It had been a long time since she’d been in London. It felt strange to be back, and though it would have almost been easier to just stay with her Grandma, pretending to be a Muggle so she could bury her head in the sand and pretend that nothing bad was happening, Greta knew that she needed to come back some time. She knew that it would have been selfish to stay away when things wouldn’t stop falling apart. Getting news of the death of Professor Dumbledore was heartbreaking and shocking, and did little to reaffirm Greta’s confidence. If even he couldn’t make it out of this okay, would any of them? Still, she’d been adamant about joining the Order so that she could help. She knew it would be cowardly to leave the people that she loved when they probably needed all the help that they could get. That certainly wasn’t what her Grandma would have done. In fact, it had taken everything Greta had in her to keep her Grandma away.
Her plan had been to go find Emmeline so that she could go with her to Professor Dumbledore’s funeral, but after she dropped Rosie off at her flat and changed out of her traveling clothes, something shifted. Without really thinking about it, just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, she found herself knocking on the door to Fabian’s flat.
What she expected was to see Fabian answering the door, with his dimples and his kind smile. Even though he’d been through so much, and had lost so much, he was always there to reassure her that everything would be okay, and, feelings aside, she’d really missed him over the past few months.
What she hadn’t expected was to see Evan, who she hadn’t seen in months. As awful as the last time she’d seen him had been, she never blamed him for not wanting to be her friend anymore. As much as losing him as a friend had been painful, she knew that she’d rather be hurt than hurt him. Eyes wide, it took her entirely too long to realize that he was shirtless, and another long second stretching into eternity to realize that she was now very obviously gaping at him, and flushed scarlet, averting her eyes to the floor. His modesty!
Had she gone to the wrong flat by mistake? How incredibly rude of her! But then, she was pretty certain she’d gone to the right one - her eyes flicked from the floor to the number on the door, confirming that she hadn’t gone to the wrong one. She didn’t even know where Evan lived, for goodness sake.
What on earth was Evan even doing there?! She felt like an awful friend for not realizing that the two of them were friends, if that was actually what was happening. Even though Evan had tried to convince her that he wasn’t a good person, deep down in her heart Greta didn’t believe it. She exhaled, wishing that the floor would open up and swallow her. “Sorry! I didn’t realize - I - sorry!” And then she did the only thing she could think of, she turned on her heel to high tail it out of there before her cheeks actually caused her face to burst into flames.
@evanroseier
