no one else. // Theodore Nott

forty-three.

Narrators pov.

One Year Later...

He sat there in his chair, a glass, with a brown liquid that looked soft but was truly hard, in his hand. He preferred his drinks with no ice, but some days, the days where he wanted to forget, he'd chill his cup, add ice, and then the drink.

It was fire whiskey... his choice of drink. Just like his father.

His tv was off and so was the radio, the only sound was the swishing of the liquid in his glass and the cars passing by as he looked out the window of his flat.

He'd lived here for about a year. As soon as he graduated from Hogwarts, he moved out. The job at the Ministry his father had set up... well he took it.

He wasn't going anywhere in life. Everything that he had planned... well that all changed when she left. So, he took what he had handed to him. For the first time, since he fell for her, he didn't care.

It had been so long since he didn't care.

Now, he didn't visit his friends anymore, didn't see his father anymore. He even stopped visiting his mother's grave.

Violet.

That was her name.

Merlin, he had so many plans set for the future and now they were all gone to shit. He didn't care about them anymore.

There was a knock on his door and he knew. It was Friday and he knew the schedule.

Blaise and Draco, followed by Astoria and Pansy, would stop by and try to get him to go out. He'd go, but only for the free drinks. His friends would buy them and so would random girls.

They'd try to hook up with him, but he wouldn't. He's tried too. But his mind goes back to her.

Another knock.

Three knocks and then they normally just walk in. But after the third knock, they didn't. He looked at the clock and noticed that it was only two in the afternoon. His friends normally came around six after they got out of work.

With his position at the Ministry, he doesn't work on Fridays. Which he's thankful for because he can get started on his drinking for the weekend earlier.

A fourth knock... then a fifth.

He set down his glass and stood up, walking over to his door. He was fed up. Why didn't they just come in? The doors are unlocked plus they all have a key.

Then it hit him. It was her. It had to be. She's the type of person to knock and respect someone's privacy.

His heart sped up as his hand wrapped around the doorknob.

Why did she come back? Did she miss him? Did she want to apologize and tell him that she loved him too?

He didn't know. All he cared about now was that she was on the other side of his door.

But he turned the knob and pulled the door open, revealing... not her.

It was Korrie.

It had been six months since he last saw her. After Hogwarts, she went back to America but would come and visit every so often.

"Hi." She said softly, "How are you, Theo?"

Why was she asking him this? Korrie knew exactly how he was. He had started drinking and stealing from the teacher's liquor stash as soon as she left. He doesn't even know where she went.

"I'm doing great." He smiled as his words slurred together.

Korrie could smell the alcohol in his breath. "Well, I thought I'd stop by and say hi. It's been a while."

"Yeah," He nodded, "It has."

"I'm staying in town for a little while. Not for long though. My friend only has a week off of work and I'm her babysitter. Anyways, I thought I'd just say hi." Korrie's smile was big, her eyes looking into Theo's tired and worn-out blue ones.

"Well hi. And if you don't mind, I have things to get back to." He tried to shut the door, but Korrie pushed it right back open.

"What things? Like drink until your liver fails? waste your money on things that will kill you? Spend your time alone and mourning over Sadie?" Korrie walked in right past him, grabbing his glass and his bottle, walking over to the sink. He followed her knowing what she was doing.

"Korrie, don't!" He protested.

"Well, she's gone, Theo. And you need to accept that!" The liquid started to go down the sink.

"Are you fucking serious!" He yelled at the fact that that was his last bottle and now he had to go to the store.

"Sadie is gone and she's not coming back!" Korrie kept on pushing.

"She will. She'll come around. Please stop!" He tried to tell her to put the bottle down and that she'd come back. Because one day she will. Or at least he thought so.

"Theo, she's moved on. She isn't coming back! And look at yourself!" She set the now empty bottle down. "You've destroyed yourself and you've turned into your father."

Those words hurt. Those words cut deeper than when she said goodbye.

He never wanted to be like his father. But Korrie was right. He was, now, just like his father.

"Honestly, I'm here to help take care of you. Everyone is worried about you! You never go out, and when you do, you blackout. They're worried. And so am I. Because you have responsibilities that have yet to come to you and you're a fucking mess!" Korrie was stern and kept going on. "Sadie is gone! Okay? She has found herself and is now happy. She's a healer at an American wizarding hospital. She has it together. And now it's time that you get it together too!"

He thought and thought, his mind racing as the alcohol ran through his body. His arms were warm and his face was hot. His cheeks were wet and he knew that he had lost it.

He lost it as soon as his knees hit the floor and his hands covered his face. He sobbed and sobbed.

All of these made-up memories in his head of her being with someone else, her having a family... the family that they had planned. He thought and created things that he didn't have with her.

"Why did this happen to me?" He cried as he sat back onto the floor, hugging his knees "She was the last and only good thing I had in my life and she's gone." He kept going, "I can't do this anymore. Not without her. She was supposed to be by my side till the end of time. And now she's gone."

The words he had wanted to say for years were flying out of his mouth at an unreasonable speed.

Theo felt like he couldn't breathe. his chest was heaving up and down at a pace that no one could count. His heart was pounding so loud in his ears that he thought he was going to have a heart attack. It hurt. His heart hurt. But it was because of heartbreak.

Korrie sat on her knees next to him and pulled him into her. She hugged him and rubbed her hand up and down his back, whispering that things were going to be okay and that she was sorry and that she'd help him.

"You should, only if you want to, once a week go somewhere and get something for yourself. Like a coffee or a donut. Just something. That's how we'll start this recovery." Korrie's hand kept rubbing his back. "I love you, Draco loves you, Blaise loves you... We all love you. And we'll be by your side through it all."

He nodded.

Theo liked the idea of doing something for himself. Korrie was right... even if she didn't say it, she was implying it... He was an alcoholic. But now a recovering one.

And he knew exactly what would help.