Ted let Alecto speak her jumbled sentences without interruption. He continued healing her as she whispered her thoughts and questions for him to hear. His blood had immediately started boiling when she’d refused to allow him to heal the freshly carved initials blotched upon her leg. It took most, if not all, of his self control not to track Amycus down in that moment. Who was he to go around branding people as though they were his personal possessions? How did he get off, slicing into Alecto both mentally and physically? He tried to ignore the anger, focus on his healing, and for a moment the task seemed to hold the uncharacteristic aggression at bay. Until, of course, she suggested that they ignore the situation and leave Amycus un-confronted.
With an almost urgent, desperate and pleading look dominating Ted’s eyes, he looked Alecto into her own and forcibly spoke one word, “No.” He hadn’t even noticed, but one hand, the one not wielding his cedar wand, had slammed against the table absently emphasizing his anger at the idea of standing idly by while the torture continued. Realizing, perhaps, that he had been too loud, Ted shot a nervous glance around the library before continuing to speak in an urgent whisper, keeping his eyes pointed at the table and for some reason unable to stare back into hers. “If you ignore this…” Ted waved to her body for emphasis, “Don’t be fooled for a second. It will continue.” He was practically pleading with her, willing her to stay away from the abuse that was bound to only worsen. “And I don’t judge you. I mean, not for this anyways.” He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t judged the girl sitting idly before him in the past. Alecto had proven to be a cruel, malicious, and despicable girl. But, despite all his instincts yelling at him for doing so, Ted couldn’t help pitying the frail figure before him.
He reached up towards the Slytherin and gently pushed up on her chin, only making physical contact with her for a second, forcing her to look him in the eyes. “And it’s normal to want to protect him. He’s your brother. He’s you’re family. But you don’t need this in your life. You don’t need to protect someone so obviously volatile.” Ted shrugged the fact that Alecto was equally as volatile from his mind, rationalizing and insisting that she must be this way because of how Amycus had both mentally and physically scarred her. He briefly asked himself why he cared so much about Alecto’s predicament. However, he immediately berated himself for even asking the question. He’d help anyone, despite who they were or what they’d done in the past, who so obviously needed it. Though the thought did calm him down slightly, and Ted began looking at the situation a little bit more rationally. “I don’t think it’d be wise to go looking for physical confrontation outright. I’ll try talking to him, see if that will do any good. But if he continues, or if one more mark appears on your body…” Ted’s voice grew steely and cold once again and his wand hand gripped the cedar in a vice like grip, sending a few sparks shooting from the end. He let the statement die between them, the threat unfinished.
She jumped at the sound of his palm hitting the table- not because she was scared but because she hadn't expected it, she hoped the mistake on her part would make her more believable, more fragile looking-more fearful. Really she was just surprised that she could stir such emotion from someone who only days before had denied her any help. "I don't have anybody else" she said blankly- "Mom is dead, dad is worse" she drew her hands away from him, rubbed her fingertips against her small arms and leaned back a little. She felt like she had loose lips- or maybe not so much loose as she suddenly felt the urge to want to share what had always been eating away inside her- perhaps for the simple truth that he'd tell her that she was wrong. That that would make her feel better for only a moment, if she was going to use him like this, she might as well use him to shell out her worries. She was getting everything she wanted and all she really needed to do was prey on someone who listened.
"He's punishing me- for what I did" she reasoned to him, she wanted him to hear her- she wanted him to acknowledge her predicament, she wanted one person to know and then be too fearful to tell anyone else, not that Amy was the one who punished her- her father did. Too fearful due to the damage that she was sure Amy would bestow when he put two and two together- a man who'd seen the cut so high up her thigh had to be the one who'd rolled around in her bed. Someone who knew her deepest darkest woes, he'd be overwhelmed with jealousy, he'd be poised to destroy. "Mom died while giving birth to me so I killed her" she nodded and she did believe this- she believed it down to the core in her small body. Mom had died because of her, she'd sucked the life out of her- she'd caused this woman's death and in turn her father and her family's misery. She DID deserved to be punished- she was a bad seed from the get-go, a bad seed since birth and since she was so terrible- she'd live to her rightful fate and continue with her misdeeds. She'd make herself feel better the more harsher she was with her victims, the more cruel, the more deceptive, the more manipulative.
She stared at him- he was suddenly so hellbent on protecting her and she wondered why so many people were this way, why they cared so deeply for others and their misfortunes. Were we all not created to survive merely for ourselves? Was that not written into our evolutionary nature? And why was she missing this thought process- this gene, had it died along with her mother? "Okay" she nodded, looking down at her knees- "But I have to warn you... he's scary" she mumbled and boy, was that an understatement.
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