"Perhaps," Fallon allowed. "But JP and S never would have known one another if not for the train incident." The initial letter had been meant for Maeve, after all, not a handsome man with the most striking blue eyes she had ever seen. That the owl Fallon entrusted her letter with was old and decrepit was yet another bizarre twist of fate. "It's all connected," she sighed. Perhaps there were no realities in which Fallon might've spared Lachlan pain. Perhaps their mutual heartache was always inevitable.

A sad sigh escaped her then, one she wouldn't comment upon. Lachlan didn't deserve for her to disappear from his life like so. He deserved an in-person explanaton, more than that he deserved for her to choose him, too. And she would have, had Jesse not finally stood up and fought back. It was such all such a mess. So much so that in the deepest parts of her she wished she could hit reset and live it all again. Only, this time she would watch for the missed signs, she would understand how she could've been so blind to Lachlan's feelings.

Hitting reset was impossible, though. All there was left for Fallon to do was learn to cope with the consequences. She could only hope that he didn't feed himself to the dragons with this added heartache.

Malou's quiet pulled Fallon from her own trail of misery. She glanced over at her friend with a curious expression, wondering what had gone through her best friend's mind to inspire such a morose expression. She needn't wonder long either, for soon Malou was speaking of friendship and sisterhood in a way that had Fallon desperate for the times when they were just girls in the Slytherin common room. "Malou,' she began, sitting up to stare at her friend's eyes. "You're my family. There isn't anyone who compares to you." Yes, Fallon had siblings of all ages, but even Kieran wasn't as close to her as Malou was. Hell, she had barely spoken to her elder brother since going missing! "A sisterhood, a friendship, whatever you wish to call it, you'll always have a place with me."

  

The train incident which had been where Mr. MacFusty came into the picture. Fallon had a point, it did all seem connected. Malou wasn't quite sure what to say to that matter, so she allowed it to drop. The past was over now, despite it still being an open wound for Fallon. She would not probe into it any further, allowing it to linger in the amused manner it had. Perhaps one day that would chuckle over the fates determination to tie Fallon to these two men, but Malou suspected that day was a long way off yet.

At Malou's words, Fallon sat up, the couch shifting between them like the currents that had always held their friendship together. The admission that Fallon too considered her family made Malou's soft smile spread over her lips. Surely, Fallon knew that Malou considered her family too, understood that Fallon was really her only family left. It had gone unspoken in the years since her parents had died, but now she found she still could not formulate the words to express their own deep ties that way. But Fallon's words loosened the knots as she mentioned her own siblings. "You're my family too." Malou found herself uttering quietly, glancing down at the silver blanket on Fallon's lap. But since Fallon had brought it up she really ought to address the other matter now, Fallon might not have realized it, but her words hinted that she too knew their days living as friends would soon end. "But that is the thing," Malou started, her gentle voice firm despite the nerves in it. "We won't always be able to live like this." She gestured around the flat they had built into their home. "One day Mr. Hatchitt will ask you to marry you and ...." Malou fell silent finding she didn't quite want to put into words the thoughts that had been plaguing her. She wanted to return to the gentle comradery they had had only moments before, to cling to it as if that would keep it from disappearing, from slipping away into the world she had somehow never thought would claim them. "One day you'll have a place of your own." She ended quietly, looking into the fireplace, the flames licking at the sides reminding her of Mr. Hatchitt disappearing into them and the realization she'd had then that this would all one day end.

  

---

No.

Despite her sound belief that she would one day marry Jesse, Fallon refused to acknowledge that there was a future in which she and Malou no longer lived together. They had been an inseparable duo for so long that she simply couldn't envision a time where Malou wasn't right across the hall. Unbidden, a stray tear sprang to her eye that she was quick to swipe away. "Nonsense," Fallon insisted with a shake of her head. "Absolute nonsense."

It was always Malou that was meant to wed first, she was the one from a prestigious family, after all. Fallon wasn't meant to find a life partner through a bloody missent letter and effectively abandon her best friend. No. If she were to marry Jesse, Malou would come with them. He would understand, somehow. Even if all Malou's presence was as a quiet aunt to her children, Malou wouldn't be forced to live alone ever. "We'll just have Jesse move in with us," Fallon continued. "Or maybe the three of us find a bigger house. Sisters live together for generations, we can too."

  

It wasn't nonsense though. It was the simple practically of the matter. Fallon was moving on with her life and Malou might have a place in it, but it wouldn't be the same place she held now. It physically couldn't be. The truth was something Malou had thought of that summer after graduation, that she had accepted as the truth their seventh year. But then fate had intervened and delayed the inevitable. Now it was here and the truth and stumbled over Malou's reluctant lips. Despite that Malou shouldn't have mentioned anything, not so soon after Fallon had had to lose someone with the choice she'd had to make yet again. The truth of Malou's bad timing was evident in the look on her face, the surprise that flashed over it first, followed by sadness, and then the stubborn fight that marked Fallon as who she was.

It was the fierceness in her words and the plan that Fallon laid out in front of them that made Malou smile this time. Not because of the pragmatism of it, but in fact because of the fact that it would absolutely not work. Not if Malou were to ever have a life of her own, one that didn't estrange her even further from any chance of a match herself. Despite the impracticality of it, the fear of it even, Malou wasn't ready to admit that she didn't want to find a love of her own. In the past few months the small hope that she might just find someone for herself, someone who would accept her as both Mr. Hatchitt and Mr. MacFusty had accepted Fallon, had begun to form in her mind. She didn't think she would ever find that, but she couldn't yet throw all caution to the wind and give up just yet. She still had a few years before she was counted as hopeless didn't she?

"I wish we could." Malou said gently, putting a hand on Fallon's knee in a silent desire to impart the fact that she understood the gesture and wished it could really be that way. "But you know people would talk." She bit her lip as she admitted this truth, the one that she wished didn't matter, the one that wouldn't matter if only society understood. But society would never understand, would never accept the close bond between Fallon and Malou. No, the orphan would forever be marred by her residence with a married friend. Wouldn't she? Perhaps if she moved in with them in a few years it might seem more normal to take a friend in, a spinster orphan with no home of her own, but not just yet. Besides, as much as Malou hated to admit it, she'd always feel more of a third wheel than anything else. She couldn't mar the early years of her friend's marriage by her own intrusion - it was not fair to either of them. No matter how much it would hurt her, hurt Fallon even, she couldn't do it.

  

---

There was little doubt in her mind that Jesse was the man she would one day marry. But, if doing so meant leaving Malou behind ... could she go through with it? The girls had grown into one gnarled, twisted tree, their lives eternally intertwined through strong friendship. Fallon would never condemn Malou to a lesser life because of her own selfish desires, but, Merlin, did she wish the situation were different. There had to be something they could do to not be forced into separation. Something, anything.

She sighed heavily. "I wish we could slow down time."

  

Malou agreed, time simply went too quickly. She leaned on her friend’s knees, wrapping her arms around them in a hug. “I wish so too.” She admitted before her practicalities set it, “But as we cannot, I’ll settle for simply enjoying the time we have.”

  

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