My intuition was right. I didn’t see Tyler for the rest of the night. I didn’t see Mackenzie either, so I assumed she was with him since Mum or Daddy hadn’t brought her to me. I was worse off than usual from crying all night, but somehow I made it to classes. Tyler was absent from every single one of them and I didn’t even see him at lunch or dinner. Daddy made no inclination that he knew of our fight nor that Tyler had talked to him. I hoped sincerely that Tyler would be back in our dorm when I returned that night.
For once, my hopes came true. Tyler was at the dorm when I got back. I could hear him rustling about in our bedroom through the cracked door. I made my way to it from the portrait hole and pushed the door open the remaining distance.
He was packing. Clothes were being shrunk and put into his suitcase. “Tyler.” I whispered. He looked up but just barely.
So this was it. We were breaking up. Or at the very least taking a break. I walked in and sat on the bed, watching him as he packed but making no move to stop him. This was what he wanted. It was his choice this time. His rustling halted a bit as the last drawer closed. I felt a tear fall down my cheek before I’d even realized I was crying.
“I’m leaving for a little while. I’m going to stay in the Slytherin dorms again. I just – I need to be alone for a while. I’ve been feeling like this for a while now, but thought things would change. Apparently they aren’t going to anytime soon. I think.” He sighed. His back was still turned to me as mine was to him. “I think we need to go our separate ways for a little while. We’ll share Mackenzie for now. I’ll take her this week and you’ll get her next week. Dumbledore’s set up a room for me in the dorms for when she stays over.” I listened to his footsteps as he walked over towards me. He cupped a hand around the back of my head and kissed my hair, before walking out of the door. I fell over onto the bed as I listened to the portrait close behind him.
Night had long fallen and passed by the time I got up from the bed. My stomach growled and I realized I hadn’t eaten all day. Paying absolutely no attention to the time, I started my walk down to the kitchens. My wand lit the hallway in front of me, but I didn’t watch anywhere but the ground strictly in front of my feet. I was almost there when I ran into a black mass only a bit taller than me.
“Oh bugger.” The black mass spoke.
“Uncle Harry?” I replied, recognizing his voice and bringing my wand up to light his face.
“Alix? What are you doing out of bed this late? Shouldn’t you be staying with Mackenzie? She’s still quite young isn’t she?”
The sadness that had so wholly filled me before I ran into him once again came to surface. “Tyler’s got Mackenzie.”
He cocked his head. “You say that as if you two are divorced single parents.” He joked with a chuckle. I felt tears rush to my eyes as I realized that that was pretty much where we were headed at this point. He took in my appearance quickly. “Oh, sweetheart.” He whispered, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and leading me to the closest empty classroom. “What happened?” He asked as I sat in one of the desks.
“We started fighting about the workload I was taking on with trying to graduate a year early. He basically told me to quit it, and I told him he couldn’t boss me around and he started to leave and it just blew way out of proportion.” I sniffed. “He said he needed some time to be alone, and that we’d trade off weeks with Mackenzie, and then he packed his things and moved back into the Slytherin dorms.”
“I see.” He replied, and I wanted to tell him that there was no way in hell that he could understand. “Why’d you let him go?”
“It was what he wanted. We broke up one other time last October because I’d caught him with my best friend Muffy. I thought he’d been cheating on me. Months later, I found out she’d framed him. Either way, he let me leave that night. He even wished me well when I got with somebody new. I wanted the same for him. If he doesn’t want me, I don’t want to burden him.”
“But sometimes, sweetheart, somebody might forget you love them if you forget to show them. I’m not saying all of this is your fault. I don’t know the entire story but it kind of sounds to me like he overreacted a bit too. The best advice I can give you is to give him his time to cool off and breathe, and try to make for a welcoming environment shall he decide to come home in the meantime.”
I nodded. That’s what I’d focus my entire being on. Our relationship was far more important than the trivialities I’d been placing ahead of it. “Thank you Uncle Harry.”
He warned me it was coming,
Said if I didn't change, he was leaving.
I just didnt believe he would really walk out.
God, I believe it now. - Blake Shelton, "She Wouldn't Be Gone"
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