My Father's Legacy - Fred Weasley 18+

TW: mentions of sexual assault

Her head snapped towards him and then back down, and he realised she'd been crying as she wiped her tears.

"Sorry Neville, give me a minute I'll be back inside" she sniffed, forcing confidence out into her voice.

"You don't need to apologise, El. None of us expected that back there" Ellen nodded her head as her gaze remained on Severus' name. He was the only one who knew the truth other than Jacob, Tom and Dorota and now Blaise. But Severus was the one who discovered it earliest, as he had forced his way into her mind when she'd begun to distance herself from him and lash out on the students in a menacing manner when they'd returned from Christmas break. She was 15, and his reaction to discovering the scene was heartbreaking but appropriate.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to" Ellen nodded at Neville's words again, registering them but still just unsure what she was to say.

"I don't actually care that people know, but I just didn't expect people to find out like that. We were having fun. Such an innocent question opened a huge can of worms and now it's just a bit embarrassing, really" she vented to him, feeling a comfort in his presence. She looked to her friend that stood facing her and turned to him, her arms still crossed.

"You have questions, you can ask, I trust you" Neville's heart swelled at hearing that she trusted him, but he didn't know whether he should ask his questions, it wasn't the reason he came to find her.

"I didn't come here to ask questions, I came to make sure you were okay" he stated, stepping forward to close the distance between them. He pulled his blazer off and wrapped it around her shoulders, offering a small smile as she pulled her arms through the sleeves and saying thank you.

"You can ask" she assured, allowing her gaze to flit over his features.

"I don't know what to ask really" he said honestly, nervously.

"Start somewhere, we'll go from there" she comforted, her eyes made their way to his chest, and she admired the muscles that peeked through the fabric. This was her friend, but gosh he was pretty to look at.

"I don't want to make you re-live anything" Ellen smiled at that. He's so... nice.

A small light laugh escaped her nose and Neville cocked his brow in confusion, "I've worked through it. They're just unpleasant memories now, talking can't hurt me" she admitted. Her continued sessions with Madame Leger in the evenings had helped her confront her PTSD, and whilst she'd still struggle every now and then, the rows she'd had with Blaise - who had initially triggered her at the beginning of the year - actually helped her face the fears her body had clung to.

"Memor...ies?" Neville filled with sadness. "When was the first time?"

"My fifteenth birthday, actually" Neville grimaced and felt a wave of emotion, inhaling deeply. He wasn't sure if to ask more, he didn't want to push her.

As if reading his mind, Ellen shuffled in her spot, unknowingly moving a fraction closer to his tall and broad frame. The way he looked down to her, eyes filled with an intent to listen, and the hair in the front of his face falling forward to his forehead.

"I don't know who the man was, he was a Death Eater and he kept his mask on. It was after I was given my second mark..." She rolled up the sleeves of Neville's blazer and admired the beautiful snakes that wrapped her forearms and hands. She'd been given the mark as a young child- a memory she'd always struggled to recollect, and at fifteen, she was bared a second mark as she was initiated to the senior ranks to begin taking on even bigger and dangerous tasks. Neville looked down at the faded tattoos, the scarring framed the intricate designs of the snakes, making them more prominent in the moonlight. As if on instinct, his fingers grazed her forearms. He'd seen it before as she never chose to hide it, but hearing her talk about it felt different. There was a conflicting sense of pride and regret as she mentioned them. Ellen felt a wave of warmth as Neville gently touched her skin, and she lifted her head to watch as his head remained low, admiring them and trailing his fingers along them.

"The other times?..." He hesitated, but he sensed she was okay to talk more about her experiences and felt no fear in being the person who could comfort her in this time.

She let out a sigh, "I was 19, here in Hogwarts... And in Azkaban..." she nodded, watching Neville wincing at her words as he continued to trace patterns on her skin, it was comforting what he was doing.

"and then once... actually my first night free... in February"

Neville stopped his fingers and looked at her finally, and she'd noticed tears falling from his eyes. She lifted her right palm to his face and gently brushed the tears away with her fingers, "hey, no tears. I'm okay!" she smiled a genuine smile, comforting his sorrow and empathy. He sniffed as he watched the moonlight lighten her eyes, reflections of the trees danced in them, creating a sea of different greens.

"So, all the times you've been.. intimate..." he trailed off, dreading the answer he already knew.

She nodded, moving her fingers to brush a stray fallen hair out of his eyebrow, "yeah, which is why I said it was embarrassing. But like Fred and countless others have said... no one wants Tom Riddle's daughter, at least not romantically. So I never had any opportunities to experience it the way happy people get to" her voice trailed to a whisper and she moved to bring her hand away from his face and play with her fingers in front of her.

Neville frowned and an anger replaced his sadness, "Sorry, Fred said what?" She laughed at the fact that that was what his ears pricked at. Her laugh annoyed him, "No, don't laugh. What Fred's said is foul! Those people are wrong, Ellen! People do want to be around you, you're incredible to be around!" He leapt to her defence, the anger he had towards Fred and anyone else who claimed to never want to be around her bubbled inside him and he clenched his jaw.

Ellen flinched slightly at the sound of Neville's raised voice and clear anger, "Neville come on! Be realistic! I'm the Dark Lord's daughter, no one spoke to me in the halls unless they had to. I didn't even get asked to the Yule ball! I'm the daughter of a murderer and there was a point where I was actively taking part, too! Of course no one liked me! And amongst the Death Eaters I was hated or feared, they hated the power I had. My position in this world means no one likes me."

Neville's temper raised as did his breaths. It wasn't true, people liked her surely! His eyes darted across her face as he tried to examine what she was feeling. Why wasn't she more upset by this?

"Even you, Neville. You knew who my father was and what my God Mother did to your parents. Even you hated me and you showed it! Don't you remember stupefying me like 80 times in a row at the end of your 4th year? You even pranked the utter shit out of me when I was Severus's assistant! I wound up going to Madame Pomfrey's every day for a week because you would stun my legs every morning at breakfast. You hated me so much it brought you out of your shell and you know it. Everyone hates who I am, who I represent, who I surrounded myself with -- God, even Malfoy hated me! No one wanted me and no one will want me" Neville was reeling, and had clenched his fists tightly out of anger. As he moved to interject and yet again tell her she was wrong, that people did want her, that he valued her, she cut him off,

"I'm okay with that, though. I understand it".