Briar felt as though she was continuing to collapse inside, but she kept practicing her occlumency tactics each day. She was barely sleeping, often just dozing off for a few hours here and there. She was too on edge for sleep as her father had sent her another letter, asking her to come home for the Easter holiday this year. She was a fifth year, but she hadn't come home for a single Easter holiday yet, and she didn't like the idea of her father's request one bit, and her uncontainable nerves made it impossible for her to rest. Her lack of sleep was taking its toll on her though, and she was greatly underperforming in all of her courses despite her best efforts.

One night before Easter and after the incident with the older Slytherin girls, Briar was standing on the bridge, leaning against the railing, and trying to catch her breath. The harsh air somehow felt more breathable, and she had started coming out here every night, uncertain how she hadn't been caught by a professor yet.

She blew air through her teeth and looked down at the ground below. She felt exhausted inside and out, and she wondered when this would all end. Would it ever end? Would she ever get her escape?

Briar let a soft groan pass through her lips and dropped her head to her hands in front of her.

"Briar?"

She jumped and whipped around with her wand out towards the sound of her name being whispered. Standing amongst the shadows and only illuminated by the faint light of the stars was Neville.

He was in a plaid set of pajamas with a quilt wrapped around his shoulders, and his eyes were blinking heavily as if he had just woken up. He rubbed at his eye with the back of his hand before blinking at her and repeating, "Briar? What are you doing out here? It's the middle of the night."

"I could ask the same thing of you," Briar replied somewhat stiffly, shifting her eyes to look out at the stars again. She gripped the railing tightly, her knuckles turning white at the thought that her only sense of relief was about to be taken away. She needed this, no matter how much it was destroying her to not sleep.

Sleeping destroyed her too.

Neville shuffled forward a few steps and shivered in the cold. He admitted, "I came to check on you, actually."

Briar scrunched up her face and turned to look at him. She questioned, "What? How did you even know I was out here?"

His eyes widened, and he looked out at the stars too. He confessed, "I promised I wouldn't tell."

"So someone else is aware I'm out here right now as well?" She deduced with lips pressed flat. So much for thinking she had gotten away with this without being seen.

Neville just nodded, but he stopped all movement to brace against the cold as a strong breeze ripped through the bridge. Briar didn't even notice the cold until she saw Neville's reactions to it.

She turned to him with her eyebrows drawn together in worry and hissed, "Neville, you really need to get back to bed. You look like you're freezing."

He just shook his head despite his continued shivering.

Briar let out an exasperated sigh and argued, "But you're shaking like a leaf for merlin's sake. You need to get somewhere warm!"

"Not until you're feeling okay enough to go to bed too," Neville declared with his chin jutted up and arms crossed defiantly.

She swallowed hard and turned back towards the railing. A heavy silence fell over them for the moment, and she stared down at the ground below in her attempt to collect her thoughts. She finally whispered, "But that might not ever happen, and I can't stand to watch you shiver all night."

Neville turned towards her with careful eyes watching her. He chewed on his cheek for a moment before he offered, "Would you ever want to come back to the Gryffindor common room then? We can warm up in front of the fire, and you can take all the time you need."

Briar really wanted to stay planted in her spot on the bridge, but she knew that Neville was stubborn and wouldn't leave her like she asked, so after a few beats, she hesitantly nodded.

Neville took a step closer to her and threw the quilt over her head. She blinked in surprise when she realized that it was see-through. It hadn't looked see-through a moment ago. She looked at Neville in shock, but he sheepishly shrugged and admitted, "I nicked it from Harry. It's his invisibility cloak from his dad. I would hate for Umbridge to find us out here. She's a terrible woman, you know."

She nodded in understanding, and the two of them shuffled forwards. As they moved towards the Gryffindor common room, their hands kept brushing against one another's, and Briar felt heat rising up her neck and coating her cheeks. The brief sensations were enough to send sparks up and down her arms, and she shivered at the feeling. Neville noticed, and he must have figured that she was cold. He reached a hand out and rubbed his warm hands over her arms. She jumped when he did this and couldn't believe the tidal wave of butterflies that were crashing around inside her stomach.

Each touch made her crave the next one more.

They made it back to the Gryffindor common room without incident, and it made Briar relax considerably to find it unoccupied. She wasn't certain of the time, but judging by Neville's grogginess, she figured that it had to be the middle of the night now. Neville dropped onto a couch in front of the never-ending fire in the fireplace, and he pulled more quilts from nearby onto himself and the place beside him.

When Briar stayed fixed in her place by the entrance to the room, he glanced up in concern and asked, "Is this okay?"

Briar collected herself and nodded. She passed across the room and climbed underneath Neville's pile of quilts he had strewn together for her. As she snuggled up under the blankets with her legs tucked underneath her, she felt a wave of comfort wash over her. The room had a gentle, orange glow to it at that hour, and the quietly crackling fire was beginning to put her mind at ease.

For one longing moment, she wished she had been a Gryffindor rather than a Slytherin, but she quickly shoved that aside. It was silly to think that she would prefer a different house purely because of its calming common room. Besides, she would miss the water lapping against the windows that she was able to experience in the dungeons.

After letting Briar get settled for a few moments, Neville mumbled, "So why were you out there?"

Nothing in his sleepy murmur sounded judgmental, and some combination of his sweet voice and the exhaustion she was starting to feel made her want to tell him everything. But she was scared.

She opened and closed her mouth, and she watched as Neville's face fell.

This pushed her over the edge, and she heard herself admitting, "I'm sorry. I'm just scared."

"You're scared of me?" Neville asked then, shifting under his quilts to look at her better. His eyebrows were lowered as he tried to intently listen to everything she was saying. His eyes were round and worried, and she hated seeing him look distressed.

Briar scrambled to fix her mistake. She rapidly shook her head and gasped, "No, no! I'm not scared of you...I just...I don't know how to do this, and...it terrifies me."

"You mean that you don't know how to talk about what you're going through?" Neville clarified as he tugged one of the quilts up to his chin.

She nodded her head and gazed into the fireplace. She felt a prickly feeling settling over her skin at her realization of what she had just admitted. This entire situation felt foreign to her, and a slight chatter set in her teeth as a result.

Neville softly wondered, "And why's that?"

She looked over at him and felt her lungs grow a little tighter. She confessed, "It's been a really long time since I've done it."

"Why?" He gently prodded her on as his droopy eyes continued to watch her.

"Because my mom was the only one I could do it with." Briar's lips uttered her response before she had time to process the words. She blinked rapidly to keep the tears at bay that had begun to gloss over her eyes.

"What happened?" He shifted under the blankets with his gentle question, and Briar suddenly wished she had settled closer to him. She felt a cold settling in her bones again, despite the heavy quilts and steady fire, yet she could see the warmth settling back into Neville's features. He was thawing from the cold, and she wondered for a moment if he could thaw the ice around her heart.

She sucked in a noisy breath and shared, "She was killed by death eaters, and my father brought them right to our doorstep and just watched the whole thing."

A tear slipped down Briar's cheek. There was just too much condensation building up on her eyes at that point, and she couldn't blink it away anymore. She swiped at it and continued staring into the fire, making a silent wish that Neville hadn't seen.

She knew that she hadn't been sneaky enough when Neville softly wondered, "Can I give you a hug?"

Her throat tightened, but she gave in to her desires and nodded. Neville lifted the quilts slightly and gave Briar a small smile to encourage her to come closer. Briar's cheeks flushed as she scooted closer on the couch, feeling her muscles slowly unraveling as Neville wrapped an arm around her shivering frame.

It was silent for a moment as she carefully settled into his side underneath the quilts, and her teeth slowly stopped their chattering as she leaned her head against his shoulder and took some deep breaths. His body warmth spread to her, and her eyelids began to droop slightly, but she blinked hard in an attempt to keep her eyes open.

As if sensing her battle with her exhaustion, Neville gently inquired, "When's the last time you got any sleep, Briar?"

She felt safe tucked into his side, and his warm palm gently held her opposite arm in a protective embrace. In response to her new sense of safety, she leaned into his side further and murmured, "I slept for an hour yesterday."

His chest contracted heavily with his sudden intake of breath. His voice was deep and soft as he whispered, "When was the last time you got a full night of sleep?"

Briar shrugged and stared into the crackling fire as her eyes began to spend more time closed than opened. A comforting silence fell over the two of them while he ran his fingers through her hair. With eyes drifting shut for longer intervals each time, she murmured almost inaudibly, "I don't like sleeping anymore. My mind isn't...safe."

Neville responded by softly humming the unfamiliar song from before and running his fingers through her hair at even slower pace, his fingertips gently brushing over her shoulder from time to time. He didn't know it, but it was exactly the response Briar needed. Within minutes, her eyes drifted shut, and her breathing deepened.

Neville kept humming and running his fingers through her raven hair for a few more minutes to ensure that she was asleep and comfortable. When he stopped, he looked down at her peacefully resting face that had gently snuggled its way into his neck. Her one hand rested lazily on his chest while the other was gently gripping the side of his shirt. He licked his lips and swallowed heavily as he realized the situation he had found himself in.

He couldn't believe that this was really happening, even if he was just acting as her friend in this moment.

Since he knew that she desperately needed the sleep, he didn't dare move for fear of waking her. His fingers absentmindedly played with her hair as he stared into the roaring fire until his eyes eventually fell shut as well.

———