viii. happily ever after

Tony looks anxiously at his friend, who hasn't touched his dinner in days.

Terry hasn't been much better. Both are worried, and one day after dinner, Tony said, "Michael! You look like an anorexic cow and I hate you!"

He just pushed passed him, fell onto his bed, did homework, went to sleep.

There is something so terribly wrong with him.

He avoids Marietta and Cho like the plague. For a day or two, the attached-at-the-hip girls had gone separate ways. And then, like they can't stay away, they join together again, smiling and laughing like ghosts of their old selves. Neither catches his eye, and even if they tried, he'd have avoided them.

All of Ravenclaw talk about the strange Marietta and Cho business. The two are not as they'd once been. And Michael, most say, has screwed one – or both – of them and is now afraid of the consequences.

But it doesn't matter who said what. All that matters is our story. And it continues like this:

Meet me tonight, after everyone's gone to bed, in the common room.

Michael stares at the paper, and then crumples it in his fist. He can't decide if it is Cho or Marietta's handwriting, and he is afraid to find out.

But he'll do most anything to do something other than walk around like a phantom.

So he stays, that night, telling Terry and Tony not to wait up for him. He stays in the common room and watches people mill about, pretending to do his Potions homework.

Finally, it's totally empty, and he hears a noise from the girls' staircase.

Down comes Marietta, a small, sad smile on her face, and following her is Cho, wiping away tears.

He jumps up, and then pulls out two chairs for them.

There is silence for what feels like hours, as Cho stares out the window and Marietta plays with her own fingers. It was too much like a fairy-tale in the beginning. No, now is the time to end this.

"Michael," Marietta says, her voice very low.

He does not answer, only looks at her. She does not meet his eyes.

"Cho," she adds, slowly, sounding guilty and terrified and ashamed beyond belief.

"Yes?" Cho asks, giving a mighty sniff and shutting her eyes.

"I love you."

And he can't decide if Marietta loves Cho or himself or both or neither and does it even fucking matter anymore, anyway?

And then she stands, says lamely, "Can you…talk it out? Just you two?"

And Cho looks up at Marietta and smiles, almost like her old smile, even before Cedric's death.

Michael sits very, very still and stares straight ahead of him, his jaw clenched tightly. "Goodnight," he says, after a long moment. He does not say I love you or I'll miss you or I'm sorry or thank you. No; he says "Goodnight," and leaves it at that. Perhaps she knows anyway, that he's thankful and sorry and sad and so, so in love.

He misses what they had, what they never had, but how can they get it back if it never was? And so he looks at Cho, and smiles politely, and decides to turn the page, keep on living and keep on believing, and maybe give Cho a second chance…

…And maybe one day, years and years from that moment, a man and a woman will see each other for the first time in years. And maybe the man will gape and stare and beg to know is it really you, oh Merlin Marietta are you really there? And maybe the woman will look at him and remember and then forget, turn the page, and rush towards him shouting Michael, Michael! And maybe all will finally be well.

Just maybe.

A/N: My original ending to this was cotton-candy fluffy, and I hated it, so instead we have this lovely, angsty number. =D Thanks for reading/reviewing, all!