PURIFY : Fred Weasley

04: Stained

His name is Ander, and he doesn't seem particularly interested in me. Rather than speak, he offers me nods and grunts. At least he's tall and quite handsome, despite the buzzcut he's forced to have, like all the other Durmstrang students.

He fits seamlessly into our group, as does Henri, the boy from Beauxbatons. Whenever they aren't with students from their school, they'll find us. In the library, at meals, and basically everywhere but the Common Room. So, I end up spending much more time hiding in the Common Room to avoid Ander. Especially with the Yule Ball coming up. I know he intends to ask me since he always sits next to me and I'm the only one besides Silas that he acknowledges.

When I bring up my concerns with Silas, he brushes them off.

"Ander is just quiet," he'll say.

Or worse. "He'll get more comfortable eventually. He comes from a good family, you know."

It's true. I learned his last name was Ander before I came to understand that his first name was also Ander. I just figured that the Durmstrang boys all went by their last names. Before Ander, I had never heard of the Ander family. When I sent my mother a letter about him, she was ecstatic.

My mother promised she wouldn't tell my father, but I got a letter from him shortly after, following another barrage of letters from my brother. At least there has been no word from Marcus. I would call him a ghost, but you interact with ghosts. He's more like a small coffee stain; hard to notice and easy to forget about, but he's there nonetheless.

While we are sitting in the great hall, another letter appears. This time with a red seal.

"Is that a Howler?" Ander Ander asks, the first thing he has ever said to me.

I scoop it up into my arms and rush out of the great hall, trying to contain it before it opens. I know I only have a few minutes. It's unlike my brother to make an outburst so public, but I guess this is what I should expect after leaving a dozen letters unopened.

I duck between people easily, making it halfway out of the hall before the letter bursts open.

"LARKIN!" It screams, and my hair blows back from the force of my brother's voice. "I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CONTACT YOU FOR WEEKS AND NOTHING. NOTHING! I EXPECT AN EXPLANATION IN YOUR NEXT CONTACT WITHIN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS, OR SO HELP ME I WILL COME TO HOGWARTS MYSELF!"

It flies up into the air and explodes in a loud bang.

My chest heaves in shock. Why would he do this? Why would he do this publicly, in front of three different schools? Landry knows better than to air our dirty laundry; it's why he didn't mention Marcus once. Still, the shock leaves my chest heaving.

A few young Slytherins are giggling at the table next to me. From there, I make my way into the hallway, where I move and put my back against the wall, and begin panting.

A girl with curly brown hair rushes out of the Great Hall as well. She comes up in front of me. She's a Hufflepuff, one I've seen before. A prefect. I realize I don't know her name.

"Are you alright?" she asks, looking up at me. She reaches a hand forward and lowers it. "That was a nasty Howler."

"I'm fine," I tell her, my voice bitter.

She shakes her head. "It's alright to not be alright."

"I said I'm fine," I bark back.

Her face goes pale. She offers a curt nod and then a soft frown. Turning, she goes back into the Great Hall.

"Didn't know you could be so nasty, Travers," Fred's voice rings out.

I look at him, standing in the doorway. George is nowhere in sight this time, and it is perhaps the first time that I've seen Fred alone. So, I pull myself together, making sure everything is straight and rigid.