Safe With Me ~ Fred Weasley

Selwyn

My fingers tightened around my bag as I hurried down the steps, not knowing if I would make it to the common room before he caught me, part of me only hoping he would give up after enough flights of stairs.

"Oh, come on, you're not even going to look at me?" I felt his fingers surround my arm and I winced, his fingertips tracing over the purple bruising I had earned in Muggle Studies. His grip faltered slightly at the sound, grabbing higher onto my arm and pulling me to face him, Crabbe and Goyle towering behind up, lazy scowls painting their faces.

I didn't speak, my gaze stuck on the green tie before me, unable to meet his eyes. The eyes I had looked into just the other day as I begged for him not to hurt me. Not to hurt an innocent boy.

"What was I supposed to do, Selwyn?"

"Let me go." My voice came out in a whisper, pulling against his tight grip.

"Come on, let me apologize." He spoke softer now too, as if he thought he could keep the conversation from his friends behind him.

"There's nothing you can say." I shook my head, forcing my mind off of the memories he was conjuring up.

"What was I supposed to do?" He repeated, leaning side to side in a desperate attempt to meet my eyes.

"You could have said no. Like the rest of us. Like anybody with a-"

"Oh, and gotten myself tortured like Draco? Let the entire school think that I'm a little bitch?"

"Oh, how terrible. For anyone at Hogwarts to think you might have a heart." My eyes met his now, a fire burning in my chest. I had gotten quite good over the past few days of pushing the memories of the curse from my mind, at least during the day. I had been tossing and turning in the silence of our dorm all week, trying to escape the nightmares. Theo, standing above me, watching the third year collapse to the floor, his piercing screams, my mother glaring down at me in the department of mysteries.

"Better it was me than Carrow, and you know it." He hissed. "His would have been worse."

"Oh, you went easy on me, Nott? I can't even begin to thank you-"

"No, well... I meant, I wasn't trying to... I haven't-"

"You're going to tell me you haven't had much practice cursing your peers?"

His face fell, and I felt a flicker of joy flash through my heart for only a second at the reaction. "No, Cassidy, I don't have... experience... I didn't want to curse you."

"Just the muggleborns and the blood traitors, right? Have you got some kind of code?" I bit back, praying my voice sounded as bitter as I was hearing it. My eyes caught the movement behind Theo at once, Crabbe and Goyle both had their giant fists wrapped tightly around their wands, stepping around the tall boy before he put one hand out flat into the space between them and shook his head once.

"You think I'm some piece of shit, fine." He breathed, his fingers closing tighter around my arm. "I didn't want to hurt you, or that kid. I didn't want to see one of my oldest friends tortured before my eyes either."

I kept my eyes locked to his fingers, willing him to drop my arm so I could leave, run, anywhere but here.

"I just wanted to tell you I was sorry, and that I don't want you to keep getting hurt. So you might think about keeping a bit of a lower profile and doing what you're told. If people stop getting detentions and just follow the rules..."

I shook my head, my lips pressed tightly together before he finally dropped my arm, watching as I scampered back at once, continuing down the stairs towards the dorms, not sparing the Slytherin a second glance.