Choices

It was painful to watch. The three of them joined by some invisible barrier of secrets and thinly veiled lies. It wore on their souls to the point of visible oddities. The way he would pick at his food, probing it like some mad scientist until satisfied that it was indeed not tampered for death. Or how she would murmur softly words no one would ever know whenever they had somehow managed to separate for a moment. But in the end it always equated to the look in their eyes, the lines in their faces, and the defeated slump in their shoulders. Their words could lie, but their bodies never could. No one really knew when it all started, probably some time after the fifth year. The smiles were few and mostly forced, it was more likely to see a silent spat then a smile, and no one seemed to really care.

That was the problem that they had created from the first day the barrier had gone up, no one could get in and no one could get out. So as the years pressed on the amount of carefully crafted re-told tales, and the pain and anger that everyone lives through was trapped with them. The barrier didn't let out the jealously, the petty narcissism, or the lies of love. They had come together as friends, but the fame had trapped them in. It was like watching an active TV, where every week something new would occur but all anyone could do was watch. They were so far away, like ghosts, angels, celebrities. The surreal air that surrounded them only clouded them further from the rest of reality. All they were suffering through had to be done alone. They could no longer even rely on each other. The lies of love had halted even the most slender of truths.

Yes, the Hogwarts Three, as they had been silently dubbed was slowly imploding, but the observers were the only ones who knew. It was only a matter of time. One of them would snap. One of them would finally deliver the rock to their glass house. Everyone's money was on The Boy Who Wouldn't Die, another new name, but he had another idea, one he never told, one he would never tell. He knew who would snap first because he had done it himself. Together they were unstoppable their feats were tales of legends, almost fables, and the level of heroism only increased with each new tale. But he knew the crack, the fissure, the link that held them together, but drove them apart. Together they were gods, separate...separate they were just as human as the rest. And although everyone was sure that it was Dumbledore's right hand man that would finally break free, he knew it would never be him. It would be the sidekick, the comic relief, the best friend and barrier of the full brunt of the pain. He wasn't sorted into Hufflepuff for a reason. Yes, they can be loyal in the house of red and gold, but it takes a special kind of breed, a different find of man to take and swallow the anguish he was shouldering. He might treat his friend as his brother, but in the end he had plenty of brothers and would choose them before he would choose his sergeant brother. And there was the matter of her...she was the variable that neither of them had counted on. She was more powerful then the both of them but in the end with a heart too big. They would make a choice; she would try for a compromise. Her heart was too big, and she wore it like a shield. There was no doubt that she loved them, she loved them both too much. Each day chipped away another piece of her heart, and each blow to their glass house cut a deeper line in the already cracked places of her soul. Yet, a choice needed to be made, the choice where she was holding so tightly onto compromise. She could only choose one. And they all already knew who she would give her heart to. And it would drive the other mad. And in the end he would make a choice and throw that brick to shatter the years of laughter, happiness, and loyalty that held together their transparent world. Love brought them together, and it would be love that finally split them apart.

The reign of the Hogwarts Three was finally coming to a close. He hoped, and wished the battle would be fought after the war. All of their little battles through the years was nothing compared to the war that had been brewing before they were born. It was coming for them, straight at them, and while the fighting spirit they held onto was ready to be released from the years of waiting their hearts were still too fragile. And unfortunately their enemy knew. He would strike as hard as he could at the one thing he knows both could never bear to loose, her. And once she was gone there would be no fight left in either, and the war would be over. Although Dumbledore might have warned that it was either him or the Master, the Master had always known that everyone has one weak point. And unfortunately it was her. It would be painful and a shame to have her be the final sacrifice, but it all came down to choices didn't it? He had made the choice to be a death eater and continue the legacy. She would choose the Boy Who Wouldn't Die, and the remaining one would choose to ruin it all. No one said that the choice was easy, or fair, or even right, but it still needed to be done. Potter might have been destine to take on the Dark Lord, but it would be the choice of his heart that would kill him. For a choice will always destroy more then a destiny.