He'd gone to sleep with a hollow heart, and had woken that morning to find it filled with sorrow. He could usually look forward to exchanging a letter or two with Febby at work - or, if he was lucky, a visit from her once he settled down in the evening. Tonight was not one of those nights. There would never again be one of those nights.

She'd left him - permanently. As much as he'd tried to find to find a reason that she might appear in his fireplace that evening, it was obvious that she wouldn't. She'd removed the locket she'd sworn to never take off and left it on his bedside table, a horrible reminder of what he'd lost. Earlier last night they'd been mourning the loss of a child they'd never have, and now he was mourning the loss of a wife he'd never have.

He might have barked a laugh, but he'd instead spend the entire evening numbing himself with whatever booze he had left in the cupboards, only the presence of a friend able to keep him from collapsing from the sobs he still hadn't mustered the strength (or was it weakness? He hadn't yet figured that much out.) to release.

"Have you ever had your heart broken?" he asked with an alarmingly un-Edric-like sigh. He was still donning his auror robes, yet he somehow managed to look even more disheveled than he had when he returned home. His hair was sticking out in tousled - and not in an attractive way - and there were dark circles under his eyes.

He was an absolute wreck.

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