A/N: Hi everyone, I know that this update is a week late, and I'm sorry about it. A few months ago my grandfather was diagnosed with cancer, he's started treatment now, so we've been busy making sure everything is taken care of for him and my grandmother.

Here's the update you've all been waiting for though, Cecilia finally spills her guts!

According to our poll through your review answers lots of people thought she might tell Malcolm, Vic, Nadia, Ally, Oliver, Dom, Katie, Eliza, Xavier, or Louis first, there was even a special mention that Grandma Eilionoir might get it out of Cecilia first.

The person who got the most votes for First Person Cecilia Will Tell is: Ally. I guess we'll find out who's correct.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.


Opening Up

Saturday, November 19th 2022

1:11 PM

"I don't know," Victoire mused with a laugh as she slipped her arm through her favourite cousin's, "I think I agree more with Ally's opinion."

Ally patted Victoire's hand with a pleased smile on her face, "Thanks Vic."

Dom snorted, she was only a step behind her big sister, "Of course you do. However, I agree with Xavier, as would anybody with half a brain and some taste."

"Thanks Dom," Xavier replied with an eye-roll as he walked up to where Ally and Victoire were walking, so he could grab his fiancée's hand.

Ally squeezed Xavier's hand tightly, but she didn't unlink her arm with her blonde cousin's. Walking behind the linked group of three were Dom, Malcolm, and Teddy.

"I don't actually have an opinion either way," Malcolm announced with a cheeky smirk, "But I'll agree with Freckles and Ally just to be on the other side and against Xavier."

A few feet in front of his cousin Xavier rolled his eyes but didn't comment.

Dom turned her head to look at her soon-to-be brother-in-law, "So what's your opinion Teddy? Do you agree with me and Xavier, or with your fiancée and your best mate?"

"I'm not taking sides because it's essentially an inane argument that should really stay between Xavier and Ally as it concerns their future home," Teddy replied diplomatically.

"Ugh," Dom groaned and made a face, "How'd you get sorted into Gryffindor instead of Hufflepuff again?"

Baxter finally piped up into the conversation from where he was walking two feet behind Dom, along with Louis and Cecilia, "He asked to be sorted into Gryffindor because he knew that when Vic eventually made it into Hogwarts that she'd never make it into Hufflepuff. At least they could be in the same house in Gryffindor."

Even though Victoire was several paces ahead of Baxter, she held her hand up in the air over her head and flipped him off from behind.

"Yeah, Gryffindor was the only place they could be together. I mean we all know Vic was this close to being sorted into Slytherin," Louis added with a mischievous grin as he held his hand up and illustrated the miniscule amount of space between his pointer finger and thumb.

Instead of flipping her brother off, Victoire flicked her wrist and sent a tripping spell his way.

Fortunately for Louis, his MLE training seemed to be paying off –especially his last week of night shift training– and he was able to jump over the incoming spell and continue walking as if nothing had happened.

Victoire frowned back at him, but Dom was impressed, "Smooth moves Baby Bro."

Malcolm got them all back to the matter at hand, "Maybe Ally and Xavier, you should just take a poll of all of your family members and friends and see whose opinion wins."

Ally sighed exasperatedly, "We haven't even decided if we're going to buy that particular house yet, so we're not going to start wizarding world war three over decorating decisions about a house that we may not even end up buying."

Ally's determined statement ended just as the large group finished walking up the driveway to the Wood home.

Ally and Xavier had invited Victoire and Teddy, Louis and Cecilia, Dom, Malcolm, and Baxter to go with them that Saturday morning to look at the two houses that the former couple were considering buying. They large group spent a few hours looking at both houses and voicing their many opinions on which one each individual (except for Cecilia) thought that the engaged couple should buy. When they finished looking at houses, they all apparated back to the home of Katie and Oliver Wood, as Xavier and Cecilia's parents were expecting them all for a late lunch after their busy morning of house shopping.

The group nosily clamoured into the Wood home, drawing the attention of Katie and Oliver who were in the kitchen just putting the finishing touches on lunch. Oliver asked Malcolm and Louis what they thought of the first house, while Victoire and Ally and Xavier asked Katie if there was anything they could do to help with lunch. Katie waved them off, pulled out her wand and summoned the pre-made food so that it would fly into the living room and settle itself down on the living room table. Katie set up lunch so that it was a serve at your own pace mini-buffet, and for a while the Woods and their guests were busy eating food and discussing in small pairs and groups the pros and cons of each house they saw.

Everyone was busy having a relatively good time, except for Cecilia of course.

While everyone was filling their stomachs or discussing the finer points of crown moulding, Cecilia sat down on the arm of a chair as far away from the centre of the room as possible. She had a full glass of pumpkin juice in her hand and a plate filled with pasta salad and ham and cheese sandwiches on her lap. Louis had filled a plate up with Cecilia's favourite food and delivered it to her when he noticed that she was sitting by herself and out of the buffet line. He told her that he was going to get some food for himself and that he'd be right back, but while he was piling egg sandwiches onto his plate Baxter and Xavier cornered him with a series of questions that they just had to know his opinion on.

Cecilia didn't mind that her boyfriend had –temporarily– left her to her own devices. In fact, being by herself for a few moments was a relief. That morning was the first time she had seen Louis in person since the incident with Martell a week and a half ago, and he had been stuck to her side ever since he laid eyes on her. He hadn't intended to be overbearing, but her nerves were still sensitive and she couldn't control the tensing of her entire body whenever he would casually grab her hand, brush up against her, or nonchalantly wrap an arm around her waist.

Despite her anxiety, Cecilia didn't physically stop Louis from touching her. She did move her head slightly so that his hello kiss that morning would land on her cheek instead of her lips, but she pretended to have been distracted by something else behind him when it happened.

She allowed Louis to hold her hand as they walked through the houses, but she couldn't find it in herself to talk as excitedly about the prospect of Ally and Xavier buying a house as everyone else did. Cecilia did answer questions when directly asked, and she was pretty sure that between the big personalities of Victoire, Dom, and Malcolm, that no one really noticed that she was quieter than normal.

"Hey Cee-Cee, do you want something else to drink?" Malcolm asked in a booming voice as he walked over to her, an unopened bottle of butterbeer in hand.

Cecilia blinked at him and then glanced down at the full glass of pumpkin juice in her hand, "My glass isn't empty yet."

"Well since you haven't touched that juice I thought I'd offer you something different," Malcolm explained holding the bottle up in front of her.

"No thank you Malcolm."

"Or, I could always get you something a little stronger if you'd like," He told her with a cheeky wink.

Cecilia's temper started to boil to the surface, "I said that I didn't want any Malcolm!"

Her tone came out sharper and louder than she thought it would, and Malcolm looked shocked and taken aback by her reaction. She gritted her teeth and turned her head away from Malcolm's startled gaze only to realize that she had been so loud that everyone else in the room had heard her and were all staring at her.

She quickly stood up, put her full cup and plate down on the closest table, and then paced away from her chair over to a window on the far side of the living room. She still felt the stares of several people on her back, but she was more concerned with calming down her suddenly flared-up temper.

Cecilia looked down at her clenched fingers and tried to loosen them, but it took a lot more deep breaths than she'd ever care to admit to get the job done.

"You need to eat something," A stern voice told Cecilia from behind her.

She didn't turn around, but she could see a slight reflect in the window in front of her of a tall redhead standing behind her and holding a bun wrapped up in a napkin.

"I'm not hungry Dom," Cecilia replied with a tired sighed.

Dom didn't give up, "Or thirsty apparently. But you haven't eaten since early this morning –if you even ate breakfast– so you need to eat something just to keep your body working properly."

Cecilia didn't want to eat, but she also didn't want to keep talking to Dom. Therefore, she turned to face her boyfriend's middle sister and held her hand out to wordlessly accept the bun.

Dom handed it over, but she didn't leave. She just stared expectantly at the younger woman.

"What?"

"Eat it."

"I will."

"I want to see you do it."

"I said I will!" Cecilia snapped again.

Dom raised an eyebrow at her, but turned on her heel and walked away.

Everyone in the room was staring at Cecilia again, so she turned back around and glowered out the window once more.

She only had a few more seconds of beautiful solitude before yet another person came up to her and whispered, "Is everything alright Honey?"

Cecilia felt her heart break a little at the sincerely worried sound of her mother's voice.

"I'm fine Mum."

Katie didn't believe her, and she took a step closer and unexpectedly put her hand on her daughter's shoulder.

Cecilia jumped about a foot in the air at the unanticipated touch and she involuntarily flinched away from her mother.

"Cee-Cee-"

"I think I'm going to go to my room," Cecilia interrupted Katie. She moved to step around her mother.

Katie reached out again and grabbed Cecilia by the wrist, "Cee-Cee I think you should stay-"

"Don't touch me!"

The living room was silent as everyone turned to look at an angry Cecilia and a shocked looking Katie.

Cecilia was breathing heavy after having yelled at her mother, and she pulled her wrist out of her grip.

"Cecilia, what's going on?"

Cecilia grabbed at a handful of her hair and took a step away from her mother, "Just stop okay? Stop touching me, stop trying to force me to eat, stop telling me what to do, just stop!"

"Cecilia Kathryn!" Oliver yelled in a chastising tone.

Cecilia was so full on anxiety, anger, confusion, and self-hatred that she was past caring about the fact that her father was middle-naming her and about to rebuke her for yelling at her mother. Instead of facing whatever reprimand she was about to get, Cecilia turned and sprinted out of the living room, into the kitchen, and out the back door into the rather extensive back yard.

She ran all the all the way down into the middle of the make-shift quidditch pitch in the back yard before stopping. She was breathing heavy again, more from her anxiety than from the sprinting she had done, and she slumped down onto the grass and curled up into a tight ball.

It could have been minutes or hours –most likely minutes as her friends and family couldn't keep their noses out of other people's business for long– before Cecilia heard the soft sound of feet slowly walking up to her from behind. From the heaviness of the footfalls she could tell that it was a man, and from the sound of the stride she knew it was someone that was at least a foot taller than her.

When the man eventually approached her, he quietly sat down cross-legged next to her.

Her shoulders tensed as she waited for an onslaught of questions, but none came.

He sat silently next to her, breathing gently and his body language seemingly at ease. She tried to keep her gaze on the grass just to the right of her knee, but it slowly wandered further and further to the right until she found herself looking at how the sun was shining off of her companion's red hair.

There were several more minutes of silence until Cecilia finally snapped.

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

Baxter pursed his lips as he studied her, "Would you like me to say something?"

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "Would it matter if I didn't?"

"Yes. If you don't want me to say anything to you I'll just sit here with you in silence for as long as we need to," Baxter replied in a casual tone.

Cecilia didn't fully trust him, "And I'm supposed to believe that you don't want something from me even though everyone else does?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because if anyone knows how annoying it can be to have everyone so far up in your business that they decide to hold an intervention, it's me," Baxter told her softly.

Cecilia sighed and closed her eyes, "So this was an intervention then?"

"I believe the itinerary stated that the real intervention was going to start after everyone finished eating, but essentially yes."

"Ugh," She groaned and opened her eyes again, "And what exactly was the reason for this intervention? They don't think I'm binge drinking, or doing drugs or anything like that do they?"

Baxter answered her calmly, "Those words weren't thrown around to my knowledge. Everyone else was more worried about the social withdrawal and they're trying to catch it before you end up in a downward spiral like I did. Not that they actually said that last part about me aloud though."

Cecilia looked down at the toe of her trainer, "Is that why they sent you out here then?"

"Nobody sent me out here. I volunteered," Her friend told her gently, "Dom was actually holding Louis back when I left the living room."

She didn't respond, instead she made a grumpy 'hmming' noise.

Baxter continued, "Listen Cecilia, I know how hard it can be to talk to people whose lives are going perfectly when you feel like yours is spiraling out of control."

Cecilia closed her eyes again, this time to try to keep in the water that was threatening to leak out of her eyes.

"And even though I know that there are probably a lot of other people you'd prefer to talk to, I'm here for you if you need me. I can sit here next to you and stop talking, or I can leave if you'd like," Baxter told her, soldiering along with the short speech he had prepared in his head.

The words 'I'd like you to leave' were on the tip of her tongue, but Cecilia couldn't find it in herself to say them. Her memory suddenly shifted back to the summer when Baxter's social drinking had descended into drinking to never remember. Upon Victoire and Louis's suggestion –which was fed by Cecilia's own worries– they staged an impromptu intervention before he could spiral even further down to a level that Victoire wasn't convinced they'd be able pull him up from.

She had to convince Baxter that she had his best interests at heart even though she was close friends with Eliza, and here he was gently offering her his support in her own time of need.

"I don't want you to leave," Cecilia whispered to him, her gaze still focused on her trainers.

Baxter's lips turned up a little at the corners even though she didn't see it.

"Would you like me to be quiet? Or can I keep asking you questions?" He questioned her, reaching out with a hand to place it on her shoulder.

His fingertips had barely touched her cotton sweater covered shoulder before Cecilia violently flinched away from his touch. Her head whipped around to look at him with wide panicked eyes, but she didn't yell at him like she had at her mother.

Baxter's own eyes widened when he recognized the anxiety, anger, worry, and most importantly, the self-loathing that he saw in her eyes.

"Oh Cee-Cee," He sighed upset, "What happened to you?"

Cecilia swallowed thickly and looked back down at her shoes, "I don't know what you're referring to."

"I know what anger, anxiety, and self-loathing looks like Cecilia. I know what it feels like to have all of those emotions swirling inside of you when you have no idea what to do with them," Baxter reminded her, "What happened Cee-Cee?"

She closed her eyes again and her body tightened up with anxiety.

"It-It happened two weeks ago."

She took a shaky breath, "When I went to Scotland to cover an Appleby-Pride of Portree game."

Baxter didn't push or interrupt her, so her words started to spill out. She thought each word she had to say would be like pulling teeth, but each word actually came out easier than the one before it.

"I-I spent a day with E-El-Eli Martell to work on the charity."

He nodded his head at her words, he remembered when she went on the short trip.

"At the end of the day-" Cecilia paused, curled herself into a tighter ball, and forced the next words out in a rush, "Eli tried to convince me to have sex with him. I-I told him 'no', but he tried to-"

She couldn't get the rest of the explanation out, but Baxter didn't need her to. He understood where her train of thought was going.

"Cee-Cee . . . did Martell-"

"No. Not–he just–I got away before he did more–before more happened physically than just kissing me and trying to touch me over my clothes."

Baxter let out an unsteady but relieved breath of air. He slowly reached out to touch Cecilia at the shoulder again, and this time the feeling of the light pressure on her shoulder didn't cause her to flinch. She leaned into the warmth of Baxter's friendly, supportive touch, and before she really knew what happened she was curled up in his arms, crying her eyes out, and shakily telling him more disjointed bits and pieces about her encounter with Martell in Scotland.

Cecilia's emotional breakdown in the safety of Baxter's arms was surprisingly cathartic. Near the end of her story, she was sniffling and breathing heavily, but she felt lighter. Her heart and her lungs, and all of the other organs that had been constricted and tight and poisoned by the anxiety and self-loathing she had felt were suddenly lighter.

It was easier to breathe, easier to think, and easier to feel.

Baxter's hand was rubbing soft circles over her back, "Cecilia, I really don't want to tell you what to do right now, but I think you should tell at least Louis and your parents about what happened. And soon. It will make you feel better and it might give you a bit of closure."

"It's not that I don't want to tell them. I–I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it. In my head I just work up the courage to do so, but then I convince myself out of it," Cecilia admitted ashamedly.

"I can go with you if you'd like? I'll stand by your side as long as you need me to."

Cecilia's eyes widened with apprehension at Baxter's genuine offer, and it made him immediately backpedal, "But you don't have to do anything you don't want to of course. If you're worried or scared-"

"I am so sick and tired of being scared!" She interrupted him, her voice louder than he had heard her use since she ran out of the house.

"Okay-"

She ignored him and continued, "And I want to tell them, I do. Just telling you has made me feel a bit better as it is. I just . . ."

"My offer stands, I'll be there right next to you."

Cecilia nodded her head and then squeezed her hands together. She wrung them around for several minutes before she hastily stood up and put her hands on her hips.

"Let's go. I am so bloody tired and just so bloody over all of this shite. So let's go."

Baxter jumped to his feet, grabbed Cecilia's hand, and gave it a squeeze, "Now this is the Cecilia Wood that I've known since I was a baby."

His words made her laugh a little, and she squeezed his hand back before they turned to face the house together. They made short work of the distance between the middle of the quidditch pitch and the house's back door, and within a few minutes they walked back into the house. They walked through the kitchen and into the living room where they found everyone in almost the exact same places that they'd left them.

Louis was the first person to notice Baxter and Cecilia's re-entrance, Baxter figured it was because his cousin was so in tune with his girlfriend, and he immediately stood up from his seat on the couch. Dom grabbed Louis's arm when it looked like he was going to pace over to Cecilia, and their sudden movements captured everyone else's attention. They all turned to look at Cecilia and Baxter, and even though Katie and Oliver wanted to run up to their daughter and bombard her with questions, everyone stayed put. They were hesitant that any sudden words or movements would cause Cecilia to scream or bolt like she had before.

"Malcolm ate all of the pasta salad, but there's still some sandwiches and half a fruit tray left."

Bless Teddy's heart, he was rather good at handling awkward situations.

Cecilia smiled softly at Teddy's kind words and expression, "Thank you Teddy, but I'm not hungry right now."

She turned her gaze so that she could look back and forth between Louis to her parents, "In fact, I–I'd like to talk to you. All of you, right now, if that's alright."

"If that's what you want Cecilia," Victoire piped up encouragingly from her spot next to Teddy.

Cecilia glanced quickly at Baxter once more, and he nodded reassuringly at her. She swallowed thickly and took a deep breath, "I know that you've all noticed that I've been acting abnormally lately . . . and–and I know that you guys all want answers . . ."

"So, here it is: Two weeks ago when I went to Scotland to work on the charity wi–with Eli Martell, he tried to sexually assault me."

There was a beat of shocked and stunned silence.

Katie spoke up first, her voice hard, "What?"

Cecilia couldn't look her mother in the eye, "Eli–Martell tried to convince me to have sex with him. I denied him, but he tried to use physical force to get me to–to comply."

There were a range of emotions on the faces of everyone in the room, but the one emotion that was recognizable and present on everyone's face was anger. Even Baxter, who had already heard the story, still felt a red-hot anger when he heard Cecilia repeat the incident.

Louis, Xavier, Malcolm, and Victoire all had similar murderous expressions on their faces. Ally, Teddy, and Oliver all looked a little dumbstruck, and even though there was definitely anger in Dom and Katie's expressions, there was something else there that was hard to identify.

"I–I didn't let it get too far," Cecilia was still explaining, "But he-he still touched when I didn't want him to and . . ."

"And he still broke your trust," Ally whispered, finishing Cecilia's thought for her.

The younger girl nodded, and she could feel her eyes starting to water again.

Before Cecilia could continue her explanation, Victoire suddenly got to her feet, declared that she'd 'Be right back', and paced out of the living room through the front door of the house. They heard the sound of her disapparation before anybody could question what she was doing and before Teddy could get to his feet and follow after her.

Malcolm looked at the door Victoire had abruptly exited through and frowned worriedly, "You don't think that she's-"

"Going to go deal with Martell? Of course not," Dom replied with a scoff, "She doesn't even know where he lives."

"But let's be clear here. Not knowing where Martell lives is the only thing stopping her and me right now from dealing with this," Xavier announced harshly.

Ally reached out and put a comforting hand on her fiancé's arm. He didn't shake it off, but the muscles in his arm were tense with rage.

"No one is going to do anything right now," Oliver announced in a very authoritative tone, "Not until we hear all of the details and get to the bottom of the situation-"

Katie interrupted him angrily, "Get to the bottom on the situation? There's no situation to get to the bottom of. Our daughter just told us that Eli Martell tried to sexually assault her! It sounds pretty cut and dry to me."

"I'm just saying that this doesn't make sense and we need to hear a little bit more of the story," Oliver retorted, "Maybe Cecilia just misunderstood-"

"Oliver Ruairdh Wood, don't you dare finish that thought!" Katie barked at her husband.

Oliver pulled at his hair in frustration as he argued with his wife, "Eli's our friend! He's been our friend for decades and he'd old enough to be Cecilia's father. I just can't believe that he would purposely try to seduce our daughter!"

"It's hard to misunderstand the meaning behind a man shoving his tongue in your mouth," Cecilia snapped at her father.

Before anyone could say anything else, Victoire was walking back into the house, this time with a thick and old-looking leather-bound book in her hands. She unceremoniously plopped down on the couch and started to furiously flip through the pages of the thick book.

"What is that Freckles?" Malcolm asked Victoire confusedly.

"An eighteenth century book filled with healing spells from the Middle Ages," The blonde explained succinctly, never taking her eyes off of the pages she was searching through.

Her explanation didn't assuage Malcolm's confusion, "And what exactly are you looking for in there?"

"A rather painful castration spell, I remember stumbling upon it several months ago when I was researching medieval dragonpox . . . Ah, here it is."

All the males in the room visibly flinched.

Teddy leaned forward to get a better look at the book, "Where in the world did you get that from?"

"The library at Grimmauld Place," Victoire answered crisply.

Dom looked both incredulous and impressed, "You just travelled to London and back? That was quick."

Victoire shrugged her shoulders, "Apparation."

Her fiancé snatched the old book out of her hands, "I'm confiscating this."

"But-"

"No buts. There's obviously dark spells in this book, and I am an auror for Merlin's sake," Teddy argued.

Victoire pouted and crossed her arms, "Fine."

When Teddy vanished the book away, Victoire muttered under her breath about already having memorized the spell anyway. He heard her and gave her a sharp look.

"What? This is exactly what Martell deserves. It'd be poetic justice."

Teddy shook his head in exasperation, "You can't be your own judge, jury, and executioner."

A few feet away, Oliver had barely heard the conversation surrounding the old spell book. He was still having a hard time wrapping his head around Cecilia's revelation.

Oliver looked torn, "I'm not calling you a liar Cecilia Honey, of course not. I just –I don't understand how this could happen. Why would Eli-"

"Why does anybody sexually assault anyone?" Dom asked rhetorically, "Because the person doing the assaulting has anger, control, and sometimes mental health issues."

Oliver rubbed at a spot on his forehead that was starting to throb, "But Eli-"

"Eli tried to force me to have sex with him, and when I told him I didn't want to he told me not to tell anyone because they wouldn't believe me; he said that it was all my fault," Cecilia said, her voice sounding close to tears, "And I guess the Prick was right."

Katie was at her daughter's side in an instant, "Of course not Sweetheart, none of this is your fault and no one is saying that it is." She turned her head to look at her husband.

"Right Oliver?"

Oliver still had an air of shock around him that made his movements and his thinking seem a little slow. But he was at his daughter's other side in an instant, "Cecilia. I'm sorry . . . I'm just so confused. I know you wouldn't lie to me about something as serious as this . . . but I also just can't for the life of me believe that Eli would act like this."

"I can."

Cecilia and Oliver were both shocked by the rage in Katie's voice.

"What do you mean Katie?"

She folded her arms over her chest, "I can believe that Eli would do what he did to Cecilia. And Cecilia, Eli preying on you is not your fault. If anyone else besides Eli is to blame, it would be me."

"What in the world are you talking about Katie?" Oliver asked, his vice raised with his confusion.

"I'm talking about the fact that Eli probably preyed on our daughter because of me," Katie admitted crossly.

Everyone else in the room who was privy to the conversation was just as confused as Oliver and Cecilia seemed to be. But no one else in the room dared to say anything.

"Why would Eli single Cecilia out because of you?" Oliver asked his wife; he was bewildered by her words.

Katie took a shaky breath, "Oliver, back when we were all playing for Puddlemere before–before we got married, Eli made a move on me. At first he was charming, but when I told him no, he became increasingly less charming, and much more aggressive. He tried on several occasions to get me drunk, but he soon found out that I can hold my alcohol much better than he thought I could."

"Did he–did he do the same thing to you that Cecilia told us he did to her?" Hearing his wife back up Cecilia's assassination of Eli's previously sterling character cleared up any little bit of doubt that had been left in Oliver's mind about his former friend's personality.

Katie shook her head, "He got handsy a few times, but I was able to push him away. He was never able to corner me for any long period of time, I was vigilant about not being in any room alone with him after he started to get more aggressive."

"How come I've never heard about this?" Oliver asked his wife angrily.

She put her hands on her hips, "It started happening before we first got together-"

"But how long did it last?"

"Do you remember before we got married, when I got that offer from the Arrows to trade to their team?"

Oliver nodded woodenly.

"By that point I was tired of Eli harassing me, so I spoke to Coach Bissenette about it. He didn't exactly believe my side of the story, so he encouraged me to take the Arrows' offer because it would 'probably put an end to the issue'," Katie told him.

Oliver's eyebrows were heavy over his eyes, "But you didn't take the Arrows' offer."

"No, I didn't. We got married, I refused the Arrows' offer, and the next time Eli tried to get a little too friendly with me I explicitly told him that since the Arrows were looking for a new chaser that he should take the offer they were going to give me and leave Puddlemere, or I was going to ruin his reputation all together," Katie explained.

"And then Eli took the offer and was traded to the Arrows. But how come you didn't tell people about how he was treating you?" Oliver questioned.

Katie pinched the bridge of her nose, "Because I then directly eloped with one of my teammates and immediately got pregnant at the age of nineteen. How would the media have portrayed me if I accused a former teammate of mine of sexual harassment? I–I was worried about the rumours. I knew what people would say about our baby, about Xavier, if they heard about my accusing Eli of sexual harassment."

"I would have known the truth," Oliver exclaimed.

"But the gossip would never have stopped. I couldn't have that hanging around us for the rest of our lives. I thought convincing Eli to take the trade to the Arrows would put everything to rest. And it did," Katie clarified sadly, "Until now that is."

Cecilia could feel a headache coming on. She pinched the bridge of her nose, "That at least explains why he kept saying how much I reminded him of you."

Oliver's face pinched up and Katie looked like she might start crying, "I am so sorry Cee-Cee. After he married Candace I thought that he was done trying to force himself on unsuspecting women."

"It's not your fault Mum," Xavier declared as he suddenly spoke up, "And it's not your fault either Cecilia. This is all Eli Martell's fault, and he is going to pay for it."

Ally squeezed Xavier's arm and pulled him closer to her, "Xavier, calm down okay. We're not going to do anything rash, and we have to think this through. Confronting Eli, arranging legal repercussions, it will take a lot out of Cecilia, and it's a lot to ask of her."

"The legal preparation alone would most likely take months of work," Dom explained helpfully –or unhelpfully depending on how each person looked at it.

Oliver crossed his arms over his chest firmly, "But it will be worth it in the end. We can't allow Eli to continue on without any repercussions."

"I think it's important to first ask Cecilia what she wants," Victoire piped up. She stood up from her seat on the couch and glided over to stand in front of Cecilia.

Victoire looked her brother's girlfriend in the eyes, "Cecilia Honey, what do you want? Whatever it is, we'll all be behind you."

"I-" Cecilia looked from her brother, to her father, to her mother, to Victoire, and then to Louis who had been silent for the entire revelation.

She saw the worry in his eyes, but most importantly, she saw the sincere and accepting love that he had for her. It shewed itself in every expression of his warm brown eyes.

"I don't want anyone else to know," Cecilia admitted as she shifted her gaze back to Victoire, "It was hard enough admitting all of this to Baxter, and then to all of you. I don't think I could do it again, to people whose job it would be to try to find holes in my story or try to contradict everything I say. I–I just can't do that right now."

Victoire nodded her head supportively, "I understand Cecilia, I do. And I can promise you that everyone here will support your decision, and that no one will try to force you to do something you're not ready for. Because then we'd be just as bad as Martell."

Xavier, Oliver, and even Malcolm frowned at hearing Victoire's statement, but no one verbally disagreed with her.

There was a beat of silence before Victoire continued, "Cecilia, we are all so proud of you for being brave enough to tell us, and if you ever need anyone to talk to, you know that we're all here for you, right?"

Cecilia looked at each and every person in the room as they all slowly nodded at her. When she looked at her parents, they both had remorseful eyes. She knew without them speaking that they were apologizing for their actions. Oliver was apologetic for not believing her fully when she first told them about Eli, and Katie was apologetic for not warning her about Eli's penchant for forcing himself on women.

"I know that . . . I do, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you all sooner-"

Victoire interrupted Cecilia before she could start a shame spiral, "Listen Cecilia, none of us blame you for anything. What happened to you was awful and deeply personal, and you are the only person who gets to dictate when and how you tell people about it."

"But I shouldn't have left it so long-"

"You left it as long as you felt that you needed to. You needed time to come to your own terms with what happened. Gordic knows I would have preferred to take my time to tell people about Christopher Mullin trying to assault me in my seventh-year instead of having Kyle bloody Line spill the beans without my permission," Victoire told Cecilia, her voice turning into an irritated mutter near the end.

"What?" Oliver exclaimed in surprise, "What's this about Chris Mullin?"

Victoire's foot started tapping on the floor, "Chris Mullin tried to assault me during our seventh-year at Hogwarts. He didn't like that I refused his romantic advances."

Oliver turned his incredulous expression to Xavier, "Is this why you almost got into a fist-fight with Mullin when he was first hired onto the reserve team?"

"Yes."

"Then why didn't you tell me about it?"

Xavier glanced at Victoire, "Because it wasn't my secret to tell."

Victoire turned to Cecilia again, "If you ever need to talk to me, even about my own experience, you know that I'm here for you."

Cecilia nodded, her eyes starting to water, and she leaned into her father. Oliver wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly. He pressed his lips to the top of her head, and Cecilia could feel tears drop from his face onto her hair.

His voice was husky, and shaky with tears, "I am so sorry Cee-Cee."

Katie attached herself to Cecilia's other side, and Xavier came up behind his mother and completed the group hug.

They slowly pulled apart, and Ally, Dom, Malcolm, Baxter, Teddy, and Victoire all stepped forward to give Cecilia soft hugs. After the crush of her family and friends, Cecilia found herself facing her boyfriend.

Louis didn't step up to give her a hug, instead he tentatively reached out for her hand. Cecilia took it without hesitation and gave him a timid smile.

"Can we talk?"

He nodded his head. Cecilia pulled Louis by the hand out of the living room, up the staircase, and to her bedroom.

She sat down on the edge of her bed, while Louis chose to give her some physical space and sit down on the chair at her desk. There was silence as they each waited for the other to start, but eventually Louis spoke first.

"I am so sorry Cecilia. I should have-"

"Stop," She interrupted him, "Please don't Louis. This isn't your fault."

Louis swallowed thickly, "I should have realized that there was something going on that was really distressing you. I thought that you were just tired from work or busy whenever you were short with me on the phone or when you didn't answer my messages. I should have been able to tell that you were so obviously troubled and unhappy-"

Cecilia reached forward and put her finger against Louis's lips to stop his speech, "You couldn't know what was going on in my head-"

"But I should have-"

"But you couldn't have," Cecilia argued, "Unless you tried Legilimency, and let's face it, we both know you're not that gifted at Charms."

Louis actually cracked a smile at that one, but it faded quickly and was replaced with horror, "Good Godric Gryffindor I tried to kiss you today and I had my paws all over you. I'm so sorry Cecilia, I can only imagine how hard that must have been for you, for me to be grabbing at you all day."

"It wasn't . . . easy. But that had nothing to do with you and it was all on me. If Eli hadn't–I would have welcomed all of your attentions plus more if Eli hadn't done what he did to me. I just–I'll just have to get used to you touching me again."

Louis squeezed Cecilia's hand, "Cee-Cee you don't need to 'get used to' anything. We can go at whatever pace you want until you know what you're ready for. Until you know what you want from me, from our relationship."

"Louis I love you. What happened with Eli hasn't changed that. I'm just unsure about where we're supposed to go from here. I wish everything could go back to how it was before, but I'm afraid that when you try to touch me romantically I won't be able to stay in the moment with you. I'm afraid that I'll go back to being in that hotel room with Eli, and back to that anxiety and self-loathing," Cecilia admitted, her voice starting to shake.

Her boyfriend's expression looked infuriatingly torn. He wanted to offer up some physical comfort, but he didn't want to push her too far.

"Can I hold you?" He eventually asked.

Cecilia nodded her head, and Louis slowly moved from the desk chair to sitting beside her on the bed. He slowly wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his hard chest. She was so tiny, so physically unintimidating. She still fit perfectly in his arms, but he was hesitant about how tightly he should hold her. He didn't want to startle her or make her lash out.

Louis figured that the present tightness of his hold on her was alright, if he were to judge by the way she was curling herself into him and around him. He started to softly run his fingers through her long hair.

"I love you Cecilia Kathryn Wood, and I always will. I promise to be by your side right now and forever. Anything you need from me you can have," He told her softly as he slid his fingers through her soft locks.

Cecilia lifted her head up and found herself staring right into Louis's face. He was gazing at her with wide, earnest eyes, and if it had been the time before Eli, she would have already jumped him and been sucking his face off. As it was, just the thought of having Louis press his lips against hers, against her lips that had last been kissed by Eli, it made her noticeably flinch.

He rubbed her arm comfortingly, "Hey, where's your head going?"

"I don't think I can tell you. I don't want you to get mad at me."

Louis moved one hand to stroke her cheek, "When have I ever gotten mad at you?"

"Sixth-year when I told you that your Charms essay that you spent two and a half weeks on had a glaring error of theory right at the beginning making the rest of the essay invalid," Cecilia recalled readily.

"Okay, I was a little mad at you there for being the messenger, but you were right. I was madder at myself for making such a stupid mistake and then not noticing it," Louis reminded her.

Cecilia swallowed thickly but then thought 'What the heck?' the theme of the day had been honesty after all.

She looked down at her bedspread while she told him, "I was thinking–I just remembered that Eli was technically the last man I ever kissed."

Louis immediately started shaking his head, "No Cecilia. You didn't kiss him, he kissed you. He forced himself on you. It doesn't count."

"My head and my heart thinks it does," she admitted.

He kissed her forehead platonically, "Well we will just have to put the time and effort into correcting your head and your heart of that misconception."

"How can you be so calm about all of this?" Cecilia finally inquired of him.

Louis sighed heavily and looked ashamed, "The secret is that I'm actually not calm. Not on the inside at least. I'm using all of the strength I have to put on a calm façade, when my insides are just an angry pit of boiling lava. I can count on one hand the number of times I've felt a full fiery veela rage like Vic and Dom describe when their emotions get too much to handle and fire starts flying unintentionally. But this feeling that I'm feeling right now, it surpasses each and every one of those other times. I honestly don't know how I haven't ran from this house yet and gone and given Martell what he deserves for what he tried to do to you –for what he did do to you."

Oddly enough, his words didn't frighten her. If anything they gave her a –slightly twisted– sense of security.

"I know why you haven't done that yet."

"Why?"

Cecilia tucked her head under his chin, "Because you love me. Because you're my soulmate. And because you just know that I need you here with me to keep me from falling apart even more."

Louis kissed the top of her head, "You're probably right. But for the record, the minute you feel safe enough to want me to leave I will find that spell book of Victoire's and go castrate that fils de pute."

"You're kidding yourself if you actually think that Teddy won't take that book he confiscated directly to the Auror Department once they leave the house," She told him.

He chuckled into her hair, "That's alright. I don't doubt that Victoire did memorize the spell."

She giggled a little, and Louis could feel her laughter through her body. He kissed the top of her head again and let out a sigh. They both knew that they still had a lot to talk about, a lot more issues to discuss, but at the moment they were both happy to just soak in the first moment of real peace they had been able to find.

Louis knew that there was more to Cecilia's story that she hadn't told everyone, even if it was just the details, but he was glad that she didn't seem too forthcoming with those at the moment. His anger at Eli Martell was still boiling below the surface, and hearing in detail what the man tried to do to the woman he loved would definitely be enough to push him over the edge. The only thing keeping him from finding Martell and hexing him into next week was the fact that Cecilia needed him. She was already curling around him tightly despite the fact that she had been so hesitant to allow someone to touch her just a few hours before, so he tried his best to push down his anger so that she wouldn't feel it in his touch.

Cecilia needed him, so that's what he was focusing on.

Besides, he was rather certain that between the combined imaginations of his sisters, Xavier, and Malcolm, that they'd already hatched a plan about how they were going to deal with Martell.


A/N: Okay, so before you all go on a tirade on how awful Oliver was when Cecilia told him about Eli, his reaction is a reaction that people have every day when discussing these issues. It's not that he didn't believe Cecilia and thought that she was lying to him, he just thought that maybe she was misreading the situation. He came over to her side quickly when he was given more evidence to the contrary, but I wrote him reacting this way because it's a common reaction that men (and women) have when they hear about situations like this.

Alright, that over with, how many of you were surprised when Cecilia actually told Baxter first? I thought that he was a good, somewhat neutral, character for her to tell first, and honestly, after the idea popped into my head I never really imagined her telling anyone else first after that. Everyone had really good guesses though.

Also, what do we think of everyone's reactions, and the bomb Katie dropped about Eli Martell's past behaviour?

Please let me know if I did this chapter justice, I worked hard on trying to figure out what characteristics Cecilia might show during this situation, and I figured that her temper might finally make an appearance after her being so morose in the previous ones.

Next Update: I will do my best to update in two weeks, the chapter's pretty much finished, so it just depends on how busy life gets in between.

Next Chapter: We are back to Hogwarts for a bit and we get to see James, Freddie, Selene, Melanie, Norah, Rose and Scorpius, so it will be a packed chapter.

Teaser for Next Chapter:

Selene was livid, "FREDERICK I DON'T KNOW YOUR MIDDLE NAME WEASLEY-"

"Alastor," James supplied helpfully.

"FREDERICK ALASTOR WEASLEY! GET YOUR BUTT BACK DOWN HERE NOW!"

Thank you to everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and reviewed!

Big THANK YOUS to:

Lostinwords23, carbo21, Seher Syed, MuggleCreator, Ntlpurpolia, lumiere100, Gnool, Beckster384, Katia0203, TheProphetBVB, Gryffindork1307, rosesnlilies, no cure for crazy, jilyshippingforever, Guest (1), teddyvictoire'slovechild, Break This Spell626, Jennifer Jules, NicoleTheSmith, and Izzy.

Okay everyone, I hope you enjoyed this chapter,

Please leave me any question or comments you have in a review or PM,

Try not to be too hard on Oliver, he doesn't always read situations really well,

Until next time, DFTBA!