Curiousity Killed the Cat

Chaconne by Yiruma.

Harry ran down the hall, dodging a sting of congratulations every corner. Even though he ran, it felt like everything was happening in slow-motion. There was no sound except for the sound of his own pants, which sounded like taunts in his ears. He could breath, he could be short of breath but his child, their child, would never be able to breath.

So many things were running though his mind, some of them were more strange than the other. Then again, who are we to judge what is sanity and insanity? To Harry, this whole day seemed to have come out of a fairytale book, one which would hopefully have a happy ending.

Unfortunally for Harry, there were no happy endings in life.

The sound of thrashing could be heard even from the hallway. Harry picked up his pace, fearing the worst but he would soon find that the worst he expected was nothing compared to what he would have to deal with.

Harry ran though the doors connecting to the hallway and the hospital wing. He felt his stomach churn at the site of some of the wounded people. There were so many, making it harder to find Elyse but only for the moment. Looking for a nurse or, more likely, the source of the thrashing. He nearly bumped into a perturbed woman who was hurrying towards the back curtain.

“Excuse me,” he muttered, craning his neck to try and find Elyse.

The perturbed woman looked at him only for a moment before she turned around, only to swing her head around with wide eyes.

“Harry Potter?” she asked, staring at him with bothered eyes.

He sighed, assuming she was someone who wanted to congratulate him. “Yes, excuse but I need to find someone.”

“Are you here for the blond woman?” the woman asked, anxiously.

Harry turned back around, his eyes wide with worry. Was it really that bad? “Elyse? Where is she?”

“Right this was,” the woman said, shuffling towards the back curtain where suppressed sobs could be heard from the other side.

Harry felt his heart break when the woman pulled back the thin, white curtains, allowing him to see his only love. She was holding onto Luna as if they were but moments from death, her face covered by her limp, blond locks. Luna, who was normally more controlled at a time like this, had stray tears falling from her eyes as she held onto her friend, trying to comfort her.

Luna glanced up for a moment, her watery eyes widening at the sight of him. She tried to extricate herself from Elyse’s impossible grasp. Giving up after a couple of moment, she turned back to Harry, her eyes pleading him to help her in some way, if that was entirely all possible.

“Elyse,” Harry breathed, a lump forming in his throat as he heard the suppressed sobs come to a sudden stop. As if she was being forced, she slowly pulled her head out from Luna’s shoulder, strands of those beautiful blond hair covering her eyes.

Never in his life had he ever seen her so… vulnerable. Her eyeliner was running down her cheeks, which were bright red from her sobs. She looked weak, small in comparison to Luna, who was thin and wiry. Yet, at the same time, Harry found himself looking at the most beautiful girl in the world.

Harry had expected a furious, uncontrollable woman to be in front of him, that was the worst he expected. He never wanted to see this strong, independent woman in a state like this. It seemed shameful just to look at her. She was weak, exposed to reality’s cruel, cruel truths.

Before it could register in his mind, Harry felt two, thin arms wrap around his neck, followed by a small body being shoved against his body. She needed him more than she had ever needed him before. Luna couldn’t help more than she already has, Elyse needed the man she loved to be holding her, comforting her, to say those silly little “it will be alright” phrases.

“It was a girl,” she sobbed into his shoulder, completely forgetting any sense of dignity or containment she would normally possess.

Harry knew Elyse couldn’t be calmed down but it didn’t stop him from trying. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I‘m so sorry.”

Normally, she’d be thrilled to be called a little pet name but all she could think about was how grateful she was that he hadn’t called her “baby”.

“Damn my good intentions,” she wailed, her grip on him tightening every second that passed. Harry wrapped his arms around her, feeling just as heartbroken as she was, not that he’d ever tell her. It could set her off on a whole new level so he figured it was safe to just keep it to himself.

Harry, never really having any experience on how to comfort someone like this, tried his best to get her to stop crying, only this just seemed to make her more angry, not at him but more at the whole situation she was in.

She tried to pulled away from Harry, eventually realizing that she must look pretty pathetic, although is it wrong for her to be? She lost a child, that is something you can’t just walk away from. Harry, finally realizing what he should do, pulled her back into his arms. He knew that in the next couple of hours or possibly days, Elyse would do a lot of stuff she doesn’t mean. So pushing him away was her way of telling him she needed him now more than ever.

“Leave me alone!” she said tartly, beginning to pound on his chest.

“Elyse!” Harry said, not quite yelling but not quite talking.

Raising her eyes slowly from the ground to his comforting green eyes she asked ever so softly. “What?”

“I love you,” he said, his voice more sincere than Elyse had ever heard it. It was the kind of sincerity that left you begging for more, the feeling of complete trust was within the reach. Elyse wanted help but she didn’t know how to ask it. She wanted to thank him, for just making it out of this war alive. Rather than do any of that, she flung herself into his arms, clinging onto him as if he was truly a part of him.

For unfathomable reasons, Elyse found herself unable to do any but cry. She wanted to be strong and try to do what she did for Sirius but it was impossible. Sirius had lived his life, the baby hadn’t. The baby was her only hope in this big, lonely world. It was her light at the end of the tunnel. Now, her tunnel shed no light, only darkness.

There was nothing left to say; the baby was dead. Harry could have tried to comfort her in every way imaginable but it would be utterly impossible to bring a smile or a spark of hope back into those enchanting amber eyes. Elyse could have gone on and on about how stupid she was or how much she wanted to have that baby. But neither of them said anything, both fearing what the truth might hold beneath their words.

To Harry, the idea of losing a child hadn’t completely set in. He never knew the child nor was he there for the whole pregnancy, but it felt like a part of him was missing. Harry was upset, no where near comparable to Elyse, but he knew he had to be the strong one.

Without him, Elyse would be a ticking time bomb.