| Inked | (George Weasley)

Chapter Forty-Eight

"Ollie!"

"Olls!"

"Come on, Olls."

Everything seemed to slow down around Olive, her ears ringing and vision hazy and distorted. Her feet felt like lead, her head felt like someone had stuffed cotton between her ears. Students were grabbing what they could and running, not wanting to get caught intoxicated on castle grounds.

However, as much as Olive wanted to move, she couldn't.

She was angry. Ollie was always the one who got picked on in the friend group. Never in her time at Hogwarts did she expect someone to be mean to Natalie like that. She was tall, pretty, funny, and extremely kind to those she cared about.

And Jasper Quell had the audacity to call her out. To say stuff about Nat that Olive was pretty sure the blonde wasn't ready to talk about yet with anyone.

Olive felt sick to her stomach. She was angry, but also felt sad and hurt for her best friend. All she could focus on was the pain in her left hand and the tightened feeling in her chest she could only categorize as panic.

Was she having a panic attack? Or was it just the firewhisky messing with her head and senses?

Someone grabbed her arm gently, pulling her away from the clearing. Olive opened her mouth to protest, but nothing came out. Everything was dazed and hazy, like a dark film had coated all of Ollie's senses and she was disconnected from all that was going on around her.

"Olls."

Olive looked up, her eyes droopy. George had taken her hand, and Fred was just behind him. Where was Cho and Natalie? Where was Cedric?

What was even happening?

"George, is she okay?"

"I dunno... she's had a few."

"Enough to punch Quell straight between the eyes."

Olive's hair tinged blood red at the roots at the mention of Jasper. She was obviously angry, not to mention extremely worried for Natalie. She didn't deserve all this trouble on her birthday.

"Olls, we're going to get you out of here." George said, speaking carefully and clearly, "Okay?"

She blinked a few times, looking around. She had begun to move her feet in the direction George was taking her. The air changed from the smoky scent of firewhisky and a bonfire to crisp leaves and water off the Black Lake. It was refreshing, and the change in air seemed to bring Olive slightly back to her senses.

"I punched someone." She whispered, staring at her left hand. Her thumb and middle two knuckles ached and throbbed. She cut one of her knuckles on Jasper's glasses, a small trickle of blood starting to form where the skin broke.

She tried to wiggle her fingers, but the aching pain rose from the movement, causing her eyes to pick with tears.

Fred and George led her through a passageway that ran underneath the castle, their wands lighting the way.

"You really did punch him." Fred mused, "How did it feel?"

"Fred." George gave his brother a pointed look.

Olive shrugged, "It felt terrible."

She squinted her eyes to see in the dim lighting, stumbling on the unfamiliar ground. Her left hand, despite being hurt, gripped onto George's jumper tightly to keep her balance.

"You okay?" George asked, "We have some stairs coming up, are you going to be alright?"

The girl gave an awkward shrug, "I think so?"