one foot in front of the other. [winifred]

Wini was almost positive that this is what heartbreak felt like. She thought she had felt it with crushes or infatuations, but this? This was a completely different kind of break. What were you supposed to do next when your family decided they no longer wanted you? How could you come back from that? A small part of her mind even understood where her father.. or was she just supposed to call him Griffith now?.. was coming from and that made it all the worse. To understand and still feel unloved. Her tears came harder.

Then she heard a voice call her name. She knew that voice. "Marin?" she whispered, her voice soft and gravelly from her tears. No, it couldn't be.. how did he know? The question popped into her mind. Was something wrong? Had something happened with his mum and he wanted to tell her or something? She opened the door, saw Lip leaning there against the wall looking lost and then as she saw Marin she couldn't help herself. It was in times like these where she just really, really needed her best friend.

She threw herself at him without care, wrapping her arms around his middle tightly and pressing her cheek to him, her tears still rolling down her cheeks. "I don't know why you're here but thank you," her voice muffled against his clothes.

Marin got to the top of the stairs, but only had a moment to meet Lip’s eyes before Wini’s door was creaking open, and he was giving her his attention instead. “Hi,” he said plainly. He felt alarmed that she was crying (of course – crying was bad), but there was relief in there too. Maybe because she seemed unharmed? Maybe because he was here now, and could hopefully help somehow??

The tall young man gave their Ravenclaw friend a disapproving look before ushering Wini back into her room, closing the door behind him without asking if he should do so. He didn’t know what had happened here, but if Wini had been on one side of the door and Lip the other when he’d arrived, then that was how he’d start to approach things.

She was crying into his shirt again (still?) and he patted the back of her head gently. He waited a while to say anything, assuming from experience that she would talk when she was ready. When she didn’t immediately gush all of her thoughts to him though, he decided to prod a little. “Winifred,” he said softly, “What’s going on? Lip owled me…?”

She let Marin shuffle them back into her room, hearing the door close, but unable to pull herself together even enough to explain what was going on or why she was in such a state. The thought occurred to her that she might never get over this and she wallowed in the despair, finding a new dafault that was nothing like her usual cheeriness.

How could she admit to Marin that her mum had basically told her that she wasn't wanted? How could she even face hearing those words out loud again? It was bad enough that they had been written down and mailed as if they were ordinary words that couldn't tear her up inside.

She sniffled and wiped a hand across her cheeks, feeling Marin's hand softly patting her head, but focusing more on his last comment than anything else. "He owled you?" she asked, glancing up at him and having to take a small step back to do it since he was so tall. Wini wiped again at her cheeks and her nose with was all stuffy now and heaved a big exhale, it made a shaky exit as if she couldn't quit draw a full breath.

Then she noticed his shirt with a dark spot on the front from her tears and she felt bad all over again for a different reason. "Sorry," she murmured with a little wave towards his shirt. And because she was in full avoidance mode, she sat down on the trunk at the foot of her bed, slumping and holding her arms about herself as she asked, "Did you really apparate here just because Lip owled you?"

Marin had exactly zero qualms shutting Lip out of the room, and Wini barely seemed to register it, so clearly he’d done the right thing. She didn’t give him much of an answer, but Marin wasn’t pushy. He nodded at her first question, even though she couldn’t see him. “Yes,” he said simply. “Barely legible, mind you,” he added. “Someone needs to tell him to stop trying cursive.” It was half a joke.

“Hmm?” Marin looked down at the damp patch on his shirt. His wand was still in his hand, so he vanished the patch wordlessly before putting his wand down on her dresser. His shorter friend slumped down at the end of her bed and Marin hesitated, feeling like a giraffe looking down at the girl before joining her. “Of course,” Marin said quietly. “He said you were upset, or… That he didn’t know what to do. I came at once.”

After a beat, Marin wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Winifred was a proximity-loving kind of person – another handy thing he’d learned over the past few years. He pulled her into him softly. He assumed she’d tell him – now or later – what was wrong. “If you want to come for a sleepover or something, you know my mum would love to have you,” he offered, wondering what Lip’s position in all of this drama was.

She tried to smile at his note on Lip's handwriting, but it came out more like a grimace. His penmanship really was terrible but even that thought didn't distract her for long. With Marin here, she had a harder time at keeping it together. She didn't have to keep her guard up around him so she stopped trying. And the fact that he had come so quickly just because Lip said she was upset? It made her almost start crying all over again. He was a better friend than she deserved.

Wini exhaled shakily as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, knowing how much the gesture meant to him, and she leaned into his embrace, taking comfort in it. At the mention of his mum, she glanced up at him. "She would?" she asked even though she probably wrote Holly more than was normal for the mum of your best friend. Still with the letter she had received today, she was questioning everything now. It was a very uncomfortable feeling for her since she was usually so self-assured.

She wanted to stop crying, she really did, but the tears had a mind of their own it seemed. She reached up to scrub at her eyes with one hand before she admitted the embarrassing truth to him, knowing he was probably curious but Marin had never been the pushy type. "You know how I was supposed to spend half the summer with William and half the summer back home?" she started, avoiding his gaze. "My mum sent me a letter and s-she said she didn't want me to come home." Wini admitted, her voice breaking on the last word before covering her face with both hands again. "I think my da hates me," she added, her voice muffled behind her hands.

Marin let her get comfy against his chest. He was skinny, but his arms were long and Wini had always said that she liked him wrapping her up in hugs. He wasn’t especially partial to them, but it always seemed to soothe her. She was getting his shirt wet, but that was okay, too. For some reason, Marin was reminded of the time they’d seen each other on the train after not speaking to one another for some time while Hogwarts was trapped. Wini was a dramatic person, he thought; in the right mood she tended to cry about random things, like her favourite celebrity crush getting a new girlfriend. This wasn’t like that.

He nodded when she asked about his mother, and frowned when she mentioned staying half-and-half with her birth father. “Yes?” He replied, recalling that she’d given him dates and two addresses so his mother could know where she should be sending letters to. “Oh.” He sensed it would probably be helpful to tell her that it was impossible that her father hated her, but Marin didn’t know that it wasn’t true; he decided not to say anything. Instead, he squeezed her a little tighter.

“I’m really sorry, Winifred,” he said, resting his chin on her head. “Come stay with me for a couple of days.”

His 'oh' made her lip wobble again and she tried to bite down on it so that she wouldn't start those sobs that made it feel like she was going to shake out of her skin. She thought she had been through some tough things.. that first year at Hogwarts with the Carrows, the battle, the year of the dome.. but this felt different. It hurt more and she didn't quite know what to do with that feeling trapped inside her that made her want to go lie down and never get up again. She didn't quite know what she would do when Marin's patience inevitably ran out and he stopped comforting her the way he was now.

She felt his chin resting on her head and she leaned into him a little more. "You wouldn't mind?" she asked hesitantly, thinking of how Marin's house always felt comfortable and warm and Holly was always cooking something delicious and she tried not to compare it to her own home back in Wales.. the one she wouldn't visit this summer. Wini had to wonder if she could even consider that home anymore. If you weren't welcome, was it home...

Those thoughts felt entirely too deep and her emotions were fraying, too raw to handle things like that. "I'll grab a few things and check with William?" she offered quietly, already planning. Knowing she needed to get up to go, to escape the reality of the letter that burned a piece of her heart, but she wanted a few more seconds of Marin hugging her, knowing that it wasn't a common occurrence for her best friend. She let a few more minutes pass before she sat up a little straighter, gave a wobbly smile to Marin, and started packing a small bag, hesitating before she left the letter on her nightstand.

/out

At home, his mum was repainting the sunroom, and Marin was sure they’d be able to help out if they wanted to. His friend was, generally speaking, the kind of person who liked to do things. Even when she was sad and upset. “Winifred,” Marin said, a little chiding. “Of course not.” He pursed his lips together in disapproval, but only for as long as she couldn’t actually see his expression. If she didn’t want to do any painting, he’d happily sit with her in silence anyway. Whatever she wanted.

When Wini finally pulled back, Marin let her get up before him, opting to subtly dry his shirt with his wand before getting to his feet. “Sounds perfect,” he said, nodding once.

/end