Ravenclaw's Shadow

Chapter 30

I wake up early the next morning and crawl out of bed, cradling my wrist carefully. It's purple with bruises and feels very tender. I glance over at Georgiana's bed and see her passed out on her pillows, a trail of drool down her chin,still in the dress she wore last night. I dress as quietly as I can, cringing whenever I have to move my wrist, then slip out of the room with my books. The library won't be open yet, as it's a Sunday, but I can go to the Great Hall and study in there, at least until breakfast.

When I enter the Hall, I'm surprised to see a few seventh years already sitting at the Ravenclaw table,pouring over their books. I sit down the other end of the table and start on an essay. My eyes are tired and my stomach is growling by the time breakfast appears on the table. I pack my work away and eat quickly, wrapping a couple of muffins and some bread rolls in a napkin and pushing them into my bag. I head up to the library, hoping I can get the essay done by lunch time.

"Hey," Lucas slides into the seat next to me, "how's your arm?"

"It's fine," I say, tugging my sleeve down to cover it a little more. Lucas frowns at me.

"You should get it checked out," he says, "what if it's broken?"

"It's just bruised," I tell him,"what're you doing here, anyway?"

"It's lunch time, I missed you at breakfast and wanted to see if you were okay," he says. My stomach growls and I start packing up.

"I'm fine," I lie, not meeting his eye, "just busy."

We walk down to lunch together, talking about classes. Lucas tells me about a Hufflepuff girl he's been seeing. We avoid the topic of last night altogether.

"I mean, she's nice," he says,handing me a platter of bread, "but she's weird, you know?"

"Look at who you're talking to," I say and he grins.

"Different kind of weird," he says,"less fang-y."

"Oh, well, in that case..."

"Hey," George sits down next to me,rubbing his eyes. I instinctively slide away from him, into Lucas.

"What's wrong?" George asks,frowning.

"You don't remember?" I snap, holding my wrist to my chest. George is looking bewildered.

"No?"

I feel tears welling in my eyes and grab my bag, standing up.

"Aurie-"

I scream as George grabs my wrist and wrench it away from him.

"Don't touch me!" I yell before running out the door. I hurry up to the library, keeping my head down as tears rolled down my cheeks. I slip right to the back of the library and hide away, wiping my eyes on my sleeve. After a little while Lucas joins me, passing me a box of tissues.

"I told George what happened," he says quietly, "I hope that's okay."

I nod wordlessly and blow my nose.Lucas wraps one arm around my shoulders and gives me a squeeze.

"So, what now?" I sob, "what am I supposed to do?"

"I dunno," he shrugs, "what're the options?"

"I don't know."

"Reckon there's a book in here about it?"

"What, Teenage Crisis and How to Deal With Them?"

Lucas laughs and brushes the hair back off my face.

"Look, either you can talk it outwith them and figure it out, or you can cut them out," he says,"either way, I've got your back."

"He really hurt me last night," I say quietly, "even though I heal quickly, this morning it still looked terrible."

"Let me see," Lucas says, gently taking my wrist. He rolls my sleeve back, revealing the bruising underneath. Already it's fading to yellow-ish colours. Lucas gently probes the area with his fingers.

"Well, you're right, I don't think anything is broken," he says.

"Except my heart," I sigh, making him laugh.

"Now you're just being dramatic,"he says, "look, it's something that they just need to understand.You're doing a lot more work than they are, more work means more time. If they can't understand that then they can go f-"

"This is a library!" Madame Pince snaps, appearing from behind the bookshelves, "if you want to talk,leave!"

"Sorry," we mutter and start pulling out our books until she walks away.

"So, you think I should talk to them?" I whisper. Lucas shrugs.

"That's up to you."

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Just a short chapter as I start back at university tomorrow! Sorry about the weird word joining thing that has been happening, I don't know how to fix it :/ Let me know what you think and thanks for reading!