"I think I misheard… you and Tom aren't together, are you?"

Beth sighed and looked away. Marcus had begun pacing the common room. She had put off telling him for a week, choosing to keep the fact that she was with Tom a secret.

Joe had been, at his request, moved to Slytherin. It turned out the sorting hat had been put under a charm and Gryffindor house had been overpopulated. He was elated to be in the same house as Beth. Beth had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with her being protected. She sighed again.

"No, I told you the truth."

Marcus stopped his incessant and dizzying pacing and turned to stare in amazement at her.

"Are you… what on earth… ARE YOU INSANE?" he bellowed. "Have you not listened to a word I said about him? He goes through girls like a hot knife through butter, I swear on my life, if he hurts you…"

"He won't!" Beth called, speaking over him. "He won't, he's not like that, he's sweet, so sweet, if you just gave him a chance, if you two just TRIED…"

"Why should I? He's just one hell of a son of a…"

"MARCUS! He is not, you're just… you only… you only hate him because of Razzy!"

"That's not true!"

"Then why?"

"He's just a jerk."

"Give me one good reason why."

Marcus buried his head in his hands in frustration and a fierce roar shocked Beth into silence.

"I hate him!" He continued in a fit of spitting insults, swearing madly, using every word Beth had ever heard of, and some she hadn't.

By the time he'd stopped, short of breath, Beth was beside herself. She leapt to her feet and began to shout, not even noticing Emily and Becca walking in.

"Marcus, SHUT UP! You don't know, you don't even KNOW, all you and every-bloody-one else does is use me as a vent for their whining, and I'm sick of it! I don't want to hear anymore, it's all…" she spun away and swore explosively, not noticing Marcus stare in astonishment. She had never swore in front of him before, let alone this violently, and the sweet, gentle image she possessed disappeared as the raw, hurt and broken Beth was at last revealed.

"I want out! I want this to stop and I don't want you to talk to me anymore! Never again, not EVER!"

She turned and ran, not stopping until she collapsed in a torrent of tears in front of the lake. She sat there for ages, longer than she realised. The first drops of rain and rumble of thunder drove her under the shade of a willow, its long, drooping fronds wilting into the now bubbling water as raindrops beat the surface. She sat on the grass, ignoring the water the water still fell through the branches and drenched her, drew her knees up and, burying her head in her arms, silently began to weep.

The sound of the thunder and rain was so deafening that she didn't notice someone standing behind her until a flash of lightning showed a shadow at her feet. She looked up and her heart gave a hard thump. Had he come back for another shot? All of her energy and force of will had disappeared the moment she ran from him. All she had left was her pride and an empty weak feeling. One more insult and she didn't know what she'd do.

Marcus sat silently by her, not too close.

"Aren't you cold?"

She shrugged and looked away from him. In truth, she was shivering madly and her head with thumping with the onslaught of a headache. Just don't hurt me again… she thought desperately.

He glanced at her face then away, his own stricken for a split second. He slipped his cloak off and tried to drape it over her shoulders. Beth shrugged it off and gave a loud sniff.

"Beth, please, you'll get sick!"

"I don't care. I'd rather be sick than wear something that came from you."

He froze for a second then bent and picked it up, holding out to her. "Put it on."

"No!" She jumped to her fit and, in a silly show of pride and defiance, walked out into the rain. At least the downpour hid the fact that she was still crying. "Leave me alone! Go on back to your friends, don't worry about me, you don't even need me!"

"Don't say that, that's not true…"

"It is, you have Bec and Emily and Razzy and that huge gang of guys that worship you, a little new girl is not a big deal."

"Beth, come out of the rain, please," he begged her.

She sniffed and folded her arms, her face collapsing miserably. "No." Her breathing had become laboured and, deep in her chest, she felt a slight pain. A small nagging worry kept stabbing her in the heart. She knew damn well that five more minutes in the rain would make her sick, but she was too stubborn. "Go away."

He shook his head and, wrapping his cloak around himself, followed her. "I'm not going anywhere without you. Please, you'll get sick."

"Like I care!" she spat back.

"Please!"

"No!"

"I don't want you getting sick!"

"And I don't want you telling me what to do-" she broke off in a fit of coughs, the small pain in her chest turning into a lightning bolt of pain. She gasped, her hand pressed hard against her chest. The lightning flashed and, in the light, she was lit up for Marcus to see clearly for the first time. Her eyes were red from crying and eerie in contrast with the shocking white shade of her cheeks. Her body was shaking madly and she looked so weak and exhausted.

Behind her, Beth heard a sharp intake of breath and the blissfully warm feel of a cloak around her. All her stubbornness and pride left her, leaving her weak, cold and desperate for someone to care for her. She leant back as Marcus' arm slipped around her shoulder.

"Come on, let's get you warm again."

And she let him steer her back into the inviting, dry castle.

Beth was shivering, coughing and wheezing all the next day. The girls of her dorm brought Madame Pomfrey to cure her, but the nurse just shook her head.

"Anything I can give her, girls, would cancel out one part of her sickness but would make her worse in another part. The potion I give for colds would inflame the severe pain in her chest… this one I can't help." She took a step back from the bundled up white figure lying asleep on the bed. "This one she's going to have to fight herself."

It was a week before Beth was up and about again, two weeks before the pain was gone. It would take a month before she was well on her way to being fully recovered. During this time, Joe, Tom and Marcus pampered her, Joe even refusing to let her lift things or get up unless she really had to. She became so irritated with his constant indulging that she spoke to him one late night in the common room.

"Joey, really, I'm fine."

"I hate when you say that," he sniffed. "Always means you're not fine but that you don't want anyone worrying about you."

"You said it." She flicked through the giant book sitting in her lap.

"Too bad. Too many of us care about you."

Beth sighed and her head fell back against the sofa. "You know Razzy has stopped speaking to me altogether? First she was being harsh because I was still friends with Em and Bec. Now she really hates me because I'm with Tom." She groaned and let her arm fall across her eyes. "I can't win."

"Then don't try. Really, you have to stop thinking about others before yourself. You're constantly trying to make everyone happy, stop it! Think about yourself for once, screw everyone else."

Beth lifted her arm a fraction and raised her visible eyebrow at him. "Screw you, you mean. You aren't exactly chuffed at my choice of best buddies."

"Because they're…"

"No, because you're too picky. Especially Tom."

"Well, I don't like him."

"I noticed. It's not up to whether you like him or not. It's my life, my choice, MY boyfriend."

"Too bad, I don't like him."

Beth sat up and gave an incredulous laugh, staring at him. "You can't tell me who I can and can't go out with!"

He shrugged. "Fine then. Up to you."

"Yes, it is." She laid back, her arm over her eyes again