Disclaimer: Not mine.

A/N: I want to thank everyone who has read and reviewed this story. You guys are fabulous, thank you.

Bored.

I was horribly and incredibly bored.

Fred was out buying some more supplies for the shop and I was here 'tinkering'. My stomach growled with hunger and my eyes ached with fatigue. Angrily, I set my tools down on the worktable and rubbed my hands over my face.

The truth was I couldn't eat or sleep because I was worried. I had been hoping that we would here some word from Melody before now but there hadn't been any word yet and it was taking its toll on me.

Had she been found out?

Had she changed her mind and come home?

Was she –?

There was a loud thud from upstairs in the apartment and I jumped to my feet, reaching for my wand. Quietly, I started for the stairs my wand aimed. "Fred?" I called.

Nothing.

Taking a deep breath, my wand still aimed and the light ignited. This was stupid I told myself. Why on earth was I going to go check? What if it were a Death Eater waiting to ambush me or something?

If I die, I hope Mum will know I'm George and not Fred. And I hope that Bill knows I was just kidding when I sent him a wrapped up steak for Christmas. And I hope Melody realizes how much I love her.

"Fred?" I called again. "If this is just you screwing around, I'm so going to kick your arse!"

I took another deep breath, standing in front of the door to the apartment. Merlin, I could have sworn I heard my heart beating. Fighting to calm myself, I burst through the door with a wild cry.

I froze on the spot, my wand falling from my hands in shock. "Melody?" I said, surprised.

She was sobbing, I could see, her left arm cradled to her body. I kneeled in front of her and pulled her towards me. "Melody, what's wrong? What happened?"

She looked up at me with bloodshot eyes and a tearstained face. "Please don't hate me," she whispered.

"I would never hate you, Mel," I told her. "Why would i?"

Hesitantly she held out her left arm to me and pulled up her sleeve.

I jumped when I saw the Mark. I hadn't meant to but it was bizarre to see it so close and on the arm of someone I care about. I cursed myself for jumping though because Melody started to cry harder.

"Damn it," I muttered, pulling her into my arm. "I'm sorry, Melody. Please stop crying. It'll be fine. . . . We – we can try to get it removed when this is all over.

She gripped onto me. "It hurts so much."

I didn't know what else to say so I just held onto her and let her cry on me. We sat there on the floor and in the middle of the apartment together for hours. And we were still there when Fred came home, though Melody had since stopped crying. He sat down next to us and rubbed his hand up and down her back.

After a while Fred spoke. "You're welcome to stay the night here, Mel, if you don't think you can handle going back to the manor."

"I'd like to, thanks," she said, lifting her head from my shoulder.

Standing, I took her hand and pulled her to her feet. She walked close to me, as if she were afraid someone was going to come from around the corner and snatch.

"Get some rest, Mel," Fred said from behind us, heading back down into the shop.

I pulled a long shirt from the drawer in my room and handed it to her before I stepped out of the room and closed the door behind me. "You can sleep in there if you like," I said, hesitantly. "I'll just sleep on the couch after Fred and I get done in the shop –"

The door swung open and I was caught up in the sight of Melody and my old shirt, which just reached her mid-thigh. But when I dragged my eyes back up to her face again she looked like the old Melody, save for her hair. But she also looked scared and tired. She reached forward to grab my hand but stopped, looking down at her bare forearm and the thing that marred it. She switched hands quickly and took my hand in her right. "Can you stay with me, please?"

I nodded automatically, walking into the room and closing the door behind me. Melody's black clothes and robes lay over in the corner of the room, thrown about rather hastily, as if she wanted to get rid of them as quickly as possible.

She sat down on the bed and I sat down next to her, pulling her into my arms. She rested her head onto my shoulder and, in a matter of seconds, she was asleep. I kissed her on top of her head before I let myself relax a bit.

I don't think I'd be able to bear seeing her like that again, so broken, so . . . devastated. But she would go back in the morning and maybe . . . maybe with each passing day she'd get stronger, not that she wasn't strong already.

But for right now, all I could do was hold her tightly in my arms for the night.