I know you've seen the rough times, hell I've seen them too. But I ain't seen anyone face them half as well as you. ~ Starkid

Get Back Up

"Hey, what's up?" Susan said as Hannah gloomily threw herself onto the couch.

"Nothing, I'm just tired." Hannah mumbled into the armrest. Susan looked disapprovingly at her.

"Liar," she said simply, "What's really wrong?"

"It's nothing, really. I'm fine." Hannah said, rolling onto her back on the couch.

"Maybe I can help." Susan tried

"It's got nothing to do with you, so just drop it." Hannah said her tone suddenly cold.

"But –"

"Just drop it, please Sue. I just want to be alone right now." Hannah said, picking herself up off the couch and storming down the hallway to her room. Susan winced as she heard the door slam shut.

Hundreds of thoughts spiralled through her brain at once. Not once in the eleven years that she had known Hannah had she snapped at her like this. Not once in eleven years had Hannah not confided in her.

She sat back down onto the couch, finding it hard to relax into the soft leathers. She didn't want to go against Hannah's wishes to be left alone, but she didn't want to be left in the dark as to what was wrong.

Susan was a self-proclaimed sticky beak, she had to know what was going on in everyone's lives, whether they liked it or not. Luckily for her, she was someone that people felt that they could confide in, so she knew mostly everyone's secrets that they had to get off their chests. Another thing that drew people to confiding in Susan was that she never told anyone what people had told her. Gossip at Hogwarts travelled like fiendfyre and people had always found that if they confided their problems in Susan Bones, their secrets never got out.

Standing up, Susan walked over to the kitchen and tipped the muggle money that they kept in a little bowl over the sink into her hand – about ten pounds – she grabbed her coat and swung in around her shoulders and making sure that her wand was still in her pocket, she walked out of the door.

It was chilly for June, but she supposed that was because the Dementors were still searching for Lucius Malfoy, who had escaped from Azkaban a few months ago and because where they lived was a well-known wizarding village, the chill hadn't stopped since it was announced that he had escaped.

She walked quickly down the road towards the lights of the local shops. Still turning the thoughts over in her mind as to why Hannah could possibly be so upset that she didn't want to talk about it.

"Han?" Susan asked, knocking on the door to Hannah's bedroom half an hour later.

"Go away." Hannah's muffled voice said from within.

"I've got Thai; do you want anything to eat?" Susan persisted.

"I said go away." Hannah repeated but this time Susan could hear that her voice was choked.

"Han, please let me in. Come on, we'll eat some food and we can talk. You don't have to tell me what's wrong if you don't want to." Susan said. There was a pause and Susan heard soft footsteps on the carpeted floor from within and the sound of the door being unlocked.

Hannah was a mess. Her usually perfect hair was all over the place, her mascara was running down her face, her lipstick was smudged, her clothes rumpled and her nose running.

"Jesus." Susan said, looking her friend up and down, "come on, let's get you cleaned up."

Susan set the bag of takeaway down at the door and took Hannah's arm and guided her towards the bathroom where Hannah splashed water on her face and fixed her hair without a word.

Susan was really starting to get worried now. Hannah was normally the most talkative person out of the two of them. She never did anything without making some kind of remark.

"Alright," Susan said when she was finished. "I'll go and heat up the food and we'll talk."

Hannah nodded wordlessly as Susan and the two of them headed into the kitchen. Hannah sat down at the dining table while Susan waved her wand over the plastic containers and levitated them over to the table.

"So," she said, summoning forks from the draw. "How was your day?"

"Not the best." Hannah said softly. "You?"

"Decent." Susan nodded, taking a mouthful of noodles. "Ernie is still bitter about the whole breakup thing, but I'm happy with Justin. He bought me those flowers today you know?" Susan said, indicating the roses that sat in a vase on the sideboard.

"Roses huh?" Hannah said, the ghost of a smile appearing on her face, "They mean business you know."

"I know," Susan smiled, "I really like Justin, Han, and I think he likes me back."

"You think?" Hannah snorted, "You've only been dating for three months and you come home with flowers every day."

"I don't know, I can really see a future with him, you know. I didn't see that with Ernie."

"You deserve it. He's a great guy Sue." Hannah said.

"Speaking of guys, how's Neville." Susan said, taking another mouthful of noodles.

Hannah froze, "I don't care." She said stiffly.

"Sorry?" Susan asked, slightly confused.

"I don't care how he is." She repeated through gritted teeth and it clicked in Susan's brain.

"No." she said disbelievingly. Hannah nodded dejectedly.

"He told me today that he didn't love me anymore and that it would be best if we broke up." Hannah said tearfully.

"Oh god, Han, I'm so sorry, why have you been letting me prattle on about Justin if you're pining over a breakup you silly girl?"

"I didn't want to talk about it, but seeing as we've arrived at the topic I see no point in hiding it from you any longer." Hannah sniffed.

"Why did you try and hide a breakup from me? I confided in you when I broke up with Ernie." Susan said.

"You don't know the half of it." Hannah said with a slight manic laugh. "He left me for his ex! That Ravenclaw girl in the year below us, Luna Lovegood, he got back with her after all this time!"

"Wait, didn't he have like a month long relationship with her before he got together with you?" Susan said, taking Hannah's hand in hers.

"Yeah! And now he's realised that he still loves her and has to tell her." Hannah shrieked. "It's like I meant nothing to him!"

"I'm sure he did love you at some point." Susan tried, "Some people fall out of love quite quickly. Maybe he's one of those people."

"But he's not! He's one of those people that would be with you forever… at least I thought he was." Hannah sobbed. Susan's heart just completely melted for Hannah. She knew what it was like to be in a relationship where one partner didn't love the other as much.

"Hey, when you fall down, the only way to go is up." Susan said, moving from her seat to hug her friend.

"Are you sure? Because I feel like I'm stuck down there." Hannah sniffed, wiping her eyes on her sleeve.

"Yeah, come on, I believe in you." Susan said, "We survived the war didn't we? We're fighters Han, you can pull yourself back up. He's just another silly guy who'll break your heart."

"You really think so?" Hannah asked.

"Yeah, out of sight, out of mind. Put the memories in the trashcan and move on. If he broke up with you then the relationship wasn't meant to be." Susan said.

"But I really loved him Sue. It wasn't just a fling for me." Hannah said, another tear rolling down her cheek. Susan hugged Hannah tighter.

"Sometimes, in your life you think that you've found the one, but it's not. You will eventually find your prince charming Han; he's just lost and is too stubborn to ask for directions."

Hannah let out a wet laugh. "Yeah, I guess you can look at it that way."

"Look on the bright side, because life is a piece of shit but you can make it less shitty by looking on the bright side." Susan said.

"Thanks Sue." Hannah said, "I'm really glad I spoke to you about it."

Susan smiled, "Hey, that's what friends are for."

AN: For:

The Hogwarts Games – Men's Archery: Write a story based on friends.

The Chinese Moon Competition: Friendship Slice

The Songfic Bootcamp: Prompt #34: Fall and the song Get Back Up by Starkid.

I would absolutely love it if you could leave a review :)

Potter on

~The Original Horcrux~