Grace tiptoed out of the Gryffindor common room, carefully pulling open the painting of the Fat Lady so that she could pass through the portrait hole. She shut it quietly, releasing her breath once she was fully in the corridor. The castle was so peaceful at night. Well, technically it wasn't night anymore. When she had glanced at the clock in the common room, it was nearly one in the morning.
"Lumos," whispered Grace, holding her wand out in front of her to light up the corridor. It had been a while since she last took her wand beyond the walls of her dormitory. Ryan didn't like it when she had her wand on her.
But she was alone.
Grace walked down a few moving staircases, getting farther away from Gryffindor tower. She took a left at the bottom of the stairs, making her way toward the end of the corridor where the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom would be waiting for her. Once she stood outside the door, she swallowed hard before turning the knob, leaving the door cracked open slightly to let in a small stream of light.
She slowly dragged a desk away from the center of the room to create more space. She knew she would need it. This wasn't her first night doing this. She'd been coming here for weeks now.
Grace set her wand down for a moment to throw her hair in a ponytail. She went over to the cabinet across the room, unlocked it carefully, and backed up to the middle of the room. She held her wand out in front of her, her knuckles turning white.
She watched as the cupboard slowly opened, a shoe stepping out onto the wooden floor. Her eyes traveled up the figure's legs, over its abdomen, along its arms, and finally rested on its face.
Ryan.
"Look at you," he said, his body now completely out of the wardrobe. "You're so weak."
Grace clenched her jaw as he slowly walked toward her.
"You're nothing without me. You're just a-" He took a step closer with each word he spoke. "Stupid. Little. Girl."
Grace's heart was racing. Her throat was so dry she wasn't sure if she would be able to speak. Her arm, sticking straight out in front of her as she gripped her wand, was shaking. Don't listen to him. You're not weak. You can do this. Fight back!
"I'm the best you'll ever get, Grace. No one else wants you. You're tarnished goods. I did a real number on you, and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon." Ryan stood just before Grace, staring down at her with a menacing, confident look. "You're mine. You belong to me, and me only."
Grace locked eyes with him, shooting him a daring look. She put her wand under his chin, digging the tip of it into his skin. "The only person I belong to is myself," she spat. "Riddikulus!"
Ryan's eyes widened as his black robes were replaced with a floral top and a mini-skirt. He tried to cover himself as he ran back into the cupboard, his cheeks bright red.
Grace slowly lowered her wand as she steadied her breathing. The boggart pretending to be Ryan put on a great show, but somehow Ryan was still worse in real life. She needed to practice more. She shouldn't be this scared when this wasn't even the real Ryan.
Grace got back into position, standing in the center of the room with her wand by her side. The door to the cabinet burst open, a furious Ryan rushing out, back in his normal clothes. The boggart was amping up its game. It got more difficult everytime she tried.
"You fucking bitch," he hissed, poking her in the chest with an angry finger. "You lied to me. I know what you did."
Grace stumbled back a few steps at his harsh touch. "I didn't do anything," she explained, trying to keep her voice from shaking.
"Don't lie to me!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. Grace flinched, looking behind her, afraid he would be loud enough for someone to hear. "You deserve everything that's about to happen to you." Grace turned back to face Ryan, only to be met with his hands grabbing her by the shoulders, pushing her down to the ground. She slammed her head on the hard floor, her wand rolling away from her hand. Shit.
Ryan pinned her to the ground. Grace looked around frantically, desperately trying to grab her wand that was just out of reach. She hadn't learned non-verbal spells yet. She needed the wand to get him off of her. Her fingers stretched as far as they could, but Ryan noticed and kicked her wand away until it rolled under a desk in the corner of the room.
"You can't lie if you can't speak, right?" he suggested with a smirk, wrapping a hand around her throat. How could a boggart be so strong?
"Ryan," she croaked out, her eyes widening. She went to claw at his grip around her neck, but his free hand grabbed her wrists and shot them above her head. Just as black spots lined her vision, a weight lifted off her.
"Riddikulus!"
Ryan's shoelaces tied themselves together, his left and right foot nearly inseparable. He tried to get back to the wardrobe, but tripped every other step he took. He had to crawl back in before the cupboard was shut and locked.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Grace tried to catch her breath, still feeling the ghost of the boggart's fingertips on her neck. She finally regained her vision, bringing her gaze up to Noah, who was helping her get back on her feet.
"We all have places we go at night, Noah," Grace explained, going to the corner of the room to grab her wand off the floor.
"You lied to me." Why did he have to say those words? She could practically hear Ryan's voice coming out of Noah's mouth.
"What did I possibly lie about?" Grace questioned, furrowing her brows.
"You said he wasn't hurting you anymore!" Noah said angrily, aggressively gesturing toward the cabinet.
"He's not!" Grace didn't even care that she was screaming at this point. She was already caught.
"Then why the fuck is he showing up as your boggart, huh? Why is Carrow the thing that you fear the most if he's 'treating you better' or whatever lie you've been telling me?"
"I'm scared of him, alright? That doesn't mean he doesn't care about me! He's the only one that will put up with it all!" She shouted back. "I come here to practice."
"No. You come here to convince yourself," said Noah in a venomous tone.
"What the hell does that even mean?"
"You come here to convince yourself that this is normal! If you hear these fucking crazy things he says to you enough, you grow numb to them and start to believe them!"
"I told you, I come here to practice. Are you not listening to a word I'm saying?" Grace pushed, annoyed.
"I heard you loud and clear," Noah muttered, rolling his eyes.
"Then listen to this, Noah. I come here so I can finally stand up to him, because if I can do it in here, maybe one day I can do it out there to the real him, too." She pointed roughly to the door.
"No. You won't."
"Excuse me?" Grace lowered her arm, glaring over at him.
"If that thing is still turning into Carrow, then you're not going to stand up to him. He fucked up your mind so badly, Grace. What would he say if he found out you were here right now, huh?" Noah asked, taking a step closer. "He'll get you to believe it's not his fault for creating the rules in the first place, because you continue to let him walk all over you. He'll say it's your fault because you were the one that decided to go sneak out. And worst of all, you'll believe him."
Grace couldn't believe the things she was hearing. It was only yesterday they were having a moment at the lake. Her cheeks were burning with anger and embarrassment. "Did you just come from some place that put you in a shitty mood? You're being a dick, Noah. You were probably out visiting that dear father of yours."
Noah clenched his teeth. "We're talking about you. Not me. You're the one in a big mess right now. You've got the bloody boggart to prove it! Your boggart is your fucking boyfriend! Do you not see anything wrong with that? This is exactly what I was talking ab-"
"Don't compare me to your mother! I'm nothing like her!" Grace grabbed the roots of her hair in frustration. "You're so tough, Noah, right? Why don't you go stand in front of that cupboard? I bet it's your psycho father that walks out of there! Now how fucked up is that?!"
Crash.
Noah sent a curse hurdling just to the left of Grace's head. It missed her only by a few hairs, making a chunk of the wall behind her crumble to the floor.
Grace shot her eyes up to Noah, who was slowly lowering his wand. They both stared at each other, chests rising and falling rapidly.
"Amazing how quickly things can change in one day, right?" Grace uttered in an unforgiving tone. She turned around, exited the classroom, and slammed the door as loudly as she could muster, finally letting the tears that had been pricking her eyes escape.