Harry Potter Halloween Collection Prompt: (word) haunt(ed)
Nothing Left
Sirius didn't look up when Lily set a steaming cup of tea on the table in front of him. "Take your time," she said. "We're not going to make you talk to us about it, but just know we're here for you. We know you cared a great deal for her."
Cared wasn't exactly the word Sirius would choose to describe his feelings for Marlene. She'd shown him from the very beginning what love was supposed to be like. Aside from his friends and James's parents, Sirius had never felt loved. His family was certainly incapable of feeling such a pure emotion. He wasn't even sure he knew how to love until she'd walked into his life.
They'd tried to keep things as low-key as possible, neither one wanting the other to be used against them in the war. This hadn't made their love any less real to him. She'd been the one to balance him out, to keep his tendency towards recklessness and impulsivity at bay. They had loved fully and passionately. He thought now of the engagement ring he had hidden away at home that he'd been planning to give Marlene when she came back from visiting her parents. That ring was useless to him now.
The sight of her lifeless body, her beautiful light blue eyes forever gazing upon death, would haunt him forever.
His eyes filling with tears, he looked up at Lily. "I didn't care for her," he said. "I loved her with everything I had. And now I have nothing." As he was overcome with emotion and sobs shook his body, Sirius knew that he would never love anyone like he had loved Marlene McKinnon.