Run Away ✧ Hogwarts Legacy

chapter six

Diet Soda Society by The Maine

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Trigger Warning: This chapter includes conduct that may be harmful to some readers- please see the comment for a full description of conduct. 

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Antheia Wynter was running off of flumes. It had been a long week with very little sleep. There hadn't been anything printed regarding the confirmation of her supposedly dead friend's body still and it made it difficult to sleep. Since finding the rose on her pillow she hadn't felt safe in her room. The few hours she had slept that week had been in the comfort of Nurse Blaine's office and one night when she had sneaked into the Ravenclaw Tower.

Desmond hadn't questioned her too much about the sudden need to share his bed on a weekday night. Instead, he simply agreed and let her in, letting her hide under the covers next to him until morning came. It came at the cost of a few angry eyes of a pack of raven girls when she left, but she shook it off.

"There is a small party in my common room tonight. I'm guessing that prefects will be doing rounds afterward," Desmond had explained over dinner, "If you want I can sneak into your dorm with you instead."

Antheia's throat went dry at the idea, opting to take a long hard gulp of her butterbeer instead. It was a Friday night and the tavern was bursting with life, there was a comfort in being around so many people that made her feel safer. Everywhere felt safer than her own bed.

"We promised Nellie that there would be no boys this weekend," She quickly lied. It was the best and most believable explanation that she could offer.

It wasn't that Antheia didn't want to share her bed with Desmond, but every time she was around him she worried that she would put him in danger. The fear of them finding Desmond in her bed would leave her sleepless for the rest of the night.

It already felt like eyes were watching her everywhere she went. Even just sitting in the tavern she felt like she could feel hungry eyes staring down at her and heard mumblings of her name.

Desmond Esper sat across from her with a sad smile on his face, watching as Antheia gently pushed the remaining food around her plate. Occasionally stealing bites of fried potatoes off her plate knowing she wasn't planning on finishing them. He was waiting for her to say anything. He'd been patiently waiting for days, maybe weeks.

She wasn't ready to tell him everything. It was difficult to tell him why a seemingly simple rose on her bed made her so scared without telling him all of the skeletons of her time during her fifth year.

Mostly, Antheia wasn't ready to speak of her history with Sebastian Sallow with him.

Before she could think of an excuse, she felt Desmond's hand reaching for her thigh under the table and giving it a quick squeeze, forcing her to smile for the first time in days. "Des, stop it!" She teased, grabbing playfully at his wrist under the table.

"So you can still smile?" Her boyfriend announced, "I was beginning to worry that you might have forgotten how."

Her cheeks burned at the notion. The warmth of his hand against her leg was very welcomed after the stress of the week. But part of her always felt a little shameful in such a public setting, it felt like there were eyes all over her. She had been hoping to share his bed again that night for that reason.