beauty through his camera lens. It was a shame, seeing such purity walk barefoot in the grass, her frail almost pale skin reflecting even the dimmest of the sun's rays. Only her hair contrasted her frame, the dark shiny locks that fell past her shoulders.
He began visiting the gardens more frequently, engrossed in the way she absorbed the earth and sky around her, the universe calling her name through the song of the birds above. He'd sit and watch her amongst the water lilies, legs stretched in front of her as she laid back on her palms. It was only this time he noticed she hid her face further than just behind the streams of her hair, and he pondered over the way the large plastic sunglasses set rested atop her nose appeared to swallow half her features behind their dark lenses. Her elusiveness told a story only she knew inside her mind, but Colin longed to gaze into her eyes.
Days turned to weeks, ending perpetually the same every time he watched her descend the worn, stone steps and disappear behind a wall of blossom trees. He didn't hide is position, and she had to have known he was there, had to of felt his presence. Colin worried he came across too strongly at times, never being one to sit back in the shadows, instead leaping head first into the blind sun. And yet, she didn't appear to mind.
Within those weeks she would prolong her sits on the pond's edge, peering every so often over her shoulder behind those ridiculous sunglasses; her expression minimal. She was like a movie star and he her paparazzi, unable to allow her a moment's peace as he stole her precious seclusion. She became his peace, and would continue to linger until she prohibited him otherwise. Colin wasn't sure when the almost obsession consumed him, and he winced at the revelation of how he must appear to her. Still, she did not shove him away.
Weeks turned into months, her visits becoming shorter and farther between. Her already frail frame becoming paler, the sunglasses appearing larger around her gaunt features. Even her hair's shine appeared to fade in places. And yet, she was still just as beautiful as the morning dew that coated the grass at her feet and the cattails under her fingers.
She would leave him signs of flower trails or footprints. A part of him aching to follow where they led, but he swore he wouldn't probe her further than their innocent encounters in the gardens. She was like a butterfly, her wings too fragile to touch but too beautiful to look away, and he sat atop a rock, no longer needing his camera to capture the goddess she was. His mind already memorizing the lines of her face.
Months turned into the following year, the sun no longer bathing the gardens with its light. He gazed upon an empty bank, a dragonfly hovering over the surface of the water. The cattails once caressed by light, fragile fingers, lay overgrown and wild, the pond growing dark and murky. The grass had faded from a lush green to thinned out brown, dry dead stems and petals lay forgotten atop the blades that once produced the most beautiful of water lilies.
He should have figured it out ages ago. Should have seen the signs. They were all there, all on display for him to see playing like a vintage film behind the lenses of plastic sunglasses. Her body was tired. She was tired, and she hid the truth from the world for as long as the universe would allow her. He still wasn't prepared to lose the gem amongst the stones. Wasn't quite ready to see the rain wash away the last of the purity this world could provide.
He'd seen the papers. Heard the news of the Malfoy loss and a son left without his mother. Colin felt sick himself, nauseous from the vast memories swimming wildly in his mind. Astoria was one of a kind. Sweet, genuine. And Colin felt he'd never feel that tug from the earth again. The connection he never dreamed imaginable between two people.
In the beginning, his selfish ways caught the better of him, vowing to keep his photographs of her for himself. But one look at that young blond boy changed everything. That minimal stare as he sat by the water's edge amongst the dying grass and dried up leaves. He wouldn't. Couldn't deny him that sweet memory. The final stages of a goddess ascending back towards the stars. Astoria was no longer tired, but shone like the star she had always been. Sparkling behind thick sunglasses.