From Eden - Regulus Black (Complete)

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Eight -

DOUBLE UPTADE! JUST... WAS EXCITED ABOUT THIS CHAPTER, SO, HERE YOU HAVE IT! HAVE FUN.

DEATH

Anne liked being dead.

Death was like being so deep into sleep that when you wake up, light already shining into one's face, but there is no reason to move out of bed because it's winter and there is nowhere to be. It was like being naked under the warm water after a long, hard day; in a bath so good that even the headache one has goes away.

"You changed nothing," someone said.

Anne felt her whole body tense up and then all she had ever thought in her life hit her in the head again. All that because she knew that voice all that well.

"Harry," she said.

Her voice came out low and breathy as if it was hard to believe it. But Harry, standing with a small grin on his face, heard her.

"Still sleepy?" he mocked.

She was jumping to stand in the next second, jumping into his arms already with a sob escaping her lips. Her arms went around him, fearing that it would go through, but it didn't – their bodies collided and he held her tight as if he, too, had missed her as much as she did.

"I can't believe you are here," she cried onto his shoulder. "Oh, Harry, I have so much to tell you. I have been working so hard to make this work –"

"I know, I kept an eye on you," he admitted caressing her hair.

She pulled away, cleaning her tears quickly as she processed completely what he had said to her.

"You... kept an eye on me?" she repeated.

"I needed to make sure my little sister was alright," he explained. "We all kept an eye on you. And, Anne, I'm so happy for you."

She frowned, eyebrows almost touching each other as she scrunched.

"I thought you'd be upset," she admitted. But that was a lie.

But there was a part of her that wasn't surprised Harry had just said that. Harry, the kind and gentle boy that he was, would never be upset because she was happy because that's the reason that he had sacrificed so much of himself growing up, to see her happy and well.

Harry's grin grew into a smile.

"Why would I be upset?" he asked. "Seeing you this happy makes it feel like it was worth it. Everything that I went through... and everything you went through as well, the things that you didn't tell me," he frowned, smile slowly falling. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you'd be..."

She felt stupid. Why couldn't she seem to find words to talk to him? That was her brother and she had so much to say, and yet she couldn't find the right words to describe something as simple as feelings.

"Guilty?"

"Angry," she added.

"I did feel it all," he admitted. "I could've protected you."

"There was nothing that you could do. We were both so young and you had so much on your plate," she said. "Besides, I could deal with it."

"But you didn't need to," Harry said.

They didn't need to do a lot of things, and yet they did and they kept quiet about it. There was a lot of things that they shouldn't have to do, and yet they did and kept quiet about it. They both knew it. Though Harry was saying that, if she had told him about it, there was very little that he could have done for her. They were young and depended on the people of the house.