WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! This chapter contains self-harm!

Chapter 10

Lily and George walked back silently. Fred and Mason were still there. Lily took Mason's hand and began to lead him away. He shot an evil look at Fred and kissed the tender spot on Lily's neck. Fred's fists clenched and his ears went red with anger. Mason's hand slid slowly down Lily's back and he kissed Lily on the cheek. Within seconds, Fred had pulled Mason away and threw him to the ground.

"Stay! Away! From! Her!" Fred screamed with every punch. Lily jumped back every time Fred's fist connected with Mason's face.

"Fred! Stop it!" she shouted, but he didn't listen. Mason ruined his life and he was gonna get it.

"She's mine you pathetic bastard!" he yelled. "She will never love you like she loves me!"

Fred's foot connected with Mason's side, hitting him directly in the ribs. Mason winced as Fred's fist impacted on his jaw once again. Lily winced as she watched in horror but she didn't know what to do. She had never seen Fred so angry, he was nearly rabid. She wanted the fight to stop, but to her own surprise, it was Fred she wanted to comfort. Mason was the one on the ground, nearly bleeding and face already started to bruise, but Lily couldn't quite bring herself to care.

"Fred please!" Lily cried one last time. He heard the panic in her voice and stopped immediately. He stood up and looked at her before walking away without saying a word. She left as well, and at first, she wasn't quite sure where she was going. She followed where her feet took her, and she ended up at Myrtle's bathroom.

She hesitated for a moment before opening the door, realising this was what she needed. The physical pain she knew she would feel in her arm was nothing compared to the constant emptiness she felt without her tall, red-headed soul mate. She knew this routine all too well. She took out her wand and put up a silencing spell. She rolled up her sleeve and took off her bandage, revealing all the horrible scars.

"Sectumsempra!" she said and let out a blood-curdling scream. She repeated it again and again, her screams growing more and more dire each time. She re-bandaged her arm when she had gotten it all out of her system. The blood was draining down the sink. With a swish of her wand it had all swirled and disappeared, but the stains still remained.

She went back to the dorm – after a fair while of crying and screaming her ex-boyfriend's name - and re-counted the evening's events to Tina. She had barely finished the story before Tina rushed out of the dorm hastily, leaving Lily, once again, alone and confused.

Fred was sitting on his bed in his dorm, tugging at the roots of his red hair as if he were about to pull it out at any second.

"Fred you're going to tear your hair out if you keep pulling at it." George said, trying to abolish the tension and anger that filled the room. The others that were in the dorm left as soon as they saw the state that Fred was in when he entered.

"I shouldn't have let myself lose control." Fred muttered, more to himself than George.

"It's not like the arse didn't deserve it." George mumbled in return. Fred opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a loud shout from the doorway.

"Fred!" Tina Raven stood in the doorway of the dorm, positively fuming. Her eyes flickered from one freckled twin to the other. She suddenly realised that she had no clue whatsoever which Gryffindor boy was Fred. They were both shocked by the abrupt intrusion that they both looked up in surprise. She sighed.

"Which one of you is the wanker that broke my best friend's heart?" There was no aggression in her voice, only pity.

One boy looked at the floor while the other looked at his twin. This was all the confirmation she needed. She looked to the twin on the right, who had his regret-filled eyes locked on the floor. She apologised to George for calling him a wanker. He nodded his forgiveness.

"Is that all you wanted; to insult me? Because if it is, there's nothing that I haven't already called myself." he slowly raised his head to see her concerned expression. "And by the way, who exactly are you?"

"I'm Tina. Look we really need to talk. Lily –"

"Lily?" Fred's eyes widened "Is she okay? Is she hurt?"

"No, she's not okay at all. And yes, she is hurt. Both physically and emotionally."

Fred jumped off the bed and made for the door. Tina pressed her palm against his chest forcefully, making Fred stumble backwards.

"What are you doing?" he asked Tina, panic-stricken.

"You can't see her right now."

"If she's hurt I have to help!" Fred's breathing was rapid.

"You won't help her by going to see her." she reasoned.

"Why the fuck not?" he all but shouted in the girls face.

"Because she's doing it to herself!" Tina shouted back.

The room fell silent, apart from their breaths. Fred's eyes widened even more in horror. George's jaw basically hit the floor and there was a look of disbelief on his face.

"W-what?" Fred whispered, his voice seemed to have vanished.

"She's been…harming herself with the Sectumsempra curse."

"No!" Fred croaked. "She wouldn't! She wouldn't do that to herself! She's a smart girl! Why would she?"

Something inside Tina snapped.

"Why? Why? You! That's why! She seems to believe that you don't fucking care about her! She thinks that you don't care! You fucked up Fred! You ruined her! She doesn't want to go on without you - and I'm not joking – she wants it all to END! She wants peace; she wants relief from her pain, Fred she wants to die! It's so horrendously obvious that you love her and it's just confusing her more! She doesn't understand why you beat up mason like you did and quite frankly, I don't either. It makes no sense. If you love her – which you do – why did you break up with her? Why did you tell her you don't love her? Was it all a just some game to you? A stupid, thoughtless prank?"

"NO! How can you even think that?"

"Then why?"

"Because I didn't have a fucking choice!"

They stared at each other for a moment. They were both on the verge of tears for the same person.

"What do you mean?" Tina asked calmly.

"I mean, that if I had a choice, I would be holding Lily's hand, telling her how much I love her and about to snog her senseless. I wouldn't be standing here, with you screaming at me for making her suicidal." Fred choked on the last word. His chest was heaving and his eyes were burning from the tears he was trying to contain.

"So why aren't you?" Tina asked.

"Mason threatened to have our dad fired if Fred didn't break up with Lily and convince her that he didn't love her." George explained since Fred was once again unable to speak.

"So he basically asked you to rip Lily's heart out?" Tina said sarcastically.

"His exact words were 'stomp on it if you have to'." Fred said.

"He blackmailed you?" she asked in disbelief. Fred nodded sadly.

"Do you really think that, after everything, I would give her up willingly?" Fred stated.

"No, I guess not." Tina said softly.

"Tina, I love her so much it hurts, but there's nothing I can do." Fred admitted in defeat.

Tina nodded grimly, but there was a look in her eye that said she was trying to devise a plan.