fabonian:
Eddie nodded, enthusiastically, as she did most things. Her fingers hovered and fluttered along the edges of her crown, barely close enough to touch. But they did touch. She felt the petals and leaves and stems, soft against the pads of her fingers. Fresh from the morning and still wet with due, still fresh enough to not smell of sickly sweet death. Yet.
But they would smell of death, sooner or later. They had to, as all dead things must. “I did, thank you! I chose them and picked them myself.”
And she had, singing softly under her breath, legs folded beneath herself as she sat on a bed of grass, mutilated them herself too, by her own hand. But that’s not so bad. Is it ? To be made into a memorial of yourself. There are uglier ways to fall than by the hands of someone who loved you.
Eddie believes this and shares none of this. Just, for a moment, she grew distracted and then snapped back into her smile, and this time it was even larger. She followed Selena’s lead because, “Left or right, I’m sure either side is lovely.”
She fell into step with Selena and oh so subtly tried to hook her arm around Selena’s arm, so they’d walk arm in arm together. “I’m from lots of places. Madrid, originally. What about you ? ”
Only in the corner of her eye could Selena see Eddie’s little arm attempting to hook itself around her own. There was a slight panic that induced itself into Selena; what was she trying to do? What did she want? Was this... child looking for some sort of surrogate mother to hold her hand on the first day of school? Motherhood, surrogacy, adoption were foreign territories for Selena, uncharted and undiscovered lands. As they should be, she was only seventeen years old, and had already discovered, not much of a team player. Despite her inner dialogue, she offered Eddie a light smile. “Madrid’s cute.” Selena lied. She didn’t know much about Madrid or England, just that her mother was originally from Croydon South.
“Well like you, most places really.” Selena sighed as she answered. “I was born in New York, but I studied in Switzerland, little bit of France, and then basically moved..., here, to Hogwarts.”
“Would you mind just checking on that carriage, please? Just ask them if they’re okay, I’m sure they’re fine.”
