She has soon been encompassed by a staggering routine.

Wake up. Brush hair. Brush teeth. A shower if necessary. A change into robes. A walk into the Great Hall for a lonesome breakfast. A usually uneventful day full of boring classes and teachers who see not beyond the façade of smiles and answers.

Delilah realizes something one day as she sits in the Great Hall, picking at her food as she listens to the excited chatter of the other children. Everyone else receives letters from family. Families who love and care for each other and do not set out to destroy.

Families that are not like hers.

She chokes back tears that threaten to spill. Green eyes focus upon uneaten food as she listens to the approaching footsteps of someone who usually cares to intrude upon her routine.

It is Fred. He enjoys to sit by her in silence some days; retiring from the jokester lifestyle he had taken on with his brother.

Delilah never bothers with hellos or smiles to the boy, and he knows this as he takes a seat next to her and places a warm, calloused, hand atop her own.

She dares to glance up at his face, his golden brown eyes staring into her own green ones that leak a few tears.

He does not dare wipe them away. He does not dare show that they are even there. He dares to speak.

Voice calm and free of all trace of teasing, Fred speaks up, "Are you alright?"

Another voice responds, one that is cracking in the slightest of ways. Delilah asks a question that Fred does not understand; one he has no idea how to answer. "Why does Mother never send me letters?"

Tears start to spill now, and something besides routine envelopes Delilah.

Warm arms encompass the girls width, and she allows herself to break down. For once she does not care who sees her. She does not care who laughs or sends concerned looks. All that matters is that someone is holding her close, stroking her blond hair as they whisper nothings into her ear.

Fred stands, taking Delilah with him. He leads the crying form outside the castle, and she only knows this because she feels wind nip at her. The taller continues to whisper to her, telling her that all will be alright, though he knows not the intensity of Delilah's family life as he says this.

They sit by the Black Lake, Forbidden Forest in sight as green eyes open themselves.

Fred whispers softly to Delilah, inviting her to a friendship she does not know the levels of. He invites her to give her trust to him as he speaks softly, "What's happened?"

Chapped pink lips cannot help themselves but to begin to give up their silence and begin to move; forgetting their masters promise to never speak of those incidents.

Delilah sniffles, words falling from her lips as she begins to speak of Mother and her alcoholism and her undying devotion to He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. She speaks of the abuse, showing the faded scars beneath her clothing.

She talks of Beauxbatons and the yearly safety it brought, but how she will never go back because of the three (or four) words that stand out, still freshly implanted into her minds eye.

Words of Father and the safety he brings her (however little it may be) he offers his child. Talk of the never-coming letters leave those pink lips as she shivers outside.

She does not realize that Fred has slipped his arm around her until it has been there for five minutes. She does not see that Fred has been crying until she sees a wet substance that cannot be rain slip from his eyes when she turns to see his reaction.

Once more, Fred envelopes Delilah into his warm embrace, tears continuously slipping from his eyes as he whispers, "I'm so sorry," into her hair.

And that's when Delilah realizes that it has all come spilling out so easily to Fred. There was no hesitation, no reason to hold back, with this man.

It confuses her, and when Fred smiles down at her through his testy eyes and asks, "Have you ever ridden a broom?" She can only feel that this is his way of asking to be we friend, his excuse to see her again; a reason for her to come back to him.

So, she tells him the truth, words hanging themselves out to dry with the water of embarrassment hanging from them. "Mother never let me."

She can't help but smile for her first smile to Fred when he passes her a mischievous grin.

His voice rings with the same mischief that makes Delilah feel like anything he does with Fred is worth the risk. "Well she's not here, is she?"

Delilah grins, afraid to tell him that she has ridden one time, but was afraid to no end of how high up she was for fear of losing the first friend she's made at Hogwarts.

So instead, her green eyes alive with something besides hidden sorrow, she speaks with a faux tone of disappointment, "Well, I'm afraid I don't have a teacher..."

Fred grins in response, putting every fear Delilah has aside when he speaks.

"Who ever said I wouldn't?"


A/N: It's going to get into more of a story now, not just drabble-type things.

I don't want to sound desperate when I say this, but I do enjoy reviews. .-.

So! Anyway. I hope anyone who read this enjoyed it, and keep an eye out for a new chapter. The storyline should be going a bit further now that I have an idea of where to take it.

And I apologize for any typos; this was written on my iPod.

-Z-