Thorn | Neville Longbottom

Chapter 37: Folsy is Confused

Briar stirred in her sleep when she heard her bedroom door creak open. She looked over at her door and frowned when she noticed that it was shut. She blinked and tried to figure out what was happening, but before she could even see anything in the darkness of her bedroom, she felt a hand go around her throat.

She choked and spluttered, clawing at the hand that she just knew was Gideon's, but she couldn't see a thing, and if anything, the room seemed to be growing darker by the second.

She tried to fight back, to scream, to do anything productive, but nothing happened. She couldn't bring any oxygen into her lungs, and she knew that she was dying. He must have escaped Azkaban and came straight for her.

Trying to scream once more led to her being shaken around aggressively by him. She choked on the tears that streamed down her face.

This was it. She was dying.

When she felt something wet and cold dabbing at her forehead, she sat upright in bed. She was hyperventilating and sobbing loudly, but her bedroom was illuminated by a set of candles, and she was surrounded by Folsy, Sirius, and Remus.

Folsy was standing at the head of the bed with a cold, damp cloth, and her normally round eyes had grown substantially in size. Sirius was sitting beside her on the bed, and he looked relieved that she was awake now. Remus rubbed a hand over his face and flashed Briar a tired smile once he realized that her screaming had stopped.

It had given the home's other three residents quite a scare when Briar began screaming in the middle of the night, but no one blamed her for it. Everyone was aware of how much suffering and trauma the girl had been through, so no one felt surprised over this.

Briar took a few steadying breaths before wiping away her tears and murmuring, "I'm sorry."

Sirius reached a hand out and gently held her arm. He insisted, "You don't need to apologize for your suffering, Briar. You can and should feel safe enough to work through that here, and we're all all happy to help you as much as we can."

Briar nodded slowly before she let out a deep breath and looked down on her lap. She kicked her covers off and sighed, "I'm feeling better now. I think I'll just go get some tea then."

Folsy hopped off the bed quickly as she called, "Folsy will get master tea at once, just the way Miss Briar likes it. Folsy will help. Folsy can get tea."

"No- you don't need to-" Briar tried to protest, but Folsy was out the door before Briar could form any semblance of an argument. She clamped her mouth shut when Folsy disappeared around the corner and out of Briar's line of sight.

Remus stepped forward and wondered, "What was your nightmare about?"

When she wouldn't meet their eyes, and her breathing became ragged again, they figured that it was most likely related to Gideon Davies. Sirius' eyes roamed her teary face for a sign as to how to help, but he couldn't find an answer in the broken expression on her face. All he knew was she needed him to do something to help her get through this, so he licked his lips and wondered, "Did you want to talk about it right now? Or would you like to be distracted?"

Remus opened his mouth to object to the second option, thinking it best that they talk about what happened to make sure that Briar felt safe inside the home, but he didn't get the chance because Briar pleaded, "Distract me."

Sirius nodded in understanding and gently brushed Briar's hair away from her sweaty forehead. He wondered, "I know that soulmates were a big thing when we were your age. Have you discovered who yours is yet?"

A faint blush spread across Briar's cheeks. This somehow felt so much more humiliating to discuss with the two of them as compared to her forced conversations with her roommates. She met both of their eyes before she admitted, "Uh, I think so."