bruises - james potter

𝗳𝗶𝗳𝘁𝘆-𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗲

She didn't know how Sirius would react, she was worried sick that if would be bad. That he would hate her because of it, thinking too that it was her fault. She was lucky that James didn't think that, but what if that's all she was? Lucky. That James was a one off and everyone else would hate her because of it.

She knew the only way to find out was to tell them, no matter how scared she was to do it.

"Tell me what?" Sirius asked, his knee bouncing up and down as he looked at the two of them once again.

"You're beginning to worry me."

Cassie took a deep breath, the sooner she told him, the sooner it would all be over and the sooner she would feel even better than she had felt after telling James.

Cassie took another breath as her eyes met her brothers.

Grey meeting grey.

Cassie broken eyes, meeting Sirius' eyes that were usually full of so much joy and wonder.

"So, ever since you left. . ." She took another small breath.

"Mother and father have been. . ."

James gave her hand another squeeze, she looked up at him and she smiled the smallest smile possible.

"It's okay love, take as long as you need."

Cassie nodded, now looking down at her lap as she began to speak.

"Mother and father abuse me, and it's so much worse than when you were at Grimmauld Place."

Her words were rushed, each of them jumbled up into one long word. She didn't take a breath until she had stopped talking.

She kept looking down at her lap, she didn't want to see how Sirius would react.

She thought she was going to break just by telling him, she knew she would break if she saw his face as well.

She hated feeling fragile, like she was a piece of glass hanging off a table about to fall and smash into a million little pieces.

She never knew when she was going to break, and that was the worst thing.

She never knew if when she did break, it would be a small crack in the surface, or if she would break apart so much that no-one would ever be able to fix her again.

She was worried that her feelings would engulf her, and pull her out to see. Then she knew it would be pointless fighting against the tide.

She was terrified, she hated not knowing her own feelings. She didn't know how to cope with them, she didn't know how to cope herself.

"What?" Sirius asked after a few moments of silence, Cassie didn't look up from her lap.

"Mother and father abuse me." She said more clearly than last time.

Silence filled the room once again, the three of them falling silent.

Cassie could only heart her heart that was beating loudly in her ear, each thud sending chills through her body, that went as far as her toes and a high as her head.

"They use the cruciatus curse on me Sirius, and it hurts so bad." Tears filled her eyes again, she didn't try to stop them from falling.

They fell heavy and fast, the tears quickly soaking the sweatpants that she was wearing. Creating dark gray splodges on the light gray fabric.

James gave her hand yet another squeeze, his thumb running over the back of her hand quicker and quicker.

"And I'm sorry-"