𝓓𝓸𝓾𝓫𝓵𝓮 𝓓𝓮𝓿𝓸𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓼 - [EDITING]

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓢𝓲𝔁

I open my eyes, squinting in the bright sterile light. My head aches from the loss of blood.

"She's awake!" Two faces mar my vision. If I were standing I'm sure I would've jumped back a mile.

"And she's just about had a heart attack because two certain people just scared her half to death!" I cross my arms.

The twins ignore me and simply stare at me with matching expressions of relief and fear.

"We thought we'd killed you!" Fred exclaims, leaning in for a hug.

I scoff and hug him back, relishing in his warmth. "This girl? Killed by a candy? A candy created by you guys? Never. But you did land me in the hospital wing and I'm not pleased about that."

"Just glad you're alright, Gwenny." George takes his brother's place in wrapping me within an embrace.

"Back up! Back up!" Madam Pomfrey pushes through the boys. "At last! You're awake. Take a swig of this and you'll be right." She hands me a red bottle and pinches Fred's and George's ears, pulling them closer to make herself clear. "I don't want to see any more students in the hospital wing because of your antics this year. You hear me?"

Both boys rub their ears and mouth 'ow!' I chuckle and pop the lid off the potion meant to replenish blood cells. "Bottoms up!"

I tip the contents of the bottle into the medicine cup and swallow the gurgling crimson liquid. The moment the substance hits my throat, it's as though fire is burning a hole straight through the tissue. I moan and claw at my neck as the liquid seeps down, straight to my heart. A bomb explodes there, but when I look down, my chest is fully intact. Panting from the agony, I realize that the throbbing in my head has gone and, besides feeling out of breath and as though there's something in my throat devouring me from the inside out, I'm fine.

"Don't just stand there and gawk," I demand hoarsely, "get me some water!" My throat feels like I swallowed a thousand tiny needles and each one clawed a bloody crevice on the way down.

George hands me a glass and I chug, letting the cool liquid pave its own path of comfort down my throat. "Thanks," I pant.

I clamber out of the bed and throw two sharp punches at each of the freckled noses, keeping my thumb outside of my fist as my father had taught me on multiple occasions. Satisfied by their moaning and the tiny stream of red by their nostrils, I shake out my fist and grab my wand. The spell comes easily. "Episkey!"

"Oi, Gwen, what was that for?" Fred massages his nose.

I shrug, a smug grin on my face. "For landing me in the hospital wing. Now that I'm feeling better, though, I've got an itch to cause mischief. Would you like to see something I've been working on?"

They grin, sparkly white. "Would we ever," they exclaim at the same time.

"Then let us be off!" I loop my arm through each of theirs and skip out of the room.

—

Once we've settled down in a room, empty save for a few pouffes like those in Trewlaney's classroom, I rifle through the pockets of my robes for my notebook.

"Blimey, where is it?" I shrug out of the black cloak and shake it out in search of the book. A soft thunk sounds and I bend down to grab it. Before I can, a hand clutches my wrist.

"Gwen," George's eyebrows lower in concern as he pushes up the nearly translucent sleeves of my dress shirt. "What's this?"

I pull away quickly. "Just a stain. Spilled tea on it earlier and was too lazy to clean it," I lie, tugging the robe on again to cover the yellowing bruises.

"Are you sure-"

"Yes. I'm sure! It's my body, I know it best." Guilt fills my belly, I didn't mean to snap. I try to grin. "Ok, first idea," I read out of the journal and ignore the puzzled looks on the boys' faces. "What if we bewitched my glasses to have the test answers? They've seen bewitched quills, but I think this could really fool them!"

I look up expectantly, eyebrows raised in excitement. George and Fred don't look amused. I don't like it when they're serious. It makes me nervous.

"Gwen, who did that?" Fred insists. "Has your dad been- hurting you?"

A lump grows in my throat. "I'm fine. Don't worry about it."

"Prove it."

"W- what?" I say.

George nods expectantly. "If you're fine, prove it. Take off your shirt- I mean, no, not that. That's not what I meant. Your sleeves. Roll up your sleeves." His face flushes as red as his hair and I probably would've burst out laughing if not for the graveness of the conversation.

"Forgot I was a girl, did ya?" I attempt to make a joke of it, crossing my fingers they'll forget. "I am rather good at acting like one of the guys!"

"Gwen." Fred's voice is scarily low.

Don't cry. I tell myself. Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. Slowly, my fingers fumble with the button at my wrist and tears prick at my eyes no matter how hard I try to force them not to. Once the button is undone, George carefully pulls back the fabric, revealing my father's masterpiece. I turn my head so I don't have to face either of them.

"Oh Gwen." George's voice is laced with sadness as his thumb gently caresses the yellowing bruises on my skin.

Fred, on the other hand, fumes. "Who did this?" He demands. "It was your father, wasn't it? I'm gonna kill him. I'll kill him."

No need, Freddy, I think. He's already dead.

*A/N I gotta know, who do you ship Gwen with and why? Fred or George?*