It didn't take long for her to become unnoticed once more. Friends abandoned her, left alone to do as she felt necessary for her own survival. She was lost alone and fragile. Haunting the halls as a ghost. Luna liked her better now that she remained lonely. They sat together in the silence of comfort. She didn't cry any more. She didn't show any emotion. She didn't do anything. She didn't hate her life, and yet she did. She hated the situation she supposed. Until the day the mail came and she got the news. Aden was dead, she didn't save him. She killed him by allowing his murderer of a mother to take him. The letter was set aflame and everyone stared at her. She didn't flitch when the flames kissed her fingers. Soon it was ash and the silence that fell upon the table of the brave fell on the hall. She ran away, out of the hall and she even heard multiple footsteps behind her. She cared not, why should she? Aden had been beaten to death. She ran and ran until she couldn't. She grasped a wall and sobbed. She heard staggered breaths behind her. McGonagall, the other two were unknown to her. She damned the earth and everything in it praying to die right there from her run but she didn't. She opened her tear filled eyes to spot Ginny and Hermione panting she had wanted to scream at them to leave her be. But she didn't McGonagall took her to her own office where Felicity had explained. That was the first time she had seen that woman cry, and lord almighty she never wanted to. The funeral was awful, Felicity cried for the entirety of her speech. "I loved him as more of a son than a brother. He loved me and I him. He pleaded that I save him and I did not... His favorite season was spring because it brought hope to the world and he brought hope to me" Hope she would learn costs pain and suffering. She had no hope she had no joy. Life was empty love was empty. What did she have? Jack and Eric, that was all. She now had no one left. So every night she asked herself, Why do I continue when it would be so much easier to quit? She would not answer this question until years later.
