Welcome to My World

Floella sat across from her son at the table and tried not to watch him as intently as she wanted to. He had left in the night to go to Ron's and then come home looking shaken, one of the twins on either side of him to hold him up. She'd just grabbed hold of him and held him to her tightly.

As the twins left, she guided Lee up the stairs to his room and let him babble about messing things up and upsetting Ron and his family.

"All I wanted to do is make sure he's doing okay," he'd said shakily. "I just wanted be there for him and I totally bollixed it up and he can't trust me anymore!"

"Come now, I know that isn't true, hush now, honey," Floella said as she rubbed her hand against the bumpy skin of her son's scarred back.

"You didn't see how he looked at me!" Lee yelled into her shoulder and gripped the front of her nightgown with both fists. "It was like he didn't even see me there, like I was no better than them!"

"Who?" Floella had asked him in confusion. "The Death Eaters?"

"No them, Harry and Hermione and his family," Lee growled into her neck and shuddered with the strength of his emotion.

There was a long pause as Floella took this in. She patted the back of her boy's head and kissed a stack of messy dreadlocks before sighing.

"Why do you want to be better than them, honey? They're his people. They're your friends. Fred and George and their family, isn't that good enough?"

"I didn't mean they weren't..." Lee said, realising what he had just said and trying to pull away from his mother to meet her accusing eyes.

Floella released him and smiled kindly, not wanting him to read a single judgemental frown line on her face.

"You miss how much he needed you, only you."

"They weren't there, Mum," Lee said, almost ashamed of himself. "He came out of hospital and I came here and he went there and he still needed me. Harry wasn't there."

"Harry would have been if he could have been."

"But he wasn't!"

"Hermione would have been if she could have been," Floella said in the same even tone.

"She wasn't either, none of them were."

"All of them wanted to take your place...his place...any place to be there for you boys. Fred and George were torn between the two of you and you don't want to make them chose now, do you? Now that they don't have to because they have you both safe?"

"I have to...I have to!" Lee almost tore Floella's nightgown as he gripped even tighter and pounded ever so gently against her chest.

"You did more than enough in that place, honey, and Ron...he knows it. He is scared and adjusting and you can't make him have to worry about making you feel needed."

"But...but..." Lee's body shuddered.

"You have to let go and adjust to sleeping out of reach and you've got to trust that you're still going to be as close in the morning without forcing your closeness on him."

"I wouldn't force him to do anything. You should have seen them, Mum. They all came barging into his room like--"

"Like people who almost lost their son and friend and brother and heard a commotion in his bedroom in the middle of the night?"

Lee leaned heavily into her and they sat together for some considerable time before he finally spoke again.

"He doesn't need me anymore."

"He'll always need a friend, his adopted brother."

"That's Harry."

"That's both of you."

It was gone midnight when Charlie came home, aching all over from helping Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest and then having an over-zealous wrestling match with Grawp. He stretched and groaned as he wandered over to the pantry to grab a bottle of Butterbeer to send him off to a well earned sleep.

"You're late tonight," a bored sounding voice from behind him made him jump and spin around, wand drawn and Butterbeer frothing over. "Oh sorry."

Charlie relaxed immediately on seeing his youngest brother sitting at the kitchen table and rolling a small phial of Dreamless Sleep Draught back and forth between thumb and forefinger in front of him.

"Hey, runt," Charlie smiled and pulled out a chair beside him.

He was about to give Ron a pat on the back when he froze and corrected himself. He relaxed back into his seat and swigged a mouthful of Butterbeer.

"Still bi-bigger than you, y'know?" Ron smiled tiredly.

"Only upwards," Charlie mumbled into the top of his bottle.

Ron gave a slight laugh and Charlie sniggered.

"So I've the length and you've the girth, eh?" Ron cocked an eyebrow lazily. "Together we could probably get any woman we want."

Charlie snorted before his expression grew serious once again.

"Thought you already had a woman?"

Ron looked down at the table top and pushed his stubby thumbnail into a small crack in the wood.

"Can't make her wait forever."

"You think that's all she's waiting for? Sex, snogging, hand holding?"

"Charlie!" Ron blushed and squirmed in his seat.

"Well, wait for what then?"

"For me, for me to c-come back to her like I wa-was before."

"You were a prat to her before as far as I'm aware," Charlie stated, sitting back and folding his arms across his chest. "I reckon she's getting a better deal with this you. You're all sensitive and not trying to get into her knickers like most blokes your age."

"Oh pi-piss off!" Ron sniggered.

"Nah," Charlie teased, "all you have to do is start talking about your feelings all the time and maybe cry at the sight of cute little kittens and she'll be well happy!"

"You're a git," Ron smiled and punched Charlie in the shoulder.

"Well, you're a prat." Charlie punched back, almost knocking Ron out of his seat.

They grinned at each other for a couple of seconds before Charlie nodded down to the phial on the table.

"You taking that or not?"

"N-Not," Ron said decisively. "It's too late now; I'll be all groggy until noo-noon if I do and I want to go f-for a fly with Harry after breakfast."

"Cool," Charlie said before holding out his hand for Ron to hand him the phial.

Ron set it into the large, roughened palm and watched as Charlie got up and placed it back in the rack with the others. When he turned around Ron was still staring up at him from the table thoughtfully.

"You're sure he's dead, right?" Ron said out of the blue.

"What?" Charlie blinked before nodding vigorously. "Oh him! Yeah, definitely, I made very sure."

Ron drew in a shuddering breath and nodded before getting up from the table quietly.

"Do you sometimes fe-feel like you still have blood on your hands?"

Charlie watched his brother staring out the window at the shadows caused by the moon filtering through the trees outside.

"I sometimes feel like that, yeah," Charlie nodded, "but I sometimes feel like trying to find his ashes just to grind them under my foot, too."

Ron turned to blink at Charlie, astonished by his honesty, and took a step towards him.

"I sometimes wi-wish you didn't burn him, you and Moo-Moody."

"Why?" Charlie said, throat constricting at this, their first real conversation about what they'd done that day.

"'Cause he's not dead to me," Ron said blankly. "I never saw it."

Charlie's heart sank deep into his bowels and weighed him down like a broken pendulum swinging from his chest.

"I did, he is, I promise." He strained to reassure his brother.

Ron smiled sadly and waved just above his right shoulder as if Pig was balanced there and he was petting his feathered head.

"Right there," Ron said, voice low and cracking, "I can always feel him lurking right there. N-Never been gone."

Charlie wanted to be able to rip the Puppet Master's memory right out of existence at that moment and struggled for something to say. Ron shrugged, cleared his throat and smiled a little wider before setting off for the stairs.

"Well, g'night then, Charlie."

"'Night," Charlie said blankly and sank back down into his empty chair.

Fergus and Seamus were playing pool in the Cheshire Cheese Pub on Tower Hill and Seamus was smoking so heavily a cloud hung above them both as they worked their way around the baize.

"Yeh do know what yer doin' teh me don't cha, Fergus?" asked Seamus as he potted a red and sniffed with idle satisfaction before changing his angle and going for another.

"Oh tell me," Fergus groaned, "please, Shay, just throw it on the list. I'm all ears. Did I cause that big hole in the ozone layer? Was it me who ate all the pies at Upton Park? Am I now to confess to the Whitechapel murders because I went drinking in Petticoat Lane last week?"

"It's better 'n that," Seamus said, potting another yellow and manoeuvring himself around the table to reach under for the extendable spider to rest his cue upon for a tricky shot. "Apparently since you got outta that slaughterhouse in Holland we've become a limited company."

"Yehwha?" Fergus frowned as Seamus fluffed his carefully angled shot and potted the white.

"Ah shite," he hissed, bending over to put away the extendable spider. "Well, apparently when you burp I'm expected to say excuse me."

"I'm still not wi'ya, Shay," Fergus shook his head and reached for his pint of the black suff.

"I'm saying me Ma thinks the pot and kettle are as black as each other and if y're a drunk, then I must be an'all."

"Oh fer...Not Auntie Kath, as well?" Fergus almost choked on his Guinness as he set it down on the table behind him and wiped his chin clean.

"I'm setting ya a bad example," Seamus said, leaning over the table and pitching his voice up a few octaves to make himself sound like the typical nagging mother. "Ye should be keepin' him away from those places. Where are you while he's getting arrested, Seamus?"

"Jaysis, I'm sorry, Shay, they're the bloody same no matter how much they bitch about each other. As if yeh haven't got yer own shite happenin'...wi' Dean and tha'."

Seamus moved away from the table and leaned against the wall, reaching blindly for his pint and face registering no emotion at all.

"Five minutes too late, what can yeh do, eh?" he shrugged. "S'yer go."

"Is it?" Fergus blinked as he surveyed the table and chose an angle. "I'm tellin' ya Shay, I've gotta get outta that house, move out properly, ye'know? She's driving me up the wall."

"Ya ain't goin' anywhere without me ya gobshite. If you go, I go."

"Deal." Fergus nodded before potting the yellow in the top left corner.

There was a knock at the front door and Lee listened intently. Everybody he could think would visit would come via Floo. He heard his mother striding down the hallway, wiping her hands on her trousers, and blowing a hair out of her face. The door clicked open and he heard his mother's 'You are my long lost child, do come in and eat everything you see' voice.

"Ron! Get off my doorstep, boy. Why are you knocking? Don't you have a key? I'll get you a key!"

Lee would have rolled his eyes if he wasn't so nervous at Ron having come to his house to see him. He could hear Ron laughing and leaned around the door to see his mother all fingers and thumbs about not touching him while waving him through to the living room enthusiastically.

"Your brother's in there. Go through and I'll bring some ice cold pumpkin juice and get you that key, go."

"I really don't need a key, Mrs Jordan," Ron said, still chuckling about the fuss being made over him.

Lee felt suddenly nervous as he saw Ron's shadow on the wall and scurried back into the centre of the room to attempt a casual pose that didn't make him look absolutely terrified at a possible confrontation. Ron stepped through and smiled at Lee, ears a little pink beneath his hair.

"Your mum's getting us something to drink," Ron said as he pointed his thumb over his shoulder.

"Yeah, I heard," Lee nodded and gave an awkward laugh. "She's really into this brother thing, y'know. I can tell her to stop if you don't like it."

Ron's shoulders fell a little and he squinted at Lee cautiously.

"Would you rather she didn't?"

"Only if you'd rather," Lee blurted.

"Would you rather I didn't?" Ron asked pointedly.

Lee's voice lowered and his smile relaxed.

"I really like it."

"Good," Ron beamed and moved towards him to drop into a seat nearby, "so I missed you yesterday afternoon. Harry had to do my vocal exercises with me."

Lee tried not to let his displeasure at this show as he sat beside Ron and clasped his hands together in front of him.

"Oh...well you sound great for it. He must be good."

"He's brilliant at it," Ron nodded, staring right into Lee's shifting eyes, "just like you are. It's not a competition, right?"

"'Course not!" Lee scoffed.

"'Cause..." Ron looked vaguely hurt as he spoke, "you never came and you never owled and...I'm really sorry. I'm really sorry I threw you out."

Lee opened his mouth to tell Ron he had nothing to apologise for just as his mother came in with two huge glasses of pumpkin juice, dripping with ice cold condensation, and a huge smile on her face.

"Here you go Yin and Yang," she said as she handed the drinks to them.

"Thanks, Mrs Jordan," Ron said with a smile as he took the glass before it dripped an unfortunate damp patch on an unfortunate area of his jeans.

"Cheers, Mum," Lee mumbled.

"Is there anything else I can get you? Shall I make some-"

"Mum!" Lee snapped, eyes wide and trying to discreetly nod towards the door to get her to leave them alone.

"I'm going to go and knock for Tommy and see if he wants to go into Diagon Alley with me. We'll eat there if he does." Ron said.

"Oh, but a slice of Jamaica Cake won't hurt, will it?" Lee's mum said with a knowing grin.

Ron gave a one shouldered shrug and a lopsided smile before holding his thumb and forefinger a little way apart.

"Maybe a little one."

Lee's mum beamed and Lee rolled his eyes and wanted to escort her physically from the living room to get some privacy.

"Oh and here's your key," she said as she reached into her pocket and handed Ron a silver key on a pineapple key ring.

"No, I really don't need a front door key, Mrs Jordan. This is your house and I'm..."

"I am Floella to you, not Mrs Jordan," Lee's mother said warmly, "and Lee's home is your home so you keep that key, you hear?"

Ron looked embarrassed as he reached for the key and stuffed it into his pocket.

"I'll still knock, y'know?" he said with a petulant smile.

"I don't doubt it, Ron," Lee's mum smirked before turning to leave and then turning back thoughtfully, causing Lee to scream internally in frustration. "And can I just say that you're sounding so good today."

Ron conceded she was right with a shrug and a nod.

"It's better when I'm relaxed and concentrating on it. I get a bit lazy as it gets late though. Sometimes, I'm so paranoid about it I'll slip up and then it'll snowball."

"Ah well, you can relax here, so that's why you don't have a problem, right honey?" Lee's mum looked at him proudly.

"Yeah, right Mum. Could we have a minute, d'you think?"

"Of course, I'm getting Ron his slice of ginger cake," she said as she made her way out of the room before throwing her arms wide. "Oh! I never even realised it before."

"What's that Mrs...Floella," Ron said hesitantly.

"Jamaica cake is made with ginger. Jamaican ginger cake and look at you two boys, you're Jamaican and you're ginger!"

"Mum!" Lee exclaimed.

"Oh, I'm going, I'm going, I'll leave you brothers be."

Lee dropped his head into his hands and groaned.

"You see why I come to your house so much?"

"So that's what it's like for you with my mother?" Ron asked, eyebrows arched.

"That's what it's like for you when she does that to me?" Lee asked, blinking at the sudden realisation.

"Welcome to my world," Ron shrugged.

"Shall I set the table up again or d'yeh have te get home ta ya Ma?" Seamus asked Fergus as the older cousin drained his glass.

"You rack 'em up and I'll get 'em in," Fergus said darkly, making it clear he was not going to be running home to anybody.

As Seamus snorted and Fergus set off back to the bar, his mobile phone rang in his back pocket. Fergus scrunched up his face and thought about ignoring it. He hated that he knew it had to be his mother, none of his magical friends had one and the only reason he carried his was because of his new knack of getting arrested in the Muggle world. He pulled the phone out of his pocket when he noticed the barman staring at him, clearly annoyed by the ring tone, and he looked at the flashing window.

Tommy calling

Fergus answered immediately.

"Hey Tom, I fergot ya had my number, sorry mate. I' have answered sooner if I'd ha-"

"Fergus, where are you? Are you in Muggle London or Magical London?"

"Muggle, why?" Fergus asked, putting his finger in his ear to block out the noise of the bar.

"We tried going for a drink in Diagon Alley and Skeeter showed up and drew attention to us."

"Shite, that poisonous auld hag, come teh us. Shay's here too."

"Where's here?"

"Cheshire Cheese," Fergus said, "Yeh can Floo into an upstairs room and come down into the bar. It's an ol' wartime escape route nobody but our family use anymore."

"Cheshire Cheese, right, coming."

Tommy hung up and Fergus caught the barman's attention.

"Give us five pints o'Guinness, please."

When the lads arrived Lee looked tense and Tommy looked resigned to never being able to fit in at places like Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. Ron was acting chipper enough, but his stutter was really bad and that gave him away instantly. Nobody spoke of what might or might not have gone on with the tabloid hack so Fergus assumed denial was the dish of the day all round.

"Wanna game, Weasley?" Seamus said as he potted the black and handed his empty glass to Fergus to claim his victory pint.

"I dun-dun-dunno how to play." Ron said as he examined the blue cube that sat on the side of the table curiously.

"We'll do doubles, one Finnigan and one novice on either side, yeh up fer it?"

Ron nodded and picked up a cue and watched Seamus set up the table.

"You go, Lee. I'm not a novice but I am shit," Tommy smiled as he nudged Lee to join Ron and Seamus at the table.

"Try anything once, eh?" Lee smiled and winked at Ron.

"So w-w-wha-what do I have t'd-do wi'this?" Ron stammered as he held up his cue.

"Well, yeh saw us playin' just now didn't ya? We knock the white ball, that's the cue ball, around the table an' try teh pot the rest of the balls without sinking the cue ball itself," Seamus explained.

Ron gave a single nod.

"K-Kay."

"But yeh saw how I was goin' after the reds last time and Fergus the yella's?"

Ron nodded again and Lee leaned in closer to pay attention.

"Well, when we start playin' we can go fer either, not the black, that's gotta be the last to go, that's like the Snitch. It wins the game for ya in a way."

"Yer pint ya jammy git," Fergus said as he pushed another Guinness into Seamus' hand. "So who am I with then?"

"Me," Lee said, almost apologetically.

"Nice one! Let me get yeh some lather fer ya lips so we can take these two teh the cleaners," Fergus said as he clapped his hands together and rubbed them happily.

"I've still not finished the first one, Fergus. I'm fine." Lee held up he barely touched pint.

"Well, drink up an' I'll get ya a refresher yer lightweight!" Fergus teased as he nudged Lee in the ribs.

"I can't hear ya drinkin'!" Fergus said with his back turned to Lee and towards a small group of attractive Muggle women filling chairs around a tiny table not far away from the pool table.

One of them had long blonde hair and was eyeing the lads at the pool table. Fergus caught the eye of an exotic-looking woman with curly, black hair and a skimpy little sky blue top that shimmered when she giggled or tossed her hair. She looked him up and down, turned to her slightly dowdier friend and whispered something. The dowdy girl looked at Fergus and nodded before turning back to watch the lesson at the table.

"It gets decided by whatever yeh pot first, so if you or me potted a yella we'd go after the yella ones and finish with the black fer the win. With me?" Seamus said to Ron and Lee.

"So what about the blue square, who's potting that thing?" Lee frowned as he picked up the chalk.

The girls giggled and Lee turned his back on them, knowing he'd just embarrassed himself, and Seamus winked at the ladies and chalked the end of Ron's cue with the blue square.

"Helps ya direct yer balls where ya want 'em to go better." Seamus explained.

"I'll chalk your cue any time ya want, Irish," a busty girl with short brown hair called over at Seamus.

"Can I direct your balls anywhere in particular, gorgeous?" the blonde flirted with Ron as her friends giggled annoyingly.

Fergus paid for Lee's drink and another for himself and carried them over to the table.

"Ignore 'em, they're tanked and they'll start on somebody else if ye don't play along," he muttered.

"An' what if I want te play along?" Seamus said, sounding annoyed. "That one's practically crawling up me trouser leg like a rat up a drainpipe!"

"You old romantic, Shay," Tommy chuckled.

"So c'mon, who wants ta break?" Fergus said as he set his glass down and licked his lips.

"S-Seeing as I dunno wha-what that is, I'd say one of y-y-you," Ron suggested.

"Aw, Trisha," the blonde said to the girl with the dark hair Fergus had his eye on in an annoying type of voice, "he's all nervous around us pretty girls. Don't ya want give him a cuddle?"

"Don't!" Lee turned around sharply and snapped at the girls.

"Oooooh!" they all said together before bursting into fits of giggles.

"Bloody hell, we're not doing well with avoiding annoying bitches tonight, are we?" Lee huffed.

"Oi!" the dowdy woman protested.

"This isn't ignorin' them, Jordan."

"Oh, I'm getting this from the king of turning the other cheek just so he can punch it better!" Lee snorted. Ron sniggered and Seamus smirked.

"Oh, we're not startin' this again!" Fergus huffed.

"No, we're not…we're playing, or rather...you are!" Tommy said from his seat behind them.

"Oh, look at the big puppy dog eyes on that one. I didn't even see him!" one of the women called out on seeing Tommy.

"Oh great, now we're at a dog show," Lee huffed.

"Ya got that right!" Seamus said as he nodded his head towards the dowdy woman and Fergus snorted and tried to cover it up by rubbing his nose as if he'd sneezed.

"Bastard!" the short-haired woman Seamus had, up until that point been doing pretty well with, hissed at him and comforted the dowdy woman.

"Why are you assuming he was talking about me?" the dowdy woman asked in annoyance.

"Oh, come off it, Sandra," the blonde said, rolling her eyes, "he's hardly talking about me is he?"

Fergus marvelled at how spiteful women could be with their friends and yet remain friends.

"Are you lot using that table or not?" a big bloke with arms like logs said gruffly. "Only we've been waiting for this table all bloody night."

"S-S-Sorry," Ron apologised before turning to Fergus and Seamus. "Wwe can le-learn anoth-nother day."

"You heard him," the log-armed man's even burlier friend said as he stood alongside him. "P-p-p-piss off!"

The men both burst out laughing and most of the girls did, too. Lee was almost white with fury and Ron's ears blazed crimson with embarrassment. Tommy was up and out of his seat and standing between the men and his friends, like a toothpick trying to hold up a falling oak tree, and smiled at the men.

"Look, we're getting off the table and out of your way but there's no need for that alright?"

"No need for what? I'm allowed to do a Foghorn Leghorn impression in a public place, aren't I?" the man with the huge arms said sarcastically and his massive mate laughed into his larger.

Ron and Lee looked blankly at the men and didn't laugh, not knowing what on Earth was supposed to be funny, and the men took this to mean they had an attitude problem.

Tommy turned around just as the men were going to say something to Ron and Lee.

"I've got beer at home, in the fridge. Why don't we all go back to mine?" he asked nervously.

"Why don't we stay where the bloody hell we are?" Fergus said territorially as he fronted up to the two large Muggle men.

"F-Fer-Fer..." Ron pulled at Fergus' sleeve. "Don't."

"Oi! I wanted to watch the ones with the nice arses bend over the table!" the blonde called out petulantly.

"Yeah, wait ya turn?" the short-haired woman chirped in, changing allegiances every two second it seemed to Fergus.

"Calm it down or take it outsidem fellas," the barman called over to them and the two big Muggle men muttered under their breath and stepped away to lean against the bar.

Tommy sighed with relief and Seamus looked shocked and very cocky at having got away with the whole thing unscathed. Lee squeezed Ron's shoulder and gave him a smile. Ron leaned in towards Fergus and whispered to him.

"I'd really rather g-go to Tom's."

"Right, we're going," Lee said as he turned to grab their jackets.

"We're not gettin' chased outta here! We were here first!" Fergus said loud enough for everyone to hear him.

"Shhh!" Tommy hissed frantically.

"Fer-Fer-Fergus, I've had it for the night an-an' I wanna go," Ron said edgily.

Fergus looked Ron in the eye and nodded immediately.

"To Tom's then, yeah, whatever ya want, mate. I'm sorry abou' tha'."

"S'fine." Ron smiled with relief and set the cue down on the table and turned around to take his jacket from Lee.

That's when it happened. It was so slow to Fergus yet it whizzed by faster than a Snitch in the wind. Ron was leaning over the table and reaching for his jacket. The exotic girl, who hadn't said anything except to whisper to her dowdy friend when they'd first arrived, got to her feet and pressed her hips into Ron's arse and leaned over him. She pressed her breasts into his back and flattened him to the table, running her fingers through his hair and leaning in behind his ear to whisper seductively.

"I can make you speechless if you want…"

Nobody managed to move in time to stop it.

Ron bucked violently and spun around, swinging out his arm and cracking the woman across the side of the face with the back of his hand. She stumbled and her friends screamed. The two men lunged for Ron and Fergus and Seamus threw themselves at them before they could get their hands on him.

There was a lot of shouting and punching and screeching. Glass got broken and soon pavement met Fergus's face.

"Don't come back, none of you!" an angry voice shouted and one of the huge Muggles who had also been turfed out swung a kick into Seamus' ribs where he lay on the floor a few feet away.

"Where's the ginger bastard who smacked the bird?" the other man demanded.

"All of you piss off or I'll call the rozzers!" the angry voice from the pub warned.

The Muggles took off pretty fast and Fergus crawled over to his cousin.

"Shite," he winced as he saw Seamus' bloodied nose, "they mashed yeh up good an' proper, Shay."

Seamus coughed and gripped his sore ribs before nodding towards a darkened alleyway.

"Go see if he's okay. He ran down there, they didn't see 'im."

Fergus got to his feet and staggered over to the alley. He could hear a familiar sound and grimaced in preparation for what he was about to see. Sure enough, Ron was on his hands and knees on the floor puking his guts out and shaking uncontrollably. Lee was leaning against the opposite wall in a squatting position with his hand over his mouth and jabbering various expletives into it. Tommy was beside Ron, not knowing where to put his hands but knowing well enough not to put them anywhere on Ron.

"It's all okay now. Nobody's touching you, nobody's gonna touch you. They're all gone. They've all gone away," Tommy was repeating in a soothing mantra while Ron heaved once more and expelled the last of his stomach contents against the wall.

Fergus thought Tommy was doing pretty well and glanced over his shoulder to see Seamus struggling back to his feet. He looked back down the alley at Lee and realised that his eyes had glazed over.

"Lee?" he called out, voice echoing down the alleyway.

"I didn't do anything," Lee whimpered. "I just let it happen. Just like the last time. I didn't stop it."

"Lee, c'mon now," Fergus swayed towards Lee just as Seamus reached the end of the alley.

"D'we need an ambulance?" he called after him.

"Nah," Fergus shook his head and crouched beside Lee, "doesn't look like they got their hands on 'em. Hey Lee, he's okay, ye know? Just...just the table thing wasn't it? He'll be alright again in a minute."

Ron coughed and spat bile from his mouth and Tommy offered him a tissue.

"It's just us here now, Ron," Tommy said kindly.

"He had him over the table and I didn't do anything!" Lee whimpered.

"She," Seamus corrected, "she was way too forward but it didn't...that all got way outta hand. Don't upset yerself, Lee."

"S'not about her, Shay," Fergus said as he put his arms around Lee and gave him a bracing one armed hug. "I stirred up the aggro, Jordan, I'm sorry. Just let it go and we'll get yeh both home, okay?"

Ron suddenly shook his head vigorously and sprung to his feet.

"N-n-n-no! 'M n-n-not goin' home!"

He rubbed his unsteady hand over his sweaty face and leaned against the wall as Tommy stood up beside him.

"Wherever you want to go, we'll get you there, okay?" Tommy reassured him.

"Leamme alone," Ron jerked as if one of them had touched him and pushed past Seamus to stride back to the street.

"Ron, wait up!" Seamus called as he tried to follow him.

"Where ya goin'" Fergus shouted.

"I have to g-g-go," Ron muttered as he stepped out onto the street, folded his arms across his chest and set off out of sight.

"Shit!" Fergus swore as he realised Lee hadn't even noticed Ron leaving and was in no state to be left alone himself.

"I'll go," Tommy said as he ran after Ron. "Take Lee home and get his mum to heal you both. I'll make sure Ron's okay," he shouted over his shoulder to them before sprinting out of sight.

"Welcome to my world, Shay," Fergus said to his bloodied cousin sadly.