Cherry Red - George Weasley

16 - Bloody Nose

Her hollow laugh afterward told him that she was using the tricks she'd told him about, trying to hide her emotions. He cleared his throat while he thought of what to say, careful not to be pushy.

"You can tell me about it if you'd like" he panicked at her raised eyebrow, "you don't need to of course I just figured it may help to, you know, get it off your chest perhaps" she then looked ahead at the stone passageways and he started to worry more, "that was stupid of me to say, I'm sorry Autumn"

Autumns head snapped his way, "do not apologise for being kind to me" her words had been rather aggressively spoken but it made him smile at the thought behind them, "I may be going through some family troubles at the moment" she looked at her own feet this time, something she did not regularly do, "I assume you've heard the stories of my mother?"

Neville again cleared his throat.

"I have" he confirmed, "are they true?"

"You don't already believe their authenticity? After reading the countless stories?" She smirked at the headlines of her mother being a murderer.

"I will believe what you tell me" he smiled her way, his innocence being so utterly pure.

The world believed all the rumours, whether they were true or not. Neville had in fact been the first person to say something of this sort. To believe her over everything else.

Whether it was true or not.

"My father tells me of her antics" Autumn nodded, "tells me of the crimes she committed".

"Do you believe him?" Neville was unsure if his question had been too personal, but asked knowing she'd refuse to answer if it had been.

"I can't say, but I expect you can tell?" He tilted his head before nodding at her words, "I also trust you wouldn't tell anyone what you think I believe?" Again he nodded, she trusted him, "if I speak on this you must promise not to say a word to another soul, am I clear?"

Neville held his pinky up to pinky promise, realising what an idiotic move it had been and shaking his head, ready to pull his pinky away before feeling hers lock in his.

"Good" she sat straight, "according to my father my mother has somehow made an escape, she is no longer imprisoned in Azkaban" Neville's eyes widened at that, "there had been no news coverage on this so I can't be certain, although I would imagine they would try and keep it hidden" she looked his way, "in fact I had noticed the excess of dementors lurking not far from my fathers property, I wouldn't want to get on their bad side" she let out a chuckle.

"Why not? Have you not been taught the Patronus Charm? I can teach you if you'd like" he spoke trying to help in anyway.

"I am familiar with the spell Neville, I indeed know how to cast it" she swallowed loud enough for the boy beside her to hear, "I just cannot cast the spell and so I wouldn't want to be face to face with one"

Neville's brows furrowed at that, "why wouldn't you be able to cast the Patronus Charm?"

Autumn let out a sad sounding laugh.

"I cannot conjure my Patronus" while he tried to understand she continued to explain, making it clear, "I do not have enough happy memories"

Those words hurt Neville, the thought she couldn't protect herself due to not having enough found memories? He wanted to console her but was stopped by the sound of another.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" The voice making Autumns eyes roll automatically and instilling the smallest piece of fear in Neville.

Adrian Pucey stood before the pair, smirking.