DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling. Lyrics to the song "Summer Shudder" (in italics) belong to AFI.

~ Summer Rain ~

Under the summer rain, I burned away.

"It's raining," he says.

"It's not-" she starts to protest, but cuts herself off, seeming to think better of it.

The sky is overcast but not a single drop has yet fallen. She moves toward him; he steps farther away, keeping his back to her.

Finally, she realizes... The weather may currently be dry, but his face is not.

"Want an umbrella?" she offers, deciding to stick to the metaphor.

He knows she is only offering in order to make herself feel better, not out of any real concern for his finer feelings. Out of all the things he wishes she would say to him now (now that she has admitted to her affair and decided to call things off between the two of them), a half-hearted offer of breakup sex is not one of them - and as much as he would love to take her up on it, to steal one last moment with her in which he can pretend that she actually cares about him, he refuses.

There is more she wants to talk about, more that she feels she needs to say.

"Rod..."

He does not want to hear it.

"Just go."

Without another word, she turns sharply on her heel and strides swiftly away. Conceding to his demand and allowing him to have the last word are two things she would never do if she did not feel such guilt over what she has done to him (and she does feel guilty about it, or else she would not have bothered leaving him, for there is certainly no future for her with her other lover).

He watches her walk away, until her silhouette has faded into the shadows of the graying skyline. And then, only then, as if in sympathy to his plight, the heavens choose that moment to let loose their fury.

The tears of the clouds are almost as warm on his skin as his own.

Under the summer rain, you turned away.

~end~

A/N: Reviews are always appreciated.