Tell Me One Hundred Times
Chapter Twenty-One: Memories
Tears fall from her eyes as she clings to the only picture she owns of him. He is smiling at the photographer, waving. It is a Muggle photo, his beautiful smile frozen forever on faded, crumpled paper. She caresses his faded cheek with the tip of one finger. He is gone forever and all that remains of him are faded pictures and fading memories.
She remembers clinging to his father at the funeral, not caring about appearances. She remembers kneeling by his grave late into the night, whispering words she never said and wetting the soil with her tears until her father wrapped her in his coat and carried her to the hotel as if she was a child. Even when she returned to her permanent residence she was lost without him. It was not home. Home was only where he was and with him gone home is gone too.
This picture is crumpled and stained with tears. She doesn't know how many days it has been since she lost him. Time has lost all meaning, colours have gone from her world and all feeling is lost. Only numbness, no taste, no smell and no happiness. Without him, her world is gone. Without him, she is falling. Without him, all sweetness is gone to bitter, all happiness is gone to sorrow and all love has gone to hate.
No one understands how she feels. They don't know what it feels to lose someone before you can tell them just how you feel. No one knows what it feels to daydream of a cheerful young boy with golden curls. No one know what it feels to dream of a wedding of a young and golden-haired couple. She has nothing of his but this single picture and her own memories. She will cling to both.
This chapter was another angsty one, Colin Creevey/Gabrielle Delacour. I wanted to right something for someone who died in the battle and I chose Colin, who I'd always pictured with Gabrielle.