Stepping Into The Light (Hidden Under Darkness Sequel)

Chapter 3

**George’s POV**

“We-We’re what?” I stammer, shock rolling over me like a turbulent ocean. See? I’m so shocked I’m talking in similies!

“We’re over,” Fairlight repeats, her tone still firm and cold, detached. I stare into her cold, black eyes.

“But… Why?” my voice sounds desperate, clingy. Fairlight shrugs.

“I dislike you,” she replies, “I never really liked you. Everything that happened between us was a mistake. An act. I wanted to give my sisters a taste of their own medicine, remember? Now I have and there’s no use in pretending any longer.”

I feel a cold shiver run down my spine.

“So… All this time… You’ve been… Pretending?” I ask, feeling warm tears tingle in my eyes.

“Yep,” Fairlight nods, “sorry George. I don’t do the whole love thing.”

I watch as she walks from the room. I brush the tears impatiently from my eyes. I feel so used! I pull my wand from my robes and red sparks fly from the end.

Everything was a lie. A complete waste of time.

Without thinking I swipe my wand through the air and half the living room explodes. The force of the blow throws me across the room and I land on my back, shattered glass falling around me. As I sit up shards get caught in my hands.

“George? Are you alright?” Mum cries, running in and dropping to her knees by my side, followed closely by Fred and Sirius.

“I’m fine,” I mutter, looking at my bloody hands. Now Fairlight and I match.

“Reparo,” Sirius says, sweeping his wand across the room. Mum takes my hands gently in hers and examines them.

“Come down to the kitchen,” she says softly, “we’ll get you cleaned up.”

“What happened?” Fred murmurs. I give him a look and I see realisation dawn in his eyes. That’s one thing I really love about Fred. He gets me without words. Sometimes I don’t even need to look at him and he- Sorry, I’m being sentimental.

“Sit down, dear,” Mum says, “Freddie, could you get a bowl of warm water and some towels?”

Mum looks over my hands and sighs.

“I think we’ll have to do this the muggle way,” she says, “I don’t want to risk driving the glass in further by using magic.”

“It’s going to hurt, isn’t it?” I ask as she conjures up a pair of tweezers. She purses her lips and holds one of my hands, palm up. Fred puts the bowl of water and the towels on the table, a frown pulling his eyebrows together. Mum chooses a piece of glass and begins extracting it.

“AH!” I cry, scrunching my other hand up.

“Fred, dear, hold his other hand open,” Mum says, grimacing as she lays aside the blood soaked piece of glass. Fred struggles with me for a moment to unfurl my fist then holds it open as firmly as he can without touching any of the glass or blood.

Fred isn’t good with blood. It makes him dizzy. Even now he’s staring determinedly at the wall opposite.

“What happened?” Mum asks as she works to pull a jagged piece out. I grit my teeth and try not to think about the pain.

“Accident,” I say through my teeth, “lost control.”

“Oh, Georgie,” Mum sighs.

“Can we not talk?” I grimace. She nods once and focuses on my hand. Fred holds my other hand more securely as I try to ball it into a fist.