(A/N): Back to Leo's POV, and his response to the letter.

Trigger Warning: Discussion of self harm.

Leo

I finally got the time- and privacy- to reply to Elaine's letter later that night. Lisbet sent me up to my room to clean myself up before dinner was ready, so I decided now was the perfect time to address the subject I had been putting off since breakfast. I set up my writing supplies beforehand, not wanting to have such an incriminating piece of literature laying around in the open for as long as I was able, before I finally gave in, and went to retrieve it from where I had stashed it in my lockbox.

It was about the size of a breadbox, and made to look like a double decker bus. My father had given it to me after I had first moved in with him, as a place to keep my- few- sentimental belongings. It had no visible lock, but was enchanted so that only I could open it- meaning it was completely private. Something I desperately needed right now.

I reached my hand in and grabbed the letter off the top without looking- I didn't want to get distracted by old memories when everyone was already waiting for me. The letter was a little rumpled from being stuffed in my pocket earlier, and then hidden away in the lockbox, so I smoothed it flat on the writing table by the window before sitting down to read it.

Dear Leo,

We know you hurt yourself more than once. We were talking, and we realised some things.

You hurt yourself once- this is when you were with Brooke- then I saw your scars right after you and Brooke had broken up, and you should have been healed by then, right? And then when Brooke told us a few days later, and we confronted you, your scars then also would definitely have been healed. So that's three times, at least. This letter isn't to yell at you, or try to guilt you or anything. We just wanted to let you know that we knew of those three times, and we didn't want you to think we were mad at you for not telling us when we confronted you about the first time, because we know that isn't the sort of thing you just say.

We told Brooke- sorry, but we have to keep an open line of communication between us so we can keep an eye on you (not that we don't trust you, we just... don't trust you) and that means telling her when we figure this sort of stuff out. Lily didn't really understand why we knew you had hurt yourself more than once (considering she doesn't know how quickly you heal), but she just sort of took it as fact and rolled with it, so you're still safe on that front.

We're all just worried about how you're doing, and we already miss you SO much!

Love, Elaine, Remus, James, Sirius, Peter and Lily

PS: If you want to tell us about any more times, now is your chance to do so without any consequences.

I put the letter back down, and eyed my own sheet of parchment. So, they knew I hurt myself more than once- they had figured out three times, in fact. They said they were giving me a free pass, so... should I tell them? I really, really didn't want to, but if they found out I hadn't told them when I had the chance... I imagined the look Elaine would give me, and I made my decision.

Dear Elaine

I paused, then amended it.

Dear Elaine, Remus, James, Sirius, Peter and Lily,

Just because it only smelt like her, and she was clearly the one writing it, didn't mean she would be the only one reading it, and I needed to keep that in mind.

Yeah. More than once. You figured out three of them, but there was a fourth. I'm not going to say when, or why, or how, but there was another time. I considered not telling you, but thought you might figure it out anyway, and I didn't want to have to deal with that, so, yeah. I ended up telling you. Mia knows too- about the first one, at least. I told her after Elaine first saw the scars, she helped calm me down. Please don't tell her about the other ones, I will tell her at some point but I want to do it in person.

I sighed heavily, and added,

And I promise I will actually tell her, I'm not lying. I miss you guys too- I'm going to be fairly occupied during the holidays, but I promise to try and write as much as possible.

Love, Leo

PS: You know I can't hurt myself while I'm here, because they'll know. You don't have to worry.

I didn't mention the fact that the fourth time I was admitting was just the only other time before they had found out about it, but they didn't exactly give me a free pass for hiding it from them after Brooke had told them, so I didn't feel too bad about withholding that little bit of information.

I hid the original letter back in the lockbox while I waited for the ink to dry, and as I went to return to the desk to send the letter away with Lawrence, I briefly turned my attention to Herc standing in the doorway.

"Letter done?" I nodded, and hoped he hadn't seen anything of importance when the lockbox had been open.

"Yeah, just sending it now. Is the food ready?" Before Lisbet had sent me up to get ready for dinner, she, Herc and I had been working in the kitchen together. It was an unusual experience, I hadn't shared a kitchen with more than one person in years, but Herc was willing to help, and it was always nice to get an extra palate to test meals on.

"Yes." I attached the letter to Lawrence's leg, and gave him one last pet before sending him back to his owner. "I talked to Shari last night." Startled, I turned to look at him.

"And did she talk back?" Herc looked like he was measuring me up.

"Not really." Not really isn't a no, which is more than she had done for months.

"What did you talk about?" Herc hesitated, and I took a few steps closer to him, so I was no longer on the other side of the room. "Herc. Just tell me." It couldn't possibly be that bad.

"I, uh... I asked her if she wanted to come back with me. To Colombia, I mean. When I leave." Oh.

"... And what were her thoughts on that?" Shari, leave? I knew things were bad, but... Would she really just up and leave us? Leave me?

"She said she'd think about it."

(A/N): Leo's lockbox also has an extension charm on it, so its bigger on the inside. What do you think about Shari possibly leaving?

This chapter has had a minor edit made to it on 26/4/23 - Added the trigger warning.