For Cheeky's Weekly Drabble Competition on HPFC: Bonus level. Write a freeverse about Narcissa Black-Malfoy, Theo Nott, or James Sirius Potter. You must use three of the following prompts: change, long, swirl, juxtaposed, blessed, damage, gasping, illusion, choice, red.
.
Your world is
r
e
d.
stained.
stained by the blood of the people you couldn't save
.
oh, don't kid yourself, Theodore
you didn't just not save them
you killed them
and their blood is redredred on your hands
.
you wake up screaming all too often.
wake up gasping
your lungs crying out for air
your heart crying out for them.
.
oh, don't kid yourself, Theodore
crying for them doesn't save them
it doesn't erase your guilt
doesn't erase the redred blood on your hands
.
you try to make amends.
you become an Auror
try to fix things
try to save people.
.
oh, don't kid yourself, Theodore
you can't undo the damage you've done
no matter what you do now
the stain doesn't just go away
.
T
H
R
E
E
.
three people.
you killed three people.
three people are dead because of you.
three people are gone, just done, because of what you've done.
.
you don't kid yourself, do you, Theodore?
you know they're gone forever
and you know
it's
all
your
fault.
.
their faces haunt you
every wakingsleepingconscious moment
you never knew their names
(and maybe that hurts the most of all)
but you will never forget their faces.
.
you don't kid yourself, do you, Theodore?
you are haunted, tainted, crippled
you will never be who you were
and your hands will never lose their redred stain
.
forever can't make up for what you've done.
not if you had a hundred forevers.
or a thousand forevers.
some things cannot be mended.
.
you don't kid yourself, do you, Theodore?
your hands are stained redredred
and that is never going to change.