One of us is crying,

one of us is lying in their lonely bed

@imogen

This was probably one of the stupidest things he'd done in a long time, Kit had recently started an internship and it was starting to distract him from his own personal battles; he'd had to limit his drinking to save losing the internship before it had already started. He wasn't even sure if he planned on sticking with the Ministry, right now he was just playing the field, looking for more than just potion related jobs, at least the Magical Accidents and Catastrophe section of the Ministry provide some potion work, not that he was allowed to take part in it yet but it was enjoyable enough to watch and learn, one of the best things about his skills in potions, was he could easily put recipes to memory and recreate it without any hesitation, although for once. He wasn't willing to try it alone, not yet.

Kit was still struggling to deal with his emotions and he knew he should work on it but he hoped, having something to keep him so distracted would help him put off confronting his demons just yet. He'd already been for a few drinks since finishing his shift before heading back to school, not enough to have much of an affect with making him forget, but enough to help him unwind from working. Mandy was waiting at the school for him and he had no doubt that she'd be furious he'd gone drinking without her and he knew he'd probably be on the receiving end of a lecture from her because of it, but he didn't really care right now. Right now, he needed to sort things out with Imogen; he still felt a deep guilt about ending their relationship through letter. It wasn't ideal and it hadn't been easy to write that final letter to her, but the issue for Kit was; he could only express so much through writing. What he was feeling and thinking as of late, could only be cleared through talking and that was what brought him here.

Kit had many fond memories of attending Imogen's solo practices and just sitting against the mirrors and watching her, it was bittersweet for him but as he kept reminding himself. Breaking up with her had been for the best, he was a wreck, he was violent and angry and he couldn't let himself subject Imogen to that, he didn't want to ever harm her but he was unpredictable lately and he knew he was. He loved her enough that he needed to keep her safe from himself. And if that meant hurting them both, then so be it. Imogen deserved much better than him right now. She'd been through so much shit and he went through less than her and he couldn't handle it. Admittedly, part of why it was so hard for him to struggle was that it had all just happened at once. Finding out his dad had been killed, who had killed him, news of Sapphira, it had all hit him at once and it had just been too much for the wizard.

Sighing heavily Kit walked the all too familiar path to where he knew Imogen often rehearsed but this time it was different, his stomach wasn't flipping with every step he got closer to her, the warmth and happiness that normally filled him when he knew he would see Gen wasn't there either. It was cold, empty and dark. Kit still had the butterflies, he had no doubt that his love for Imogen would always be there, but this visit was going to make or break their friendship. He was ready to talk to her, to lay out all his cards and tell him everything that had happened. He'd spoken to Mandy about bits but with Gen; he was hurting her as well as himself so she deserved nothing but the complete and utter truth. He heard music playing nearby and he bit his lip, pausing opposite the door and glancing through, sure enough the blonde witch was there and seeing how unwell she looked broke his heart; he knew she'd lost her magic and had that awful flu, he'd demanded that Samuel kept him in the loop about that, but that wasn't the only thing. She looked so sad... broken and Kit knew that it was all his fault.

Heaving a sigh he pushed the door open and stepped inside, "Hi lo- Gen." He said, correcting himself quickly. "You're dancing is improving again..."

The last few months had been hell for Imogen and in more than one way. She had lost not only her fiancé, her magic but she lost her drive, her happiness and her determination. But she still tried to keep her head up. If one lesson had stuck from her father, it was to always keep going no matter what gets thrown at you. She supposed that she had to thank him for that. It was only she had to thank him for. Everything else he had put her through had left her broken. That was how she felt now. She had grown up with so many restrictions and any time she had tried to break free and live her own life, he had thrown another hurdle in her path. Imogen just wanted happiness but it seemed she was never going to get it. It upset her greatly as she saw others around her so happy and enjoying their lives. She knew how to put on a brave face. She had learned to always hold her composure. She was sure she that no one could see she was hurting inside. Maybe there was a slim chance with the people at Avalon when it came to her dancing because any dancer would show their emotions in their movements but she still smiled as she was expected to do so.

There was only one person who could easily tell when she was hurting but he was no longer in her life. She had wanted him to there when she was sick and losing her magic and as she returned back to her normal life, or at least tried to. Towards the end of her stint in Pyxis he had owled her and stated that he wanted to end their relationship. After all, they had been through together, it had come down to a letter. She still had the letter stashed somewhere. Her immediate reaction was to burn it but she had no magic left to do that. Imogen felt sorry for having felt jealous but she wasn’t sure what else she was supposed to feel. She had learned that Kit had nearly become a father and she was to blame for that too. If her engagement hadn’t ended then he would have a little version of himself now. Still, it was what it was. He was back at Hogwarts, she was here in London and they were over. She couldn’t even put up a fight, their breakup hadn’t been face to face. Right now she was far too tired to think of what she would even say to him. She would have been in shock no doubt, she had been when she had read the letter. She had barely cried after receiving it while being in quarantine, but she had waited until she had come home.

Imogen knew that Leo was confused why she was crying so much but she wasn’t sure how she would explain to her dog that another of her engagements was over. She was probably going to gain some kind of reputation among purebloods if they found out about everything had happened. All Imogen could tell from this was that no bloke wanted her. Not the bloke she had been arranged to marry nor the bloke she was in love with. It was confusing for the witch but after all she and Kit had been through, she still loved him. That love would not disappear at all. She was sure he was the one for her, maybe he had other ideas.

As much as she wanted to hold it against him and to hex him, she couldn’t not just because she had lost her magic but because she felt like she had been to blame to some extent given that she had felt so jealous when he had gone back to school and she knew it was with girl the he had nearly had a baby with. Imogen just wanted him to be happy, she knew he was hurting though, Samuel had told her a few times from the letters that Kit had sent him. Imogen wasn’t happy to hear that but she knew her ex had his own way of dealing with loss and he had lost not only a child but a father. While the man had never shown an ounce of love towards his son, he had still been his father and had been in his life for a substantial amount of time. But he was free of Phineas now…..he had once been a threat to their relationship. However, that no longer mattered.

Imogen had come to Avalon after her classes had finished for the day. She felt at peace here. The place had bittersweet memories for her but she would try to look on the bright side, she was still able to dance as it didn’t require magic. She had music from Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet playing….it wasn’t too slow and it wasn’t too fast and it helped distract her. It was perfect. She had her leotard on and had her leg extended out, she caught a glimpse of her shoe as she changed the position of her arm to be sweeping down and over her body. Imogen listened for a quiet section of the musical piece and took that chance to have a breather.

The blonde witch was startled by someone addressing her. She had her back to him but in the mirror’s reflection, she could see it was him. ”Christopher…..” she said placing her hands on her hips as she turned to face him. She saw no point in calling him Kit, even if she was dying to. ”What are you doing here?” she said eyeing her bag. It was on the far side of the room, her wand was in there, not that it was much use to her now. Why was he here, now…..did he want to hurt her even more.

Kit was struggling to handle everything and he was trying his best to work through it all step by step. It was a slow process but it was something, he was taking the steps to change his life and he knew that that was what his parents wanted. It was all his parents ever wanted – for him to do the right thing and to grow and learn from his past, his mistakes and most importantly Phineas. From a young age, Kit had always known that the way his father treated him was wrong but he was only a child and he couldn’t do anything, even as he grew older and started Hogwarts, he still didn’t have the chance or strength to stand up to his father. As soon as Phineas was convicted of murdering that four-year-old when he was fourteen, it had been a blessing in disguise; of course, it was tragic and horrific what he’d done but he’d grown cocky and believed himself to be untouchable and that had been his downfall.

Kit had been free of his father for two heavenly years when he was in prison, but everything had started to fall apart when he’d broken free. Kit had never expected that to happen and everything that followed was new and terrifying ground to tread. Good and bad had come together, the Death Eaters had come into power and that meant Phineas truly was untouchable now; when he’d seen him at that end of year ball had filled him with so much fear, he was surprised that his father hadn’t killed him on the spot, but despite his father’s confidence he wasn’t stupid. There were a number of Death Eaters in the school, but there was an equal amount of teachers that wouldn’t let any harm come to students. The attack on Bell had been sudden, no one had the chance to react but they would have in any other case. The good shone through though with the bad though and he’d found himself in a new life, a happy and safe one with Samuel and it had been safe, both in and out of school. Samuel was always there for him when he needed the support and he’d felt truly at ease with him.

Not only did his adoptive father provide the comfort that he needed but so had Gen; she’d been there through it all. Their own relationship had been rocky and full of ups and downs and he was confident that if he hadn’t had Gen by his side he would have lost himself far sooner than he had. But with all good things in Kit’s life, there was issues and trouble. The trauma that had followed after being nearly killed by his father had thrown everything off and he felt that part of why he was struggling now, was because he’d still not recovered from what had happened the year before. He’d tried to move on from Gen after that and Mandy had helped where the blonde couldn’t but when he marriage had fallen through Kit hadn’t hesitated to go straight back to Gen, he always believed her to be the one.

When Kit finally stepped back from his own issues, he’d realised just how much Gen had helped him and he regretted throwing all of that away and hurting him the way he had. The one time Gen had needed support and he’d folded under pressure and Imogen didn’t deserve that, she didn’t deserve anything like that and after taking time to just think… he realised what a massive mistake he’d done and he needed to accept where he’d done wrong. He had no doubt that Mandy would be livid if she found out that Kit had been to see Imogen, but he was his own person and he’d never be able to get over his guilt if he just ignored everything he’d done and just moved on and left Gen to suffer alone. That was why he was here now, she deserved to know every little thing that had happened, how he was feeling, what he was thinking, everything. Maybe she’d be able to shed some light and be brutally honest with him because deep down. He knew that one word from her would probably be what he needed to think straight and do the right thing for him, his parents, her and Mandy. He needed to do the right thing for all of them.

”Christopher? Now I know you are furious with me.” He said, rubbing the back of his neck and he knew he deserved it. He sighed and dropped his hands to his side and took a few hesitant steps forward. ”I’m here to see you… I want to talk to you.” He continued slowly, ”Please give me a bit of your time to say I’m sorry and so much more. Then you can go back to hating me.”

The loss that Imogen had felt in the past few weeks could not be measured. She had lost the one wizard she truly loved. Imogen had been at St Mungo’s and in Quarantine wondering if she had just gone through the trouble of ending her engagement to Warren for nothing. She would have been married now and she would be in Sweden where there would be no chance of her losing her magic. She was sure that other parts of Europe had remained unaffected by the epidemic. It was good news that Hogwarts was also unaffected by the epidemic. At least Clara was safe. Kit too but she tried her hardest to not care for his welfare. It was going to be impossible though, they had been together for so long and now they were no longer an item. The two of them had had their challenges, her engagement, his father wanting to kill him and everything else but none of that mattered as far as Imogen felt. Kit had ended them through an Owl of all things. It had come as shock to her and on top of her being sick, it had really thrown her off.

Had her parents known they would have felt like revenge had been served to her for ending things with Warren and she had got what had been coming to her. Imogen may have been a bitch to people back in the day but she had changed in recent times. That change had undoubtedly been sparked by her relationship with Kit. He had made her who she was today. She hoped she could retain this nice version of her even if they were no longer together. She was going to be working eight people when it came to her ballet so she could be a bitch to others when she needed some of the male dancers to lift her or to work with others in some choreography.

It was unfortunate that Kit had never been to see any of her plays. She had wanted that to happen because he had been such a big supporter of her dancing but now he was, well she didn’t know for sure but she could assume he was with that other girl. Imogen didn’t even know her and she moved so much in pureblood circles. But it didn’t matter now. Imogen wanted to blame so many people for what had happened, there was herself, Kit no doubt and even Mandy or whatever her damn name was. She had robbed the wizard of being a father. And yes she would have been a young mother but teenage pregnancy wasn’t exactly uncommon in the magical world. It was just less common than the muggle world. She only hoped he was now happy with her if indeed they were together. She could have asked Clara to spy on them for her but she knew it wasn’t fair to put her younger sister in the middle of her break up with Kit.

They had planned to marry and Gen had eagerly gone out and sought out her wedding dress. She knew that Alayla could have made one for her but she didn’t want to put too much pressure on her best friend with a newborn. But it didn’t matter anymore, she was going to be a Copeland. Another wedding that didn’t end up happening. She really had a track record now. It was definitely not a track record she was proud of but it was what seemed to come her way. She knew could have tried to marry Warren but she had tried so hard to get out of it and the wizard himself had even gone to see her father but neither of their efforts mattered anymore.

At least she was now out of Pyxis and she could focus on her dancing now. No one here bothered here. Yes, some others had some attitude but that was part in parcel of being a ballet dancer. If anything, having the right attitude would help you in your dancing. She had just been expecting to express her distress and all the other emotions she had set out to release when the wizard who had been occupying her thoughts constantly lately was here in the studio with her. ”Believe me, I want to call you something else right now, but you don’t deserve that” she huffed and moved her arms to fold them across her chest. ”Well, we’ve talked and you’ve seen me….and you just said I’m sorry, now please leave” she said looking behind him at the open door, hoping he would turn around and leave.

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