Again

Chapter 15: Cecilia

*three years ago*

He opened the door to the library and looked around the unfamiliar and enormous room; he'd been in school for two weeks, but he had never set foot in the library before. It was two floors, full of tables and bookshelves, and a wall of windows on one side to let the sun in, only that day there was no sun; it was raining and cloudy and freezing cold.

He scanned the tables and shelf lined aisles looking for Cecilia in the nearly deserted library. He found her curled up in an arm chair in the farthest part of the room, her legs in blue knee socks dangled in the air and she looked content to stay there forever. He smirked as he approached her, but frowned as she suddenly sat up and closed the book, hopping out of her seat and looking around a bit frantically before realizing it was only Harry. She blushed in embarrassment and sighed in relief.

 Harry noticed, then his eyes trailed to the slightly purple bruise on her cheek and she noticed him noticing that. She shook her hair down into her face to block it from view. He immediately pushed the curls back behind her ear. It surprised her that she didn't recoil from the feel of his fingers against her skin. But this touch was gentle, so much more careful than what she'd come to expect from being touched by men.

"What happened?"

"I was reaching for a can in the pantry and it fell and hit me in the face...Lets go sit down."

"Okay," he gestured for her to lead the way and she did, as he followed her towards a row of tables by the windows he spoke words she hadn't anticipated hearing. "But I've been in enough fights to know bruises, and that looks an awful lot like someone hit you."

He tried to keep himself calm at the thought of it and took his seat, but as she hesitantly took hers he stared straight into her eyes.

"N-no...I'm just clumsy." She smiled shyly down at the table and then looked up at him again, her cheeks slowly going back to that embarrassed shade of red. "So, what should we work on..."

She was desperate to change the subject. Of all the people who had asked about the bruise that day, Harry was the only one who blatantly questioned her story. He sighed and pulled a crumpled sheet of paper out of his pocket. He watched her as she read it, but his mind was hardly on grades any more. He knew better than to accept her story about falling cans; he was intent on finding out who gave her that bruise and where he could find them.

"You shouldn't lie to me. I thought we were friends."

"We are!" She looked up from the paper and placed her hand gently on his. The sight of it made a smile creep across his face. Cecilia remembered herself, then quickly gave his hand a reassuring pat before pulling hers away from it. "I'm fine, really. I promise."

Her smile was so sweet and genuine he was tempted to believe her, but something in her eyes told him he shouldn't.

"Would you tell me if there was something wrong?"

She blushed and her eyes fell back to the paper on the table.

"Well...honestly? No...I wouldn't."

"But I thought we were friends!"

"We Are Friends, Harry!" She looked upset to think that he thought she didn't like him. She hated to hurt anyone's feelings, and something told her he was different from the other boys in school, from other people in general: something about him felt trustworthy. "But we aren't good friends...yet! And even if we were, I still wouldn't tell you, I don't tell people my business. Besides I just met you, I don't know you well enough to trust you-"

"So something is wrong, you just don't trust me!"

"Harry, I think we should get to work!"

"No, I want to talk about this, if someone is hurting you..."