AN - Characters in fic: Gabriel Truman and Daphne Greengrass
Gabriel stared down at the blue bracelet still held in his hand, then at his other arm, still outstretched towards the empty space where the train had just left.
He could feel the beads on the bracelet digging into his palm where he was clasping it so tightly; he could imagine the creaks as the beads tried not to crack under the pressure he was exerting on them.
So much potential held in such a small, delicate bracelet.
He had bought it specifically for this moment. The tiny glass beads scavenged from tumbled ocean glass, the blue hues reflecting the decades it had spent traversing the ocean, tumbling against the many rocks until it was worn smooth and soft. The same blue paired perfectly with Daphne's eyes, a cool icy blue that only she could pull off.
Daphne was the ice queen, the one who ruled the corridors, the one who could make a room silent with just her sweeping gaze.
And then at one point instead of moving on from his face, she had locked onto him. He was left frozen when her cool blue eyes had looked at him, leaving him merciful to drown in the blue depths, unable to make a movement and save himself.
He had been drowning ever since.
She had been the one lifeline, thrown out for him to grasp onto.
Gabriel was a lone Hufflepuff; friendly but with no friends. Then, they gave him the prefect role and although it was a prestigious role, it certainly didn't help with making any friends. It just made everyone avoid him even more.
He had been nothing more than a lonely boy, wishing for any real human interaction amongst the polite hello's throughout the day.
But then there she was. She was suddenly everywhere. He still remembered the time he had managed to speak up first.
"Hey! Wait up!" His heart was pounding and his breaths came in fast as adrenaline flooded through him. Had he really just shouted at Daphne? Just because they'd shared long glances didn't mean that she actually wanted to talk to him.
He nearly had a heart attack when she paused and turned slightly towards him. Her long strides came to a stop as her gaze focused on him. And once more, he found himself frozen and drowning.
But he couldn't do that right now. He managed to shake it off and stutter out a question.
He didn't know what he had said, but she was nodding along, and it was as if his heart had kicked into rhythm again as the world suddenly came back in colourful clarity.
She nodded at him and he nodded back, hoping that was the correct response.
And suddenly they were walking. Side by side, as equals.
It was the first time at Hogwarts he had walked alongside someone as an equal. He led the first years as prefect and he followed behind the other Hufflepuffs as a classmate. Nobody ever walked alongside him.
This moment was one he knew he would treasure forever.
She glanced at him beside her. Her icy blue eyes glinting in the cool sun let in through the windows in the corridor.
He was frozen and drowning, but she was his lifeline.
He realised that his arm was still outstretched towards the empty distance. He relaxed it and it fell limply by his side.
The bracelet in his other hand felt like a thousand tonnes and weighed him down. He understood now how the blue glass beads felt, the way they were submerged in the depths, smashed about on the rocks until nothing but tiny pieces remained, scattered along the ocean floor. Drowning.
It had been his last year at Hogwarts, last year. Nothing much had changed except for the cresting relationship with Daphne. He still didn't have any friends; he was still looked at as just the help by first years for when they needed a question answered. And then his relationship with Daphne only ostracized him from the others even more. But none of that had mattered as he had Daphne.
She was the lighthouse in the distance that kept him from crashing into the rocks surrounding him. Without her, he knew he would be nothing more but a broken man, drowned in the depths.
Except she was in the year below him; she still had a year left at school. But they told one another they would wait, that they would do it together.
Gabriel had waved her off in September as the train pulled away. The world crushed in, but she was the light in the darkness.
They had exchanged letters, brief notes that brought a little bit of joy to his otherwise desolate life. He had a dull office job, but his coworkers all had office friends already and weren't looking to make new ones.
Nobody from school had bothered to keep in contact with him.
But it was Christmas now, and Daphne was supposed to be visiting. She had said she would catch the express down where he would wait for her on the platform before they went off to celebrate Christmas together.
She had caught the train down. And he had met her at the station. He had reached into his pocket for the blue bracelet that he had chosen so carefully to match her perfectly.
Then before he could say anything she had spoken, "Gabriel, I met someone else. We're done."
She hadn't even waited for his reply before she had turned around and was striding back to the train.
He had shouted, "Hey! Wait up!" A mockery of his first words he had ever dared say to her. His hand stretched out as if to reach out and stop her, make her turn back, make her acknowledge in some way what she had done.
She never even looked back.
The last look she had even given him now left him frozen. Except she was no longer there to hold him a float; now he was left drawing in the icy depths of the sea that had been dragging him under for so many years before.
He didn't know how long he stayed there. Frozen in place.
But he remembered the feeling of the beads digging into his hand. Trying to embed themselves into his skin.
He looked at the bracelet. Then around him, watching with a distant gaze as it appeared that snow was settling around him. Then back to the bracelet.
He stared at the icy blue beads.
The weather around him reflected the frozen state he felt, unable to move in case he shattered. But then the icy blue deep, pulling him under, smothering him even as he gasped out for anybody, anyone to help him.
No one was coming.
His light in the darkness was gone. She had snuffed it out.
He stared at the tracks to his side. How easy it would simply be to just take a step, to never have to deal with any of this ever again.
He thought about it for a while.
Afterall, nobody was going to reach out to him. He had nobody.
But then as the snow continued to come down and the sky grew darker, so too did his mind wander to darker places than where he was now. He had always been told to keep away from the dark, to be a good Hufflepuff, a good person.
But this time, he let the darkness in.
The cold was no longer so cold, and instead of feeling quite so much as if he was submerged and unable to swim up, he was now cocooned and there was a comforting pressure around him.
He looked down at the bracelet in his hand.
He grasped his fist and felt it shatter.
He was done.
THC/The Houses Competition.
Round 3 - Standard
House - Ravenclaw
Class - Potions
Prompt(s) chosen -
(Dialogue) "Hey! Wait up!"
(Object) Blue bracelet
1303 words (wordcounter .net)