In the Shadow of What If's

Ashes and Olive Branches

"You're walking funny."

"Maybe you're walking too... normal."

Thomas blinked. "What does that mean?"

"It means you've been acting weird since she got here."

"She has a name, you know."

"Oh, I know," Hal snapped. "Walburga Black. The daughter of the most terrifying pure-blood supremacists in the northern hemisphere. The girl with a pedigree so dark, even my Gran twitches when she hears it."

Thomas sighed. "She's not them."

"You don't know that."

"She wore a sundress, Hal."

Hal frowned. "That's supposed to prove she's not a Blood Supremacist?"

Thomas tried not to laugh. "She's six."

"She's six and already knows seventeen ways to make someone feel like they don't belong in a room. I watched her do it to Maximus."

"You don't even like Maximus."

"That's not the point!"

Hal finally turned to face him, cheeks red from more than sun.

"You used to talk to me," he said, voice cracking. "About everything. But now you're always writing letters to her. Or walking with her. You never asked if I wanted to join."

Thomas opened his mouth, then closed it again. Guilt gnawed at his stomach like a cold wind through loose thread.

"I didn't mean to leave you out," he said honestly.

Hal sniffed. "You didn't mean to. But you did."

Thomas sat down on a low stone ledge, brushing off dust.

"You're my best friend."

"Were."

"No," Thomas said firmly. "Still. Always."

Hal stood stiffly for a moment, then shuffled forward and dropped down beside him with a thump.

"I just... I was scared, alright?"

Thomas blinked. "Of what?"

"That you'd stop needing me. That I'd be... replaced."

There it was.

The ache behind the irritation. The fear behind the jealousy.

Hal had never really had to compete for Thomas before.

He always knew his place.

Now everything felt uncertain. Walburga was elegant and sharp and mysterious. Then there was the garden party kids, the were worldly and for the most part polished. Hal was just... Hal. Loud. Clumsy. Fiercely loyal. And secretly afraid of being left behind.

"You can't be replaced," Thomas said. "You were the first person who made me feel like I belonged somewhere. You're my family, Hal. Just like Harrison. Just like the Potters. Even if I meet new people... that doesn't change."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

Hal rubbed at his eyes. "Alright. Fine. I guess I can tolerate her. But only because she did look sort of ridiculous in the sundress and that massive hat."

Thomas smirked. "You liked the hat."

"Shut up."

They sat there for a long moment in companionable silence, the ruins whispering around them, the heat making everything smell like time and salt.