bonus points if you get the harry potter reference

"No."

She was shaking, sweat was beading on her brow, her powers were threatening to explode from her and race around the room, destroying everything in their path, including the little man sitting in front of her, asking her to relive her worst nightmares.

"Raven. Tell me what happened next."

"No!"

She gripped the armrests of her chair, dug her fingernails into the wood.

"Push past it. What happened when you woke up?"

She tasted something acrid, bile rising in her throat.

"I…can't…"

The cool rush in her veins signaled the release of power. She bit it back, stopped the shadows, left them trembling around her hands.

"Get…out…of…here…"

Her words came out in a low growl, one that made her enemies flinch and her friends stare.

"I will not. You won't hurt me."

She felt panic like ice water on her back.

"I will! You need…you need to leave…"

She gritted her teeth as a delicate figurine exploded behind her. Her therapist held up his notebook to shield his face from the debri, then fixed her with a calm look.

"This isn't going to stop until you finish."

Shaking her head, Raven spat through clenched teeth, shaking so hard she feared her bones would shatter.

"I'm telling you…I…can't!"

He crossed one leg over the other.

"Of course you can."

Desperate to stop it, Raven fixed her eyes on the little marbles that sat so innocently on his desk. He followed her gaze, but was characteristically quiet, letting her figure things out for herself. Still trembling, she sent her powers to the stones. They flew out of the bowl at an alarming rate, forming a vortex around her, dark energy crackling at their edges.

"I woke up on the floor of the warehouse."

He smiled slightly and made a small note.

"Go on."

"When he saw I was awake, he broke one of my fingers…to prove my powers were gone."

She felt him adjusting, moderating his emotional climate, making sure he was ready to hear it. The stones spun faster.

"He broke the others when I tried to fight."

Said fingers were still gripping the edges of the armrests, threatening to split the wood.

"Hit me in the face. Stomped on my stomach."

Her stones spun faster, collided with each other, some of them exploding and settling into the carpet like little shards of ice.

"Couldn't breathe. Couldn't fight him. He cuffed me to the ceiling. Took my cloak. Said there should be blood. To send the right message."

Tears streamed down her cheeks, but she didn't notice them; she was too busy trying not to destroy the whole building.

"I fought. Thought if I broke my wrists I could get my hands free. The cuffs tore me open."

Despite his modulated control, there was a flicker of sympathy and echoes of sadness from the man in front of her. When she was silent however, he probed further, and Raven, having started now, found herself unable to stop.

"How long did he hold you like that?"

"I don't know. Hours. Two, maybe three."

"And what happened during that time?"

"Talked," she whispered hoarsely. "About the renovations he was making on his house. About how this city had gone to the dogs. About…about my father."

"What specifically?"

She shook her head, forcing closed the pair of eyes that threatened to open underneath her own, picking up several books to add to the tornado that whirled around her.

"Said I was the spawn of Satan. Said I invited evil."

"Did he torture you?"

"I…I don't know. He hurt me. Stabbed me when I moved. Is that torture?"

Dr. Levitt cleared his throat. His emotional climate spiked, and Raven winced at the sadness she sensed there, scowled as it moved out like a sea of energy that cracked electric.

"Yes, Raven, that would be torture."

She shook her head.

"Stop it. Stop it, I can feel it."

He stopped scribbling, met her eyes over the top of his glasses.

"I'm sorry."

The field receded, settled back into calm. Raven shut her eyes.

"What happened next?"

"He added more blood."

"How?" he asked softly.

"Knife. Back and stomach. Set up a video camera. Sent a message to my friends, said they would come to save me and he would have them to."

"And they did."

She nodded, the stones spiraling more slowly now, some falling to the ground.

"Knocked him out. Robin unlocked me. Couldn't walk. Couldn't breathe or talk."

"Did you feel comfortable with Robin carrying you?"

She shook her head, a sob choking her.

"It hurt. Everything hurt. Thought he was going to hurt me."

"But he didn't."

"He would never…he was so angry…"

The other stones fell from her thundercloud, raining onto the carpet.

"Wanted to kill him. Wanted to help me."

She cleared her throat and wiped the tears from her eyes, releasing the remaining marbles. They clattered as they fell, littering the carpet with tiny specks of blue-grey.

"I passed out on the way to the tower. Woke up in the medical wing."

The books were next, falling haphazardly on spines, crumpled pages mingling with muffled thumps.

"Went to my room. Finished healing."

"There was a lot to heal."

She nodded, finding it easier to modulate her tone now; the story had been extracted form her like some kind of poison and what followed came more easily to her lips.

"Broken wrist, broken fingers, four broken ribs, internal bleeding, ten or twelve flesh wounds, punctured lung, concussion."

Dr. Levitt crossed one leg over the other and made another note.

"How long did it take to fully recover?"

She winced.

"About a week."

"And how long did you tell your friends you needed to recover?"

She lowered her gaze.

"I told them I was fine the day after."

The silence stretched for a minute before she muttered quietly,

"I didn't want them to worry."

"But they did."

"Yeah," she sighed and looked at the wreckage around her. "I'm sorry about your stuff."

He smiled slightly and followed her gaze.

"That's all right. I dare say I have too much of it."

Raven stumbled out onto the street, wondering vaguely how red her eyes were and how noticeable she would have to be when she slipped back into the tower. Teleportation was out of the question with her emotions this unstable, and she was sure to encounter someone on her way to her bedroom. It was the thought of a hug from Starfire that sent her to the bar. That and the thought of them worrying about her any more.
It was a dingy place that she had sometimes frequented in her early years on earth, and her early years with the titans. The door rang softly behind her, announcing her entrance to the patrons, none of whom gave her a second glance. Nobody asked for ID as she slid onto an empty stool near one of the dirty brick walls. The place was grimy, the walls peppered with neon signs and old band posters, the leather in the booths and on the stools peeling away from the yellowish foam beneath it. But they had decent whiskey and were mostly devoid of pretentious cocktails, and none of them asked too many questions.

Sal appeared from the back, running a rag that looked only slightly cleaner than the walls around a beer glass. The woman was middle aged with a thin frame and hair cropped close to her head. She smiled when she saw Raven.

"Hey there, Rae. Long time."

Raven lowered her hood, prompting a smirk from the bartender.

"Do you ever not wear that thing?"

She raised an eyebrow.

"Do you ever not wear those pants?"
Sal glanced down at her torn jeans and rolled her eyes.

"Point taken. What can I get for you?"

She lingered on Raven's eyes an instant too long. I knew they were red.

"Whiskey. Ice."

She had never gotten used to saying 'on the rocks'; she just felt stupid when she tried. Sal glanced at her as she poured the drink.

"Are you going to get really wasted? Should I take your keys or something?"

Raven shrugged, wrapping her hands around the cool glass.

"Don't have keys, so it shouldn't matter."

Sal sighed, concern briefly coloring her open-book face.

"Should I be worried?"

Sal was one of the few people to whom Raven never lied. She had helped her when she had first arrived in Jump City, fleeing Azarath and all the pain of her prophesied existence there. Unfamiliar with earth's culture, she had wandered into the bar hoping to find a place to observe and acclimatize, and had found Sal instead.

"It's been a rough couple of months. I just need a drink and some peace and quiet."

Sal fixed her with a blunt look, and Raven felt, as usual, that she was being assessed.

"That I can give you. Holler if you need anything – or want to give up on this mystery girl routine you've got going."

Raven managed a grin.

"What, and give up on my silent, brooding charm?"

A new customer slid into a barstool and rapped his knuckles on the table. Sal rolled her eyes, draping her towel over her shoulder.

"You've got about as much charm as a paper bag, sunshine."

A few drinks later, Sal was giving her side eye across the bar. The last time she had been this drunk, she had thrown up on the sidewalk outside and accidentally set off a car alarm with a blast of dark energy before passing out in an alley. Not her finest hour, but she had just discovered that her father intended to use her for a portal and destroy the earth, so Sal had excused the behavior.

Now, the world had taken on pleasantly glowing edges and Raven found herself grateful that her powers were so drained. Had she been at full strength, she likely would have been pulling bricks out of the wall and giggling to herself. She swayed gently on her perch, moving in time to the music, and ran her fingers along the edge of the bar. Sal, who had been flirting with a girl on the other end of said bar, approached her, concern written on her expressive face.

"Anybody to pick you up?"

Raven smiled dreamily, focusing with difficulty on Sal's frowning face.

"Trying to get rid of me?"

Sal shook her head and gave her an exasperated look, leaning her forearms against the polished wood.

"Never, princess, but you know it's almost midnight, right?"

Raven winced. She had left the tower around twelve that afternoon, which meant she had been gone for twelve hours.

"Didn't mean to do that. Better go."

She staggered to her feet and immediately fell back against the wall as the world lurched alarmingly. Sal sighed.

"Swear to god, Raven, last time you were this fucked up it was because there was going to be an apocalypse."

Raven looked at her vaguely.

"No apocalypse. Don't worry. You're fine. Everything is fiiiiiine."

She sank back onto the stool.

"I'll just sit here for a few minutes until I can teleport."

Sal came around the counter, looking alarmed.

"Oh no. There's no way I'm letting that happen. Where's your communicator?"

Raven rummaged in her coat pocket for a moment, then handed it over.

"Looks stupid, doesn't it? Who makes their cell phone yellow?"

Sal rolled her eyes and flipped it open.

"I'm going to make a call."

Thanks for reading/reviewing/some of you are really into it I love it

xxxxx