It's been so long and still your heart hasn't healed.
Cho Chang. It means butterfly, but you never thought yourself to be one.
Butterflies are fragile. Delicate. And all you are is a copy; a person with broken wings trying to fly.
The past weighs you down.
Maybe you did soar at one point - when the sky used to be blue and you had broken out of your shell and your heart wasn't guarded.
But now it's battered and bruised, locked up in an iron cage that only Cedric holds the key to.
Cedric's gone now, isn't he?
You try not to remember.
It's just so hard. He's gone, and your heart can't heal when it's all alone in its dark prison.
The past adorns you; your tears are drops of ice that shatter when they hit the ground; Cho Chang is the name of a girl that has been long discarded. You are a symphony of whys and ghosts and the stormy eyes of the man that used to hold you.
He still does, doesn't he?
They say he's dead, he's gone, but he's not, you know he's not because he's dancing right in front of you, always twirling around you like he did at the dance, spinning and holding out his hand towards you-
You reach out and he's gone, gone like a wisp of a blown out candle.
Your heart is still locked up, caged in a tower of ice that will never thaw.
And you try to open it up, you really do, but all you can think is Cedric and he's not Cedric and why aren't you here, Cedric?
You're a butterfly, hopelessly flitting around and trying to reach the sky, with too many dreams that will never, ever, ever come true.
Gravity hurts.
So it is now, as you stand in front of the mirror, staring at your pale skin and empty eyes and disheveled black hair, that you finally cannot recognize yourself.
Where have you gone? Where has the Cho Chang, the pretty one that liked to talk and read and play Seeker for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team? Where did she go?
Where did you go?
Butterflies don't have a long life but what they have is beautiful. You are done with dying, because you're still alive and you're not over yet.
The next day, you wear a short skirt and dress up your hair. A smile follows, except this time it's not a chore; this time, your face moves like it knows how.
You walk out and people smile at you; and suddenly, you're not the sniveling girl from yesterday, you're the new girl that has put herself back together.
You have put yourself back together, but the cracks still remain underneath.
But, healing doesn't mean erasing, does it?
You will live; for Cedric, and for yourself.
A/N: I feel like an angsty drabble.
Done for:
All Sorts of Romance Competition - Het (Cho/Cedric)
Ravishing Romance Competition - Medium (Cho/Cedric)