Burnt

Chapter 5

I leant against the wall for a few minutes, waiting for my heartrate to slow down. When I had composed myself, I set off in search of the trolley. My tummy was ordering pumpkin pasties, and I knew we were nearly at Hogwarts - damn! I needed to get into my robes, before the train arrived. But where had the Weasly's stashed my trunk?  

Uh oh. That meant going back to the carriage to find out. Back to Oliver. At least he was wearing his shirt now.I groaned as I realised that I had almost wished he didn't.  

But there was hardly time to dwell on this rather appetising - argh, no must not- image of - control yourself Bell. Through the window, I had just seen Marcus Flint come into the carriage that I was about to enter. The horror that suddenly hollowed out my stomach pushed any images of a shirtless Oliver out of my mind. Suddenly, I wanted to get back to the safety of my carriage and the boys. Before Flint saw me.  

When I burst back through the door into the compartment, my face or the fact that I made such an entrance made the twins and Oliver jump straight to their feet. Oliver made to move towards me, but George was closer and reached me before Oliver could.  

'What's wrong Katie?' he said, I heard a note of concern in his voice. So I forced the most convincing smile that I could, hoping my voice would be steady when I answered him.

  'Nothing's wrong George. I just thought that we were getting too close to hogwarts for me to go on a quest to locate the trolley. So I was thinking that I should change into my robes; however, a kindly gentleman put them on board for me, so I don't know where they are.'

  I looked up at George. He frowned down at me. Great, now he knew something was wrong. But then he smiled.  

'Well then madam, we had best go and recover your luggage for you,' he said.   It looks like I was wrong about him needing Percy's glasses to pull of the pompous air.

  He linked arms with me and led me out of the carriage, leaving a silent Fred and Oliver behind us.   As soon as the compartment door had shut, George pulled me out of sight of the window. He looked down at me with one of the most serious expressions I have ever seen on his face.

  'Ok Katie, what is really wrong? You weren't just puffed because you were running through the carriages. Hang on, why were you running at all?'

  I really didn't want to answer that. I knew that if I said anything about how worried I really was about Flint then George would set up a 24 hour protection board to look after me. But then I looked up into his face and saw how worried he really was. I owed it to him, I guess. He was basically the protective brother that I didn't have. Including Fred of course.  

I took a deep breath.   'Ok George. You know about the whole Flint on the platform thing?'   'Yeah.'   'Well, he kind of demanded a private apology, if you get my drift. And then before, I was all puffed when I got back to the compartment, and that was because I saw him, and I was afraid. Even though I took martial arts lessons in the holidays, that can't defend you against a spell. I am getting a little scared, that's all.' I trailed off pathetically, that horrible taste in the back of my throat again.   Suddenly I felt George's arms wrap me in a cozy bear hug.

  'If he even tries to-'   I pulled away from George.   'I will not let him. I can't - don't want to think about it.' I sounded tougher than I felt. And even that was a weak statement. George's green eyes looked into mine, a protective green blaze. Flint is soooo gonna cop it, I thought with some satisfaction, trying to unknot my stomach.

  'I will make sure you are protected. I can organise a roster to-' I shoved him gently in the chest. I knew he would react like this.   'George, it'll be better if no one else - or as little amount - of people know as possible. That could only aggravate Flint more, if I was protected. Make him more.'   'Determined?' said George softly.

  I shrugged uncomfortably. 'Yeah, I guess so.' He gave me a lopsided Weasley grin.   'C'mon, back to the carriage- oh, but your robes- no wait, let me practice something,' he said rapidly, drawing out his wand, a look of excitement on his face.

  'Stand back, my lady,' he announced in imperious tones. The actor was back. I smothered my giggles with the back of my hand. 'ACCIO KATIE'S ROBES!' George thundered.   It took approximately 5 seconds, before a quantity of black material slammed itself into the compartment door. My robes!

  'George, you are a genius!' I exclaimed as I opened the door and peeled my robes off the other side of it and pulling them on. They fitted comfortably over Hermione's jacket. George turned and opened our compartment door, motioning me to enter before him with a little bow. I walked in and flopped into then nearest chair, just as I felt the train grind to a halt.

  Oliver was looking out the window. As the train came to a complete stop,   'Bloody rain,' I heard him mutter, just before the light went out.   All of a sudden it was very cold on the train. No one moved or spoke.   It was about a minute before the lights suddenly came back on and the train continued. The warmth returned, but we were all silent for the rest of the journey. Why had it suddenly gone so cold?

  ********  

I was glad when we finally reached the Great Hall. Everyone had found out that the train had been stopped by Dementors, and that was what had caused the sudden cold. Not that I wasn't cold now, soaked to the skin by the torrential rain that had assaulted us as we got of the train. Even the crush of students waiting outside the Great Hall wasn't warming me up. We were all waiting to get into the hall. The teachers were probably talking about the Dementor event on the train, but I was impatient and freezing. I had lost the Weasleys and Oliver and I was impatient to find them again, if only to laugh at Fred, who had slipped over in the mud chasing an escaped chocolate frog. Despite my shaking with the cold, I couldn't help but chuckle. But I wasn't laughing for long.

  A rough hand grazed across my hip, the calluses on the person's finger snagging my robe, they were so rough. Then a voice in my ear made me realise I wasn't that cold before.   'Hmmm, happy to see me, Katie.' Flint. I was beginning to panic now. As in hyperventilating, terror, need-to-get-away-now panic. I shoved my elbow hard into his stomach, before I felt him let me go. But not before he could choke out,  'He can't protect you forever.'

  I swallowed my panic, but I couldn't stop the tears from springing to my eyes. I was so angry with myself for crying. How could I let him get to me like that? Why couldn't I-   A hand shot out and grabbed my arm. What was this, the 'Let's snatch Katie day?'   Oh.   It was Oliver. And he could see I was crying. Oh god, not like this.  

'C'mon Katie, common room. You can't go to dinner. I'll get you something later if you're still hungry.'   And with that Oliver took my cold fingers in his warm ones and led me to the Gryffindor Tower.'   'Password?' said the fat lady.  

'Uh, this is kind of an emergency, and you do now us.'Oliver looked pleadingly at her.   And the fat lady melted under the chocolate puppy dog gaze. She wasn't the only one.

  Needless to say, we were let in. As soon as the portrait swung shut behind us, Oliver pulled me in for a close hug. This only made me start to cry again, which made him hug me tighter, ignoring the fact that I was wearing saturated robes. I felt him kiss the top of my wet head softly. I slid my arms around his waist, and felt his chest rise and fall in a sigh. He squeezed me gently. Nope, he really was sweet enough not to care that my robes were dripping.      

  Hello everyone! 

Thank you for reading my lovely little daydream.  It's surreal that I have almost 80 reads! Just crazy, thank you once again for making that happen! 

-Kat