Artemis [HP Universe]

Chapter Five

"Lois go get Artemis now!!" Apollo urgently said. Lois ran out of the room a panicked look in her eyes. Scanning the room she couldn't see her but after a quick walk around she saw her huddled up in a corner talking to Thomas both of them in their own little world.

"Artemis you need to come, it's Talulah she's not ok somethings happened!!" Lois said frantically grabbing Artemis and pulling her away from Thomas and dragging her across the room.

"What do you mean she's not ok? What's going on?" Artemis shouted over the music confused as to what was happening.

"Just, you'll see now come!!"

When they got back to the room Artemis' eyes grew large. Sat on the sofa she saw Talulah looking the most broken she has ever seen her with Apollo's arms wrapped around her. Protecting her. Her makeup was smeared all over her face, her hair had been pulled out of the beautiful braids she had done and her dress was ripped at the bottom. She ran out of Lois' grasp and sat down on the other side of her and hugged her tightly, the tightest she's ever hugged her. They stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity not even noticing that Artemis herself was crying and that Lois had left the room. She was so scared, Talulah was scared. They were all scared.

"Lulah, what happened?" the twins asked at the same time both concerned about their best friend.

Talulah composed herself taking a deep breath in and closing her eyes. She wiped her tears away, let go of the breath she was holding and opened her eyes. "I was making out with some guy, I don't even know who was or what house he's in just some guy. I was so so drunk, which was stupid I shouldn't of gotten so drunk" she said the last part full of hate towards herself as if it were her fault. "He wanted to go somewhere more private so I took him here which was also so stupid. We made out some more but then he started touching me in places I wasn't comfortable with and I said no but when I pulled away he just looked angry. He started kissing me again and grabbing my dress causing it to rip. I thought, I thought he was going to hurt me, he carried on touching and kissing me then he stopped. I think his friends came to the door I don't know I couldn't hear anything I was too scared then he left. Merlin this is all my fault, I'm so so stupid." As she finished she started crying again repeatedly saying it was her fault.

"Shhh Talulah this isn't your fault. Stop saying it is. None of this was your fault." Artemis reassured her as Apollo rubbed her back trying to soothe her.

***

It was the next morning and they were all sat down in silence at breakfast waiting for Talulah to arrive. Normally Talulah would drag Artemis out of bed and they would be at breakfast by 7 but Artemis had failed to get her up and it was now 8:30 with no signs of her. 15 minutes passed by and she finally arrived. She stood at the top of the hall for a bit looking just as broken as she did last night. She was dressed in dark grey sweats and a huge oversized Hufflepuff hoodie that went down past her hands. Her hair was down most probably to cover the hickeys that were left on her neck. The constant reminder of last night. No one went up to her but instead just let her come down to them in her own time. When she reached the table she gave the group a forced smile and sat herself down on the edge of the seat next to James. She was so tense and skittish which was different to her usual bubbly and confident self.

"Here, we got you some breakfast already" Archie said softly pushing a plate of pancakes and a glass of orange juice over to her. She gave him a small smile as a thank you then started slowly eating not saying anything else.

After breakfast Talulah had decided to go with James to do some studying in the library. She hadn't talked much and when she did it was barely a whisper.

***

"I've just never seen her like this, it's like all of the Talulah has been scraped out and all that's left is a shell." Artemis said sadly to Thomas who was sat opposite her leaning against one of the trees and gently playing with her hands trying to relax her. They had gone down to the black lake to do some reading they needed to get done but that soon got abandoned as they started talking about other stuff.

"She'll be fine Tem. She's with James right now and he'll help her. They've been friends forever right? She'll come back it may just take some time but just don't push her let her do it at her own pace."

"She's still blaming herself yanno, I heard her saying it in her sleep and I can see it on her face that she still blames herself"

"Here I got you this." Thomas reaches into the bag he brought with them and pulled out a cinnamon roll which he knows is Artemis' favourite food hoping that eating something will distract her and calm her down a bit. Artemis doesn't say anything just gives him a small smile before taking a huge bite of the roll getting icing all over her face causing Thomas to laugh a huge smile spreading across his face.