Losing Game/// James Potter

Chapter 71

Elsie couldn't remember how long she had been screaming in Benjy's arms, but she figured it was hours since she first heard the news. The sun had gone down a while ago and it was well into the early morning hours, or that's at least what Benjy had told her when she calmed down. She didn't notice because the darkness of the night was incomparable to the darkness welling up in her soul. And for the second time in her life, she found Benjy holding all of her pieces together.

They were both sitting on his bed, seeing as Benjy still had another family living with him and he figured Elsie would want some privacy. His arms, that were now decorated with scars, wrapped around her familiar body so tightly, his shirt stained with her tears. It was heartbreaking watching the girl who he knew was so strong crumble right before him, watching the lips he had kissed so many times let out the most broken cries he had ever heard, watching Elsie's heart break right in front of him. He wanted to do more than just hold her, but she was no longer his, no matter how much so he was still hers.

"Elsie?" Benjy softly called out to the girl laying on him, running his hand through her hair and moving it out of her face. She hummed in response, numbly staring off into the distance while waiting for him to speak.

He wanted to comfort her in more ways than just holding her together, and so he found himself staring down at her stroking her stained cheek with his thumb, "Tell me about him. Only if you'd like to, of course."

She nodded her head lightly as a small smile formed on her face, something that felt almost foreign to her after hours of sobbing, "He was the best dad a girl could have asked for. A sweet smile and the most warm man you ever met. His laugh was bloody contagious, always got me in trouble with mum because I giggled whenever he did."

Elsie sighed and let out a breathy chuckle, her mind flashing with memories of her dad, "I could bet you anything in this world that he laughed right in the face death just to make it easier on mum."

"He loved her?" Benjy questioned to keep the smile on Elsie's face.

"They were the definition of love," she explained to him, her eyes starting to close from the exhaustion of the day, "The type of love where they would have died for each other...and well, he did."

"A Gryffindor through and through," he said with a slight chuckle, leaning his head onto the headrest of his bed, "Now I know where you get it from."

She smiled with her eyes shut, before opening them slowly and looking up at Benjy, their tired faces mirroring each other.

"Benjy," she let out breathily while taking his free hand into both of hers, "I'm so sorry for-,"

He shook his head in astonishment, not understanding how someone who just lost their dad was worrying about other people's feelings. He swiftly placed a kiss on her forehead and cut her off, "Do you love him?"

Elsie looked up at him, her eyebrows raising in confusion until Benjy spoke again, "James. Do you love him?"

Even though her her face was stained with tears and her eyes were swollen, a blush rose to her cheeks. Even though her heart was shattered and her soul was in pain, a genuine smile forced itself onto her face.

"Yeah," an electrifying chill ran down her body as she thought about her messy-haired, overprotective git of a boyfriend, "More than anything."

"So then you have nothing to apologize for. I was the one who told you not to wait for me, yeah?" He said with a sad smile, regret flowing through his body.

"Yeah, but I just wish I was the one to tell you. I hate the way you found out," she looked down at her hands on top of his, taking comfort in the fact that there was no bad blood between them. That it was almost exactly like the way it was before the war started. Almost.