"She seemed a bit worried."
"No, choosing to pass the time in sleep was my own choice." But as for her body—a body stripped of its soul—it probably wasn't doing much better.
The sunset dyed Gloria's eyes an orange hue.
"During that initial period after I first became a soul, I didn't sleep every day. I could feel time passing: a minute, a second, a day, a month, a year. Time slipped away, yet I remained forever nineteen. Thinking about it now, it's quite peculiar..."
She paused.
"But it was also terribly dull. My friends weren't there, my family wasn't there, and my love... wasn't there either. I was all by myself, waiting for the years to pass, waiting for a reunion, and waiting for you to grow up."
"Occasionally, I would even envy the real me. If she had truly fallen into an endless sleep from which she never woke, it wouldn't have been so agonizing. So sleeping was a brilliant way to kill time."
"Twelve years is a very long time, but it can also be very short."
***
Side Story 21: Love is a Curse ③
In his fourth year, Harry was chosen as a Champion. From the moment he learned the first task involved dragons, Gloria had burst out laughing.
Well, after that, everyone—including Remus, Sirius, and that Mr. Tyres—had all laughed. As for how Harry found out, oh, Sirius had written all about it in his letters.
"I never expected that bad luck Padfoot casually mentioned back in the day would actually come to pass, and to the poor guy's own son, no less. We were quite surprised, bu…
Chapter 112