Smart. (A Marcel / Harry Styles FanFiction)

Whispers and Yells

<Harry POV>

“Harry! Harry! Oh my god they hurt him!” A high-pitched voice nearly screaming in panic pierced through my ears. 

“Shhh calm down Charlotte” a distinctly male voice tried to soothe the girl, but to no avail. The words seemed to travel in slow motion from my ears to my brain, and it made it much harder to process what was going on. 

“Don’t touch me, Ben!” My eyes snapped open at the sound of Charlotte’s distress, but I had to shut them again as the world flipped around in my vision. 

“Ughhhh” I groaned.  My head throbbed and my back was sore.  Slowly images started flowing back through to my head.

“Harry? Harry, are you alright?” I felt Charlotte’s fingers, light as a butterfly brush across my face.  I opened my eyes for the second time, and realized everything was a little fuzzier than usual. 

“Here are your glasses, mate.” Ben handed me the now broken frames, and I sighed.  I would probably end up taping them like Harry Potter before he discovered he was a wizard.  Somehow, I doubted a giant was going to come to my house and take me to a magic school where problems could be fixed with a flick of a wand. 

“Harry, say something! What happened?” I looked at Charlotte who was kneeling next to me.  On the ground.  Wait, why was I on the ground? Oh right, I just got beat up like some clichéd sitcom or movie where the nerd in school gets beat up every day and the one nice jock comes to his rescue.  Well I guess you could count Ben as a jock, though I could have handled myself in Charlotte hadn’t refused to leave.  The memory and humiliation flooded back into my brain. 

"Char when I tell you to walk away, you should walk away.” I muttered, sounding angrier than I meant to be.  Charlotte’s face morphed into a half-relived half-hurt look that would’ve been more amusing had the situation not been as serious.  Or humiliating.

“Oh Harry!” She reached over and hugged me, and I felt a little satisfaction at the disgruntled look on Ben’s face. “How the hell did you get in that situation anyway?”  I thought back to the scene earlier.  I had been walking to the restroom, having finished my class work early, and needing something to do other than sitting in class looking bored, when three guys I knew from having various classes with them came up to me and asked me about Charlotte.  Peter’s face floated across my mind and I suddenly remembered him being involved and making a rather crude joke about her. I had been slightly surprised, to be honest, that he had participated and said the inane comment, but I was more surprised when he actually added physical aggression to his taunts.  Possibly it was my anger showing on my face, or the fact I called him a prick that incited him, but had I been alone, one on one with Peter, it would not have been a problem.  Despite my reputation as a geek, I was not a completely skinny loser.  And then there was Charlotte, showing up at the worst possible time, and distracting me from Peter and his cronies.  No way was I going to tell her what Peter had said, as she probably thought he was a good friend.  I wondered if she even knew he had been involved. 

“I don’t really remember.” I answered quickly, trying to hurry along the subject. Thankfully, Charlotte turned her attention to Ben.

“Did you see Peter? What are we going to do?” she questioned Ben. I spoke too soon, I would rather have her interrogate me about the scuffle than put her on opposing sides to her so called friends.

“Peter? What do you mean?” Ben answered unconvincingly.  Charlotte narrowed her eyes and gave him a glare that could probably x-ray better than the scanners at the doctors.

“Don’t you dare play that game with me.  You saw him just as well as I did, and he was wrong.  I don’t know what the hell he was thinking,” she fumed, clenching her fists angrily.

“Char, it’s alright, I can handle myself.” I interjected, but she cut me off.

“No Harry, no.  You obviously can’t if you are lying here on the ground having just been passed out a few minutes ago.” I looked down, ashamed that I had to be in this situation at all.  Now I was going to be known as the weak loser in not only Ben’s head, but Charlotte’s.  I tried to get up, but black started to creep up my vision so I returned to my seated position on the floor.

“I’ll talk to Peter, I’m sure he didn’t mean it,” Ben said, confidently.  I snorted, wishing I could tell Ben what Peter, his “good friend,” had said about Charlotte.  That might change his mind, but I was not going say anything in front of her.  “Just don’t tell anyone he was involved, I don’t want him being punished for one mistake.”  Charlotte seemed like she was about to protest, but I decided I’d distract her from her clear want to turn Peter in by attempting to get up again.

“Harry, wait, let’s get you to the nurse”

“No, no, I’m fine” I groaned, and I had to admit I couldn’t even convince myself I was fine.  My head had smacked the metal lockers pretty hard, and it currently felt like someone was banging a drum on it.  Ben stuck out his arm and I had no choice but to grab it and pull myself up.  As I regained my balance, he leaned over to say something to me in a way that Charlotte wouldn’t hear.

“You tell anyone he was involved, and I’ll make sure Charlotte never wants to talk to you again,” he whispered menacingly.  I blanched and looked at Charlotte, but she was looking angrily down the hallway to where Peter had escaped blame.  Ben patted me on the back like an old friend and then said loudly for Charlotte’s benefit “I’m glad you’re okay, mate.”

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