The yelling filled the room, a dull ache at Astrid’s temples as she tried to catch everything everyone was saying.

It was good they had found somewhere besides the library to meet tonight because Madam Pince might have actually cursed them if they had reached the decibels they were reaching in her library.

As it was, the empty classroom had been dark and eerily quiet before they had invaded it.

“We can’t just stop!” Penny trilled, raising her voice to be heard above Bill, Barnaby, and Rowan. “My sister is in one of those portraits. If we stop now, she never gets out and she might actually become a real painting forever!”

“I’m just saying!” Rowan interjected again, “there is no guarantee Peeves even has the portrait! We can’t all go risk getting expelled over a hunch!”

Penny glared at Rowan.

“It’s not just risking getting expelled!” Barnaby said, “If any of us go into a cursed vault again, we would be risking our lives! Ben’s been cursed! Rowan and Bill have nearly died! All of us have been hurt at one point or another!”

“What other choice do we have?” Bill said, a little quieter than the others, “we have to break the curse on the vaults. We have to risk our lives.”

“No,” Astrid stood, her head throbbing, her tight lips tired, “no, you don’t.” She looked around at each of them, Bill, Barnaby, Rowan, Penny, Ben, Tonks, Jae, Tulip, Diego… Charlie. She couldn’t risk any of them. “None of you are risking your lives. We are done.”

And with that, she darted from the room.

She could barely see past the tears streaming from her face, the water making everything blurry as she scrambled through the corridors, past several classrooms, and down a set of stairs.

Her legs started to get tired beneath her, the running not helping, but wearying her and she stumbled, almost falling headfirst down the stairs, before she caught herself, pulling to a stop.

The dull thump of her falling echoed in her ears as Astrid fumbled to sit on the stone steps.

She couldn’t do it anymore. It all felt like a weight, like a pressure on her that she couldn’t stand, that she wanted to just throw off, but couldn’t get her hands beneath.

The darkness was closing in again. She felt it. It was feeding off of the continued absence of her brother, off of every injury her friends sustained because of her, the school sustained because of her. She knew it would keep coming. It would overwhelm her. She naturally blocked it and let the numbness start instead.

She wanted to leave everything behind. It was too hard. She couldn’t be what everyone wanted her to be. She couldn’t even be everything that she herself wanted her to be.

But she heard a dull thump beside her as someone sat down next to her on the cold stone steps.

Charlie had followed her.

Of course, he always did.

He stayed beside her, not saying anything, not demanding her to look at him or do anything or smile to make him feel like she was okay. He just sat.

She kept her palms pressed tightly to her forehead, crouched down and then eventually leaned sideways, falling into the wall, her palm still pressed into her tears.

She couldn’t face him or anyone right now.

She felt gentle pressure as his hand touched her arm and then she felt his head press into her shoulder.

“Don’t worry,” he whispered, “we’ll find him.”

A sob escaped her.

“I ca-ca-can’t do it, Charlie. I can’t do it anymore.”

He stopped, his tender rubbing of her arm freezing, not responding immediately, but pondering her words and his, as he always did, “that girl I met last year was no quitter,” he finally said softly.

“That girl was a fool,” she said finally, looking up at him, into his eyes, eyes that shone like fire. “She was a fool to think that she could do this, that she could waltz into Hogwarts and tear down every cursed vault. She was a fool to think that she could save her brother. The Great Astrid Blackwood! Master Curse-breaker and Hogwarts Hero! Everything she did was for herself and she was kidding herself if she thought it was for anybody else. She tried and tried again, but the only thing she’s done is endanger the lives of those she cares about. She failed.” Her pain echoed in her gaze, almost pleading him to understand that she couldn’t go on, “I failed, Charlie.”

He watched her, his eyes contemplating.

Then, he nodded.

“Alright,” he said. “You don’t need to go on. We, your friends, will care for you no matter what you decide to do.”

“All I’ve done has hurt my friends.”

Charlie’s eyes widened. “You don’t really think that, do you?”

She didn’t answer, her head still pressed into her hand and the wall.

“Astrid, we didn’t do all this because you somehow forced us to do it. We would follow you anywhere because we care about you. We endanger ourselves, not you. Don’t take that choice away from us and make it your fault.”

The tears fell and she barely managed to push her final words out, the words that had been haunting her, “Hogwarts would have been better off without me, without me causing problems with the Cursed Vaults.” Then she was gone completely, heaving in and out as she balled onto her hand and the wall.

Her hand was so pressed into her head that she didn’t see it, but only felt it when he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her gently away from the wall to lean back into him instead, moving his arm to press her head lightly into his shoulder, her tears falling onto his sweater.

Her sobs wracked her, shaking her against him as he held her.

“I’m here,” he spoke low and softly, and then again, “I’m here. I’m here,” calm, assuring, gentle.

He didn’t move excessively or distract from her crying. He only held her, sure and stable. The minutes ticked by, slowly dragging on as her sobs quieted and then picked up again.

They had quieted again. Her wracking sobs turned to stillness, but he didn’t loosen his grip and didn't invite her to move from him.

When his voice came. It was slow and soothing.

“The Cursed Vaults were not placed here by you, Astrid,” he said. “You did not attack any of your friends. You did not hurt anyone. Don’t place the blame on yourself.” He sucked in a breath, “Hogwarts is dangerous at times. The Cursed Vaults are dangerous.” She felt it as he breathed in, her body still resting against his chest. “You are not worse because you try to fight them. Hogwarts is not worse because of your efforts to protect. It flows the other direction. We are safer, your friends, the school, because of you. We are better because of you.”

He leaned down to look at her and moved away just enough so she could look up at him too, “we are better because of you,” he repeated, his tone urging her to understand and believe his words.

She hiccupped.

“Stop fighting the Cursed Vaults if you wish,” he said. “Stop trying to find your brother. Stop going to your bloody classes if you want!” His voice picked up now, urgent as he took her in, still held in his arms, though the distance between them allowed him to watch her face, and her, his. “I don’t care!” he said, looking deep at her. “You could stop doing magic and I would be right there beside you, but don’t you dare for one moment stop feeling. Don’t stop being that girl who stands up every day and has the courage to be herself because I don’t want to lose that girl,” his voice cracked on the last words.

“I’m not standing up right now,” she said weakly, “I’ve fallen and I’m afraid that if I get back up again, it won’t change anything. I’m either the girl who is too stupid to realize she’s on the ground or the girl who wilts beneath it all.”

Charlie braced his hand behind her, “I only see one girl here and that is a girl who is standing up,” he lifted her easily off the ground with him as he rose to his feet, and despite everything, she couldn’t retract the small bubbling laugh that fell from her lips.

He set her down on her feet gently and she caught a wisp of his smile as he shifted back a step. She stared at him and he bowed his head, his cheeks turning red.

“It’s all going to be okay, Astrid. I promise.”

“How do you know?” she asked.

He looked back up, “how do I know what? That it’s going to be okay?”

She nodded.

He smiled, a crooked smile with just one side of his mouth lifting up, “because I know you.”

Her breath caught and her nose twinged as another onslaught of tears seemed to threaten.

She opened her mouth as if to speak, but no words fell out.

“What?” he finally said, a crooked smile gracing the corner of his lips.

“I just…I don’t know what I would do without you.”

He stared at her for a moment, the smile frozen on his face. And then the other side of his lips rose, then both sides rose higher, and then he was smiling at her, that bright smile, that stable and sure smile.

She felt a smile grace her own lips.

“Come on,” he said, still grinning as he grabbed her hand, “let’s leave them to it and go for a fly.”

She opened her mouth to protest verbally but was surprised when her body allowed him to pull her down the hall. He was leading her to one of the exits of the castle to the quidditch field; she could tell. The corridors blurred past and at one point, he glanced back at her while they ran, his eyes searching her face and she opened her mouth to say something to him when he tripped.

Missing a step while he was looking back, he was sent tumbling end over end, rolling across the stone floor. He came to a stop abruptly and stared up at her, bewildered, his back on the ground.

Against all odds, a laugh bubbled out of her, loud.

He grinned, then laughed back. They laughed like a chorus together until she pulled him to his feet and they ran again, this time side by side towards the moonlit field.