Chapter 1
<p>Her curls always caught my attention. How wild with magic they were. What a wonderful visual representation of her personality. If her curls caught my attention, her personality certainly kept it there.<br />
</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>I cannot pinpoint when I started noticing her. I guess I always have. I liked watching her when she would study. I would notice the weirdest things like how perfect her posture was, until she was engrossed in a book and then it wasn’t. How fast her eyes moved across the page, or the way her eyebrows furrowed when she was reading. I wonder if she was aware?</p>
<p>Mum always scolded Ginny when her eyebrows did that. “Quit it, or you’ll get worry lines on your forehead dear,” she’d cluck as a mother hen did when chastising their youngest. “You’re too young to have the weight of the world on your shoulders.”<br />
She would always say this while swatting at her in the kitchen. My eyes roll on their own volition as I ponder the memory. ‘Are we too young now?’ Now that the war is won. Now that the war was lost. After who we lost?</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>When did this start?<br />
Was it when she quite literally ran into me after my mess of a brother stuck his foot in his mouth?<br />
It’s hard to know which time I’m referencing at this point in our lives, I know. ’Snot his fault entirely though, he comes by it naturally. The Yule Ball always brings out the jealous side in the young blokes anyways. There’s always one heartbroken bugger at the end of the night. This time it was him. It was her. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Was it the time years before, when she came over for the summer and Fred and I almost took out Percy’s room with one of our experiments? I was wondering what went wrong.<br />
“It’s not the end of the world.” I remember saying that in our defense. Mom was furious. Hermione looked grim and Ginny was laughing. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Was it that time in the library? After she saw Lavender and Ron for the first time? In a place she considered safe. Safe from the world, a place that brought her serenity. Was it when her eyes were closed and her breath was coming out in gasps?<br />
‘Just breathe’ I told her.<br />
I didn’t know when I got up from the desk, when I moved her from the door. ‘Just breathe, I have you.’<br />
I did. I had pressed her against the bookshelf, trying to steady her and move them out of her line of sight. Her world was ending.<br />
“It’s not the end of the world, even though it feels like it.” I meant the sentiment as a promise.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>No.
It was in the room of requirement, at the D.A. Meetings. I studied her movements as she trained, and she studied mine. Eventually it turned into noticing her in every moment. It was for her safety of course. “We <i>are</i> training for the end of the world” Fred mentioned at one of the meetings when a second year was complaining about how tough we had it. You’re right brother, we were.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Yes, it was then. I noticed her at Bill’s wedding. I worried about her when she was hunting the horcruxes with Ron and Harry. I worried for them all, but the thought of her out there just made the ball of tension in my chest a little tighter. Hearing that she was missing, that she was taken, tore me to shreds. Was she in pain? Of course she was in pain. Was she coming home? </p>
<p>“It wasn’t the end of the world.” She told me in quiet whispers when I saw her again. I was staring at the scar. “It wasn’t the end of the world, even though it felt like it. I am okay.” Her eyes were shining, my chest was lightening. I wanted to hold her. I wanted to run away. She squeezed my hand quickly, signaling that she knew. She felt it. I could feel her pulling from me. “Ron will wonder where we went” she told me as I watched her walk away. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>“You’re Holey?” she asked with mirth in her voice.<br />
“Out of all the jokes..” I responded back, quoting Fred from earlier.<br />
Her hand was cool to the touch as she tilted my head to look at the bandage. Her eyebrows were furrowing. With worry, I assume.<br />
“I agree with him. You had the perfect moment, the best timing, you could have used your best stuff,” she scolded me, putting on a brave show, but I knew. “It isn’t the end of the world, ’Mione.”<br />
She acted as if my words burned her when she dropped her hand and took a step back.<br />
“Ron will be looking for you.” I told her, this time walking away from her. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>She knew, I knew, we both knew. We weren’t made for each other, and it’s fine.<br />
She knew, I knew, we both knew. The timing was never right, and it’s fine. </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Her curls. They are always the first thing I noticed. It only makes sense I’d notice them now. Now. When my world was shattered, when my world was ending and she was here. Her curls brushing against my chin as the weight of her head rested on my shoulder.<br />
“I’ll miss him too.” Her voice was quiet, her hand was on mine as I sat on my bed in George and I’s flat. I don’t know when she got here.<br />
Was it when I left the burrow after the funeral? When the guilt and the grief hit me harder than it had in days and the walls were caving in?<br />
“I came through the floo.” She answered, reading my mind.<br />
I couldn’t think, I’m surprised I could breathe.<br />
My hand rotated in hers, gently squeezing her hand letting her know, I knew.<br />
“Why are you here?” I asked.<br />
“Because the world is ending.” As if it was the simplest answer in the world. It was.</p>here…
