a/n i'm posting this all at once because it's finished and my internet access is not consistent
She walked through the first term of her second year in a daze. She had no one to talk to anymore. She felt dead.
She stayed at the school over Christmas and walked the grounds absently, ignoring the cold. She almost felt like she had found a friend, the lie living for her so she could hide. She knew it wasn't safe, talking more to her own mind than anyone, but there was no one else.
She threw herself down into a snow bank and stared at the grey sky. She wasn't sure what was real anymore. Days drifted into each other and melted together until she couldn't tell one from the next. She heard her own voice speaking as though it belonged to another. She almost believed she watched herself from the outside, never really taking part in anything she did.
She knew if she smiled long enough and didn't believe the lies she would eventually wake from the dream that held her captive, she would become herself once more. The problem was she still didn't know who she was. Was she the tortured soul torn from the shadow she loved or was she the girl with her whole life ahead of her, a member of a loving family full of potential?
Recently she had discovered that she had stopped sleeping. She felt as though everyday took something else away from her, left her a little less of herself, whoever she was. She knew she should try to reconcile the mask she wore with the fragments behind it but why would she do that? Why would she try to fix the mask? It wasn't broken. It was the only part of her that worked.
Again, silver eyes watched her unnoticed, silver eyes that were filled with understanding and compassion. No one else ever saw such depths behind the eyes for they only opened themselves when they surveyed her.
He had been watching her since she had come out of the chamber. It had begun as idle curiosity. She was, after all, the only innocent person he had ever known to exist. That summer he had learned the truth of what had happened. Now he watched her more closely than ever. He watched her and saw what no one else did, the darkness she now fought against for her life. He saw in her all the darkest parts of himself, all the pain and fears he desperately sought to deny.
Was it possible for either of them to win? Was it possible to deny the darkness its claim upon their lives? Could she escape Tom? Could he escape the death eaters? Would either of them escape the destiny others had written for them? She was strong. She would find a way out. Maybe, just maybe, when she did he could follow her, she could save him.