and I stand with you

nineteen

The following days were not as easy as I had thought they would be. No one I had hung out with in Gryffindor would talk to me because of how Fred was hurt, so I was stuck sitting, eating, and hanging around the Slytherins.
"Hey." Draco greeted me as I sat next to him for dinner.
"Hi." I spoke back, looking into the wave of students to see the twins sitting in their usual spot, and me missing from the center. The only other thing that caught my attention was the lady at the teachers tables, dressed in a horrendous amount of pink.

It stung even more when Dumbledore announced another ball for coming back to Hogwarts. I would be excited, if I could go with Fred, who I was still utterly in love with.
"Come with me." Flint told me from across the table. I started to laugh, along with the rest of our group.
"Why don't you ask Greengrass?" I picked up my things, getting ready to leave dinner.
"I'll see you later." Draco smiled, but I knew what he really meant. I was supposed to meet up with him later to start our work on the cabinet.

"Octavia!" A familiar voice called through the stairs as I climbed to the top of the tower, and I ignored them as I wanted to be alone. I figured they had left when I got to the top and only heard the sound of my breathing and my heartbeat.
"Octavia!" They called out again, coming around the corner. I stumbled into the darkness, hiding in the corner. I saw it was Fred and started to feel against the wall for the hidden door.
"Goddamn it." He sighed, running his hand through his hair. I squeezed my fists and took a deep breath before stepping out of the darkness.
"What do you want?" I asked quietly, refusing to meet his gaze.
"I just want to talk to you." He reached out to me but I backed away.
"I can't do this, Fred." I put my hands up in defense.
"Don't, Octavia. I don't want to hear it. You told me you loved me, you promised me. You can't even take off the necklace, for Merlin's sake!" He pointed at me harshly, and I instinctively brought my fingers around the chain.
"Look at me!" He begged, but I couldn't.
"Octavia. I can't keep doing this anymore. I don't want to be away from you, I can't stand it. You need to tell me if there's any chance left for us. I love you. I'm so over my head in love with you, and I can't keep losing bits of you." He started to cry, and I couldn't take it anymore. I wrapped my arms around his torso, and he gasped when I squeezed as tight as I could. It was followed by him hugging me as well, which I had missed dearly.
"Fred- this doesn't mean-" but he cut me off.
"I don't care what it means. I needed this." He pulled me even closer.
"I just wish you would talk to me." He sighed, and I pulled away, wiping a stray tear out from under my eye.
"It's for the best." I walked away from him, but he grabbed my arm and shoved me against the wall. I barely had time to react before he was kissing me, and wrapping his hands around my waist.
"Not it's not." He pulled back, and walked away down the stairs. I didn't move until I couldn't hear his footsteps anymore, and I bought my hand up to touch my lips as they tingled.

I found my way to the room of requirement, and reminisced of the night Fred and I spent here before opening the door and sneaking inside.
"Hey, thought you weren't coming for a second." Draco joined me side as we stared at the cabinet in front of us.
"Let's just fix this." I shook my head, getting to work reading about curative spells for magical objects.

"It's never going to work!" I threw my hands up as Draco attempted another spell to fix it.
"Well maybe if you'd find a spell that would work, this would go faster." He argued.
"Well maybe if you'd cast a single spell right, the spell choice wouldn't matter!" I argued back.
"Get out." His voice was low, and I knew he didn't want me there anymore. I threw the book on the floor next to his feet and stormed out of the room, almost knocking over Ginny in the hallway.
"Where did you come from?" She asked, composing herself again.
"Nowhere." I grumbled, walking away from her.
"Octavia! Wait!" She ran beside me, walking the same speed I was.
"If you're going to talk to me about Fred, I don't want to hear it." I told her firmly.
"I was going to ask if you wanted to sit with me at the quidditch match tomorrow." She smiled at me, and I let my guard down.
"Sure, Gin, just meet me outside and we can go in together." I made the quickly decision to pull her in for a hug.
"See you tomorrow!" She ran off down the hall, her red hair like fire as it caught wind behind her.
"See you tomorrow." I replied, but it was already too late, as she had turned the corner and was gone.
A few others ran past me, mumbling about the Ministry quietly. No one had really spoken much about the fall, and anytime they did they were usually punished. I figured out why they were running when I came face to face with Alecto Carrow, who smiled her evil smile down at me, yanking my arm and pulling me towards Umbridge's office.
"Let go of me!" I tried to yank back, but her grip was tight as he dug her fingernails into my wrist.
"This one was out after hours." She shoved me into her office, and I fell on the floor.
"Well, well. Leave us be." She smiled and Alecto closed the door behind her as she walked out.
"Sit, dear." She continued to smile, which was all to creepy, as I sat at the desk and she placed parchment in front of me, and a singular quill. No ink.
"You will be doing lines. 'I must not go out after hours'." She sat behind her own desk, twirling her thumbs.
"You haven't given me any ink." I looked at her annoyed.
"You see, dear. This is a magic quill. You won't be needed any ink." She motioned for me to start writing and I did.
"How many would you like me to do?" I gave her a fake smile.
"Let's say.. until the message sinks in." She picked up her tea as I wrote. As I jotted down each wrote, my hand started to cramp. When I finished the first line, I noticed the sharp pain in my hand and watched as the words appeared on my skin, blood-red. I didn't give her the satisfaction of crying, but instead wrote until she told me to stop.

I didn't speak to a single person in the common room that night, and instead walked past them all without a second thought and went straight to sleep.