AN: After over 100 hits and one review, I am posting the sequel to Ardency. Please go check it out before reading this, or you may be a bit lost. Again, this is a drabble.
Disclaimer: Unless Santa got lost, I still don't own Harry Potter, glee, Pirates of the Caribbean, or Mark Salling. But I did buy glee: The Music, Volume 2 yesterday, if it counts for anything.
It's painful. Everyday, I see her with him, planning her life with him, and it hurts. Still. I wonder if the pain will ever go away. I seriously doubt it; I've held these feelings for years and will go to the grave with them.
I considered telling her how I feel that day at the bridal shop, but I wasn't brave enough. She loves Ron like a lover, and me like a brother. I just couldn't bring myself to mess with her life anymore than I already have.
She was Petrified because I couldnt figure it out fast enough. She almost died because of a vision of mine. She was tortured because she wanted to help me destroy Voldemort. And it still bothers me how horrible a person I must be to let these things keep happening to her.
She never went to find her parents after the war. It kills her, I know it. She's told me of how she wanted her parents to be at her wedding, her daddy giving her away. But now...now she's practically an orphan. So she would always come to me to speak about them, being her only friend in a similar situation. I never minded it—it gave me an even stronger connection to her.
Tonight I had planned to look through some old photographs of us and drink away my sorrow. It was a tradition I have for myself when the pain of loving her gets to be too much. But my plans changed the second she knocked at my door, her eyes puffy and red with tears.
She's crying, just crying, and it pains me to see her so upset. I lead her to the living room and we sit on the couch. She wraps her arms around me and crying into my shirt, and I hold onto her, stroking her soft curls.
It takes her an hour for her cries to fade away enough to speak. I conjure a tissue to wipe her face with, and she accepts it with a teary smile.
"They died," she whispers. "They're dead, and they're not coming back." It takes me a minute to grasp what she's saying. Her parents. I pull her into anther hug, and she starts crying again.
"How? I mean—how did you find out?"
"The Australian Ministry. As a favor, they've been keeping tabs on them and reporting back to me." I nod, and she continues. "There was an accident. Someone side-smashed them. It happened last week, but I only found out an hour ago. It's just so..."
"It's okay, Mione. Everything will be okay. I'm still here with you." She starts crying again, and I hold onto her as she gets it out. She'll feel better afterward.
I realize that she came to me instead of her fiance. The wedding is three weeks and five days away, and she's choosing the comfort of a best friend instead of her husband-to-be. My heart swells to the breaking point with emotion. She's my best friend, and I love her, and the constant pain I feel is worth it. If only I wasn't grief that brings her close to me.