the past few days were so insignificant to evangeline, she didn't even recount them in her journal.

the days spent at her best friends house, trailed past for evangeline, mostly consisting of study, lucinda and the slight nagging feeling of questioning when harry walked past her studying at the kitchen table and he smelt of mixed spirits and sweat.

she thought it would be more fun, but she never got to spend time with harry anymore. ever since their kiss in the kitchen before harry went off to work, their interactions were drawn to a bare minimum of a couple words.

he left before she woke up and he came home so late she was already far to tired to do anything apart from study.

he usually stumbled in around midnight, grumbling under his breath about the cobblestones on the pathway.

"angel" he would call soft enough to be misconstrued as another word, loud enough for her to recognise her name.

"harry?"

"i need you tonight"

"i can't, i have to study and you're drunk"

then he would hang his head, his eyes glistening in a sorrowful way, and moved away to his room.

she wanted to be with him, she wanted to talk.

but how could she talk to him when he wouldn't remember a thing in the morning.

tonight was no different, when he practically fell through the doorway, bloodshot eyes and smelling of smoke.

"angel" he coughed this time, causing her to rise onto her sock-clad feet, rushing over to him.

"how can you keep doing this to yourself?" she whispers

"you'll understand when you find out what i've done"

"you can tell me harry, you'll feel better"

he grimaced up at her, "i can't" a pained expression appears on his face.

"water, darling, i need water" she nods, her caring nature shining through as she darts to the kitchen filling up a bottle of water for him and passing it back into his rough palms.

she helps him walk to his room, tonight, and she helps him into bed.

what has he become?

"angel please stay with me"

"i have school tomorrow morning and cindy is home, i can't harry."

"why is the only thing you ever tell me these days, 'i can't' why can't you ever tell me yes"

"i'm sorry daddy, i don't deserve you." she whispers sitting beside him on top of the sheets. she takes his large hands in her small ones, looking into his eyes, she speaks softly. "i promise when all my exams are finished, i will be all yours"

suddenly, he sits up from bed, crossing his legs beneath the quilt, and resting his temples on his fingertips, as he withdraws them from evangeline's hands.

"don't say that, angel don't say you don't deserve me." he croaks "i'm so bad for you, you are too good and too pure for me"

evangeline pauses, her lips slightly gaping.

"i don't think you're bad at all"

"you don't know what i've done" he repeats what he said before. "and the worst part is that if i wasn't drunk, i would never tell you."

"did you hurt anyone harry?" she speaks slowly as she watches a droplet fall from his cheek onto her thigh.

"i can't tell you tonight" he whispers through his voice cracking

"that's okay, i understand" she states calmly as she lifts her palms to his cheeks, alleviating the stress on his hands and guiding him to look into her eyes.

"i just want you to know, that you don't need to do anything you don't want too." she softly smiles "you are big and you are strong, if something hurts you, leave it behind"

she strokes the tear stains off his soft skin, leaning in to press a chaste kiss to his lips.

"my darling angel, how you've grown" harry breathes a heavy "if only it was that simple"

"lay down daddy, get some rest and sleep it off" evangeline ends the conversation, feeling something nauseous about what he was hiding from her.

"goodnight princess"

she kisses his forehead, goodnight.

and he lays down, and he tries to forget but he can't.

and she leaves his room, and she tries to forget but she can't.

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