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Prologue to Living in the Past

Standing by Pride

~Snowlily

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November 5, 1987

As I walk through the streets of Diagon Alley, I feel people's gazes rest on me.

They pity me.

Well they should try and remember this- I don't want their pity; I don't want their sympathy. I don't care what they think. I don't care if they think I'm crazy. I thrust my head into the air, and narrow my eyes. I glare at every one of them, one by one. "What do you want?" I snarl at them.

They may be wondering what happened to the carefree, outgoing, and nonchalant part of me… Well then they should figure it out by themselves. He is what happened. It's all His fault. He took away my heart; he tore it to shreds. He took away my best friend, and he took away my hope.

But there's still one thing that nobody can steal. Pride. I will live on…I will survive… I won't bury myself in a hole and hide from my fears. I won't lie to myself and say that everything's okay. But I'll hold on to my pride. That's the only thing that He can't steal from me. I'll ignore those people who try to taunt me, and I'll ignore those who try to pity me.

They don't know how it feels, they say they feel my pain, but they don't. Nobody can feel my pain. They didn't experience it; they didn't go through what I did… Why do they even waste their time trying to understand?

I don't know why He did this to me. What happened to what we had? …Because we definitely had something. I fiddle with the engagement ring on my finger. It's beautiful… my favorite colors. It's silver, encrusted with emerald jewels and an enchantment to make it sparkle in the sunlight. Why did he give this to me? Was he already planning their deaths when he proposed to me? Did he realize that he would be spending the rest of his life locked up, when he sold them to death? …Did he even care?

I wonder why I'm even thinking about these things. He must have not cared… not if he killed them. I throw the engagement ring to the hard cement floor in anger. "Why have you done this to me?!" I cry, ignoring the children's curious stares, and the adult's pity. I smash my foot into the ring, but the unbreakable charm keeps it together. I kick into it, and to my surprise it lets out a squeak. Words magically appear, coming from the ring. "I love you," it says… just the kind of spell that he would put on it. A solitary tear slides down my cheek. I wipe it away angrily while kicking the ring into the grass. I won't give in; defeat is not a word in my vocabulary. I'll get over him. I'll go on with my life without him by my side.

I won't surrender.

A/N: Continued by the brilliant Abigail Nicole. Thank you all so much for your amazing reviews.

By the way, this was written in… what, 2001? Yeah, I was much younger then… that's my excuse…