Disclaimer: I own nothing.
A/N: I wrote this for the Ravenclaw common room prompts at Hogwarts Online: a red scarf, a snow globe, snowdrops, hot chocolate with marshmallows, and a black cat. Enjoy!
'Susan... Susie!'
I spin around at my name being called from across the street. Only one person calls me Susie. He is hurrying towards me, his dark brown hair windswept. He looks like the man I fell in love with.
'J-Justin.' I try to say his name coolly, with no emotion, but my voice betrays me. Evidently , he has retained his ability to leave me breathless, without doing anything. Even after everything that happened.
'You dropped this.'
I blush about a million shades of red, probably matching the scarf that he is holding towards me. He bought it for me last Christmas, and I wear it everywhere because it is my last reminder of him. I must seem pathetic, needy, but he doesn't say anything as I take it from him.
'T-Thank you.'
He is staring at me, but I can't bear to catch his eye. It is taking all of my will-power to force myself to be calm, to remember what he did , but the hope is still there, buried underneath the layers of ice that surround my heart. The hope that somehow, we will be able to go back to the way things were before, because I still love him. I hate it, but it is the truth.
'Susie? Do you – do you want to come to my place for a drink?'
There is no mistaking the hope in his voice, and I chance a quick glance at him. His hazel eyes lock on mine, and I so badly want to say yes. But I quickly remind myself of everything that I have done this year, of how far I've come. I have gotten over him.
'No, sorry. I have stuff I n-need to be doing. Actually, I have to leave now. See you a-around.' I say all this fast and high-pitched, and I know he sees right through me. I turn away from him, and begin to walk in the other direction. I am stopped, however, by his hand on my wrist.
'Susie...' he begins, but I cut him off.
'Let go of me!' I hiss.
'Susie, please. Just this once, just as friends. It's Christmas.'
I stare at him coldly. Friends? Just as friends? How can he possibly believe that we can do anything 'just as friends'?
His eyes are pleading me silently, and his face is arranged in the expression of longing that I feel inside me every time I see him. I can't take it anymore; the barrier that I have built up around my emotions collapses, and I nod.
'Alright. Just this once.'
He smiles at me and offers his arm, but I shake my head.
'I know where it is. I can Apparate myself.'
When I appear outside his flat, he is already there. He opens the door, and I am met with an oh-so-familiar scene. There are Christmas cards placed along the mantelpiece above the fire, and the coffee table is littered with Daily Prophets and parchment covered in his messy handwriting.
'I have mulled mead, or Butterbeer.' he says. I look up at him as I take off my cloak.
'Could you – could you make me a hot chocolate?' I ask. I see the look of surprise on his face; hot chocolate was something we did before.
'OK. I'll be right back.'
I sink onto the couch, glancing around me. There is one of his funny Muggle contraptions on the table in front of me, and I pick it up. It is a glass orb, with a miniature snowman inside it. The bottom is coated with white flakes, and I wonder what on earth it is supposed to do.
'Are you looking at my snow globe? Here, this is how you do it.'
He takes the orb from me, and shakes it vigorously. He hands it back to me, and I watch in awe as the little white flakes drift down around the snowman, a tiny world contained in a ball.
'The things Muggles think up!' I say jokingly, and he laughs with me. For a moment, we both forget about what has happened between us, and it seems like we are just two twenty-year-olds in love again.
He sets down my hot chocolate on the table, and I take it in my hands. I see immediately that he has added marshmallows; he knows me too well. I watch the floating pink and white blobs, and I remember.
A black cat runs across the road in front of me, as I head towards Justin's flat. Bad luck, I remember Professor Trelawney telling us. Not that I was ever superstitious; Auntie Amelia taught me from a young age to rely on evidence only. I hurry up the stairs and unlock his door with my wand. It clicks open, and I move towards his room. And then... then I am frozen. I can't move, I can't go anywhere, my eyes glued to the scene before me.
Justin, my Justin, with his arms around – oh, God – with his arms around another woman, a woman who isn't me. Her lips are pressed against his, his eyes are closed, and I can't speak. I can't do anything but watch, as if in slow motion, as they jump apart, and Justin starts to try and explain. The tart is backing away from me, but I'm not interested in her. I walk towards him ever so slowly, and he stops talking.
I reach up and slap him, hard, across the face, and then I run. I run away from the staring girl and the shocked Justin and the worst nightmare I have ever lived through. I run all the way from his flat to mine, and I collapse on the floor and sob.
'Susie...' Justin's voice jerks me out of my reverie. 'Susie, I'm really, really-'
'Don't tell me you're sorry. I don't want to hear it.' I cut across him, because I know what is coming next, and I'm not interested. I should have seen it coming from the moment he asked me over.
'No, listen to me, Susie. Please?'
I find a sudden, white-hot anger swelling inside of me, and it is overriding even the twinges that I get inside every time he looks at me.
'Me? Listen to you? Why, Justin, tell me, why should I? Last time I checked, you were the one who cheated on me! Why don't you just piss off back to your little whore?'
I am nearly hysterical, past caring about the hurt look on his face.
'Susie, please, I can explain – '
'Oh, you can explain! You can explain why you cheated on your girlfriend of eight months, who did absolutely nothing to you except remain faithful? Frankly, Justin, I don't care anymore. I've cried enough over you already.'
He looks defeated, resigned, and he doesn't even try to stop me as I storm out.
By the time I get home, the anger is gone, and I miss him more than ever. He used to be the one who would hold me, when I was upset. I cry myself to sleep, hugging a pillow, alone in my dark flat.
When I wake up in the morning, I am still clutching the pillow. I suddenly notice that there is an owl outside my window. I let it in, and it drops something green and white on my desk and flies out again, in a blur of brown and white feathers.
I walk slowly over to the desk, unsure if I want to see what the owl has brought. It is a bunch of snowdrops, tied together with a purple ribbon. He is the only one who knows that snowdrops are my favourite flowers. Their white heads are still upright, and I know that he has picked them for me after our argument yesterday.
Slipped between the stalks is a note, and I can't stop the tears that spill down my cheeks as I read it over and over again.
I'm sorry. I still love you.
What did you think? I'm thinking about writing another chapter about what happens next, or I might just leave it at this. Please leave a review and tell me what you think! x