DOWNFALL || J. POTTER ✓

ten | one year

Sirius sat on the couch, completely zoned out. In his hand he held a letter he had been meaning to send to Hazel, despite not getting any responses from the hundreds of others he had sent her. James walked in the room, taking a seat next to him and clapping a hand on Sirius' back.

"It's been a year, Padfoot, I don't think she's ever coming back. I think it's time we accept it and move on, don't you think?" James suggests, Sirius turning to glare towards his best friend.

"Easy for you to say, James. You weren't the one in love with her, were you? You were the one that she was in love with. It's so easy for you to move on because you never saw her as I did, and that's the reason she left in the first place." Sirius spat, causing James to sit up straight.

"Hazel? In love with me? You're a madman. Don't you think I would have-"

"You're so oblivious, Prongs. She was so crazily in love with you and all you ever did was ask her for advice on Lily. I'm not- I'm not saying you should have loved her back, I'm just asking that you don't ask me to move on from her. Not yet."

"Wow.." James mumbles, staring towards his feet.

Hazel was James' best friend, how could she possibly ever have been in love with him? The thought of that couldn't register in his mind, but once he began to think about it, it finally did. The little, stupid things she would do for him, the way she was the first to laugh at his jokes, how she would always take the blame for his pranks, landing them both in detention regardless. He was the reason she had fled off to another country.

What hurt him the most in that moment, though, was that he didn't love her the way she loved him. He never had, nor will he ever. He felt selfish, wishing he could have told her himself and be honest, maybe then things would have been okay.

But it's quite obvious it's too late for that, but, it doesn't seem to be too late for his other best friend, who still, luckily has some hope left inside of him.