The days before March 21st were like torture, and Ted would know. Every night he saw visions of Andromeda's lifeless body, blood pouring from her lips, her lands helplessly draped over her stomach, wherein lay the body of their very dead unborn child.
Each morning he would wake up, cold sweat covering his body, as the horror and pain from his dream slowly faded. In those moments he wanted nothing more than to run to Andromeda and wrap her in his arms, before he remembered they weren't exactly doing that anymore.
And then the pain that settled on his heart remained, because it wasn't a dream. It was real.
Somehow he managed to drag himself to class every day, and pretend he cared what his teachers were saying. Or pretending he wasn't dying to run to Andromeda in every single class they had together. Pretending he didn't want to stroke her hair every time she came near him in the hallway. Pretend his whole body wasn't aching to be with her.
But he couldn't. Not after what she'd done. It was just that simple.
"Are we really doing this again?" Olivia's sharp voice cut into his musings. It took him a minute to realize he had no concept of where he was or what he was doing, so he took a quick stock. He was in the Great Hall, staring over at the Slytherin table, or, more specifically…
He hastily looked away, but it was too late, and Liv wasn't about to let this go.
"What are you doing, Ted?" She'd gone from sharp to weary in a matter of moments, and Ted found that more biting than if she'd yelled at him.
"Nothing," he said, not looking up.
"Exactly," Liv said.
"Liv—" Jake began, but she held up a hand.
"No, we did not go through everything we went through, you did not go through everything you went through… just to give up now."
"I'm not giving up," Ted said, though his voice said otherwise. "We don't work. You said so yourself when we first started going out."
"Forget what I said, I'm an idiot," Liv said. There was a time when Ted would have cracked up laughing to hear her call herself an idiot, but those times were long gone and he had no idea how to get them back.
"You've known, You've always known, that you and Andromeda were meant to be together, even when no one else could see it. Even when I couldn't see it. Even when Andromeda couldn't see it. Don't betray yourself now, Ted. Don't—" And then Liv became too emotional to speak, something else Ted never thought he'd see.
But it worked. Her words sank right down to his soul. Pierced right through all the barriers he'd put in up since he and Andromeda had broken up. All the lies he'd told himself to convince himself it was over. Convince himself he was doing the right thing. Every wound, every betrayal, ever time she'd broken his heart— none of mattered. Because Liv was right, and now, he knew exactly what he had to do.