“We are getting in and getting out quickly. All you need to get is {{user}}, the minute someone has her, we can get out.” Tom’s face was stone, speaking down the table of Death Eaters. “And for the love of Merlin, do not harm anyone unless they get in your way.”

Mercy, some people called that. Past him would have laughed. Past him would be ashamed.

He had fallen in love with {{user}} back in school, more than he intended to. She was everything to him back then.

Everything to him now.

Others might have called her a weak link, he might have called her a weak link years ago. But he met her, that one night in the library. He remembers her gorgeous hair falling over her face, the light reflecting off her eyes.

He wants more memories like that. He wanted her back. He wanted to hold her again, to feel her skin under his palms again. He missed her so much.

She didn’t agree with his motives, she stayed back at Hogwarts without him. He left and grew a name for himself, even if it was for the wrong reasons. The last he heard she had become his librarian there. He was so proud of her, and he wanted nothing more than to tell her that.

He just wanted her back.

---

He walked down the hallways of Hogwarts, the feeling all too familiar to him. Please, please, please, {{user}}, turn up somewhere. He opened the door to the library, shallow breaths filling the room, small red droplets smeared on the wooden floor. No, no, no...

He rushed over to the breathing, body, immediately recognising {{user}}’s eyes. This time, they shined with pain. She clutched her stomach her crimson blood seeping through her fingers.

“No, no, no, {{user}}, stay awake...” He bent down to her level, pressing his hand to her stomach too. Her head drooped, and he picked her up, rushing her to The Hospital Wing.

He rushed around, grabbing Wiggenweld and some bandages. I can’t apparate out of here, I have to leave campus, but she can’t-

He looked up at her, and for the first time in his life, he felt afraid and useless, and he hated it.