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Challenges at the Bottom

Word Count - 350

Grief Stricken

The grief seemed to have built up in throat and stayed there. It wasn't that she didn't want to scream and shout and cry.

She simply couldn't.

She ghosted around Hogwarts, unable to respond when people greeted her, unable to join in the conversations around her.

Madam Pomfrey couldn't help her, and the teachers had all been informed that, for the moment, Susan simply couldn't vocalise herself.

Only Hannah stuck by her. They walked the corridors in silence. They sat together at meals times, pointing at pages in a shared book. They lay side by side in one of the single beds in the girls dorm, Hannah playing absently with Susans hair.

And yet…

They were more connected than ever.

A touch of the hand or a press of the lips were all the communication necessary to them. Hannah playing with the edges of Susan's skirt in the library, or hugging her in the common room. Susan plaiting Hannah's long hair neatly, or pressing butterfly kisses to her cheeks.

It was something stupid that changed it all.

Hannah was supposed to meet Susan in the library and she didn't show.

Susan was convinced that something bad had happened. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she pulled at her hair, rocking in the corner of the library that the two of them favoured.

As the angst poured out of her, her throat eased, and her sobs got noisier and noisier.

That was where Hannah found her.

"Susan? Baby, what's wrong?"

"Where were you?" Susan all but howled, gripping tightly to Hannah the moment she was in reach. Hannah froze for a moment before she wrapped her arms around her, cooing at her gently.

Susan calmed in her arms.

"You spoke," Hannah commented quietly, as she wiped away the dried tears.

"I thought something happened to you. It… Aunt Amelia… I thought…"

Hannah nodded. "I'm okay, babe, I promise. Professor Sprout held me up. I'm so glad to hear your voice."

Susan leaned back into her, resting her face in the crook of Hannah's neck. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Written for;

Character Appreciation - 36. Hogwarts

Disney, T2 - A Pairing, one can't speak (You can give them their voice back.)

Days of the month - International Women's Day - No Men

TV Show - Tara Maclay - Skirt / Hugging / HannahSusan