ROMEO [2] ⚡ harry potter

29

GROWTH
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Charlotte had to get him out of there. She could see it was getting too much- he was shaking and crying and Theodore just wouldn't stop reading. She gave him a stern look as Flynn told him "that's enough" but she could've sworn she'd seen the dark haired boy shrug his shoulders slightly.

Theodore was reading a book which described 'phantoms'. Apparently he had figured it out: Flynn O'Riley had died in the fires, and what was now present was his phantom form. Yet, his death was so traumatising, that he couldn't remember it. Now, it seemed, it was all flooding back.

"There is some debate on whether phantoms count as beings or as beasts," Theodore concluded, like the imbecile that he is. Charlotte opened her mouth to tell him off, but Flynn beat her to it, standing abruptly.

"I said that's enough!" Flynn shouted, and the tears on his cheeks were like frosted dew. "I remember now. I've heard enough."

"Listen, it's okay Flynn," Gretel started, but he ignored her, instead turning to Zara.

"Just don't tell anybody else," he said through sobs. "Nobody else needs to know about this."

Charlotte jumped up from her seat and rushed him out of the room, away from all the others who were staring at him like a zoo animal- she hated them all for it. Zara with her pathetic shivering, Gretel's attempts at comfort, her father's silence- and Theodore and his stupid book!

Flynn was still crying as she took him into her room, and she noticed her mirror fog up, before turning frosty, yet she could not feel the cold herself. She sat him down on her bed, and sat beside him, rubbing his back as he leaned his forehead on her chest while he cried. It was a heart wrenching sound, Flynn's sobs. She was glad she'd never heard it in his lifetime.

"Flynn..."

"I'm not Flynn," he cried, quietly. "I'm not Flynn, I'm a beast. I'm a monster, I'm- I'm a ghost."

Charlotte pulled away from him, and took his fair face in her hands, looking him in the eyes as she said: "You are not a ghost. You aren't haunting anyone. You're not a monster, you're not a beast- and I don't care what that book says, you are certainly nothing less than you were in your life."

"I'm an echo," he said. "I don't belong here. I should be dead- well, and truly dead- I should be properly dead! If Lyra can't be here then neither should I!"

"You're here for a reason," Charlotte told him. "You have a purpose, you deserve to experience the world- your sister would be glad you got a second chance. I don't think you understand how happy we all are to have you back."

"Theodore isn't happy," Flynn grumbled. "For days now he's been eyeing me, judging me, trying to figure out what I am-"

"I'll have a word-"

"Don't," Flynn told her. "Let him read his books, do his research, and his- look, if he can find out a way for me to die then I'd be happy."

"You don't mean that," she said, hugging him once more.

"I do," Flynn said. "I don't want to float through life, watching you grow old, watching your children grow old, watching you die. I want to grow with you. Now I can't. I don't want eternal youth I just want normality."