The Bottle Cap Necklace
By: Black is the New Pink
A/N: My old neighbor died in a car accident last month. He was like my brother. I fought with him all the time. I miss him so much. I have had a really hard time dealing with it. I cried myself to sleep last night and it's been a month. I wrote this in biology because was just feeling really sucky. He gave me a bottle of old fashioned soda like three years ago for my birthday. I found the bottle cap in my room and made it a necklace that I wear all the time. So…there's my inspiration. This is supposed to be Ginny but…it doesn't have to be. This might not be very good. It's un-beta'd but I had to get this out somehow.
She kept the Butterbeer cap from their first date. It's silly, but she wanted something to remember the occasion by. When he looked away she slipped it into her robes. That night in the dormitory, she put it in a box, and thought nothing of it.
Now, her face stained with tears she goes up to the box. With shaking hands she pulls out the bottle cap. The string and nail and hammer came out after it. She punches a hole through the thin metal and pulls the string through. It's tied tight around her neck, hanging just far enough to hang on. Making it the Muggle way seems so much more personal.
When she first started wearing it, it reminded her of Luna. It made her smile thinking of happier times.
The necklace is now always on, in the shower, at night, even while playing Quidditch.
Every time she thinks of him her hand flies to the necklace. It's second nature now. A nervous habit, like when she used to biter her lip when he looked at her.
People ask her about it. She keeps a straight face and explains it. The looks of sympathy she gets are horrible. She either changes the subject or makes her exit, grasping the cap tightly.
Every ridge, every imperfection is well known. It's embedded into her memory, as much a part of her as her fingerprint. She knows the noise it makes if it hits something hard, how it shines in the sunlight, and the feel of the points pressing against her skin.
It helps her remember. It helps her cope. It helps her hold onto her old life, while she continues to move forward.
She'll wear it for the rest of her life. He's a part of her forever. She wore it on her dates, some guys didn't like that…they had to go. She wore it on her wedding day. She wore it when her beautiful baby boy was born, when she named the baby after him. She'll wear it to her funeral, when she joins him in the ground.