Title: Shoes to be Filled
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I due own Talbot. Ha.
Other things: ...The character focused on in this piece is not featured in HP.
Pairing: Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott
Author's Note: Another ficlet that's part of a rather lengthy series of them. Inspired by Giant's House by Elizabeth McCracken in that I saw in her a writer who pulled similar stunts as my earlier ones. :D For Auto as usual.
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The child sat at the edge of the portrait. He stared at it, hushed, like his father. Except he couldn't understand the face the other would wear.
His father.
Biting his lip, he would want to. Wanting isn't the same as getting.
Occasionally he would hate the painting. The painting of something he couldn't have.
If it wasn't there, maybe he could pretend.
If it wasn't there, maybe his father could forget.
Haunted by the fact that it never moved.
Let's move away. Fall in love again. Start anew. Me and you.
His father wouldn't. Couldn't.
And so the boy held his hand, trying to be good. But it was hard.
Father didn't like it when he ran. What if you trip?
Father didn't like him faraway. Stay where I can see you.
There was no one but his father. Tall, quiet, broken.
He wished he could fix him.
He couldn't know what he was worth.
All he knew came through the eyes set a little below three feet and some.
When he was alone, he'd take the mirror from the bathroom. Carefully, he would carry it and then sit at the edge of the portrait.
Dark eyes would move. From the still faces above to the one below.
Fin