The morning light peaked through the wall of royal blue curtains hanging around the four-poster bed. The light was soft, but it still hurt her eyes when they opened, and her mind relieved the events of the previous night. She groaned when she remembered her frustration from being teased and realized that maybe she was overreacting in her over-emotional and sensitive state.
Her hands traveled to her throat, and she paused, remembering and feeling the ghost of Marcus' fingers digging into the tender skin of her neck. It was tender and hurt to touch, throbbing under her prodding fingertips. Tears pricked her eyes. He would be angry today and more than likely looking for her.
Peeking through her bed curtains, she saw her bunk mates were gone, and she was alone. With a sigh of relief, she crawled from under her blankets and stretched. She really would rather stay in bed, but her stomach was growling, and she knew they were serving pancakes for breakfast, and they were her favorite.
Hunn, dressed in her school robes and standing in front of the mirror, used her dark oak wand to cast a glamour to hide the purple and black blotches.
The marks on her neck were the most difficult to cover, but after a moment, she managed to hide them.
She tucked her wand in her sock, and with a deep breath, she marched out of her room and down the stairs to the common room area. Many students, young and old, were chatting and reading.
As she passed, they shot her dirty looks and turned their noses up. Not many of her housemates liked her, and it was difficult, but he knew they ignored her because she was at the top of their house, and they were jealous of her grades.
The year before was different, she had friends that she studied with and laughed with, but when they graduated, she had a difficult time replacing their friendship, and she found herself alone with her books.
Walking down the hall, she smiled to be polite but stopped when she heard a few Second years talking, "Did you hear about those idiots last night?" One of them whispered
"No, what do you mean?" the other girl asked.
Their voices started to fade when they walked, so she followed quickly behind them, "There were two redheads from Gryffindor, sitting outside the door all night trying to answer the riddles. The Eagle was actually laughing at them. They couldn't get anything right."
"When did they leave?" one asked, stepping out into the corridor.
"They just left a few hours ago." the Eagle knocker replied, bored
The girls ran off, giggling, toward the great hall
The twins had stayed all night.
They tried to answer the impossible riddles to get inside.
Sweet, but she couldn't help but wonder why.
As she was thinking and walking down the hall, someone grabbed her by her upper arms and pulled her down a baren hall before shoving her against the wall and wrapping his hands around her throat.
It was Marcus.
"That's a nice glamour, babe." His eyes burned, and her heart dropped.
She couldn't breathe. His grip was getting tighter around her throat, "Marcus, stop."
"Thanks for covering everything up. I don't need anyone thinking I'm a savage like those traitors." He got in her face and practically growled, "How could you let those filthy Blood Traitors harm me? You laughed with them, and you let them come between us."
She felt terrified; he looked angry, and after last night, she knew what he was capable of, "Marcus, let me go." her voice started to break, and she could feel her eyes start to burn, "You don't have the right to touch me anymore." She said, pulling away and trying to free herself from his grip.
"Why can't I touch you? Are you letting them?" When she didn't answer, he freaked, "You whore! You've been cheating on me, haven't you, filthy fucking traitor whore!" he screamed at her cocking his fist back and slamming it against the wall near her head
"I haven't done anything with them, and even if I did, it isn't your business anymore," she yelled, trying to break free from his grip.
"You stupid bitch. Are you trying to break up with me for them? Do you think you can let me go? No. Not in a million years." he threatened. "I was just giving you a little lesson yesterday. Nothing too harsh. As a Ravenclaw, you know how to handle a lesson, right?" He grabbed her breast in his hand and squeezed
When he licked her neck, she felt sick to her stomach before being ripped from his arms by a blur of red hair.
"Marcus. Didn't we talk to you yesterday about how to treat a lady?" Fred asked him in a sickly sweet voice and strongly threatening.
"Yes, Marcus. I'm sure my brother Fred here made sure you were well acquainted with our twin fists of fury." George echoed, pumping his arms back and forth through the air
"Shut up, you filth. I was speaking to my girlfriend. This is none of your business, so scram before I have to teach you a lesson as well." Marcus reached for his wand and held it in front of him, pointing at Fred's chest.
But before he could, Hunn pulled her wand out from her sock quickly and pushed past her human wall to hold it against Marcus' throat. "You don't get to threaten them, Marcus. Not after they treated me better than you ever did."
Adrenaline was pumping through her veins, and she couldn't believe what she had just done or said.
Marcus lowered his wand, "Babe. What do you think you're doing? Sticking up for filth." He sneered, "You really have become their whore."
"You don't get to talk to her that way! She's not a whore. She's a wonderful woman. You never deserved her!" Fred shouted, trying to move in front of the growing crowd gathering around them
She looked at her ex-boyfriend with pity. "You know as well as I do that I never held your belief. Now leave before I show you what the skills of a Ravenclaw can do." She pressed her wand deeper into his throat.
"I'll deal with you later, Hunn." Marcus pulled away but raised his wand up again as he backed away
George and Fred stood tall and strong next to her, "No, you won't deal with anything. We are over. I never want to speak to you again." she held her wand steady and her back straight.
"Don't worry, Hunn. I'll see you soon." He walked away, ignoring everything she said
"Damn, Hunn, we were supposed to save you, not the other way around!"
She turned away from them and waved it away. "Can we walk?"
"Really, though, we wanted to talk to you about yesterday!" George told her as they began walking
"Yeah, we wanted to say sorry about laughing yesterday. We thought it was fitting for you and couldn't hold back our laugh of- of..."
"Of shock." George finished
They walked outside as they talked, explaining.
"Yeah, shock. I mean, you're an amazing girl! You're a beater for one!"
"Yeah, a beater! I've never seen a girl beater! And a good one at that!" George yelled
"Bloody hell, woman, you're a skilled Quidditch player, and you're tough as nails!"
She paused on the path and let the sun beat down on her cold skin to warm her hurting and tender skin.
"I wanted to talk to you too. I ran a little on edge yesterday and wanted to apologize."
"For what?"
"Freaking out. Running away."
They laughed again, "Don't worry about it. We have thick skin."
For a moment, they stood in silence until she asked, "So now what?"
They exchanged a look, "We want to be your friend."
"Friends?"
"Don't you have any?" they said together, laughing, believing her to be joking.
"No, I don't." She said honestly
"What about your team?"
"No, they only have me on the team as a beater because I'm fast and strong enough to swing the bat. That being said, they don't like me much."
"Why not?"
"Well, I'm beating them all grades, and my house is very competitive."
"That's the worst."
"Why do they treat you so foul?"
"Yeah, but it's like Fred. I can't change what others think." The wind blew cool and fresh. She took a deep breath and tried to relax.
With another exchange of looks, they seemed to agree on something, "Don't worry about them, you have us now." They smiled brightly and slung their arms over her shoulders together on each side of her.
Arms slung over her, Fred and George practically carried her back into the great hall for a late breakfast. They didn't release her, even when every eye was on her. They just took her straight to the Gryffindor table. Sitting down, they placed her snuggly between them and began to eat with no explanation to any of their friends.
"Fred, George. Who's the Raven?" Another redheaded boy asked through a mouthful of food
Everyone turned to look at her and stared. She looked down, and Fred placed food on a plate before her. "Eat." He said firmly
"This is Hunn. Hunn, this is Ron, our little brother, Percy, our older brother. And the little red-haired girl is our younger sister, Ginny. Over there is Lee Jordan, then there's Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, also family." George said through a mouthful of eggs and a hand full of sweet bread.
Ron snorted, "Hunn? Never heard a name like that."
"Don't laugh, Ronald! She's Ravenclaw's best beater, and she just showed Marcus Flint, who's boss. So you better believe she can show you a thing or two." Fred said matter of factly.
Ron looked a little scared and looked away. "Don't be too scared, Ron, she's a sweetheart, really," Fred told him.
"She's going to be our new partner in crime. Lee is too busy studying, and Hunn is too smart as it is, so she will help us pull all of our pranks for the rest of the year." George told them all.
"George, did you even bother to ask her if she wanted to help you pull your pranks?" The girl Hermione asked
"Yeah, what if she wanted to have some girl time with us instead of hanging around with you two dunderheads all the time," Ginny said, told
Hunn's eyes went wide, and they were acting like her friends already. She hadn't felt like she had a friend in a long time.
"Would you like that, Hunn? You can hang out with us if you want. Next weekend is Hogsmeade weekend, so we can go shopping and get some sweets. Hermione needs more sugar quills, and I could use some chocolate frogs." Ginny smiled sweetly
She looked at her, searching for malicious intent or joking, but found none. "Sure, I would love to. I haven't been before." She said honestly
"You've never been to Hogsmeade before?" Lee asked
"Marcus said it was boring. He never let me go, and I don't have any friends," She looked down and away from their judging eyes and began picking at the food in front of her, eating small bites.
Harry Potter looked at her, eyes narrowed, "How old are you?"
"I'm fifteen and a fifth year. Sixteen over the summer and sixth year after exams in two months."
"So are we!" George and Fred said, "We thought you were so much younger, seeing you're so small and short."
"I'm five foot four. That's normal!" she countered, buttering her toast and biting it aggressively.
"Wow, five years and never been to Hogsmeade. Don't worry, Hunn! We'll all show you a good time!"
"That settles it! We're going to Hogsmeade, and we'll show you everything!" George yelled, clapping her on the back.
"Yeah, we can show you a good time together." Fred agreed, nudging her with his shoulder.
She looked at them all amazed. They didn't think she was weird and weren't peeved that she was the top of her house. It seemed like they honestly wanted to spend time with her. That was the first in a long time.
She really couldn't wait to spend a weekend away from her books.