Celia gestured to Cormac to move up and he obligingly did, if a little reluctantly. She was dismayed to see that he now regarded with a new fear in his eyes, as if she was a grenade that could go off at any second.

"What do you want to talk about?" He asked stiffly, "The slap. That really hurt."

"Did it?" She raised her eyebrow at him.

He sighed, "No, not really but it came as a shock. Have you come to apologise?"

She sat up a little straighter, "I have but I think you have some stuff to apologise for too, if I'll be honest. So I'll start, Cormac I'm sorry for slapping you. I forgot that you didn't do the actual sexual assault."

Cormac regarded her suspiciously before sighing, "I accept your apology."

She looked at him expectantly as was dismayed to see that he had essentially ignore the other part of her sentence: that he had done some wrong too. She genuinely didn't know if he knew what he did and was stubbornly not admitting or if he just didn't know, She waited a few seconds more before speaking.

"Thank you for accepting," She turned to him and noticed how he was intentionally avoiding her eye, "but Cormac, do you also see why I was upset with you?"

After a long awkward pause, Cormac shook his head slightly, "I didn't do it, Celia, I did nothing wrong."

"You didn't do anything, you're right but that's kind of the thing that you did."

"That doesn't make any sense," Cormac scoffed.

"You were just a dick about it really. We're meant to be friends, Cormac and it felt like you just disregarded my feelings, made me feel like I was blowing it out of proportion - "

"But you were," Cormac cut in but was silenced by Celia's glowering gaze.

"But to me it was a big deal, that was just how I was feeling!" Celia said, "You get upset if somebody says your hair is good and not awesome! That's the perfect example of overreacting - "

"But I mean it's true," Cormac ran his hands through his hair, "It is pretty awesome."

"Not the point, Cormac," Celia scowled, "Not the point at all. The point is it was a big deal to me and it was scary - "

"Scary?" Cormac's brow furrowed, "It was just a kiss - "

"He left bruises."

"But I mean..." Cormac opened his mouth to speak but closed it again."

"Cormac, try putting yourself in my shoes for a second," Cormac furrowed his brow and glanced down at her feet. She could tell exactly what he was thinking and snapped, "Not my actual shoes! It's a figure of speech!"

"Oh right," Cormac said sheepishly, "I knew that."

"Sure," Celia smirked, "Imagine if something like that happened to you."

Cormac leant back, a slight frown on his face. He closed his eyes, leaning back, clearly getting very in to the visualisation. Celia glanced around and saw a few people glancing over expectantly as if they were watching a soap opera; news of Goyle and the slap had clearly spread quite quickly. Somebody caught her eye at the top of the stairs: Katie.

Celia was sure she hadn't been there before, they'd seen her dashing away in the corridors after all so it was a bit of a surprise to see her standing there, watching over them like a hawk. Celia looked up, making eye contact with her friend but Katie didn't turn away. She was about to give a small smile when Cormac spoke and she quickly turned away. Katie's expression was eerily unreadable as if she were waiting for something.

"Got it!" Cormac said, opening his eyes with a start and snapping his fingers, "I was visualising it and I think I need to clarify that there are two different scenarios depending on who the girl is - "

"Oh God," Celia said, resting her head in her hand. She could probably predict what Cormac was going to say.

"So if she was my type and kissed me... well firstly, when I noticed that she liked me I'd probably put on some of my old Cormac charm - "

"That would scare her off," Celia said but Cormac continued, unfazed.

" - and kiss her myself but let's say I didn't for some reason, I'd probably kiss her back, simple. Now second scenario, she's not my type - "

"That sounds unlikely," Celia said dryly, "I feel like you'd go for any girl."

"Celia!"

"I'm not sorry," She said with a slight smirk. She was regretting slapping Cormac but sassing him was something she would never have any regrets for.

"Anyway, if she wasn't my type I would just push her away and that would be it. I'd probably say that I didn't feel the same way and that would be it," Cormac said, "It's not that bad, almost a compliment that she wanted me so much."

Celia sighed, half wanting to walk away and end their friendship there and then: Cormac was completely missing the point and it seemed almost intentional. Then she realised what was different in her story and in Cormac's hypothetical scenarios. It was so obvious, he had all the power. He was the stronger one, who could easily pull away if he wanted, in none of his scenarios did he ever dream that he would lose control of the situation.

"Well that was a good start," She said, "Now change the scenario, in all the scenarios, you're probably imagining weak, slender girls who pull you gently into a kiss before shyly blushing, right?"

Cormac didn't say anything but from the look on Cormac's face she'd got it exactly right.

"Now imagine instead of that it was a man. A man the size of Goyle who you couldn't push away from - "

Cormac shivered, "Ew, that's gross, he's not gay though."

"He could be," Celia said, "And in this scenario he is. He's the one who chases you - "

"I'd just tell him to bugger off!"

"He doesn't want to bugger off though," Celia said, "In fact when you tell him to, he sees it as the chase, he comes back harder and stronger - "

"Ha, harder!" Cormac said and Celia rolled her eyes in disbelief at his immaturity.

"Anyway, he doesn't listen to your no! He says your no meant a yes, he distorted it, claimed that the lines between yes and no were blurred."

Cormac was speechless for a few seconds, his mouth opening and closing like a goldfish, "But... when I say yes, it's always a yes and when I say no, it's always a no! Goyle wouldn't do that to me!"

"He would in this scenario, he wants you that much," Cormac squirmed uncomfortably and Celia realised that Cormac hadn't heard the whole story in such depth before, "He wants you so much that he'll hurt you for it, hurt your spine when he slams you into a wall, leaves bruises on your elbow from when he doesn't want you to get away."

"He didn't really leave bruises... did he?" Cormac asked and Celia nodded, "Where?"

Celia rolled up her sleeve to reveal the collage of old and new bruises that was dappled on her wrist. The older ones had faded now so that they were barely visible, contrasting to the new dark ones that had formed from the other day. Cormac gently took her wrist in his hand, examining them closely.

"You didn't show me these before." He said, "I would have been angry - "

"I shouldn't have had to show you them," She said, "They are a reason to be angry but if it had been a weedy guy who hadn't had the strength to give me bruises, it's still not okay. They both would have ignored me saying no."

"But people don't ignore the word no." Cormac said although he didn't believe it, not really. His hand was still holding her wrist gently, his finger curled around it as if he were holding a fragile piece of pottery that he didn't want to break.

"He did for me." Celia wasn't sure why but she could feel slight tears in her eyes, "He ignored it and even though I asked him to stop he blamed it on me for being 'too hot' apparentely."

Tears were involuntarily rolling down her face as she carried on and judging by Cormac's troubled face, he was actually beginning to see, to realise. He let go off her wrist and put his arms around her as she began to cry harder, the memory replaying in her head.

"It was so scary, Cormac," She sobbed, "He didn't stop, he could have done anything he wanted, he was so strong. He didn't hear the word no."

"It wasn't just a kiss," Cormac whispered and she wasn't sure if it was to her or to himself, "Celia, why did you go back and talk to him if you knew he did that though?"

"I don't know," She said softly, "I had hope that maybe he'd see, maybe he'd be able to understand that what he did was wrong. I said no and it didn't matter what he thought I was doing, the no should have been enough."

"I'm sorry, Celia," Cormac said softly, "I don't usually apologise for stuff."

"I know," She whispered.

"I'll protect you next time - "

"I don't want that," She said, sitting up, "It's very sweet, Cormac but you can't just protect me because he might do it to other people. I'm just one person and by comparison I got off quite likely but it will carry on happening, you can't be everyone's Knight in shining armour."

"Yes, I can!" Cormac said, puffing out his chest. Celia hadn't even realised it but she'd accidentally used reverse psychology on him and now he was determined to prove that he could save everyone, "I can do it, I can help."

"Help protect all the women?" She asked with a small smile.

"I don't see why not."

"Well, that's nice of you, Cormac, it really is," She said with a small smile. She turned around to see Katie, who was still standing there, watching. She gave her friend a small smile which Katie returned. She turned away, leaning against Cormac. She was wrong about the slap being a little victory but getting Cormac to see, even slightly what she was feeling was.