Making Amends

[Charlotte Owens]

Charlotte couldn't believe how far she had come at Hogwarts. Her last six years there were definitely an adventure and the girl was excited to get her seventh year started, but knew she would miss it when she was finally gone. However, the main thing on the girl's mind during the break was Daniel. The pair of them haven't spoken much since Valentine's Day and Charlotte felt really bad for breaking his heart like she did. He politely left her alone like she requested and Charlotte soon realised how much she was missing him as time went on. He had been so kind to her and half the time she didn't think she deserved it. With it being their last year of school, Charlotte did not want him to be too stressed out with their situation on top of the exams and so she figured she would go and find him and fix the stupid mess she had made.

As Charlotte exited her dormitory, she kept an eye out for him in the common room. He wasn't anywhere to be seen and she wondered if anyone there would know where he was. However, she refrained from asking and headed straight out of the common room, still keeping her eyes open. When she spotted him walking through the dungeons she felt her stomach do a flip and she suddenly became unusually nervous, wondering how he would react to her talking to him again. Nonetheless, the Slytherin spoke. "Daniel!" she exclaimed, trying to get his attention. She gestured for him to come over to her and fiddled wiith her thumbs, trying to come up with a good way to get him to forgive her.

 

[Daniel Rosemary]

Daniel hadn't been his greatest during the holidays and the rest of the second semester of his sixth year. He was now in his seventh and final year at Hogwarts and he couldn't be more relieved, despite the friends he'd made here. He was going to miss the school, his time here, there was no doubt about that. But with how he'd been feeling lately there was only one thing on his mind, no one person, and it was Charlotte. Dan was on his way to the common room, the likely place to find the one person he was both missing and not wanting to see at the moment, but right now all he wanted was to go to the dorms and hopefully distract himself with some early studying, anything to get his mind off of it.

He froze in his tracks when he heard the familiar voice, she seemed distressed and his first instinct was to check if she was alright. Part of him wanted to see what would happen if he carried on walking and pretend he hadn't in fact heard her. He forced himself to keep his face expressionless as he turned around and saw Charlotte for the first time since their 'break'. Well, it wasn't the first time he actually saw her but it would be the first time he would have a conversation with her since then. He tried to ignore the ache he was feeling that was a clear sign he missed her, and seeing her now didn't make it any better. Dan gave in and went over to her anyway, curious now what she had to say to him. He wondered whether she wanted to get back together or break up officially, though if it was the latter he didn't think she would've left it for this long. There was still some hope left, and he knew Charlotte wouldn't try to deepen the wound. He hoped. "What do you want?" Dan asked quietly, not in an accusatory tone, but a neutral one that matched his expression.

 

[Charlotte Owens]

As Charlotte stood in front of Daniel she couldn't bear to look at him properly. She knew that if she did she would probably break down and the girl wanted to be able to keep herself together whilst she was doing this. It meant that she was able to get through things herself and keeping such individuality felt comforting. When he spoke however, Charlotte felt a tickle in her throat. The words he said made her feel as though he'd never forgive her but it was too late now to turn back and Charlotte stayed still as she tried to come up with something in her head that was a good place to start with all that was going through it. If worse came to worse, Daniel would tell Charlotte he didn't like her anymore and that would be that. After all, she felt she deserved it after what she did to him.

After a small pause, Charlotte spoke quietly. "I'm sorry," she began, tucking a piece of her hair shyly behind her ear. "I shouldn't have overreacted the way that I did and I really miss you." She looked up at him, searching for any sign of his agreement. "I understand if you're mad at me for a bit longer, or if you don't think this could work, but I really do want it to." The girl sighed, wondering if she said it well enough. She didn't want their relationship to be over so quickly and was determined to get it back to the way it was before.

 

[Daniel Rosemary]

Daniel sighed inwardly, pursing his lips as Charlotte began to speak but he listened as she tried to explain it to him. At first the Slytherin didn't know what to say, so he stood there in silence for the first few minutes. He didn't miss how nervous she seemed, and Dan almost felt sorry for her. At least she was trying to make amends and not make it worse. He didn't speak until after a couple of moments when he'd figured out what to say finally. Her apology didn't necessarily make him feel better but it was a start and she was trying. Maybe, he should too. His stomach turned into knots when he thought about her words over and over - that she missed him too.

"If it...makes you feel any better, I've missed you too. I still miss you. A lot." He ran a hand through his hair a little awkwardly as he watched her carefully, his eyes searching hers for something, quite anything honestly. He wasn't really sure what to say to her, all he knew was that he too wanted their relationship to work. It wasn't like anything drastically serious had happened, they just needed to get through this. That didn't stop Dan feel like he should accept her apology so soon, however. "Of course I want this to work, I really do. And to be fair I shouldn't have made a big deal out of it, either." Something in him had made him give up that day and he didn't know what it had been. But he didn't like it if and when someone else took out their frustrations out on him. "It wasn't just your fault, it was mine too. I just...don't get why it all happened. Why you didn't try to reach out to me sooner afterwards."

 

[Charlotte Owens]

Charlotte didn't want Daniel to pity her. She was only trying to apologise and it annoyed her slightly when he said he missed her to make her feel better. No amount of words it seemed could fix the situation entirely and Daniel's stubbornness was slowly getting on her nerves. Maybe he hadn't had enough time to think about it, or he did have enough time and Charlotte wasn't going to like his answer? The girl shifted slightly, glad that he apologised but still annoyed about the whole situation. However, she listened as he continued to speak and hesitated at his question. It was obvious that he didn't want to go jumping into her arms just yet and the thought of that made her lose hope, wondering if any of this was even worth it. Despite this, the prefect was determined for his forgiveness and was more than ready to explain herself to him, even if there wasn't really much to explain.

"I just knew it wasn't that much of a problem." she told him, shrugging her shoulders. "I trusted that maybe you had something else in mind and I guess I just got impatient and selfish." Charlotte didn't want to put herself down too much but she couldn't help but feel like it was all mostly her fault and sighed, ready to take responsibility for her actions. The girl wanted to tell Daniel that she loved him, but she figured there was not much point. If he really wanted to get back together with her then he would.

 

[Daniel Rosemary]

His words didn't seem to make her feel better, it only seemed to be making the situation worse and this much more awkward. Daniel wasn't used to being in situations like this one and he wasn't sure how to show Charlotte that he still cared. Saying that he cared didn't seem to help much if at all and Dan really didn't want this to end badly. There had to be some way of fixing this, despite how long ago last semester seemed. The now seventh year was unaware of how he'd phrased his question as Charlotte hesitated before answering it. Maybe she was giving up hope, though Daniel didn't want that to happen, he had to do something. So, once she was done, he took a deep breath and began to speak.

"Okay, I can't hold this in anymore. All of this now seems ridiculous. We were both in a rough spot then and I guess it was just bad timing. And you're right, it isn't serious or that much of a problem and I'm sorry that I made it seem like it was. I don't want you to blame yourself," he said quietly, observing her with his intense brown eyes. "Char, I love you. You're not the only one who got impatient. I don't want to leave you. I promise." He reached out and took her hand in his, before squeezing it gently. "I'm sorry I made you feel like it's your fault entirely. I still want to be with you."

 

[Charlotte Owens]

Even after everything that had happened, Daniel's voice was soothing. It felt as if the butterflies in Charlotte's stomach had died and come back to life and it mended her in ways that she never thought were possible. She learnt that that was what love did to you - it made you feel all sorts of indescribable emotions and challenged you in all sorts of different ways. It made Charlotte realise the importance of having someone by her side and she couldn't be more thankful for that. She smiled up at Daniel as she listened to everything he had to say. "I love you too." she told him, letting him take her hands. "I promise that if anything else happens I will let you know straight away." She pulled him into a hug and held him tight, glad that everything was back to normal now. It felt good to not have to worry about it anymore and she would keep to her promise if it was the last thing she'd do.