Hiding Bruises

Hiding Bruises- Chapter 18- Countdown

I lay on my bed looking up at the ceiling, my head was starting to hurt and I had no idea what to wear to the party. I could feel bruises coming up on my back already so nothing backless or strapless.

Sirius had walked me all the way up to the stairs, all the way fusing over me and trying to convince me to go to Madam Pomfrey. I really didn’t want to go to her as this would be the second time this week and she might start wondering where I was getting all these injuries from, especially if she noticed any of the bruises.

I got up from the bed and went into the bathroom; I looked at myself in the mirror. The blood was starting to dry on my head, congealing in my hair, plastering it to my head. I had already healed the cut so I decided to have a shower to wash of the blood.

The water in the shower was warm, it ran over my skin, caressing it, warming it, soothing it, as it had done so many times before. I looked over my body as I stood there; it was covered in purple and blue bruises. My back was now covered in the things, like a patchwork of blue and purple occasionally dotted with white skin.

I stepped out of the shower and wrapped myself in a fluffy white towel. I wiped myself dry and went back into the dorm, still wrapped in the towel. I quickly pulled on the first clothes I could find and snuggled into my bed under my quilt.

I lay there in peace for a minute and then Lily, Emmeline, Alice and Marlene came into the dorm, laughing and chatting and wiping the left over snow of their clothes.

Lily spotted me lying in bed, “Are you ok?” she asked, rushing over to me, “Sirius said something happened to you, you walked into a tree or something.” Across the room Marlene snorted.

“I’m ok,” I said, “just wanted to have a little lie-down before the party.”

“Well, we’re starting to get ready so are you going to get up?” asked Lily.

“Yeah,” I said, starting to pull myself up from the bed. I swung my legs over the side and went over to my bag. I started searching round for something to wear.

I put on some nice jeans that I had got over the summer holidays but not a chance to wear yet. Then I got out a bright red satin top with long flowing sleeves and a cross over neckline. I pulled them on quickly and got back on the bed.

“You look nice,” said Lily, smiling.

“Thanks,” I said, looking up at her. She looked stunning, she was wearing a short (yet not too short) skirt and green top that hung of her shoulders and matched her eyes. “You look great.”

“Trying to impress someone Lily?” asked Marlene from across the room. Her skirt was defiantly too short, it was black and tight and she was wearing a dark blue top that showed of her breasts, as in they were practically popping out of her top.

“No,” said Lily, blushing.

Just then Molly rushed into the dorm, “Oh, you’re still here, good,” she said, “I thought you might of gone already.”

She quickly started going through her bag looking for clothes to wear, she pulled out a denim skirt and light blue strapless top.

I glanced around, Emmeline and Alice was wearing jeans like me and Emmeline had on a purple vest top with a grey cardigan. Alice had on a halter neck pink top.

“Tina,” said Lily, looking at me, “you know your hairs wet right?”

“Oh shit,” I said and jumped out of bed. I grabbed my wand from the bedside table and muttered the drying spell. My hair fell down past my shoulders, it was slightly wavy but I couldn’t be bothered straightening it so I let it stay that way as we all went out of the girl’s dorm.

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The party hadn’t been very eventful so far and I was sat on the couch drinking some fire whiskey. Music was playing loudly and some people were dancing, I noticed Marlene flailing around on the dance floor with a Ravenclaw guy from the year above us.

Molly had disappeared quite a while ago with Arthur Weasley and I saw Alice following her boyfriend, Frank Longbottom, out of the door. Emmeline was standing by the dance floor talking to Remus, neither of them looked like they wanted to dance but they did look like they were having a nice chat.

“Do you think he likes her?” Lily said form her place beside me on the sofa.

“What?” I asked, distracted.

“Remus and Emmeline,” said Lily.

“I don’t know,” I said, looking back at them. I hadn’t really thought about it before but now I thought of it I did remember Emmeline looking at Remus in a slightly dreamy way, and mentioning him a lot.

“They make a cute couple,” said Lily.

“Yeah,” I said, “maybe we should get them to kiss at the end of the new year countdown.”

“Yes,” said Lily, grinning evilly.

“I was joking,” I said unsurely.

“Well, I wasn’t,” said Lily, getting up from the sofa.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

Lily tapped her nose knowingly at me, “you’ll have to wait and see,” she said, “I’ve had a very good idea now.” She skipped away, leaving me sitting alone with a feeling that I had just started something that would end quite badly for quite a few people.

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3rd Person

“Hello,” said a voice behind James shoulder, he spun round to see Lily standing there, grinning at him cheekily. She looked gorgeous.

“Hi,” he said, “you look great.”

“Thanks,” she said, smiling coyly at him now, “you look pretty good yourself.”

“Thanks,” he said, “so to what do I owe the pleasure?” he asked.

Lily bit her lip in a way that told him she was very excited about what she was about to say, “you’re going to help me set people up,” she said, “for the new year kiss.”

“Right,” he said slowly, “who?”

“Remus and Emmeline,” said Lily, “and… Sirius and Tina.” She squealed excitedly.

“Are you sure that Remus and Emmeline like each other?”

“Yes,” she said, looking at him and laughing, “look at them.”

James looked over at Emmeline and Remus, they were chatting happily. “Well, I don’t know, they’re just talking.”

“Boys,” said Lily, “it’s obvious, trust me.”

“Ok,” he said, “I’ll help you,” he said slowly, “if…” he trailed of.

“If what?” asked Lily curiously.

“If I get a kiss at new year too,” said James, looking at his shoes.

Lily giggled, “ok,” she said.

James looked up, amazed, “Seriously? You’re not going to slap me?”

“Would you prefer that?” asked Lily.

“No, no, of course not,” said James quickly.

Lily laughed, “I was joking.”

“Oh,” said James, turning red.

“Anyway,” said Lily, “when the count down starts, we have to get them near each other, so they’ll have to kiss. You get Sirius to the middle of the floor and I’ll get Tina.”

“Umm, ok,” said James, “what about Remus and Emmeline?”

“Oh, I don’t think they’ll move away from each other,” said Lily, “but if you do see them drifting apart get them back next to each other.”

“Umm, ok,” said James, “what about us?”

“You don’t need to think about that,” said Lily, turning away from him, “you just keep up your side of the bargain and I’ll do mine.” And with that, she was gone into the crowd of people on the dance floor.

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Tina’s P.O.V.

I was sitting on the sofa still, looking around, bored, when Sirius came over.

“Hey,” he said, handing me a new drink.

“Hi, “ I said, taking the drink, “thanks.”

He sat down next to me on the sofa, “how’s your head?” he asked.

“Oh, it’s fine,” I told him.

He lifted his hand and stroked it across my head, brushing my hair away form my scalp, “I can’t see a scratch,” he told me.

“I healed it,” I said.

“You must be good at it,” he told me, “it seemed like a pretty bad cut.”

“It wasn’t too bad,” I said. I was actually very good at all healing charms and spells, from all the practice I had had over the years, I wasn’t about to tell him that though. I lifted up my hand to brush through my ruffled hair and as I did so the loose sleeve of my shirt fell all the way down my arm. I saw his eyes widen as he spotted a strange purplish colour covering the skin on my upper arm. I dropped my arm back down to my side, pulling my sleeve over it.

“Hey,” he said, “Can I see your arm?”

“Uh,” I said, not moving. “I better be going actually, I need to find Lily.” I stood up but he pulled me back down and grabbed my arm. He pulled my sleeve up to see the bruises covering it.

“Where are these from?” he asked.

“I’ve got to go, really,” I said, trying to leave.

He stopped me, pulling the loose material aside, so he could see my shoulder, which was also covered in bruises, then he pulled it up my back. I heard an intake of breath when he saw all the bruises there, in different stages of severity, some blue or purple, some a horrible greeny-yellow colour and some just starting to fade away. “What the fuck?” I heard him ask himself.

“Please, get off me,” I said to him, standing up and pulling my arms around myself. I turned to look at him, still sitting on the sofa, looking up at me with wide eyes.

“Where did you get all them?” he asked me.

“I just trip and fall and walk into stuff,” I said, “I’m really clumsy and I bruise easily.” He looked at me in a hurt way, pleading to me with his eyes, begging me to tell him the truth. “I’ll see you later Sirius,” I said, and pelted away from him.

I went to the window and stared out, it was still completely white outside and I could see footprints going round and round in the snow. There were somemen and igloos scattered around the grounds.

“Hey!” said someone from behind me.

I turned to see Emmeline smiling happily at me, “Hey Em,” I said, “how are you?”

“I’m good,” she said, “Remus is just getting me a drink,” she gestured towards the drinks table were I could see Remus pouring a glass of butter bear for Emmeline.

“Oh,” I said, “Emmeline?” I said tentatively.

“Yes?” she said, looking wary.

“Do you like Remus?” I asked.

“As in like like?” she replied, turning bright red. I nodded. “Um, well, I’m not sure yet really, I don’t know, I think I might,” she said, going even redder then before.

I grinned at her, “that’s really nice, he’s lovely, and I think he likes you back.”

“Really?” she asked, looking giddy at the thought.

“Yeah,” I said, “you should kiss him at new year.”

“Umm, well I don’t know about that,” said Emmeline, fidgeting.

Remus sidled up to us, “I got you your drink,” he said, passing it over to Emmeline.

“Thanks Remus,” he said, taking the drink and beaming at him so hard I thought he face might split.

Remus stared at her for a moment, smiling back, with and incredibly dreamy look in his eyes, then he turned to me, “Sorry, I didn’t get you a drink Tina, would you like one?”

“No thanks,” I said, “I was just going to go out for a bit of fresh air actually.”

As I started walking away from them Remus asked me if I was ok, I told him I was. “It’s just, Sirius said you, uh, walked into a tree or something,” he said, staring at the ground, obviously feeling uncomfortable.

“Oh, I did, but I’m fine now, it was nothing, really, I’m sure he was just blowing it our of proportion.”

“He said your head was bleeding,” said Remus, looking up at me.

“Really?” asked Emmeline, “why didn’t you tell us, are you ok? I mean, I knew you’d hurt yourself but I didn’t realise it was that bad.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” I said, shooting what I hoped was a reassuring smile at them. “I’ll be off now,” I said, as I walked away.

Once I was in the corridor I went over to the window, it was larger then the one inside and I pushed the top of it open. I stood on the windowsill so I could breathe in the cold air. I sat down on the floor by the window; I closed my eyes and breathed slowly, trying to calm myself.

Sirius was definitely starting to think something was up, he had seen all the bruises, and he wasn’t going to fall for my mumbled lies about walking into tables and chairs and tripping over. I couldn’t think of anything more believable to tell him though, so that would have to do for the time being. I mean, they were actually from chairs and walls and tables and stuff, it was just that Bella was pushing me into all of them. So I wasn’t really lying, was I? I was just sort of hiding some of the truth, wasn’t I?

“Tina!” I heard someone squeal, it was Lily. “I’ve been looking all over for you! The countdown’s about to start! Come on!” She grabbed me and started pulling me back towards the door to the room.

“I don’t really mind, I’ll just listen from out here,” I said, trying to break her vice-like grip on my arm.

“No, no, no,” she said as she pulled me back into the crowded room, “you are coming in here, I will not have you being anti-social and ruining my evening!”

“How is me sitting outside going to ruin your evening?” I asked her.

“Because! Ok?”

“Ok, fine that,” I said, giving up and letting her pull me into the centre of the room just as people started to count.

“10, 9, 8, 7, 6…”

Lily let go of my arm causing me to trip and fall, a strong pair of arms caught me.

“5, 4…”

“Ooops, are you ok?” asked a voice above me.

“3, 2…”

I looked up to see Sirius looking down at me his eyes full of concern.

“1,” he said as he leaned down a kissed me softly on the lips. “Happy new year,” he said to me.

“Happy new year,” I echoed.

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3rd Person

“10, 9, 8, 7, 6…”

Lily pulled Tina through the crowd, searching for Sirius, when she saw him she let go of Tina and ran over to the boy standing behind him, with his back to her.

“5, 4…”

“Hey,” she said, tapping him lightly on the back. He spun round and his troubled face light up when he saw her standing there, in front of him.

“3, 2…”

“I thought you weren’t coming,“ he said, but she cut him of, placing her finger gently on his lips.

“Shhh,” she whispered soothingly as she leaned up to kiss him.

“1” screamed everyone else, Lily drew away from James, his eyes were wide with joy and for once he was speechless.

“Happy new year,” she said, grinning shyly at him, letting her hair fall across her face, hiding her flushed cheeks.

“Happy new year!” James screamed as he grabbed her and hugged her lifting her up into the air, whooping and cheering along with everyone else.

“James,” she said, pulling at his hands around her waist, “put me down, you’re embarrassing me.”

“I don’t care,” he said laughing at her, he put her down though, “you’re mine to embarrass,” he whispered as he leaned in to kiss her again.

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3rd Person

Emmeline and Remus were still standing together by the window, away from everyone else, when the countdown started.

“10,9…”

“You know,” said Emmeline, looking at her feet, “ you’re meant to kiss someone you love when they get to one.”

“8, 7…”

Remus looked around, “hmm,” he said, feigning confusion, “who should I kiss then?”

“6, 5…”

Emmeline went bright red and turned away, her eyes stinging with tears.

“4, 3…”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her around, “I was joking silly,” he said, pulling her closer to him. “I know exactly who I want to kiss.”

“2”

Emmeline looked up at him, he tear filled eyes shining with hope, “who?” she asked quietly.

“1”

“You,” he said, leaning down and kissing her ever so lightly on the lips.

“Oh,” she said.

“That’s only if you want me to, I mean,” said Remus, turning bright red.

“Of course I do,” he said, looking incredulous.

His face split into a wide grin and he put his arms round her, just as the music started up again. And they stood there, circling slowly, their arms wrapped around each other, each one beaming happily at the other.