A Little...Friend
What Leigh hoped would be revenge for the last time she failed to get rid of a forget-me-shock dementor, ended up being the opposite. While the charm was ready on her tongue, and the wand was ready in her hand, there was something else which was not as successful, and she was once again caught up in the whirlwind of symptoms dementors normally caused.
The confidence she displayed moments before disappeared in the span of a few seconds, when she had repeated the words again and again, but, like before, nothing had happened. Not even a sliver of light exited her wand. Regardless of the memories she tried to focus on.
She had tried to block it out the best she could: the darkness, the scenes flashing before her eyes and the sound of screams and pain. Tired and angry at herself, feeling stupid, she had clenched her jaw and attempted to utter the words a last time before she let the feelings conjured by the fake dementor consume her. She let herself be ambushed by the painful memories tearing away in her chest, squeezing her eyes together yet still seeing everything moving around her.
Then, just like that, as the memories had ran out, and when the pain had ravaged away at every inch of her, she was met with a sudden, odd feeling of quiet. Almost relief, but not quite – an emptiness making itself known inside of her. A bottomless pit pulling her under, controlling her every thought, her every emotion, her every sense. The lack of control, and the lack of feeling, caught her up in something resembling bliss, and for the first time in months the storm inside her calmed. The feeling of nothingness gave her exactly what she had longed for.
Outside of the storage space everything went on as planned. Boxes were moved upstairs and the items were placed in the shelves deeper into the store.
George jogged up the stairs, entering the upstairs flat and popping his head into the space. "Is she up here?"
Fred, standing by a pile of labelled boxes, turned to look at his brother. "Conway? No, pretty sure she's downstairs." He watched as George nodded at his response. "Did you open a window or something? It's a bit cold, isn't it?"
George shrugged, but realised he too thought it was a bit chilly. "Maybe she popped outside for some air or something," he said, and Fred shrugged right back. "Anyway, I think the storage space downstairs should be empty so I'll start shoving some stuff in there. Hopefully we'll have the floor empty soon enough."
His brother nodded in agreement, and George turned on his heel to make his way down the stairs again. He whistled a little tune as he counted the boxes left on the floor before moving towards the door to the storage space. He felt a chill and let his eyes wander around the room. No windows open as far as he could tell, and he couldn't recollect the bell on the door ringing in case Leigh had decided to go outside. Strange.
His questions were answered the moment he opened the door to the storage space. If he had arrived a second later he wouldn't have seen it, but the moment his eyes met the sight in front of him, the darkened creature hovering over Leigh dissolved onto thin air, leaving nothing but her form on the floor.
-
Leigh slowly came to consciousness a minute or so later, slower this time than the last time, and groaned slightly to herself. Her head was aching, and her body felt heavy. The moment she became aware of her surroundings she immediately missed the numbing feeling she had experienced seconds before.
"Hey."
Leigh furrowed her brows and opened her eyes slightly, still lightly disoriented. Her head seemed to be lying on something soft.
"George?"
She saw movement above her – George was nodding. "Yeah, that's me. Fred is over there." He pointed towards the other side of the room. Leigh looked over briefly, registering the familiar silhouette. Fred was pacing, glancing over at her.
"What the fuck did you do that for?" Fred immediately asked, and George looked up at him with sharp eyes.
"Take it easy, she just woke up."
Fred looked unhappy with the comment, but bit his lip and continued to walk across the floor.
"Just wanted to see if I could do it yet," she grumbled silently in response to Fred's question before the ache returned to her head and she squeezed her eyes shut again.
George spoke softly. "Did you hit your head?"
"I don't know, I don't think so," she groaned to herself, reaching up to press her hands against her face. She immediately moved to sit up, but George placed a soft yet firm hand on her shoulder.
"You don't need to do this to check if you can cast a spell, for Merlin's sake," Fred spoke again.
"I thought it'd help."
"Well it didn't help did it!" He snapped, and George quickly nipped his brother's growing frustration in the bud.
"Could you get her some water?" He asked him firmly, and Fred sighed but complied, the sound of his footsteps soon disappearing from the room.
"I don't remember passing out," Leigh admitted a moment later, rubbing her eyes. She felt a dull ache in her arm and raised it above her head to look at it. A bruise was starting to form.
"You probably fell on it," George spoke her thoughts. "That's good. Landing on an arm is better than landing on a head," he said with a small smile.
"True, I suppose," she sighed. "Sorry for the commotion. I feel fine," she started. She heard the sound of footsteps nearing them, and a glass of water was soon passed to George. Fred crossed his arms upon his chest and looked at the two of them with a frown.
Leigh sat up and took the glass from George's grasp. "Have you ever considered becoming a healer? You seem quite good at it," Leigh said honestly, taking a sip from the water. He had a calm and a delicateness in his gaze she hadn't noticed before.
"I haven't. I think Fred would suffer from megalomania if I ever left him to tend to the shop alone." The two of them looked up at the other ginger, seeing his scowl and angry expression. "Don't mind him. He's just being dramatic," George said playfully, making Leigh smile faintly.
"I'm not being dramatic – it was a fucking stupid thing to do!"
George rolled his eyes before looking up at his twin again. "Can I speak to you for a second?" he asked curtly, although it sounded more like a command.
Reluctantly, Fred nodded. George checked with Leigh if she felt alright, and once he received confirmation he stood up and exited the room, Fred following him after casting a last glance her way.
Leigh pinched the bridge of her nose once she was alone. Great job. Wanted to prove herself and did the exact opposite. She took another gulp of water and heard the hushed conversation outside the door, yet not being able to distinguish any specific words.
After a few moments the door was slowly pushed open, and Leigh was surprised to see Fred being the only one stepping into view. His gaze was directed at the floor, and he seemed calmer. George probably spoke some sense into him. She sighed, rubbing her cheek with her hand to avoid his gaze as she started to speak.
"Look, I'm sorry, I came over to help you guys today and this was just a massive waste of time. I just wanted to...– it doesn't matter. It was stupid, you're right." Her hand buried itself in her hair after she had said her words.
He looked up at her, brows furrowed. "Wait...you think this whole thing is because of you wasting our time?"
She glanced up at him briefly with a confused expression. "Well...you asked for my help because you were stressed with all the deliveries and stuff," she mumbled.
It was Fred's turn to rub his cheek with the palm of his hand. He almost let out a laugh right there. "That's just...so wrong."
Leigh's confused gaze almost burnt holes in Fred, and she reached out to the wall at her side to steady herself as she stood up. He took a small, almost unmissable, step forward, and started to reach out his hand, but retracted it just as quickly once Leigh successfully stood up without his help.
"What do you mean–," she started, but Fred quickly interrupted her.
"You're not wasting our time," he said firmly, looking at her in disbelief. "You scared the crap out of me, Leigh." His pleading eyes acted as evidence to his words. "You can't just go around putting yourself in dangerous situations and having people find you unconscious!"
She was taken back, and her confusion must have been as clear as day on her face. It was the first time he had called her by her first name, and she wasn't sure whether to be glad or worried.
"I– I don't get it," she mumbled, and received a sigh from him in return.
"George called me down from upstairs and I got down here to see you passed out on the floor. I had no clue what happened. George barely had any clue either. You got me so worried, Leigh." He took a step closer, not being able to resist the urge to place a hand on her shoulder.
She didn't know what to say, and after a moment or two she finally parted her lips. "I...didn't know."
He observed her with soft eyes. Leigh nodded slowly as his words registered, and looked up to meet his gaze. It felt unfamiliar hearing those words from him – not in a bad way, but unfamiliar all the same. "I care about you, you know. I see you almost like a little..." –the words buzzed around in Fred's head, and he had no clue what he wanted to say– "...friend."
...
A little friend?
Fred had never wanted to slap himself as much as he did in that very moment.
He bit his lip. Harshly. Aware of how stupid he had just sounded.
Leigh gave him a crooked grin. "I'm not that short."
Relieved she didn't comment on anything else, he returned the smile. "Short enough."
The sound of the shop bell interrupted them, and Leigh whipped her head towards the sound. "Oh, that must be Nova," she spoke and looked back at Fred. He could swear there was something else shimmering in her eyes, but she looked away from him before he could figure it out. Moving towards the door, she looked back a last time towards Fred, who was left standing in the middle of the storage space. "Sorry in advance," she said jokingly, referring to Nova.
Fred chuckled at her words, following her with his gaze as she went out the door and out of sight. He bit his lip again, going over their conversation in his head.
He almost said he saw her like a little sister, but caught himself at the last moment. He had a little sister, and he didn't feel that way about Leigh at all.