Mina had been doing a good job and keeping her cool around Fred, even if she knew he had something going on with Angelina. Or at least, she had been keeping her cool until Fred and George came running to their group in a hurry one day.
"Look, Fred's got a bleeding nose!" got Mina's attention relatively quick. She was on her feet hurrying towards him in a hurry.
He stood just behind George, his head tilted back and hands cupping his nose like it might've been broken. He had what looked like a cut on his chin slowly bleeding.
She nudged Angelina to the side as she tiled his head down.
"You're bleeding a lot," she said, trying her best to hide her panic.
"Don't worry," he said as nonchalantly as a person can with a broken nose, "most of it's not mine."
She quirked an eyebrow as her grip on his chin tightened just a fraction more.
"That's only worrying me more. What do you mean most of it isn't yours?" She poked his nose carefully and he flinched, confirming her suspicions.
"Fred got in a fight," George piped in, with pride in his voice.
Mina thought for a moment about what she was going to say. With who? What about? That's normally not like you?
Instead she opted for simple.
"Did you throw the first punch?"
He tried shaking his head, but it didn't move much in her grasp. "No."
She turned his head slowly, to the right then to the left, taking in almost every inch of his face searching for more damage. He watched her doing this and of just a second he thought maybe she liked him. Maybe, she was being overprotective. But then he remembered that she pretty much worked in the hospital wing and pushed that thought to the side. His hand went towards his chin, near where her hand was like he was going to hold it to comfort her, for just a moment, before it shifted course and brushed his hair out of his face. Better to play it like he didn't care, than make her uncomfortable with unwanted advances.
"I'm fine, honest. They barely even got me."
Her eyes widened.
"Oh? That's what you call a broken nose then? Because to me that seems like a pretty big deal. No, you'll need to go to the hospital wing, now."
"It's not that big of a deal. Can't you just episky me, and we can all be on our merry way."
Her eyebrows scrunched. She let go of his chin, if not a little harshly.
"I can't just be on my merry way, and I told you it is a big deal. Now, Fred Weasley, you're going to the hospital wing if I have to carry you there or not. Are you going to be cooperative?"
They stewed in an awkward silence for a minute, anger sharp in the air at the other not understanding. Then Mina looked around them. All their friends had gone deadly silent, taking in what was happening. Angelina was sending her a particularly set look, which she was sure was a way of saying Mina I know you may not have meant to be flirting with my boy, but back down. She took a step back, away from him as she realized how close she had been to him. Close enough to smell the firework powder on him, from his last batch of experiments. She took a steadying breath before she looked at Fred again, more level this time than she was before.
"Fine. What do I care," she said directed at him. She turned to Anne as she spoke her next words, "if anyone needs me, I'll be in the hospital wing, helping to heal people who actually want help."
And with that, she was off.
Fred watched as she left from a weird angle as Angelina had now clasped firmly onto his arm.
What had he just done?
Anne found her angrily fluffing some pillows.
Judging by the way Madam Pomfrey was casting looks her way, she hadn't trusted her to tend to patients in her current state. It was probably for the better, but Mina had worked herself up. She nearly yelled at Anne when she put a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, what was that about?"
"What was what about?" Mina passive aggressively asked.
"You know," Anne trailed for a moment. "The whole blowing up at Fred thing."
"I didn't blow up at him," she snapped, throwing the pillow down onto the bed roughly, moving along to the next one. Anne followed her tentatively.
"Of course not. But something happened there, and I may not have a word for it, but it was pretty obvious something was going on."
"Something going on? What was going on, is I can't stand people who so clearly need help, but refuse to use it. We have a perfectly fine working hospital wing here to heal people, and yet some people don't want that help, despite other people only looking out for those people, and one of those people doesn't seem to get that it's almost the job of one of those other people to help people who are hurt, and that it's insulting to say that some people completely unqualified can just fix them just as good."
"People, huh?" Anne let out a half amused snort, but dropped it at the look Mina sent her.
"You know what I mean."
"I do. In fact, I think I know what you mean more than you know what you mean."
"What do you mean?" Mina asked, completely distracted in her pillow crusade.
Anne looked around at the few other students in the hospital wing for a moment, before leaning in close to Mina.
"Is there somewhere we can talk?"
Mina led her over to the storage room, ignoring the small smile Madam Pomfrey had given the two girls. The door shut and Mina turned expectantly to Anne.
"You're so worked up over being able to help him and him not accepting it that you're completely missing the point of why you're actually upset. You've got a crush on him, which is perfectly fine, except you feel rejected. For whatever reason, I mean, it's not like you've told him about it or anything. I think if you just shoot your shot, and got it over wth all this preemptive anger would be resolved."
Anne watched Mina's face as it went through several different emotions as she was ready to argue her way past it, but eventually her face landed on vulnerable.
"It's not that easy."
"Yeah it is all you do is say," Anne lowered her voice a little in a poor attempt of mimicking Mina, "Fred I fancy you, we should go out."
"Except for the fact that I already know his answer, and I don't want to hear it," Mina's voice wobbled for a minute.
"You don't know for sure."
"I'd have to be blind not to. You see how he and Angelina look at each other, right? How they practically hang off of one another? I can't just shoot my shot, because I'm only going to get shot down," her voice cracked on her next words. "Anne I'm not strong enough to get shot down by him. I think I might break."
Anne's heart broke.
"Surely it can't be that bad, Mina?" Anne asked quietly.
"I just..." she trailed off for a moment, her voice steadier now. "He just makes me feel so... ugh, and I just ugh, and I can't really put any words to it but the entire way I feel is just uggghhhhhhh."
"So it really is that bad."
Mina sat down on the bench in the closet, and Anne followed suit, before she began again.
"You know, whatever happens and however he feels, I'll still be here for you. I may have my own stuff going on, but we can always come back to one another no matter what. Even if you feel you're broken in too many pieces to put back together, I'll be there with super glue and a baseball bat to break whoever broke your heart." Mina smiled. "Just as I know you'd do the same for me. That's what best friends do, right?"
"You really feel that way? You aren't too busy with Jae?"
Anne waved a hand in the air.
"I'm still working on warming up Jae, but you're more than welcome to come crash with us anytime and we can educate her on the muggle world, or stupid movies, or whatever."
"Thanks, Anne. I really mean it. I think I needed this. And Madam Pomfrey will be happy to know I won't stab anyone."
"Always a plus," Anne murmered.
Mina stood and Anne pulled her into a hug. They stayed there for a moment before Mina pulled away.
"I better get back to work though."
"Of course," Anne said as Mina opened the closet door. She walked out in front of Anne, and as her friend followed she called out to her.
"Hey Mina," Anne said, causing her to turn," I'm coming out of the closet." She said as she gracefully strut out of the storage closet.
Mina let out a long laugh as Anne gleamed at the attention to her bad joke.
"You've never used that one before, but are you really coming out of the closet if you were already out?"
Anne faked a look of horror.
"I'll have you know I can come out however I want, whenever I want. Even if that happens to be a million times."
"Well, I think your puns are pan-tastic." Anne brimmed with pride at the bad pun.
"Mina, my dear friend, I just fell in love with you a little bit. Also, when I reuse your joke next time, I'm gonna need to act surprised because pantastic is going to be in every conversation from now on."
Mina smiled at her friend for a moment, glad she had her friendship. Even if she had to deal with all her puns, the talk did help Mina feel better.
Madam Pomfrey found Mina making a sleeping draught.
"Mina, there's someone in the bed over there I can't get to right now, can you handle it for me?"
She nodded her head, before she threw the lavender into the potion, and hurried off to the bed in question. She ducked into the curtain as she was brushing the excess lavender powder onto her dirt.
"Alright, so what seems to be the probl-" she looked up and saw it was Fred. "-em." She trailed off. The blood by his nose had started to dry and the blood, whoevers blood, was on his cheek had dried. She avoided looking at him, instead on the space above his shoulder. Above his head. Even the lamp on the bed next to him.
"I'll be right back, I need some things," she said, and sure enough she was back in a moment, this time her arms full of a bowl and various other herbal ingredients.
He watched as she mixed a few items together to make a salve, and tentatively sat on the edge of his bed. He said his first words to her as she was putting it onto his nose.
"I thought you weren't good at herbology?"
"Oh, I'm not. But as long as I know what heals and what kills, I really don't have to bother too much with planting whatever and everything else. Plus, you're brother's a good tutor."
He tried not to wince, both as she patted the salve onto his nose and at the thought of her spending time with his brother.
"Oh? Do you and George do this tutor sessions a lot?"
He watched as her eyebrows knitted together. "No, only a couple of times. And most of them, he and Anne were going to study and I was just listening in, but I suppose I absorbed enough information from that."
They sat in silence for a moment.
Mina busied herself by taking the rag and bowl of water to his cheek. She could feel his gaze on her, but she focused on the task at hand. He winced as she pressed against a bruise that was forming, but she continued on. When all the blood was gone from his face, she removed the salve. Then she pulled out her wand and fixed his noise. He groaned for a moment, but then he blinked an the pain went away.
"Any other injuries?" She asked, her voice devoid of emotion.
He wanted to joke with her. Just my heart, he wanted to say. But clearly she wasn't in the mood, and they had just been fighting, so he figured it wouldn't be the right move. So instead he ignored her, and asked his own question.
"You're not going to ask why I was in the fight? You asked if I started it, but not why?" he looked at her, practically begged her to make eye contact with him, but instead she looked at the bowl in her hands.
"It's none of my business why you were in the fight," she stood up, standing now by the curtain, ready to go clean the rag and bowl. "I only asked if you started it to know if you'd be in any trouble or not. Put those on," she said gesturing to one of the few hospital gowns the wing actually had. "I'll be back in a moment with something to stave of infection, although, it won't taste any good. Which is why you'll need to change, some people react poorly to it." She lamely finished, stuck there for a moment before she left.
She busied herself for a while, but eventually she knew she'd have to go back over to him. So she sucked it up.
Pulling back the curtain however, she was able to see several bruises forming on his torso that he was examining. Although, he froze now, covering his chest with his shirt.
Mina sighed in frustration.
"I asked if you had any other injuries, why didn't you mention that?"
"It's no big deal," he said, although the blooming bruises on his torso said otherwise.
"Sit down," she said in a commanding voice that he couldn't argue with.
She went about it again, making a salve and applying it, although she really couldn't look him in the eye then and if she had been asked the redness in her face was due to the wing being stuffy, and then she took her wand out again healing him.
He put the gown on and sat in the bed, watching as she went about making an antibiotic.
She thought he was stupid. If he had just come earlier, she wouldn't have to be doing all of this. The medicine wouldn't be necessary, staying overnight wouldn't be necessary, them being awkward wouldn't be necessary. But it was, because he hadn't.
His question rang in her ears. Why didn't you ask me why I got in a fight? At first, Mina had been in healer mode, so it hadn't really mattered. But now... now her mind had grabbed onto it, and wouldn't let go. Why had he gotten into a fight? He wasn't normally one for them. She had been working through a convincing speech to her head on why she shouldn't ask when her mouth went ahead and asked it anyway.
"Why did you do it?" She asked so quietly he thought he'd been hearing things. "Get in a fight, I mean."
He sat there for a moment, watching her movements. Adding in bits and pieces of whatever into a vile that would taste disgusting. He took a deep breath, breathing in the faint scent of lavender, before he answered slowly.
"Someone had been talking about you."
"What about?" She slowed in her task, instead catching sight of his jaw clenching.
"They said something that I won't say, but I told them to get your name out of their mouths or I get it out of their for them."
"You should've just let it go," she said, completely side tracked now. Her eyes met his when she spoke. "Honestly, I don't care what people say about me."
He held his head high, and for the first time since he'd been there he didn't meet her eyes when she looked at him. He looked at the curtain in front of him.
"You may not care, but I do. Anyways," he continued, playing with his fingers to keep himself busy, "we exchanged some words, and eventually they threw the first punch. You thought I was bad, you should see the other guy."
Mina looked at him touched. While she thought it completely unnecessary, she had never had anyone fight for her honor before and she felt her heart flutter. But then she remembered her conversation with Anne and it dropped. She picked up a leaf from the table and it turned from a red to a pink. She turned back to him.
"Well, you didn't have to do that. Thank you though, I am touched."
Fred met her eyes as he spoke his next words, possible the most true ones he'd ever said. "I would do it again."
"I don't think you should do it again, but the sentiment is felt nonetheless."
She stirred the vial and then held it out to him.
"It's better if you plug your nose when you take it, but you might be a bit sore from the..." she trailed off, instead gesturing to his nose.
he nodded and downed it, and while pulling a face, he kept it down.
He could feel his eyes growing more and more tired as he drifted off to sleep, and both of their last thoughts were of the other.
Got a long one for you today bois, stayed up until 2am despite knowing I needed to wake up at 6 because I was in a writing mood and was feeling this chapter. Hope you like it.