One and Only 3 ; George Weasley

267

"Alright!" Uncle Percy snapped as I started hyperventilating. "Mr Hoggard, go wait outside of the door."

Hoggard scoffed as he pulled himself out of the chair.

"And if you're not there when I come to get you, you'll be in much more trouble." my uncle said as Hoggard walked outside. "Vivi. What's wrong? What's happening."

"I think she's... I don't know." Fred let out a sigh before he turned in his chair so that he faced me. "Vivi, listen to my voice. You're having a panic attack, right? Roxanne had one last year due to stress from the O.W.L.s. Are you having a panic attack."

I managed to nod slightly as I squeezed his hand harder.

"Okay. Listen to me. I need you to look at five separate objects in the room." he told me. "Think about each item before you move on to the next one. Think about the colour, the shape. What it looks like."

I lifted my head slightly and looked around the room as it felt like my head was spinning and I was dizzy.

Okay...

Window. It's arched. It's painted white on the inside and it has eight pieces of glass.

Plant. Green. It's a cactus. Mum loves cactuses.

Desk. It's brown wood. Full of stuff on top, including a picture of my uncle Percy, my aunt Audrey and my cousins Molly and Lucy.

Chalkboard. Brown frame but the board is green. Has a number written on it.

Swords. They're hanging on the wall. Two of them and they are forming a cross. They're silver.

"It's not... fuck it's not working." I panted, running a hand over my face. I wanted it to stop. Needed it to just stop.

"Vivi." Fred said. "Now I need you to listen to four sounds. Think about where they come from and what sets them apart."

"There aren't four sounds!" I exclaimed. "I need to... shouldn't have come back. I need dad."

"Okay. There aren't four sounds." Fred breathed. "Tell me one thing you can taste. Anything. What can you taste?"

"Blood."

Uncle Percy stood up and walked around his desk before he leaned against it right in front of me. "Take some deep breaths, alright? Inhale, hold your breath for three seconds, then exhale."

He guided me just like uncle Fred had done that day in the flat and I tried doing my best to get out of the panic attack.

"It's not real." uncle Percy told me. "You are not dying. You're just panicking. Inhale... exhale."

Inhale. Exhale

Inhale. Exhale.

Inhale. Exhale.

"There you go." he told me and gave me a hug as I calmed down. "Are you going to be okay to talk about it now that he's waiting outside?"

"I-I thinks so." I said as my uncle walked back to sit in his desk chair. Fred still held my hand but now I wasn't squeezing the life out of him. "I'm sorry. This is humiliating."

"Why's it humiliating?" Fred asked. "Panic attacks are out of our control. We don't decide if we get them, when we get them."

"Have you had them?" I asked my older brother.

"No." he shook his head. "But as I said, Roxanne has and the five-four-three-two-one rule helped her but it's obviously different from person to person. You just have to find what helps you calm down."

"And with me it's..."

"Breathing exercises." he nodded and I nodded as well in response before I looked at my uncle. "Hoggard approached Sammy and I. He uh– wanted me to tell mum that I lied about the thing with Luke. That it was consensual, that he doesn't belong in Azkaban and that he should be back here and back with me. Slytherin are angry with me for being the reason to Luke getting his sentence."

"But you're not the reason." Fred frowned. "Luke is the reason for his own sentence."

"Go on." Uncle Percy told me.

"Sammy provoked him and threatened to beat him up if he didn't walk away and stopped talking to me." I said. "So Hoggard punched Sammy repeatedly in the face. I tried to stop him but Avery... he held me back while Hoggard put Sammy down and started kicking him."

"Avery?" Uncle Percy asked. "Smith Avery?"

"Yes." I nodded. "And Grant Chambers and Logan Steed were guarding the door while it all happened. Fred came out from the bathroom, saw Hoggard hovered over Sammy and then he got involved."

I sighed. "I knew Slytherin would dislike me when I came back but I didn't expect for something like this to happen. Maybe I should just go back home where I don't fuck everything up."

"You're not fucking anything up." Fred said and gave my hand a squeeze. "You belong in school. You're Genevieve Weasley. School is kinda your thing. I'm not letting them ever touch you or Sammy again. Count on that."