Dear Bright Eyes| Colin Creevey

four| private

"Where were you?" Hermione whispered at Colin. She was practically fuming, as expected, for she just missed five minutes of lecture looking for him.

Colin was already feeling guilty, of course. His chest heavy with it, Hermione doesn't have to add her stones on the pile of bricks. Something happened back there with Vi. Maybe it was something serious. He assumed she was joking at first but now he figured that she wasn't. Colin sometimes hated the fact that he thought of the best case scenario. He always thought of things way better than they are.

Once his uncle showed him pictures of people hanged for various crimes thinking that it will scare him but Colin was delighted. He thought the picture was of people flying.

And that's what's wrong with him. Everything was too bright. He never realized that everything has a shadow and then the shadow gets him in the end. It always does but he never sees it coming.

"I'm really sorry," he whispered to her before dipping his quill into his bottle of ink but she merely rolled her eyes. Of course. The brightest witch of her age doesn't have time to babysit.

Colin's robe had gotten a bit short on the sleeves, his skin scratched against the wooden desk that he shared with Hermione. The raw skin that her lips touched felt tingly and uncomfortable. But just the image of Vi's lips against his skin... It was confusing for more reasons than one. It ignited an unfamiliar feeling in the pits of his stomach. It was not unpleasant but uncomfortable and foreign. Yet...

Hermione let out a gasp as she grabbed his arm all of a sudden. "What happened to your skin?"

Colin was bewildered, snapping out of his absentminded thoughts. He quickly withdrew his arm before she got a proper look. "At the Forbidden Forest there was something..."

Before he knew it, Hermione's hand was up in the air. "Professor, Colin has been stung."

There were murmurs breaking the sound of quills against parchment. "Take him to Madam Pomfrey." Professor Flitwick commanded with a subdued tone. Obviously tired and slightly guilty now of his earlier outburst.

"Come on," Hermione pulled at him.

Colin despised lying and he technically didn't but he can't just straight out blabbing about how Vi pressed her lips and sucked on his wrist. Maybe it was a thing back in Durmstrang, he didn't want to embarrass her.

"Let me see," Hermione told him. Her hand waiting as they walked to the infirmary.

"No, it hurts, you see," Colin tried to reason. Hermione looked at him with suspicion.

Finally they arrived, the infirmary was empty, a clear contrast to all the blood spill and screams of agony that this room witnessed just months ago. As well as farewells and promises of everlasting love said between sobs and tears. Lots of those. More than a lifetime's worth of those. This room has had more than enough.

Sunshine streamed into the unoccupied white beds. Colin walked in slowly like he was actually hurt.

"What's the matter?" Madam Pomfrey walked towards them in haste. Everyone was still very much in their guard even though the war was long over.

"It's Colin- he was sent out of the classroom by Professor Flitwick and he wandered into the Forbidden Forest. I think a bee or a wasp has stung him," Hermione then turned to Colin. "Show him your wrist."

Madam Pomfrey ushered him into the nearest bed immediately. There was an urgency in her movements like Colin could potentially die. Which if he could, if a venomous creature actually bit him but Vi just sucked on his skin.