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"do you think the merpeople liked me?" chaerin asked.
chae rested her head in fred's lap as they sat in the gryffindor common room by the fire, chae's body temperature had returned to normal but the girl still felt as if she was freezing. fred didn't want to leave the girl on her own so he forced her to stay with him for the night.
"dunno, why don't you ask them?" said fred as he stared down at the girl.
"because i can't speak mermish you moron" said chae.
"do you seriously not remember anything?" fred asked, chaerin shook her head as she sat up, turning to look at fred.
"i told you, i only remember my grandmother waving her wand, next thing i know i wake up in the black lake with ron"
fred laughed and chae smiled at him lovingly. it was the little moments like these that chae had missed so badly when they weren't talking, it was just the two of them.
she loved george very much but for some reason she found herself infatuated with fred. chae would take a bullet for both boys without questioning it.
"fred, during the easter break i have to go home" chae started, staring worriedly at the redhead "what if it's the last time i ever get to see my father?"
fred reached for chaerin's hand, taking it in his own, rubbing circles onto the back of it comfortingly.
"chaerin, if it's the last time, then make it the best time you've ever spent with him. do everything you can with him, he may not remember you after, but he'll always be in here" said fred, pointing to chae's chest where her heart rested.
"you're right freddie, thank you"
"anything for you love"
the easter break came around faster than chaerin wanted it to. when she stepped foot into the place she'd called home for sixteen years, it felt different. it felt cold and empty, even though the house was far from empty.
her eyes searched the photos on the walls, the photos holding many beautiful memories that had happened throughout her life so far. cho (who had just walked through the front door) grabbed chae's hand, looking at her with worry in her eyes.
"chaerin? do you know what's going on?" she asked as they made their way through the hallway, into the kitchen where their parents were sat at the table.
chaerin shook her head, the guilt eating away at her. the siblings were invited to sit down and there was an awkward silence in the air before their father oscar chang began to speak.
"girls, firstly we ask you to understand our reasoning for this, we've tried many times to make things work but it's just not working" oscar sighed.
it was evident the man was feeling rundown, the bags under his eyes sunk into his head and he was unshaven with his hair messy. their mother looked just as bad as she mirrored her husbands grim expression.
"i don't understand" cho said softly.
"there's no easy way to say it, so i'll just go ahead and say it" oscar said.
alice stared at him, a look in her eye that made her look sort of crazy, though she was far from sane she was very far from being crazy. cho's eyes flickered between her parents and her sister, the feeling of uncertainty building in her chest.
"we're divorcing"
silence crept through the tension filled air, cho's face quickly falling and chae rested her head in her hands. hearing the news was so much harder then reading it on a piece of parchment.
"what do you mean you're divorcing? you can't just divorce!" cho yelled, standing up.
"cho sweetie, sit down please" alice called softly "it's for the best, neither one of us can keep arguing with each other, it's not fair on us and it's not fair on you girls"
"i don't get it" said chae as she eyed her parents "i don't get how you expect us to come home, take this news in and feel okay about it"
"chaerin, we're not expecting you to feel any emotion, we know it's going to be a difficult time" oscar explained.
cho and chae sat opposite their parents, tears cascading down cho's face as she silently begged her parents not to divorce.
it wasn't supposed to end like this. the chang family had always been happy, they'd always had each other, they'd always spent christmas, birthdays and other holidays together, they were a family and now their family was being ripped apart.
"have you told him?" chaerin asked bitterly.
alice nodded her head.
"by the end of this week you won't even remember who we are" chae spat, she didn't blame her father nor did she blame her mother. it was hurting her that her and cho would no longer have their father by their side, it hurt so badly that chaerin couldn't even bare to look him in the eye.
cho sniffled quietly as alice chang let out a sigh, staring at her daughters with regret swimming in her eyes but alice knew that this decision was for the best.
chae scoffed as she stood up, leaving the table without permission as she stormed upstairs to her bedroom, slamming her door angrily behind her. she began to cry as she flung herself onto her bed, the tears falling onto her blanket.
later that evening, the atmosphere in the chang household wasn't pleasant. chae had eaten dinner in her bedroom, refusing to talk to her father or her mother. she didn't want to sit at the table and play happy families, she didn't want to sit and watch her parents act as if they didn't just tell their two daughters they're divorcing.
a knock sounded on chae's door and she called for the person to come in, her expression softening immediately when cho walked in, her eyes red and puffy from crying. she closed the door gently and walked over to her sisters bed.
chae immediately wrapped her arms around her, the only light in the room was coming from chae's bedside lamp. the siblings knew that they wouldn't be sleeping on their own tonight, turning to each other for comfort.
cho began to sob quietly and chae shushed her gently, she rubbed her hand comfortingly on cho's back as she felt her younger sister's tears soak her pyjama top.
the older sister didn't know what to do, she felt the same as cho but she had to be strong for cho. chaerin wouldn't let her sister down, she was prepared to take on the world just to make sure her sister was going to be okay, it was her job as a big sister and she wouldn't fail cho.
quickly, the week came to an end and the moment everyone had been dreading was dawning closer to them every second. chae packed her trunk silently, too afraid that if she spoke she'd break all over again.
"girls!" alice chang called, waiting by the bottom of the stairs ready to take the young witches to platform nine and three quarters.
the short break was filled with chae and cho making their final memories with their father, they had been to the funfair, the cinema, the beach, they had a movie night at home, they even celebrated chae and cho's birthdays early.
cho was the first one to meet their mother at the bottom of the stairs, chae soon following after. they waited for their father, knowing it was going to be their last time seeing him. the pain was nearly unbearable as it built up in chaerin's chest.
"you girls ready?" oscar asked, trying to hide the fact that he had been crying.
"i think so" cho said as she turned to chae who nodded her head.
"right then, let's go shall we?" alice asked gently, afraid that if she spoke any louder than it would be revealed that she was hurting on the inside.
divorcing oscar was something alice never thought she'd be doing, she thought for certain he was the one, however as they continued to grow together alice realised that they weren't meant to be. whilst they had enjoyed many moments together, things were slowly coming to an end.
when alice was only a young girl, she had found herself at hogwarts surrounded by her friends; james potter, remus lupin, sirius black, peter pettigrew and her bestest friend of all lily evans.
three years before james and lily's death, alice had fallen pregnant with a baby girl; chaerin. this event would sever the bond she had with sirius black, the two were so clearly in love but alice knew all too well that she couldn't be with sirius.
as much as alice wished for it, it couldn't happen.
sirius had his heart broken twice by alice, once when he found out that she had begun to fall in love with a muggle man called oscar chang. when oscar and alice married, sirius knew there was little hope of winning the girl back.
the second heartbreak came when he found out that alice was pregnant with oscar's child. it had hurt sirius so much that he avoided alice until chaerin was born.
sirius hadn't stopped loving alice, but alice's opinion on sirius faltered when he was in azkaban. she had nearly torn her own family apart when fighting to get sirius released because she knew that he was innocent, alice knew that sirius would never have betrayed james or lily.
it wasn't until last year that sirius and alice had rekindled their friendship and alice realised that she had loved him all along.
the journey to the platform was anything but enjoyable, the dread was dawning over every family member. when chaerin's feet came into contact with the platform, she felt as if she was going to throw up.
the young girl turned to her father, staring at him with nothing but love in her eyes as he embraced her and cho.
"my darling girls, after today, i may not remember you, but i want you to know that i have loved you for every second that you have been alive. everything i have done, is because i loved you two and your mother" he explained, his heart breaking as his daughters cried.
alice stared at her family in despair, the tears now falling from her eyes too. her relationship with oscar had turned sour and now her children were bawling their eyes out because they'd never see their father again. it was a bitter tragedy.
"i will never love anyone the same way i love you two, i promise i will always be with you" oscar said sadly as he pulled off two rings from his fingers, placing each one on chae and cho's middle finger.
alice joined the hug and the family stood in each other's embrace until the train sounded, signalling it was time to let go.
oscar chang said one last goodbye to his girls before he stood with alice, waving the girls off sadly.
it wasn't just alice that had found love again, for there was one detail that oscar and alice failed to tell their children. for months, oscar had been cheating on his wife, which eventually led to their divorce.
alice swore that she wouldn't tell her children what their father had done, not wanting to ruin their memory of the man...