Grace gently wiped any stray tears from her cheeks, sweeping her fingers under her eyes. Noah didn't understand. He never would. He was too blinded by his anger to see that her whole situation was a lot more complicated than it seemed.
"Dilligrout," Grace stated once she had reached the portrait outside of the Gryffindor common room. The Fat Lady accepted the password, opening the entrance for Grace to walk through.
She was exhausted. It was nearly two in the morning. All she wanted to do was sleep. Grace quietly shut the door behind her, stepping into the silent common room. The last sparks of the evening still lingered on the wood in the fireplace.
"Did you have a nice time sneaking out?"
Grace's heart jumped out of her chest. She wasn't expecting anyone else to be awake at the late hour. She internally groaned when she saw the seventh-year on the couch.
"You didn't see me, O'Connor," she said in a hushed voice, briskly trying to walk past the couch to reach the stairs to her dormitory.
"I saw your eyes, though."
"What?" Grace stopped, turning to face the boy.
"You've been crying. I notice things," Jake announced. He leaned forward on the couch, resting his elbows on his knees. "I notice plenty of things about you, actually."
Grace swiped under her eyes again for good measure, although her cheeks were dry. "I don't need to be noticed." She walked toward the staircase.
"Wait-" started Jake eagerly. He stood up, staying put in front of the couch. "Talk to me about it. Maybe I can help."
"Trust me," Grace scoffed. "You can't help me."
"Let me try." Jake threw on a small smile, sitting back down on the couch and patting the cushion next to him. "Come here."
Grace closed her eyes, sighing in frustration. She wanted to sleep, not stay up talking to one of Ryan's friends. But by the look in the Gryffindor boy's eyes, she wasn't getting out of this situation. He wasn't going to give up. It was either stand there until the sun rose, or finally give her feet a rest and sit down, so she chose the latter. Grace paced toward the couch, uneasily taking a seat next to him.
"Why have you been crying?" Jake asked, bringing up his hand to tuck a piece of her hair behind her ear. "A pretty girl like you shouldn't be spending her night like that."
Grace narrowed her eyes slightly at his touch, nausea filling inside of her as she stared down at her hands. She shook her head. "It's stupid."
"So what if it is?" he replied with a shrug, leaning closer to her. "I can help you get over it. I'm really good at that." He placed a cold hand on her knee.
"What are you doing?" Grace brought her gaze up to his eyes, seeing a fire behind them. She inched away from him, but his hand didn't move.
"Just comforting you, Grace. I want to make you feel better." Jake traced a finger around her knee. "You can ask half the girls in this house. They'll all tell you how good I made them feel." His hand moved upwards, slowly trailing up her inner thigh.
"You're making me uncomfortable," Grace admitted. "I'm going to bed." She tried to get up, but his grip tightened. He leaned over her, a hand pressing her shoulder against the couch.
"You don't have to pretend you don't want this, Grace. Ryan told me you were easy." His hand slid up the bottom of her skirt. "Now take it like the good girl I know you are."
"Ryan said I was easy?" Grace asked in a painful whisper, her heart aching at the boy's words. She struggled underneath Jake's weight. How on earth did she always seem to find herself in these situations?
"Don't be such a prude," he ordered in annoyance as he felt her try to push him off. "If I had known you'd be this difficult I would have found a different bitch to waste my time with."
"Don't fucking talk to me like that," Grace spat, finally escaping from underneath him, her eyes glossed over.
"Quite the mouth on you, huh?"
"You're a pig. Don't lay a hand on me, or any girl for that matter, ever again." Grace stormed off, finally allowing the tears to fall as she ran up the stairs to her dormitory.
"Wait until I tell Ryan how you acted tonight! He won't be happy with you! He told me to try it out, and you weren't so nice, were you, Grace?" Jake called after her.
Grace covered her ears with her hands, trying to block out his voice until she finally reached her dormitory. She walked over to the mirror. The moonlight coming in from the window ran across her face. She could see the streaks of tears running down her cheeks as she stared at her reflection. Maybe she was easy. Everybody seemed to know it except for her. How else would she explain all of these awful messes she kept getting herself into?
After the terrible way she had acted toward Noah a little while ago, she was starting to think the bad things that were happening to her were justified.
It was like Ryan had said earlier as the boggart, right?
You deserve everything that's about to happen to you.