Chapter 4
Cry

Parvati didn't know where she was. It was pitch black; either all the streetlights were out or she wasn't anywhere near a suburban area. She could barely see her own hand in front of her face and the crunching sounds that pierced the silence of the night when she stepped told her that she was on some kind of gravel pathway.

She stumbled and almost fell face first, but caught herself at the last second. Frustratedly, she pulled out Theodore's wand and lit it. It cast an eerie glow over what she now saw was a narrow, gravel alleyway with brick walls that stretched up over twenty metres over her head. A sense of foreboding quickly washed over her as she pointed the wand ahead of her and saw nothing but looming darkness. Her heart hammered at a hundred miles an hour as she took several tentative steps forward. In some ways, having the light was scarier than having no light, at least then she wouldn't know what was around her and more importantly, what was around her couldn't see her.

She had no idea where she was. She had just run in the direction of the main road when she had left Theodore's place, but it hadn't been long before she had lost her way and ended up here. As she walked along, casting the wand light as high as she could she started to hear the sound of an approaching vehicle. The crunch of gravel however, was absent, which meant that Parvati was close to an asphalt road again. Sure enough, as she rounded the corner, she saw that she had reached what looked like a highway in which what she now recognised as the main road that ran straight through London.

She had made it.

Exhausted from the long journey, she collapsed gratefully against one of the walls of the alleyway to catch her breath, a smile spreading across her face.

"Did you really think you could evade me?"

The gruff voice made Parvati jump out of her skin as she scrambled backwards, trying to use the wall as a support. She would recognise that voice anywhere.

The big, hulking shape of Theodore Nott loomed into view and Parvati just about peed herself although she was pleased to see that his eye was puffy and slightly bruised along with the side of his head.

"You little bitch," he said, picking her up by her hair and swinging her around so that she could not run out onto the road, "How fucking dare you hit me and run away, how fucking dare you take my wand," he said as Parvati's hand tightened around it in her pocket, wincing as the hair pulled against the wound on the back of her head.

"How did you find me," Parvati hissed menacingly, fighting to keep her face void of pain. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

"You really are as stupid as you look, aren't you?" Theodore laughed, "I had a tracker placed on my wand as soon as we moved into that house because I knew that once I'd taken yours, you'd try to go for mine, and I was right," Theodore said, letting go of Parvati's hair and putting his hand out for his wand.

Parvati hesitated for a second, and then shook her head slowly, her grip tightening on the stick of wood in her pocket, all manner of spells that she could use against him going through her head.

She felt his fist connect roughly with her cheekbone, pain ripping through it as the force of it knocked her to the ground.

"Give it back or I swear I will kill you right now," Theodore said, looming over her as Parvati attempted to pick herself up.

She glared at him, "You're going to do it anyway, so why wait?" she hissed. Theodore let out a cry of rage and threw himself at her, his fists flailing in every direction, pummelling every part of flesh that he could reach. She curled up in a ball, protecting her head, one hand still in her pocket as blow after blow rained down on her.

"Stupefy," she managed, whipping the wand out at the very last second before Theodore was surely about to deliver a crushing blow to her head. He froze and keeled over, almost as if someone had hit him from behind.

Parvati didn't hesitate. She jumped up as quickly as she could – which, given the circumstances, was not very quickly at all – and limped to the end of the alleyway where there was a footpath and a place where she could be seen by people. Tears stung in her eyes and she could feel blood running down her face and into her mouth. Every part of her ached and she just wished that she could collapse, but she had to keep going; she had to find Dean.

Tossing the wand aside – she couldn't use it anymore if Theodore could track her with it – she consulted the piece of paper that Dean had given her. Looking up, she could see the London Eye and the Thames river and knew that his apartment was somewhere to the west of that. Pinching her nose to stem the flow of blood, she flung out her wand arm, in hopes that the Knight bus might appear to pick her up, regardless of the fact that she didn't have a wand in her possession anymore.

Sure enough, the bright purple, triple decker bus appeared out of thin air next to her.

"Welcome to the Knight bus, emergency transport for a stranded witch or wizard, my name is Oliver Pringle and I will be your conductor for this evening," the young wizard at the door said, he didn't look much older than Parvati herself.

She pushed past him, not wanting her current state to be seen in much detail.

"Where you headed girlie?" Oliver Pringle said, following her up to the front of the bus where she lay down on a bed, face first. She handed him the slip of paper and Oliver called it out to the driver and proceeded to try to strike up conversation with Parvati. She didn't respond, silently hoping that she wouldn't leave blood on the sheets when she got up.

With a bang, the Knight bus jumped from the main road to a quiet street in which most of the lights were out. Parvati felt the beds in the bus slide a few feet forward as the driver stamped on the brakes.

"'Ere you are then girlie, that'll be six sickles," Oliver said. It was then that Parvati realised that she didn't have any money. She looked slowly up at Oliver from the bed as she raised herself off it.

"Holy shit," Oliver said, looking her up and down, taking in the bloody nose and the puffy eye, "What 'appened to you then?"

"Nothing," Parvati said quickly, looking back down again, her black hair sweeping back into her face, hiding the injuries.

"You call tha' nothing," Oliver exclaimed, "'alf your bleedin' face is all puffed up, innit?!"

"I'm fine," Parvati said softly, even though she felt the complete opposite.

"Look, consider this one on me, you go inside there and make sure that you look after yourself alright?" Oliver said in a low voice.

Parvati glanced back up at him with thankful eyes before quickly turning her eyes to the ground again.

"Go on," Oliver said, "Get outta 'ere."

Parvati managed to pull herself up off the bed and used the railing for assistance to get over to the door and out onto the pavement. As the Knight bus drove off she could see Oliver looking at her with concern through the window.

Parvati consulted the piece of paper again for the unit number. 4/32. She scanned the street looking for the unit block with a large number 32 on it. It was hard to see as most of the street had gone to bed. Parvati had no idea what time it was, but she guessed that it was either very late, or very early.

Finally locating the large, red block of apartments, she stumbled towards the door, grateful that it was one that was always open regardless of what time. Dean lived at number six, which was on the third floor, judging by the fact that there were two homes to each floor.

She began the excruciating experience of getting up the stairs. She tried to hold her tears back and mask the pain like she had practised for months now, before realising that she didn't have to anymore.

She let down her barriers and let the tears flow and the pain show as she hauled herself up the stairs, her chest hurting with each breath and every part of her that had come into contact with Theodore's fist throbbing painfully. She let out a loud sob and her body began to shake with them. She couldn't give up now, she had come so far and to let herself be defeated by some silly stairs would go against everything that she stood for; fighting.

Eventually, after much crying, thoughts of giving up, pain and determination, Parvati reached the third floor landing. Hauling herself up by the railing she limped over to the door with a brass number six on it, hoping that Dean was still awake.

Raising her fist exhaustedly, she knocked twice.

There was a rustling from inside and footsteps coming towards the door. Parvati let out a long breath of relief as the door was unlocked and opened in front of her.

"Parvati!" Dean said in shock as she gave him a weary smile and collapsed straight over the threshold of his house.

Shit, Dean thought as Parvati's knees buckled from beneath her and she collapsed forwards. He just managed to catch her before she hit the ground. Oh my god, what the fuck is happening? He managed to get his arms under Parvati's and half carry, half drag her towards the couch that had once been Seamus's

He placed her down as gently as he could and pulled the blankets off of his couch and threw them over the top of her as he took in the sight before him.

Her normally beautiful, flawless face was bruised, swollen and bloody and her breathing was ragged and shallow. Dean immediately started to panic, he had no idea what to do.

He glanced at the clock on the mantle which showed that it was two in the morning, much too early to call Lavender, who was a healer, and ask for advice on what to do, much too early to floo to St Mungo's and get professional help – the minor injuries department closed at eleven, and given the extent of some injuries in the magical world, Parvati's were minor injuries.

He could take her to the local muggle hospital, but he had no means of transporting her and no muggle money. He would just have to take care of her himself until morning.

Hurrying into the kitchen, he wet a clean towel, wrung it out and started to dab at the cuts on Parvati's face. He knew one spell from his Auror training that would help them to heal, but they had to be clean first.

He just couldn't help but wonder who – or what, had done this to her. Surely it wouldn't have been Theodore. Dean knew Theodore's antics and if it was him doing this to her, she would never be able to tell a soul.

He turned away to dip the tea towel into the bowl of water beside him when Parvati's eyes fluttered open.

Her first reaction was to flinch and cower away from him as he started to sponge at her head again.

"D-Dean," she muttered tiredly.

"Hey," Dean said with a smile, moving to brush her hair off her forehead. She sat up quickly and scarpered away from him, "What's wrong?" he asked with concern.

"I-I just need a place to stay," she said timidly.

"Well you're always welcome here," Dean said, "Seamus moved out yesterday so I've got room and all but Parvati… what happened?"

Parvati shook her head, a lump rising in her throat.

"Parvati," Dean said slowly, moving closer to her and she flinched backwards again, almost as if it was out of instinct, "Don't try and tell me that you fell into a bush or something because your hair is matted in blood and you've got scars all over your face underneath all of those cuts and bruises."

Parvati shook her head again.

"Look, you don't have to tell me what happened, because I've got a pretty good inclination of what actually did happen, just nod or shake your head because I swear if that bastard has laid a hand on you I will go and smash his face in myself," Dean said menacingly.

"Don't get yourself involved," Parvati said softly, "You'll only get hurt."

"Oh, and that's worse than you getting hurt?" Dean said hotly, "Parvati I would rather be hit a hundred times with the killing curse than stand by and watch someone get abused. You're not going back there, you're staying with me until we can contact your mother or Padma," Dean said firmly.

Parvati didn't say anything, but the look in her eyes was one of thankfulness and relief. Dean sat down next to her and she flinched a little, he shifted away from her slightly. She needed space and time.

"You're allowed to cry, Parvati, hell I would be crying if I'd been through what you've been through," Dean said softly.

Parvati sniffed softly but didn't say anything. They sat in silence for a few minutes longer before Dean spoke up.

"You should get yourself cleaned up," he said, getting up and walking over to the cupboard and pulling out a pair of pyjamas and a towel, "The bathroom's in there and there's some ointment that you can put on your bruises and I've only got size twenty-six pyjamas, so they might be a little bit baggy on you," he walked into the bathroom and put both on the toilet seat, "If you want any help don't hesitate to ask," he finished as Parvati pushed herself off the couch with difficulty. Dean moved to help her but she waved him off, flinching away from him on instinct again.

"I'll be fine," Parvati said, "You just go to bed, I'll sort myself out."

And that was Parvati's ultimate downfall, she always appeared stronger on the outside to everyone. To others it was like she had this impermeable shell that kept out all the hurt and pain, but really, the shell kept it in and as soon as she closed the door to the bathroom and was sure that she was alone, she collapsed onto the cold tiles sobbing.

AN: Okay, so I figured out why I wasn't getting into this and it was because I hadn't planned ahead so I did and now I'm really excited to write it… like you have no idea how excited I am. *jumps up and down*

Well I have officially been dubbed the queen of procrastination… I opened the word document to write this at 3pm and it is now 11pm… this is only 2.5k words long…. It took me eight hours to write 2.5k? that normally takes me one and a half… yes, I am the Procrastination Queen (seriously, I trekked through Wales on google maps to find the entrance to the Torchwood hub and succeeded. Does that give you any idea of how much I procrastinate?)

Anyway, I'd love to hear what you thought, so if you have time, leave a little comment in the review box below and if you actually liked this then add it to your alerts to get emails when I update :)

Until Next Time

~The Original Horcrux~