DISSOLUTION (Bill Weasley)

Chapter 8 - Breakdown

Warnings: Abusive father

Blake's spring break was as she had feared. During the days she was mostly alone because her parents were away working. During that time she tried catching up on her sleep.

During the evenings her father would come home and start drinking, which in best case scenario only resulted in him throwing insults at her and trying to break her down. In those cases she would try shutting it all out and just retreating to her room as quickly as she could.

Worst case scenario her father got more violent than that. He had never hurt her physically, but she didn't know if that was due to lack of opportunity or not. When it got really bad she had to lock herself in her bedroom to escape the foul words. Those nights she would lie awake, scared her father would be able to break through her charms on the door. Luckily her father never managed to break through when he was drunk.

She knew that it often resulted in him hurting her mother instead, giving her flowers or a pair of jewelry the next day if it got to the point where he physically hit her, telling her how sorry he was.

Blake tried catching up on sleep when no one was home, but even that sleep was restless. The few evenings her father wasn't drinking weren't much more pleasant because they were spent in awkward silence.

This went on for two weeks and by the time break was over she was more drained than ever. Her skin was pale and she looked sick. The bags under her eyes were heavy and an instant tell tale of how little sleep she'd gotten.

She wanted nothing more than to get out, get back to school and to her friends.

When she was finally back at the station 9 and 3/4 and had dropped off her trunk and owl she quickly spotted her two friends standing on the platform. Her two friends that she felt completely safe with. Hew two friends that seemed more like family than hers ever will be.

And that's when she broke, dropping the act she had put on for six months. For years and years for that matter. She ran up to them as quickly as she could on wobbly legs and when she finally reached them she wrapped them in a tight hug, both at the same time, as she covered her face in their robes.

Fred and George were surprised for a moment since Blake had come out of nowhere, but wrapped their arms around her when the shock was over.

Tears started streaming down her face.

Fred and George couldn't hear her crying because of the loud noise on the platform but could feel her shaking and sobbing in their arms and they looked at each other with worried expressions as they held her tight in their arms. They had never seen her like this. She was always 'the tough one'.

"Don't let anyone see me like this," Blake begged between sobs, a bit muffled against their robes. She didn't know if they could hear her, and was about to repeat herself when she felt them starting walking with her towards the train.

They concealed her all the way into an empty compartment, towering over her. They led her to one of the seats and sat down beside her, one on each side, still holding their arms around her back.

"Everything is not fine," she confessed. "I have been lying to you this whole time."

Blake placed her face in her hands and let herself cry out all of her sorrow, frustration and fear she has been bottling up. This was the first time she told anyone, the first time she shared her feelings like this.

Fred and George tried to comfort her, letting her cry as long as she had to and just stroking her back, telling her that they were there for her.

When Blake calmed down a bit, enough to talk at least, she told them about the problems at home and how she had never spoken about this with anyone.