He didn’t know why he had already latched onto the thought of her leaving again like that when he hadn’t even known she was in Hogsmeade until today, and felt a twinge of embarrassment at having said anything. Maybe he was just too used to the disappointment of it, that any brief high was inevitably followed by the low of someone leaving. Everyone did, or would – because, well, Theo was stuck here, exactly where he was, and so would always be the one left behind. Maybe he hated that feeling so much that being lonely was actually less bad than the alternative?
Maybe it was jealousy — maybe he wished he could be the one to leave just once.
“Ah, wow,” Theo offered with another low whistle, about her sister’s second child. He wracked his brains to guess which sister she was talking about – there were a lot of Simpsons and half-siblings galore, though as far as he could recall a lot of the latter were younger. “You get to be the fun aunt, I s’pose? That’s mad, though – my half-brother’s going to Hogwarts in September.” Strange how fast things changed, how everyone grew up and settled down and... all the rest eventually.
“Still, I don’t blame you for wanting to go,” Theo admitted lightly, pushing down the itch to escape in himself. “Do you actually miss people when you’re halfway across the world, or it is just too different out there?” He might have asked Gemma the question, but he wasn’t really thinking about her, because thinking about family and people leaving made him wonder whether his father had ever looked back since he’d gone, or if distance and time eventually lessened everything.
Maybe it was jealousy — maybe he wished he could be the one to leave just once.
“Ah, wow,” Theo offered with another low whistle, about her sister’s second child. He wracked his brains to guess which sister she was talking about – there were a lot of Simpsons and half-siblings galore, though as far as he could recall a lot of the latter were younger. “You get to be the fun aunt, I s’pose? That’s mad, though – my half-brother’s going to Hogwarts in September.” Strange how fast things changed, how everyone grew up and settled down and... all the rest eventually.
“Still, I don’t blame you for wanting to go,” Theo admitted lightly, pushing down the itch to escape in himself. “Do you actually miss people when you’re halfway across the world, or it is just too different out there?” He might have asked Gemma the question, but he wasn’t really thinking about her, because thinking about family and people leaving made him wonder whether his father had ever looked back since he’d gone, or if distance and time eventually lessened everything.
