Straddling the area of grey between the Order and… them, was pushing him up to and past the edge. He’d gotten better at sleeping in school, his friends being a comfort more than he suspected they knew but now… Now it was worse than ever; the few times he did manage to drift off he was up covered in sweat with echoes of that darkness surrounding him. “N-nothing!” he said quickly, too quickly, “I just,” he shook his head, “S-stuff’s kinda crept up on lately, t-that’s all.” He looked down and wrung his fingers together, “It’s okay. I’m sure n-no one else is acting like this.” But then, he knew no one else was doing what he’d been forced into.
“Oh… Okay then.” he said, giving a tiny smile in return; it was always such a surprise to him and if not for everything else he’d be genuinely grateful for the affirmation. As it was, it only worried him more, being friends with him was dangerous.
He wasn’t strong enough, not brave enough to keep them safe.
“So long as I-I’m not keeping you.” he said, about to see if he could politely decline dinner before his jumpiness picked up on footsteps behind them, he turned back and yipped, “Frank!” Before a masked stranger grabbed him (at least it wasn’t one of their masks) and shoved him against the wall, a wand pressing against his cheek. ‘Your money, now!’ the first figure demanded while the second set upon Frank.
“I-I- O, bu- you-” Peter couldn’t get any words out, his mind was in overdrive and without thinking a knee shot up, right into the assailants unmentionables, causing him to double over.
Frank shot a small smile back at Peter. Everyone handled things differently, he supposed, but he figured Peter was at least doing the best with what he had to work with. That's all anyone could really ever ask, wasn't it? "Eh, doesn't matter how everyone else is acting, really. You don't have to be like any of them, promise." It was no wonder Peter was so frazzled, comparing himself to everyone else in the Order. It was one of the things Frank could never do; so many of the other members were always going to be faster, stronger, and smarter than him, if he spent his time trying to measure up to them all, he'd go mad.
His offer of dinner had been improptu - he hadn't really thought about it before throwing the idea out there - but he did mean it. With everything going on, he and Alice didn't have people over as often and he quite missed the sight of his friends popping by. He was about to turn and add this, to show Peter he really meant the offer, when the younger man yelled out in fright. Frank whirled on his heel quickly, hand shooting to his wand. A masked man was descending upon him quick and Frank did what he could think of quickest: he kicked the man's shin as hard as he could.
The kick bought him some time to stumble back a foot or two as pulled his wand out from his sleeve. It was lucky that he and Peter had just turned into an alley, a shortcut, or else he'd have a lot of Obliviating to do later ( though, he supposed, that had probably been by their assailant's design ).
Frank's eyes landed on Peter and his own attacker a few feet away. Peter had managed to land a blow against the mugger, but Frank sprung into action anyway, unable to stop himself. "Petrificus Totalus!" Peter's mugger fell to the floor, stiff as a board. Frank felt better knowing that Peter had some time to collect himself, but he'd hardly thought about his own safety; the second thug was barrelling at him. Frank raised his wand again, ready to attack, but he wasn't quick enough; the man tackled him to the ground, his wand flying out of his hand.
His head collided with the ground hard and he was almost seeing stars. Gasping for breath, Frank ducked his head, narrowly avoiding a heavy punch as he called out over the man's shoulder, "Peter! A little help?"