Faded
He visited her every day without fail. He waved and gave the nurses a dashing smile as he went by their station. Ernie always bought a bouquet of red roses with him, her favorites. He stopped by her door and took a few deep calming breaths. He clenched then un-clenched his fists to stop his trembling hands.
"Just Breathe" he muttered under his breath. A mantra he repeated to himself during the difficult times. Ernie had always loved Susan since Hogwarts and they had secretly started dating during their time there. He loved her gentleness, her laughter and her easygoing nature. She always smelled of Jasmine.
He sorely missed that smell and sometimes found himself picking up her favourite scarf just to inhale the scent which brought back happier memories, of snowball fights, late night walks and broom races. Ernie sighed, after the war Susan hadn't been the same. At first she had been fine, she had lost most of her family in the last war and had been grieving for some time but she had pulled herself out of it and began to look to the future or so Ernie had thought. Slowly before his eyes Susan had stopped eating, stopped smiling, stopped living. The love of his life began to fade before his very eyes. Ernie stood by her and got her the better care he could but he found watching her waste away to nothing extremely painful to watch as he was bombarded by the memory of the woman that she once was.
Ernie softly walked into her room and set the roses by her bedside table. He slipped his hand into hers and flicked a stray curl behind her ear, he pulled the chair closer to her bedside and sat down next to her and began to tell her about his day. She had once lovingly called him her knight in shining armour and although they had not exactly had their fairytale, he held out hope against hope that one day she would come back to him. So he would would wait patiently by her side until her side until that day for eternity if need be.
This drabble was written for kingslayers on the Drabble Tag on the HPFC Forum. Please read and review.