2.| ✮𝓛𝓸𝓿𝓮, 𝓑𝓲𝓵𝓵. ✮ {𝓑. 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂}

\𝓉𝓌ℯ𝓃𝓉𝓎-𝒻ℴ𝓊𝓇\

~

When it got too cold outside for Fred and Eleanora to bear, they crept back up to Gryffindor tower in silence. Neither of them said a word until they got to the foot of the stairs leading up to the dormitories. They turned and faced each other, exhausted from such a physically and emotionally arduous night.

"How d'you..." Fred started, paused, and then restarted. "How d'you think George and Lee's nights went?"

Eleanora chuckled softly to herself. "Better than ours," she said, her voice coarse from her tears earlier.

"I dunno. It wasn't the worst night of my life."

Eleanora gave him a tired smile, then took a step forward and kissed him on the cheek. "Here's to 'not bad' nights, then." When she stepped back, she saw that Fred was biting his lip hard, his eyes shiny. "Freddie..." she said more softly, but then Fred pulled her into a bone-crushing hug that didn't need any explanation. It was just how the night felt. She reached up to wrap her arms around his neck and he buried his face in her shoulder.

"We're gonna be okay, you know," Eleanora said comfortingly. "We're going to end up okay." They stood like that for what could've been hours or only seconds. She couldn't put into words how relieved she was to have Fred around. Out of their entire friend group, the two of them were by far the most emotional, and having one another to lean on was all they needed sometimes. Finally, they broke apart and Fred held Eleanora at arms length.

"You're damn right we're gonna be okay. We're going to stick together and get through all of this," he said in a serious tone that was rare for either of the twins.

"Yeah, we will. I love you, Freddie."

"I love you, Nora."

Eleanora was feeling almost optimistic about her situation when she went to bed, but in the morning, it all fell apart. She woke up with a splitting headache that felt like a hangover, but couldn't be a hangover because she hadn't had anything to drink the night before. On top of that, her mental state had gone downhill so fast, she didn't even want to get out of bed. This was the hardest she'd crashed in a long time.

"Come on, El," Phillipa said, sitting on the edge of Eleanora's bed and gently brushing her hair back. "You need to eat breakfast, love."

"I'm alright..." said Eleanora. "I'm just going to- sleep for a bit."

"Late night, huh?" Beatrice called from the bathroom where she was curling her hair. Eleanora only groaned and rolled over onto her other side.

~

Hours later, Eleanora woke up again to an empty dormitory. A plate of food from breakfast sat cold on the bedside table and all of the lights were off. Eleanora could see the snow still falling through the windows, and she squeezed her eyes shut at the memory of how happy she'd been to see it just the night before. Finally, she worked up the energy to pull herself out of bed and into the shower. She stood in the hot water for nearly an hour before hurriedly washing off and climbing back out.