Prologue

Seamus Finnigan was cold. 

The trembling in his hands, which kept holding on to his trunk only barely, had progressively grown worse over the course of the past few minutes. His fingers felt as stiff as his legs did; his nose was running, his eyes were burning from the cold, and his trunk was giving him quite a hard time, seeing as it had to be dragged along painfully through several inches of snow. Each step he managed to drag himself forward took an impossible amount of strength from him, and he couldn't remember feeling this exhausted ever before. Seamus almost felt too tired to think. He pictured himself, the way he must look from the eyes of someone else: stumbling around slowly, with blue lips and chattering teeth, every movement a battle. His eyelashes were probably coated in frost, and he'd forced himself to stop crying once he had realised that his tears started freezing halfway down his cheeks. He could see his breath rise from his lips, seemingly the only source of warmth near him. With little interest, he examined the white wisps that he exhaled, watching them turn into clouds in a clear blue summer sky instead of his own breath in the malicious winter air. 

Seamus knew that his steps were leaving deep traces on the snowy pavement, making tracking him almost jokingly easy, but he didn't have it in him to cover them up. All that he could focus on was the excruciatingly sharp, hammering pain in both his temples and somewhere between his throat and upper chest. It was an ache so deep he was convinced he would never recover to live without it. 

If he'd been out in the cold under different circumstances, he would've been regretting bitterly that he'd left his hat, gloves, scarf and even his jacket back at the place that he'd used to call home. But right now, his mind was preoccupied with other things. Uglier things.

A sob which he failed to suppress escaped his mouth, making him shiver at the lonely sound that seemingly echoed in the darkness. The night was a scary kind of quiet, twilight slowly settling over him and the world like a blanket. It was almost as if the snow, falling ceaselessly from above, swallowed up all sound. 

The ice-cold snowflakes that met his hot, tear-stained cheeks were a thousand burning needle pricks against his skin, but Seamus was too exhausted to try and use a charm that would shield him from the wintery weather. He was too tired to care, even. He didn't care about anything anymore.

Just as that horribly bitter thought crossed his mind, Seamus noticed how weak his legs really were, how his muscles were burning and cramping from wandering through the snow for hours on end. Deciding he might as well give up, he didn't do anything when he stumbled for the second time in a row, his knees giving out easily. He ended up sprawled on the ground, face down, arms and legs spread out like broken wings that had refused to help him take flight. During his fall, he'd lost hold of both his trunk and wand, but didn't bother to pick them up. He didn't even bother to pick himself up, after all. 

I'll do so in a few minutes, he thought. For now, he just needed to lay down, cool off, get some rest. He'd be up and about in the matter of minutes again. Just a few more minutes.Seamus didn't even notice the snow which had soaked his jumper and was now, slowly, almost tentatively, seeping through everything he wore underneath, down to his very bones. All he knew was that laying down like this made his head hurt even more, but yet... he forced his body to keep still. 

What was the point in getting up, anyway? He had nowhere to go.

Even the thought of committing the effort of getting to his feet was just too much to bear; he was too tired to move, and the streets were entirely empty, which meant no one was likely to come by and offer a helping hand. All the other people were inside their warm, cosy houses, celebrating and laughing with their families and friends. It was Christmas Eve, after all; where else did he expect people to be? Of course they'd be at home.

Seamus had no home. Well, not anymore. A terrifying, icy numbness descended upon him as he thought of the horrible afternoon he'd just had, reliving every terrible second of it, tears starting to flow down his cheeks as silently as the snowflakes that settled on his back and began to cloak him in white.

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A/N: Hi peeps!

Welcome to my new/old story. I actually posted this over on fanfiction.net a while ago, and it was my first "long" shot! Unknowing as I was, I wrote and posted it all in one setting. I honestly thought this was the longest story ever! *laughs at young me*

As of for now, I'll post everything with a bit of time in between the chaps. This is going to be a short story, actually, because it has like, seven or eight chapters? (That was pretty long for me when I started writing, haha.)

It would be so very kind of you to drop a comment (constructive criticism is always welcome!), and vote for and share this story! Other than that, just enjoy :)cheers xx