prompt: battered


Katie trudged down the street toward her building and slowly climbed the stairs to the third floor. Her body ached all over. Quidditch practice had been especially brutal that day. She was cold and windburned and her face hurt from being hit with a Bludger not once, but twice.

She was bruised and battered and all she wanted was a warm bath and a friend to talk to but Angelina was on holiday with George and Alicia was always working. The person she wanted to see the most at that particular moment was Charlie but he was in Romania for at least another two weeks.

She knew that being with him would be difficult and that she wouldn't get to see him as often as either of them would like but on days like today she wished he was around. She resigned herself to the fact that she would have to settle for a warm bath and that at least she could sleep late the next morning as she didn't have practice.

Katie finally made it to the top of the stairs and looked up to see somebody in the hallway leaning against the door to her flat. She froze in her tracks, wondering if perhaps she'd hit her head too hard and that she was seeing things.

Charlie grinned at her and then frowned in concern. "Are you not happy to see me? Maybe I should have sent a message first." He took in her appearance. "Were you mugged?"

Katie dropped her broom and flung herself at him. "You're actually here! I thought I was going mad and that I was imagining things."

"Rough day?" he asked.

"You have no idea," she said and buried her face in his chest, breathing in the familiar scent of dragon hide and soap.

He pulled away and studied her face. "You never did answer my last question," he said, and gently touched her cheek that was beginning to swell.

"Just a couple of Bludgers to the face," she explained.

"Don't worry," he said and leaned in to place butterfly kisses on her forehead and then her cheek before claiming her lips with his. "I'll kiss it better."