This was the last feast. The end of his time at hogwarts, the end of his student career... For now, unless he decided to actually go the track of his classmates and peers and head off to University. The thought of more school only made him feel slow, heavy, like he was wading through molasses wearing a pair of anvils for shoes. His robes, he'd spent his whole time at Hogwarts hating the things, but now he wore them with affection, pride and a hint of melancholy that was clear in the boy's large eyes as he sat amongst his fellow lions.

He found himself taking in everything about the Great hall, every tiny detail from the threaded tapestries, to the feeling of the smooth would table under his fingers. This place had been so much a part of who Damien had grown into. He had fallen in and out of love here, gotten into trouble, nearly died, but merlin had he lived. Damien knew, without a thought that he wouldn't be who he was without Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and he would always be thankful for every second he had spent in these classrooms and dorms.

But.

But there was something missing.

The hall was as colorful as ever, but it all seemed grey to him without that bright blip of pink at the Slytherin house table. Rowena Hazelwood had left Hogwarts last term and Damien Anderson-Belfort had never ached more for the presence of his always best friend and occasional (when he'd been lucky), girlfriend. It stung, not just his eyes but his overwhelmed heart to know that Rorie wasn't here to send him off. That she wasn't back home waiting to congratulate him in her nonchalant way...

He missed her more than he could put into words, but still. He stayed seated, even as his vision blurred with tears he choked down. Tonight was abut beginnings. He needed to remember that and stop thinking of endings.

Merlin, he wished Amelia was here.