Faith .|. H. J. POTTER ✔

Chapter one-hundred-forty-one

Once Harry finally decided he was ready to go back inside, he requested if he could talk to Griphook and Mr Ollivander. Whilst Bill and Fleur were helping those two, Faith cleaned Harry up after which Harry put Faith to bed, knowing she still needed sleep. Ron convinced Hermione to get some sleep too, so it was just Harry and Ron who questioned Griphook about a plan on breaking into the Lestranges' Gringotts vault, and Mr Ollivander about the wands. 

By the end of the two talks, he had seen Voldemort taking Dumbledore's wand from the tomb at Hogwarts but Harry made the decision not to fight Voldemort for the wand. He realised that Dumbledore would want him to prioritise the Horcruxes rather than the Hallows. So when he finally was able to rest that day, he fell into a relaxing sleep next to Faith. 

He was however a lot more stressed when he woke up in the middle of the night to find an empty bed beside him. After searching the entire cottage he saw a figure in the distance standing by the water and he made a sprint for it, afraid she wasn't doing all right. 

She was just standing there, ankle-deep in the cold water of the sea but it didn't seem to bother her. She had a soft blanket wrapped around her shoulder as she just stared into the open sea.

"Faith?" Harry asked when he reached her. Without caring about the cold water that seeped into his shoes he hurried over to her. "Faith, what are you doing here? The water is as cold as ice!"

She turned her head sideways to look at him and he saw she had tears glistening in her eyes. 

"What's - what's wrong?" Harry stammered, eyes widening in shock and worry as he carefully placed his arms around her. Her hands were loosely hanging on his hips and her face buried into his neck. 

"The cold water numbs the pain," Faith whispered her breath hitching from the freezing temperature. 

Her voice wasn't as hoarse as it was at the Malfoy Manor but Harry could still hear a hint of straining on her voice. 

"From the Cruciatus Curse?" Harry asked softly, stroking her back and her hair. 

Faith nodded.

"And the loss," She added in a whisper.

Faith didn't only mean the loss of Dobby even though it definitely hit her hard that she'd never get to hear his squeaky voice call out "Ai-kins Diggry" again.

Faith was also very upset and haunted by seeing the last thing she had that kept Cedric's spirit with her got blown into hundreds of pieces right in front of her eyes. It was the only thing that she had that kept her from completely letting Cedric go, but now she had to. 

All Harry could do to soothe her pain was hold her. He didn't even have the guts to tell her everything was going to be all right, because truthfully, he had no clue if it ever would. It was too hard of a journey for them sometimes, despite their seemingly endless courage. They already lost so much and they couldn't bear to lose more. What if the next deaths were Mr and Mrs Diggory? Or one of the Weasleys? What would they do then? They would never get over their deaths, Harry already knew. 

"Come, I'll make you a hot tea to warm you up, OK?" Harry asked and Faith slowly nodded. With one swift motion, he swooped Faith off her feet and held to his chest. He carried her back to the cottage and brought her back to the bed they were sleeping in, in the smallest bedroom. He helped her pull a thick, woolly sweater over her head and then quickly went downstairs to make her a cup of tea, making sure he didn't wake Ron and Dean who were sleeping in the living room. 

Once he got back he found her sitting against the headboard, wiggling her legs under the covers, making it obvious to Harry that she was still worried and anxious. He made his way to sit next to Faith, handing her the cup and waiting for her to drink it up. Her hands were shaking so he put his arm around her shoulder, knowing each other's touch worked like a sedative.