Protector {Completed}

Chapter 6

"Why didn't you guys wait for us!" Ron said in his loud voice as Hestia flinched, Marcus immediately noticing the reaction was about to step forward when Hermione confidently stood in front of the siblings and faced Ron, "Well Ronald, I don't know if you remember, but Sirius had been very angry at the way you and the rest of the Weasley's treated Hestia and Marcus, so we were told to go on ahead. If you are going to make a huge scene about this, kindly leave as there will be other patrons coming into Madame Malkin's shop for fitting." Ron was stunned into silence as he looked open mouthed between his best friends and Marcus, "This is all your fault Flint!" Came the now screeching voice of Ginny Weasley, "Hestia was fine with us! She had her family! Why did you have to come in and ruin everything? She was perfectly safe with us!" With each statement made by the youngest Weasley, she stalked forward till she was standing right in front of Marcus and her hand was raised as if she was going to slap him, however, no one had noticed Hestia getting gradually more angry as the conversation continued till it came to boiling point. She grabbed Ginny's hand and looked at her straight in her eyes, at that moment, the green eyes she inherited from her mother Lily,almost seemed like it was black as she slightly pressed down on the girls wrist making her hiss in pain. "Ginny,because you are my friend and I still view the Weasley's as my allies, I have not broken your wrist, But if you even get that much closer to Marcus again with any ill intent, I'll not hesitate to show you the dark spells I have learnt to combat against Voldemort." She let go of Ginny's wrist as the younger female looked at the older girl with slight fear in her eyes.

"So this entire time you two have lived together, slept in the same room, even pretended to date and you two still haven't even snogged yet?" Hermione asked Hestia incredulously, Hestia hid her face behind her hands in embarrassment, honestly she only wanted to know if Hermione thought she was silly for finding Marcus attractive, "Don't forget I used to see him in a towel." She mumbled, Hermione's eyes bulged out of her sockets as she hurriedly sat down next to Hestia and squealed. Hermione was never one to freak out over much, but Hestia was glad to have a female best friend she could drool over boys with. "So so tell me everything! Is his muscles really that bulging? Like how he looks when he wears those old shirts of Sirius's? And also does he have scars on his back and chest from quidditch or fighting? I heard some of the older girls talking about it." With a growing red face, Hestia laid back on her bed with closed eyes, "He has...rather large muscles, they're intimidating at first, like it seems he might hurt you accidentally but he's rather gentle. He has small criss cross scars, that look like a mix of cuts on his chest, when I first saw it, I originally thought they were self-harm injuries..." She mumbled the last part. Hestia's eyes were still shut as Hermione's tone of voice changed, indicating worry, "Are you still cutting your thighs?..." Her silence was answer enough as the two girls were then shocked out of their conversation, by the rather irate and imposing Marcus Flint standing by the door, his fist slammed into the wooden frame of the door.

After Marcus practically kicked Hermione out of the room, he and Hestia stared at each other in an uncomfortable silence. Well he stared, she looked at the floor, playing with her necklace. "You cut yourself?" He asked, his voice soft and calm. But she knew better, staying with him all those weeks made her wise; When Marcus's voice went calm, he was beyond furious and close to snapping. Fidgeting with her fingers Hestia stayed silent, she didn't know what to say, she couldn't tell him how she felt when she did it. "Hestia I asked you a fucking question and by Merlin I need you to answer it before I lose my fucking cool." Marcus's voice grew harsher with each word and she collectively gulped before she spoke. The last time her voice felt so small, was when she was with the Dursley's, "Yes, I started at the end of second year." Marcus's jaw flexed, somewhere deep inside he could feel her being afraid, but the anger that he felt was overwhelming him at the moment, "So what's the fucking purpose? To kill yourself? End your life? I'm sorry Hestia I get that you had a rather crappy childhood and an even crappier upbringing but a lot of kids have gone through much worse!" Hestia felt herself slightly break, Marcus was not seeing it from her perspective, he was looking at it from the angle of 'there are worse cases out there'. "I'm here to protect you Hestia there's nothing to worry about anymore so I don't understand why-" "Stop it" Marcus looked back at her confused, "Excuse me?" Hestia stared at Marcus, her tears now threatening to spill over, "Stop it. Stop trying to psychoanalyze my life as if it is like everyone else's. No one had their parents killed because a psychopath is after them. The only person who could remotely understand how i felt would be Neville Longbottom. No one had to live with a family whom hated them for years, just for them to hate you even more when you find out you have something that makes you spcecial, not everyone has a mad man threatening to kill off everyone you love and enslave an entire community therefore the world. And lastly, no one, has the fate of the wizarding world on their shoulders, no ones being watched the way I am being watched, I have no control of my life, so cutting? Cutting is the only thing that gave me any control over some aspect of my life. I could control when i felt the pain, i could control when i wanted to stop. There was no one holding me at wandpoint and here I thought you'd understand, I thought maybe just maybe the guy who was protecting me would understand why I hurt myself." Marcus was silent the entire rant, "How am I supposed to protect you when the person whose the biggest threat is yourself? I care for you Hestia you're the greatest friend I could ever ask for but you're doing all this." If Marcus had ever seen Hestia's mood drop it was never as fast as he saw it now. "Friend huh?....I guess that's right." She mumbled as she walked out before he could ask her what she meant. Hermione had been standing there for the last part of the conversation and shook her head in disappointment. "What? What did I say wrong?" Hermione looked to see how far Hestia had gone before she spoke, "A lot,you said a lot of things wrong. But the main thing was the friend line." Marcus still looked very confused, "You've been protecting her since the beginning of first term, you've let her sit on your lap, you've held her close to you, fought for her,left your family for her, saved her numerous times, you even pretended to date her at her house, for gods sake you share a room Flint! How thick can you be to not see? She's been in love with you for weeks!".