Hindsight - Fred Weasley

Chapter 19

The Hogwarts feast had been and gone, and Violet had retired to her dorm room with Daphne. Angelina and Alicia were playing a game of wizard's chess in the common room, leaving the girls to chat in private for the first time since July.

"How do you feel about Beauxbaton's joining us this year?" Violet asked Daphne, who had been quiet since Dumbledore's announcement of the Triwizard cup earlier that evening.

"Terrible." Daphne sighed, throwing herself onto her bed. Violet climbed up next to her, placing her back against the headboard and allowing Daphne to place her head on her lap. Violet took a gentle handful of Daphne's long blonde hair, curling it between her fingers as she stared down at her.

"You never talk about your friends there." Violet had always wondered why Daphne didn't speak much about her time at the French wizarding school, but whenever she'd tried to ask Daphne seemed to withdraw and Violet didn't want to push her.

"There's no friends to talk about. I hate all of them."

"All of them? What happened at Beauxbaton's, Daph? You never talk about it."

Daphne released another sigh and met Violet's eyes with her own glazed ones.

"I wanted to forget about everything that happened there when I came to Hogwarts, a fresh start and all. But I'm sure once they all arrive they'll tell everybody what happened anyhow, and I'd rather you heard my side of the story first." She sat up suddenly, crawling to her trunk at the bottom of her bed and pulling a bottle of red wine out. "But first..." She said, unscrewing the cork and summoning two large chalices which she filled to the brim. She downed a whole glass before refilling her glass. Violet's eyes widened.

"That bad?" She asked, taking a large sip herself. She was never a huge fan of red wine, but Daphne had a certain affinity for it having lived in Paris for most of her life. She'd once told Violet that her mother had started allowing her a glass of red wine with every evening meal from the age of 8.

"Unfortunately so." Daphne replied, taking a large sip from her fresh glass before sitting opposite of Violet on the bed so that their knees touched gently. "I didn't always hate everyone there. I was actually quite popular, had lots of friends. I also had a boyfriend, Beau. Everything was good, I'd fancied him since first year and I was over the moon when he finally asked me out. After a couple of months he told me he loved me, and I told him I loved him back. It was all very sweet; he was tender and acted like the perfect boyfriend. It was all so perfect. I even thought that one day we'd get married, naïve, I know. Anyway, we were together for about 5 months and he'd been quite persistent about taking things to the next level. I'd told him that I wasn't ready for sex, I mean I was 14 at the time and it wasn't something that appealed to me at that point." Daphne's voice wobbled slightly, and she took another sip of wine to steady herself. "He started to get restless, he would ask every other day and he just didn't understand why I didn't want to. We went to a party one night, and he put something in my drink. He was all over me and begging me to take that step with him, and I hadn't realised what he'd done. I thought I'd just drank too much. I started to be sick, and he offered to help me back to my dorm. I said yes, I trusted him. He'd been in my dorm so many times before so I just didn't think anything of it. Thought he was just playing the knight in shining armour as usual. I'd said no so many times at that point and he'd always eventually accepted it. So, he had to basically carry me back to my dorm I was so out of it, and then... He pushed me down on my bed, he held me down and he took my virginity." Daphne was softly crying now, her arms wrapped around her chest protectively. Violet's heart stung, she could see the shame that hung over Daphne like a shroud.

"Daph... I'm so sorry." Violet choked out,

"I should have never let him take me back." Daphne cried, shaking her head.