The problem wasn’t her. It was a ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ situation. It wasn’t so clichéd, either. It had been Hugo. It had been his problem. He’d not fallen out of love with Yvette but they’d both known on some level or another that he was trouble and Hugo, suspected, that he wasn’t worth all the problems he caused, either. He didn’t get a pass like his Potter cousins who seemed to pull off being charmingly flyaway as though it was the better part of their nature. Albus and James seemed to be entirely composed with broody steeliness. Hugo was marked by truer loss. Granted, his cousins had their own private heartaches but Hugo had lost his best friend. What it had paved the way for was something more profound.
Hugo had nothing left after Iggy had died. Everything had paled, even Yvette. He’d abandoned everything in order to try and make sense of his world again but nothing excited him, nothing interested him and none of it ultimately evoked any emotions in him other than sorrow because he knew in his heart of hearts that Iggy should have been there with him to laugh but he wasn’t. He was gone. After that, Hugo had lost interest in everything. Benefit of the doubt had let him through his N.E.W.Ts and into the Ministry. Only now was he gathering his purpose again. Only now did he think he could love again with the same intensity as he had before. He could feel again. He was almost himself again.
“You should’ve,” Hugo whispered, his eyes closing. “You should’ve moved on, Yvvy.”
It didn’t matter whether or not either of them had moved on. In that moment, Hugo was willing to indulge narcissism. He wanted her in his arms again so it was into his embrace he tugged her, cradling her littler frame against his. He reached up with one hand, leaving the other curled protectively about her waist, and smoothed back some of her hair with a tender, mournful look in his eyes. Unfurling his fingers and closing them about her chin he brought her lips gently to his in a softer, more loving embrace of their mouths. Hugo was content like that and would have been, too, if not for the fact that they were in the middle of Honeydukes.
After a while, regret seeping into him that he had to halt their kiss, Hugo pulled away but held onto Yvette, his eyes searching hers for some sort of hint of what he was supposed to do next. He knew he couldn’t just leave it. He knew he couldn’t just leave her. Not like before. This wasn’t like before. She needed either closure or she needed his respect. He didn’t want closure. He was selfish enough to not want to give her that. That left him with the other option and Hugo was determined not to treat her poorly again.
“Can I take you out for dinner?” Hugo asked hesitantly.