Songbird ; Fred Weasley

Eighty-five

I hadn't slept at all last night.

I had tossed and turned all night while Fred slept like a baby, cuddled up with Dora who was chewing on her teething ring even in her sleep.

Fred went to work this morning because he couldn't stay away any longer, and he dropped off the girls with his parents because I'm exhausted.

As I walked down the stairs after taking an hour-long nap, I noticed a very annoying laughter come from the living room.

Cassidy.

If Cassidy was here, that meant August was here.

I folded my arms over my chest, marching into the living room, and the voices immediately died down.

Everyone looked at me, but I looked straight at August.

"Hey." He breathed, offering me a smile.

I grabbed the first thing I could reach, and I threw it at him with all the strength I had.

It turned out to be a notebook, and he dodged it, watching it land on the floor before he looked at me again, his smile dropped.

"Took you three weeks to come home, huh?" I asked. "Let me guess. You didn't receive the letter we sent you the day after we were saved?"

"Mavis—"

"Daniel was gone for eighteen years and once he's found, it takes you all of three weeks to return home?!"

"Mavis, it's alright..." Daniel said softly, pulling himself off the sofa.

"No! It's not okay!" I exclaimed. "He doesn't even care about this family! He doesn't give a shit about any of us, because if he did, he would've gotten here sooner! He's a horrible fucking person and you shouldn't be defending him!"

"Don't talk about him like that." Cassidy spoke, narrowing her eyes at me. "You're pathe—"

"And you!" I yelled, pointing at her. "Don't you dare meddle in this! Mind your own fucking business or get the fuck out of this house!"

She stared at me in shock, then turned towards August.

"I told you she's batshit crazy."

August frowned at that but didn't look at his girlfriend.

"She's not crazy." He but out, glancing at her for a second before addressing me. "I'm sorry. You're right. I should've been here sooner, but the fact is that I'm a coward and I couldn't face it. Any of it. Daniel returning, or the fact that he had been kidnapped for almost two decades. I couldn't face that you, Reuben, Spencer and Eliza got kidnapped as well. Because if I had to face it, that meant it was true."

"It was true!" I yelled. "For all of us! We didn't get to hide and act like it never happened!"

"But that's just what you're doing, isn't it?" Max's voice caused me to turn and look at him, seeing the pitying look on his face. "Maves... baby, I love you, but you're living in some sort of denial. You brush it off like it wasn't some traumatising thing. You refuse to go to therapy because you insist that you're fine, yet you have these panic attacks and you freak out on people in the way you're doing right now. Plus, Flynn and I are just next door to you, we hear you wake up from nightmares at night, and we hear you rush into the bathroom to throw up. You sleep with a light on because suddenly you're terrified of the dark, and you don't even go near the door to the basement. That experience, traumatised you and you're acting like it never happened."

I shook my head, not because it wasn't true, because it was definitely true, but because I didn't like hearing him say it.

"Don't defend him." I whispered, bringing a hand up to rub at my forehead which was hurting.