Name: Enjoy the Silence
Colour: Emerald Green
Pairing: Albus Potter/Myrtle Warren
Summary: Albus is up to no good but Myrtle can't exactly do anything but enjoy the silence.
A/N: Very short one-shot of one of my favourite Next Gen pairings. This is a spin-off for my first long HP-fic 'SPHP' but it works well alone. Next Gen, Fifth Year, Slytherin!Albus.
When I leave my body, I – for a moment – feel so light and calm and… relieved. It's like all my woes and regrets had been taken away. Just like reality is somewhere far away. In some other time, in some other dimension even. Or like reality doesn't even exist.
I want to stay there – wherever I am – forever, but apparently it's not my time to leave this world. My ethereal fantasy world begins spinning and I hear a terrible noise as I'm violently pulled away from the sanctuary I have found in silence. I'm so tired. I only want to sleep. And sleep. And sleep.
But then again, ghosts can't really sleep.
I'm blinded momentarily when the light meets my eyes. I know every slippery tile and broken faucet of this toilet. I'm used to every cracked sink and clogged toilet and the sound of dripping water.
What I'm not used to, not yet at least, are the soft emerald eyes.
Albus is all settled in. He has loosened his green and silver tie and his prefect badge lies abandoned on top his dark robe. He sits there with crossed legs, in front of the row of sinks, smiling a bit as his quill dances on the paper. There are piles of books and papers on the floor around him. He's doing his homework, I suppose. He always has lots and I think library would be more appropriate place for them but he claims it's easier to concentrate here where no living soul can bother him.
I can't really be counted in as a living soul.
How long passed? Minutes, hours, or even days? No, it couldn't be days, I remind myself with a shake of my head. So, maybe minutes.
Albus looks up at me. His eyes twinkle behind his glasses as his namesake's did once upon a time. They're like two gems, sparkling so bright in the dull lightning of the bathroom. He has his father's eyes.
"Did you sleep well?" he asks kindly.
I shrug, floating down next to him. I'm close enough to almost pass through him, close enough to make the goose bumps appear on his skin. I don't want him to be uncomfortable around me. He says that what I am doesn't bother him, and I want to believe he speaks the truth. I really want to.
"Silence does good, doesn't it?"
I just hum in response.
Albus turns the page of an old leather-bound book. It's from the Restricted Section for sure. He has a habit of reading those, now even more than before. I never ask what they're about but I have my suspicions. He shouldn't read that kind of books.
Humans can't fall in love with ghosts.
Albus will graduate and get a job. He'll get married to nice a woman from a good family and get a child or two with her. They'll grow old and die. Because that's what people do.
Sometimes silence is golden, and it's okay to just…
Enjoy the silence as long as it lasts.