A/N: I fell into another bout of depression & this was the result. Oh, Fred…
Katie left the party quietly, slipping through Alicia's back door without attracting anyone's notice. She walked through the snow covered streets alone without glancing at Big Ben, who was due to ring in the New Year any moment. She trudged along quietly, without making a noise, until she got to her small house at the edge of town where she lived alone. Snow was falling thick and fast, its chill going straight through Katie's old worn coat and melting in her dark chocolate hair, but the twenty-eight year old did not seem to notice or care as she unlocked the front door.
It had almost been too much for her that night. Alicia and George's happy faces, beaming at their two small children who ran around the floor haphazardly. Angelina holding Lee's hand, a new engagement ring shining brightly on her finger. Friends and neighbors laughing, drinking, waiting for the New Year to come and give them all a fresh start.
It had been eight years since the final battle at Hogwarts and that fresh start had never come for Katie Bell. The man who had held on to her heart since the moment he first offered her a seat on the Hogwarts Express still resided there, creeping around, rending her ventricles apart, pulling at the vessels, breaking the organ into thousands of irretrievable pieces. Memories were her constant companion as she made her way through her solitary life, trying to forget that she had not yet forgotten. Faded letters and memories were all she had left.
At some point, she had given up trying to lead a normal life and had moved into this small thatch roofed cottage at a poor end of London, working odd jobs to sustain her hollow life. At the very best, she was plagued by the worst memories of her school life: enduring the Yule Ball, watching him dance with Angelina, the moment he and his twin left the castle forever when he did not pause once to give her a parting glance…At the very worst, she was plagued by the best memories of her school life: unplanned trips to Hogsmeade, bunches of Mistletoe, secret whisperings across the hall of the Burrow on warm summer nights…She awoke every day the same; next to nothing after dreaming of him.
Her life was not one she would have chosen for herself eight years ago, but this was where life had led her nonetheless. It was alright to spend time amongst faces of old friends, and it was alright to go out drinking, but the nights found her the same place always and she repeated the routine again.
Katie silently clutched a small cup of hot tea and a worn photograph and seated herself in front of a crackling fire. She took a sip and set the cup down, staring at the photograph where a tall red-headed boy laughed madly up at the girl who had her arms thrown about his neck, legs through his elbows piggy-back style. The edges were frayed and the color had faded slightly, but the unmistakable faces of a young couple in love remained as in tact as they had ever been. The snow flurried around them, the lights of the small village of Hogsmeade still forever blinking in the distance. He was forever twenty years old, laughing on into the eternities, while she lived on, growing older, growing alone. On the back, words were written which read simply, I'll always find my way back to you. Just you wait and see.
And she trusted that promise just the same as she did when she had been given the photograph eight years ago. Outside, the snow fell silently as Big Ben chimed in the New Year and shouting could be heard in the streets; joy, millions of miles from where she sat in another world entirely.
"I'm still waiting, Fred," she whispered into the fire.
He was dead, but love lived on. And it would forever, until he found his way back to her. Just like he promised.