"Fearless" Ben Copper x Reader

4- Artifact Room

Y/n's Point Of View

I found him sitting on the floor of the artifact room, staring at nothing in front of him. I wonder what he was thinking.

"Hey, Ben.", I leaned on the wall and smiled a little when he looked up and turned red.

"Y-y/n!"

"How are you doing?", I looked down, guilty,
"I didn't mean to make you run away."

"Don't feel bad," He voice broke,
"It was my first kiss, I just wasn't expecting it.", He gulped.

"Sorry, I should've warned you.", I chuckled lightly.

He stared at me, as if he was trying to figure out something,
"Can I ask you a question. You'd have to answer honestly."

"Yeah, shoot for it.", I sat down against the wall across from him.

"Is our friendship over now?"

Oh.

That's what he was thinking. Not if it was a good kiss or if it was a good week pretending to date eachother, but if our friendship was over. I couldn't stop myself from hurting a little inside.

"N-no! It doesn't have to be. Do you want it to be?" I said, feeling tears creep up in the back of my eyes.

"No, I like how we are. Let's keep it like this.." He said, voice wavering.

"Why did you run, Ben?" I blurted, immediately wanting to take it back.

He looked directly at my eyes and I saw them trying to read my face.

"Well, actually..." He started, "I have diagnosed anxiety. Ever since I was a kid I had it. Different people cope with their anxiety differently, but I cope with mine by running away from anything that can trigger it. I'm sorry." He looked away, "I shouldn't have run like that."

This was definitely new, I saw him afraid all the time but now I knew why. I felt bad for asking.

"I didn't mean to pry. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to... And it's okay, I feel like running away all the time."

He chuckled, "It's weird, but I feel like I can talk to you about anything."

I smiled. It was true, somehow I knew I could never hate him even if he bloody murdered a person.

Bens Point Of View:

We ended up talking throughout the night. Time flew as we shared thoughts, feelings, and ideas about... Well, about life. The world seemed to disappear outside of this cramped room with poor lighting. Y/n was such a complex person. She had only one sibling, and he was missing. She talked about how it broke her. She lived with her single mother. Her mother was strict, but not cruel. I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared of the woman already. Y/n rarely saw her mother since she was working all the time. She spent her time hanging out with her brother. And now that he was gone... I saw a tear fall down her cheek and she wiped it quickly, avoiding eye contact. I hated that she had to go through this. Seeing her cry twisted my stomach.

Y/n told me about her pets, hobbies, and different stories of growing up in a magic-filled world. She liked baking pastries and playing board games. When she spoke I noticed cute little habits she did. Her eyes fluttered when she giggled. Her hands moved around more when she was explaining something. And my absolute favorite was when she softly bit her lip when she was thinking deeply about something. The longer we spoke, the more she unknowingly gave me reasons to fall deeper in... love? With her? If only I could talk to her about that. But she had already implied that she just wanted to be friends. I'd have to deal with whatever this feeling was on my own.

Before we both knew it, we were too tired too move our bodies from the cold, dusty floor to our dorms which felt like miles away. It got chilly as the night went on, and I noticed she didn't have anything warm on. I couldn't just watch her freeze. So, I invited her to sit inside my big Gryffindor cloak with me. Being a thin person, and having been one since I was little, I left a lot of unused room in my cloak. Plus it was comfy and we would both warm each other up. She agreed tiredly, and crawled over next to me. I gently wrapped the half of my cloak I wasn't using around her. She, to my surprise, rested her head on my shoulder and I couldn't stop a smile from growing on my face. She fell asleep curled up against me soon after. This was the moment I knew I was was glad I came to Hogwarts.