Bruised
"Are you just going to tease me all night, Lucy?" the wizard that she was dancing with, Demetrius Thomas asked. Lucy didn't respond as he put his hands around her waist and drew her closer to him. "I want you, Lucy." He forced his lips down to hers and she pushed him away.
"Piss off." She muttered. Demetrius laughed and pulled her back to him, his hand firmly placed on her arse. "I said piss off!" Lucy said, pushing him more forcefully and heading back over to the bar and ordered a firewhiskey.
"Bitch." Demetrius yelled after her. Lucy couldn't care less. She was here to have a good time and get drunk, not to dance with the idiots that she'd once gone to school with.
"Having fun?" Her best friend, Tessa Finnigan said, sitting down next to Lucy and ordering a butterbeer.
"As much as I can" Lucy said, tossing the firewhiskey back in one go. She caught sight of Demetrius in the crowd, talking to a small pretty blonde girl who Lucy recognised as Tessa's sister, Leah. "Watch out, the arsehole is trying to pick up your sister."
"Let him." Tessa said, "Demetrius is a douchebag, Leah would never go for him."
"Oh yeah?" Lucy said, nodding back in Leah's direction where Leah had taken Demetrius' hand and was leading him into the bathroom."
"Oh lay off Lucy, she'll be fine, Leah's a smart girl." Tessa said as Demetrius looked back over at Lucy and smirked at her. Lucy set her drink back onto the table with a bang and tore through the crowds with a fury towards Demetrius and Leah who had disappeared into the bathrooms.
Blinded by rage, Lucy pushed people aside in her haste to get to Demetrius, knowing what he was going to do to Leah, all because she'd had a little too much to drink.
She threw open the door to the bathroom and pulled Demetrius off Leah as he had pinned her to a wall.
"What's your problem?" Demetrius asked, "you passed!"
"You're an arsehole!" Lucy screamed, "She's obviously drunk, why can't you leave girls alone you fucking tosser."
"What's wrong Lucy? Afraid that Leah might like me more than you? Or jealous that your sister was better at sex?"
Lucy's fist swung out and connected with Demetrius's nose. The crack of it breaking under her clenched knuckles was the best feeling in the world. Before she knew it she was kicking, punching and scratching every inch of Demetrius that she could reach. That would teach him to insult her sister. That would teach him not to hook up with everything with a pulse.
"Lucy stop!" she heard someone shriek and try to pull them away as she straddled Demetrius, pummelling his stupid face in. "Luce, you're going to kill him!"
The voice registered in Lucy's mind as Tessa's and she hesitated for a second. Maybe she shouldn't keep punching him into oblivion. That second of hesitation was all it took for Demetrius to get a punch in. Lucy felt her nose immediately start to pulse blood out as she felt Tessa pull her back from Demetrius. She struggled, but Tessa was too strong. So she settled for a kick in the balls. Well, she more stomped on his balls.
"You fucking bitch!" Demetrius screamed, his lip and nose streaming blood as he doubled over on the ground, clutching his groin.
Lucy wiped the blood from her nose as she walked away from the arsehole that she'd just beaten up. The fucker had been insulting her sister, what was she supposed to do? Sit there and take it?
"You can't keep doing this." Tessa said, running out of the club after her.
"Why not?" Lucy asked, tucking a strand of her flaming red hair behind her ear, "Little fucker can't take it that's his fault."
"Why can't you act like a person? A normal, legal person." Tessa asked
"Nothing illegal about beating up some little shit who wants to piss me off," Lucy said, pinching her nose to stop the flow of blood. Despite the fact that the bloke she'd just beat the crap out of was completely weak, he had managed to get a few hits in on her.
"What do you think Molly would think about this?" Tessa asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"Don't talk about my sister to me." Lucy spat, "The little shit wants to insult her then he'll get a fistful from me."
"Lucy, I'm not always going to be here to pull you out of the shit you get yourself into! You probably would've killed him if I didn't pull you away." Tessa exclaimed.
"So what! He would've deserved it." Lucy said, staggering into a wall. She was drunk, and she knew it.
"You've been like this for a whole year now, you've got to move on! Molly wouldn't have wanted this."
"I told you not to talk to me about her!" Lucy roared, turning on Tessa. Tessa didn't move from her position, despite the fact that Lucy was about ten seconds away from beating the crap out of her too.
"Lucy, just because she's not here anymore doesn't mean you can make a mess of your life." Tessa said quietly.
"What does it matter? She's fucking dead isn't she?" Lucy screamed, kicking the wall, "She's dead Tessa, and it's my entire motherfucking fault!"
"So this is what this is all about, you're punishing yourself because you think Molly died because of you?"
"She did die because of me! I was the one who persuaded her to go ahead with the kidney operation, she could've lived if I hadn't then she'd still be with us!" Lucy shrieked, starting to cry.
"Lucy," Tessa said, putting a hand on Lucy's shoulder as she sunk down against the wall, "It was the healer's fault that she died, if they hadn't cut into that artery by accident it wouldn't have happened."
"But I still persuaded her to do it. I promised her that we'd both be alright. I promised her that I would see her on the other side, but I broke that promise! I've never broken a promise when it concerned her."
"Hey, it's okay." Tessa said, as Lucy's body racked with sobs, she had never been Lucy cry before, she had always been so strong and that was part of the reason that Tessa looked up to her, "I know how I would feel if Leah died."
"It's not okay." Lucy choked, "Tess, she's dead!"
"She died over a year ago, Luce, your parents have gotten over it and they're worried about you. When you come home at five in the morning with a bloody nose, ripped clothes and completely piss drunk all they can do is be scared." Tessa said.
"They don't understand." Lucy muttered.
"Of course they understand!" Tessa said, "You lost a sister, and they lost a daughter. Luce you're all they've got left and you're making an absolute mess of your life. Let them in and tell them how you feel."
"I can't." Lucy sobbed, "You have no idea how much this is taking out of me to actually tell you."
"Why?"
"I just don't like talking about my feelings okay!? I never have and Molly was the only one that I ever talked to about them and she's gone. So I don't talk about my feelings." Lucy said, firing up again.
"Lucy, you've got to stop this. I'd say you're overreacting, but you've been holding it in for so long that I think that this is just a really delayed reaction to her death." Tessa said gently.
"I can't get over it." Lucy whispered, "She was my best friend. I haven't got anyone now."
"Yes you have." Tessa said, "You've got me." Lucy sniffed, and the ghost of a smile appeared on her face.
"Thanks Tess." She sniffed, "But I don't think that you could ever replace Molly."
"Fair enough," Tessa said, "But that still doesn't explain why you beat the shit out of Demetrius."
"You should be thanking me, he was about to fuck your sister against a wall." Lucy commented, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.
"Thanks," Tessa said shortly, "Still doesn't explain why Demetrius is lying in the bathroom with a broken face."
"Okay," Lucy said, "Well, both Molly and I dated Demetrius. I dated him first. I thought that he was so hot and that I was so lucky to have him… He was my first. Shortly after that we broke up and he went straight for Molly. I told him that he was no good and she wouldn't listen. Then about two months into their relationship Molly came crawling home after a date with Demetrius and told me everything…" Lucy stopped and took a deep shaky breath.
"Go on," Tessa prompted.
"Demetrius… raped her. They were walking home after their date and he suggested that they take a detour down an alleyway. She didn't think anything of it because she thought she was safe with him. But as soon as they were out of sight of the street he forced himself on her. She made me promise not to tell anyone, and I didn't."
"Why were you dancing with him tonight then?" Tessa asked, her expression completely horrified.
"I was planning to stab him with this." Lucy said, slipping a small, sharp Swiss army knife out of her sleeve, "but I got too drunk and forgot about it"
"You forgot that you had a Swiss army knife up your sleeve?" Tessa said incredulously.
"I'm drunk, give me a break."
Tessa shook her head and stood up, offering a hand to Lucy as she did so, "When did you become so violent?"
"Since I realised that being submissive isn't going to get me anywhere," Lucy said, accepting Tessa's hand and letting her pull her up from the ground.
"Fair enough," Tessa said, "but don't go stabbing every one of your old boyfriends, I don't want to have to bail you out of prison again."
"Don't worry, Demetrius is the only one worthy of my blade, but I got him good with my fists, so he will be spared." Lucy said. Tessa laughed.
"Come on, I've got to be home by two and I want you to get home safely. We'll catch the Knight Bus." Tessa said as the two of them reached the street.
"Tess," Lucy said,
"Mmm," Tessa replied, flinging out her wand arm so that the bright purple Knight Bus appeared before them.
"I'm glad that we talked, I feel heaps better now."
"You're welcome Luce." Tessa smiled. As the two of them boarded the Knight Bus, Lucy found herself thinking that while the bruises from the fight, her relationship with Demetrius, and Molly's death would eventually fade, the scars would remain with her forever and these were scars that no spell could take away.
AN: Written for the 'Minor Character Boot Camp Challenge' with the prompt 'bruise'
I would love it if you could spare some time to give me a review.
Potter on
~The Original Horcrux~
