it's been getting worse.

for months now, it was as if you vanished from the face of the earth. you hadn't been seen. you hadn't given a warning to any of those around you. in fact, no one knew where you had gone off too. it was alarming. and worrying. the day you had left, theo had gone to your dorm in search of you, only to find it cleaned out. he had gone to dumbledore. he had tried everything to contact you. it had been one hundred and fifty six days since you left.

he spent all of them days trying to find you. he barely ate. nor did he sleep much. his whole energy was no longer focused on studies, it was focused on you. everyone had been worried. but no one had been worried just as much as he was. the thought of you gnawed at the cages in his mind, unable to fill anything else. he wanted you back. he wanted you home.

he wanted you.

his dazed mind sat in the common room, a certain unrecognisable glaze over his eyes as he stared off into the distance. it was like he wasn't even there, and only the shell of his body existed in memory. the sound of a creaking door snapped him back into reality, his eyes slowly but surely travelling over to see who had entered the common room. it was past curfew. everyone was in bed.

you.

you. you. you.

he had got to his feet in a blink, going straight over to you as he stared at you. you looked the same as the day he had last saw you. or maybe that was his mind playing tricks on him. maybe it wasn’t even you. maybe this was a dream. no. it wasn’t a dream. it was you. and the emotions overwhelmed him, crashing into him as his heart got stuck in his chest, and his words caught in his throat.

"everyone was worried about you. you can't just disappear like that. you really hurt a lot of people. don't you think that's selfish?"