ROMEO [2] ⚡ harry potter

22

COMPANIONSHIP
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They'd thrown someone in there with her. Charlotte didn't know who, just knew that a door had opened, light flooded in and she'd been confused because it only ever opened for her to do her work, and she'd finished it all for the day. Then a body had thudded on the concrete floor and the door had closed. It had been there for hours, never moving and Charlotte was sure it was dead.

At least, she was sure until she heard the scraping of skin on the floor, and retching and splashing of vomit on the ground and the pleasant sounds her mind had supplied her with dissappeared as the smell of the acidic waste filled the space.

Charlotte stood then, hearing the muffled sobs, muted by the magical vacuum around them, but then the sobs intensified and she heard screams, scared, terrified screams and pleads but she could not understand who the voice was pleading to, then suddenly-

Silence.

They stopped screaming. And this made Charlotte uncomfortable. She made her way over to the voice blindly, groping thin air until- finally! Her hand clasped around a clammy delicate wrist and she held on tightly, even as the person screamed once more, backing away until they hit a wall.

Charlotte moved forward, bringing their face closer to theirs (she only knew where it was because of the ragged breathing that came from the mouth) whispering her next words up close in their ear, determined not to let the vacuum swallow them before they reached the person.

"Why are you here? Why have they brought you? I have been alone for weeks- and now all I hear is your God damned screaming. Why are you here?"

Another sob, relieved this time, and the body pulled her into a tight embrace. A female body. The girl's next word shook her up inside. "Charlotte?"

"Zara?" Charlotte gasped, recognising the voice of her best friend, as her eyes watered. She was saved! She was getting out of this hell!

"Oh, Charlotte, I'm so sorry," Zara sobbed, voice hoarse and fragile. "We've done nothing for you, I'm so sorry! I told Harry I'd find you, oh I've failed you both, I'm so so so so sorry!"

"You have found me," Charlotte laughed, still staying close to her. "So stop apologising and tell me the plan."

"The plan?"

"Yeah, the plan," Charlotte repeated, her grin wide with excitement "You've come to rescue me, right? We're getting out of here- tonight."

Zara only cried once more. "There is no plan. I'm prisoner here too." Charlotte's grip on her friend slipped but Zara held onto her hand as she staggered backwards, using her spare arm to lean on the wall, before sliding down it, her heart breaking inside. There was no hope then, no hope at all. "I've spent weeks wanting to find you... And now that I have, there's no way out."

"It's okay," Charlotte gulped, voice wavering, as she willed herself to believe her words. "Harry's coming for us."

"I don't think he is," Zara sighed and she wanted to shout at her friend to shut up!

"Well, I know he is," Charlotte snapped, instead, and they both fell silent. "They're going to save us. Harry, and Theodore and the others."

"Charlotte, Dumbledore is dead," Zara said, as if that was supposed to be significant to her. She didn't care about their Headmaster, why should she? He hadn't done anything to help her. "I know this because right before I was drugged by the boy I used to call friend, he told me he was going to do it. And if he'd failed, he wouldn't have been able to bring me here."

"What's that got to do with anything?" She kept her bravado up, but part of her ached for her friend. Betrayal is the worst kind of hurt.

"If Dumbledore is dead, there's bound to be unfinished business. And who d'you think he'll have left that to?" Zara went on. Charlotte didn't answer the patronising question. "If Harry wants any chance of seeing you again, he'll get this war over and done with. And everybody will be telling him to do so. He won't have the chance, or time to save us."

"He'll always make time for me," was all Charlotte replied, keeping her faith in her boyfriend. "Even if someone else beats him to it, he'll still come."

"He can't."

"He can!"

"He won't."

"He will!"

Zara surrendered with a sigh, and the two were silent for some time, the sounds Charlotte's brain had invented returning.

"The entire place is concrete, the room is ten feet high, there's stairs to the north that lead up to a metal door where people sometimes enter to make me do housework," Charlotte listed after the silence.

"They'll be here in about an hour. You've been here for around fourteen. We get bread and water once in the morning and five stale crackers in the evening. It doesn't taste so bad when you can't see it. There's no toilets, but they'll escort you to a tree outside three times a day- blindfold you with magic of course. And we're in Malfoy Manor. I only know that because of the residents. So I'll ask you again, Zara Afasy. What. Is. The. Plan?"

"The plan," Zara scoffed. "There is no plan. We just wait. For our deaths. Because that's all that there is for us now."

"You're quick to lose hope," Charlotte said, finally. "But guess what? I'm not. I'm patient. We will get out of here, whether you like it or not. There's people who care about us. Harry, Theodore, Layth, the Order. They're coming for us. They have to. They care about us."

"Sweet," Zara laughed. "I used to think Draco cared too."

"Not everybody's like him," Charlotte told her. "Your brother isn't like him. Theodore isn't like him. And God knows Harry is nothing like him. No matter what Malfoy has done, he's not your world- he was never your world. You have others. We have others. And if all else fails we have each other."

"How are you like this?" Zara whispered, barely audible. "How do you have optimism?"

"Because I have love."

"I've been a terrible friend to you," Zara continued. "I ignored you for months, flew off to a new school and never said a word. I never write. I never ask how you are- I'm sorry."

"It doesn't matter," she said, blinking four times and swallowing. "We need to come up with a plan."

"I'm fed up of war. It's as if it's all I've ever seen in my life and I'm sick of it,"  Zara said. "Maybe this is my destiny. Maybe I'm supposed to die in total war, maybe all my parents did for me was give me a few more years."

"That's not true. You've seen more. Love, friendship-"

"Betrayal, death," she replied. "If you find a way out, I'll be glad for you. But, me? I'm sick of fighting."

"There's no convincing you?"

"None."

"Fine," Charlotte said, finally. She would find a way out, and then she would save this girl who didn't want to save herself.

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Hi everyone! Hope youre all doing well! You're probably wondering how I'm updating if I have sooo many exams but lemme tell you a secret:

(I was actually organised for once and prewrote bunch of chapters before exam season.) In fact, I first wrote this chapter in like 2015, but it was from Zaras POV and i didnt know how theyd get to that point. Anyway no promises of regualar updates tho bc idk if future Amber will even remember that she wrote these chapters idk.

QOTD: What is a perfect day for you?

AOTD: Waking up in the morning with sun shining through the blinds onto white bedsheets. a healthy and tasty breakfast. Getting ready to some bangin tunes. A visit to the park where I can read and write and drink pink lemonade. Calling a friend and talking for hours. and a niiice ASMR video before bed ahh.

-Amber Sweetwine.