Watching

Watching

He watches from afar. Almost fanatically, he stares.

He sees her. Her bright smile, her fiery hair. Her scattered freckles, her blushing cheeks. He looks, but never touches, knowing full well the consequences.

--

She watches. His dark hair, scattered messily. His piercing eyes, his adorable smile. She stares, her infatuation dispelling all senses of embarrassment. And he ignores her, instead preferring to stare at some one else, with love-sick eyes. Every look he doesn't give her burns her. Burns her heart.

--

He observes her, and sees the way she stares. At some one else. It shouldn't hurt him, because he knows she could never love him. How can you love some one without a heart? But still. The unmistakable pangs of heartache still strike him, every time he sees her staring, at some one who'd never love her. Not the way he would. But she would never know. Never. To her, he was nothing. He was less than nothing.

--

She continues to stare, shamelessly at the love of her life. She knew that she would stare forever, even when she was dead. He was all that mattered to her. He was her everything. Yet-

Yet to him, she was practically invisible. She could spend her life pining for him. And he would never notice. Never. No one noticed her.

--

The sadness in her eyes shocked him. What had happened to her spirit and her spark? He knew. It was him. He who she stared at, day and night. He had broken her, shattered her heart. And there was no one who could heal her. No one but him. But, she would never know. Never know about the love for her that burned in his heart.

--

She feels some one's eyes on her, a feeling she hadn't felt for awhile. She looks up and she sees him. Staring at her, with a tenderness in his eyes belying his cruel expression. His face is cold, yet handsome. Suddenly, his face closes, and his molten eyes become nothing but ice. Frozen ice, chilling her to the bone. She looks away, his frostiness to much for her to bear.

--

He sees her glance his way, but is too slow to mask the feelings inside. He schools his face into a well practiced sneer, but he cannot yet make himself cold inside. Not when she is looking at him with such warmth in her eyes. But, he manages. He sees her visibly start at his icy, indifferent expression. He knows it will turn her away. It turned every one away. No one saw past his frosty façade, no one tried to solve the intricate puzzle that was him.

--

She can still feel his gaze on her. And she wonders why. That split second, she saw into him. The eyes are the window to the soul, and she felt as if she had seen right into him. But, she knows that whatever he seemed to have did not exist. For how can a heartless person feel? He couldn't. It was best she forgot about the fleeting instance, where she saw something. Something in him. But whatever was there would soon be gone. Forever.

--

He continues to watch her, even as he walked up to the stand. Even as it swoops onto him. Even as his soul is sucked out, as his body becomes an empty shell. Even though he knows that no amount of watching could change her feelings. But, he still stares.

--

She gazes at him, watches as his soul disappears. As he becomes nothing but an empty shell. Yet- how is it possible? He is still staring at her. His eyes, seeing nothing, boring into her. She shivers, and walks away. This is the last execution that she will attend. The last Death Eater to be punished.

--

He knows he has many regrets, much unfinished business. He knows he deserves everything he has gotten and more. His punishers do not even know the fate the he has been condemned to. He is condemned to watch forever, watch, but never touch.

Condemned to a fate worse than death. Condemned to continual heartbreak. Condmned to watch forever, from afar.