A/N: Since my mind is all over the place and I can't seem to update my other stories, I decided to just post my late-night insomnia-fueled ramblings. This chapter is particularly...rough to read through. I don't really have much control over my writing abilities while half asleep, so the quality of some chapters might be dubious at times. Hope you still enjoy them. x

Atlas:

Because she had carried the weight of someone else's world for too long, and it had become too heavy for her.

The world was phantasmagorical and hazy, as if a careless hand had dragged across the length of a freshly-done painting and smeared its content across the canvas. Cho blinked slowly, hoping that the image of the crooked building before her would fade from her vision and she'd wake up from a dream that was no longer pleasant enough to be considered dream, but nothing changed.

The Borrow, with its strange architecture and the odd collection of clutter around it, still lumbered over the patch of green in front of them. The sun was still setting over the horizon, its golden light bathing the world in an almost ethereal glow. Harry Potter still had his arms wrapped around her waist, broad chest to her back as he placed a linger kiss by her ear.

"I love you." He said once more, and he sounded like he believed it. "I love you."

Her heart clenched in her chest every time the words escaped him, but she was too paralyzed to do anything to stop him. He tugged on her hand and gently turned her to face him, and her body helplessly shifted with the movement. The current Head of the Auror's wing smiled at her. His fingers slid beneath her chin to tip her head upwards. He didn't hesitate. He didn't shuffle awkwardly like he used to whenever she'd leaned in for affection during their Hogwarts days. His warm lips touched hers and settled there, firm but soft, giving and yet insistent.

The contact might've lasted for the length of a heartbeat, but it felt longer to her. Long enough for her breath to tangle in her lungs, leaving her lightheaded and utterly dazed. When he broke away, Harry just stared at her. His eyes were bright and as startlingly green as they had been when she'd first seen him from across the pitch, and the dark lashes that framed them lowered as his smile returned. It was the first time she'd heard the words, and the first time it had truly sank in that their relationship was real, not just a skewered version of reality she'd concocted in her dreams.

There was no doubt about it. It was displayed in those stunning eyes of his. She had somehow managed to regain the affections of a man who had once left her behind like a a broken doll. For better or for worse, his heart was hers. The confession and the kiss he'd used to seal it were real. This, the thing they shared but she'd refused to name, was real. A part of her recoiled at the thought.

The tender moment should've happened years before. She had always pictured them being somewhere private and blissfully quiet in the castle. There should've been moonlight streaming through a window or slanting over the edge of one of the walls of the Quidditch pitch, and she'd always imagined them being wildly in love when he finally told her the words she'd been dying to hear before he leaned in for a magical kiss...

But she wasn't sixteen and he was certainly not fifteen. The hair at his temples was silver and even when he smiled he looked tired, the wrinkles at the corners of his mouth only slightly diminishing as his lips curved. He hadn't been wildly in love with her for decades. He had gone off into the world and left her behind, had fallen for another girl just a short year later and had eventually married the chit. They'd had a daughter together and had been very happy. If his wife had not been violently taken away from him, Ginny would be the one hearing his tender words, being kissed like the world revolved around her.

Cho was just the filler, the replacement. Harry was a dutiful father and wanted his daughter to have a mother figure in her life. He was lonely and his bed had been empty for far too long. And this woman who wasn't the love of his life had conveniently filled the space his dead wife had left with her passing. Cho doubted he was as devoted to her as she had once been to him, but at least they had that in common now.

Harry tucked a stray hair behind her ear before resting his chin atop her head. His arms were around her again, gently squeezing her. She desperately wished she could regain control of her limbs, though she wasn't sure of what she would do once that happened. She considered pushing him away but her arms twitched at the thought, feeling more useless than ever as they dangled limply by her sides.

"I love you." Was it really that simple for him? Because her life had swung right into the unknown with those three words. Her fingers rose and encircled his forearms, but they just clenched fiercely about them. "And I would very much like it if you married me."

The words escaped before she could control the bitter sting in them. "No."

A/N: This was today's attempt at reconstructing an old story. My first FF story, actually. I'll probably never finish it, to be honest.