Muggle in a town full of Magic

“I don’t really feel like company.”  

“So you’re in a bar... why, exactly? I mean it’s kind of surrounded by people?”

Danny listened to the blonde speak and found his eyes softening under her every word. He sighed heavily and broke the connection between their gaze and slowly nodded, agreeing with her words. “But.. I can try- I can look after you. I can protect you..” He tried to protest but was immediately shut down by her next statement. His heart fell to the pit of his stomach and he broke the contact between their hands, his gaze falling to the ground beneath him, willing it to swallow him. “No.. Wren. It doesn’t- It doesn’t have to be that way.” He spoke quickly. Danny really wasn’t all that confident in his memory charm capabilities and he really didn’t want to risk it with Wren. For all he knew he could end up taking every single one of her memories. He took a step back, running a hand back through his hair. “There has to be another way - I don’t.. I don’t want you to forget about this.” His gaze flickered back to her face. “About me..” His voice was almost a whisper as he connected his gaze with hers. 

“I believe you. I do, I promise. But there are others that need you to. It isn’t fair of me to expect you to constantly be saving me.” Her brows furrowed as she looked at the ground. As she felt him let go of her hand she wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt at creating a makeshift barrier to protect herself, it was something she often did if she felt upset or uncomfortable and wanted to close herself off from the world. “It does, we both know it.” Her voice shook a little as fear carried on creeping in. “I don’t want to forget. I don’t want to forget any of this but I also don’t want someone else to end up taking my memories either. I don’t want some stranger invading my mind or taking the choice away from me. If the option is being taken away from me, I want it to be on my terms Danny. I want it to be someone that I can trust.” Tears filled her eyes once more but she managed to hold them back. 

Danny sighed softly as the blonde spoke, his brows tugging together as he broke the contact between their gaze. A hand slowly moved back through his hair, pushing it away from his face as he tried to form a stable sentence. “The people attacking us.. They.. They don’t take well to- to your kind. To non-magic folk..” He quickly shook his head then moved his gaze back to meet hers, eyes softening as it did. “I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.. You know that, right?” Danny asked her, taking a cautious step closer. Yet as she took a step away, he quickly snapped his gaze to the ground, knowing he had overstepped. “I’m sorry..” He spoke softly, shaking his head. As his name left Wren’s lips, his dark eyes moved to peer back toward her. “Hey… What is it?” He asked gently as he once again took a step closer. He took her hand in his and delicately tugged it away from her face so he could see her properly.

Wren couldn’t help but wonder what it was that her people had done that was so bad to justify such hatred from them. She couldn’t bare to think about the lengths that they would go to, after all the destruction that was currently around them was a good enough indication. “I know. I know that you’d try and do your best any way.” She couldn’t help but think over his words, she knew that he meant what he was saying but in order for those words to stay true it would also mean that she’d never be allowed to leave his side and that wasn’t fair to either of them. Seeing his face made her feel slightly guilty for stepping away from him but she knew it was for the best. “You can’t always be here though. You won’t always be there to protect me, it wouldn’t be fair to ask that of you. It wouldn’t be fair to everyone else either. There are other’s that need your help. Maybe that’s why we’re not allowed to know about magic? We cant worry about what we don’t know or expect to constantly have someone with us?” She was trying to reason more with herself than she was him. As if by saying it out loud would make it all easier. This time when he stepped closer and took her hand, she didn’t pull away. “I don’t want you to get hurt or for you to get in trouble. Not because of me.” It was that thought alone that made her realise that the right decision had to be to have her memories taken away. “You, you have to make me forget.” Her words came out sounding more like a whisper.

“Nothing.” He replied innocently with a small smile. “Well, I’m not being funny but it kinda is.” Sam shrugged like it was no big deal. “Wait your Godfather? I never knew your godfather was here.” He’d heard Wren talk about him a lot but he wasn’t aware that they were back in contact. “I won’t get hurt, I’ll be super careful. Come on, there’s no need to stress, it’s just a harmless investigation.” 

“Nothing, yet?” She corrected with a roll of her eyes, knowing her friend all to well. “You can’t go round interrogating people, you’ll get yourself in trouble! You’re suppose to be the sensible one out of the two of us.” She exclaimed shocked at the sudden change of behavior. “Neither did I. I haven’t seen him in a few years, since my aunt’s death. And that’s exactly why you’re not interrogating my Godfather, so get the idea out of your head.” She replied stubbornly as she crossed her arms over her chest. “You don’t know that and you can’t promise me that won’t happen, especially if they are as bad as you say they are.” 

Danny couldn’t stop a smile from spreading over his face as the petite blonde returned his embrace, the feeling of her arms around his waist ignited a certain warmth in him. As she questioned him, a gentle sigh passed the young man’s lips and he closed his eyes for a moment before shaking his head and peering back down at her. “I don’t know, I will likely get into trouble but.. It won’t be me in danger, Wren. If they found out that I didn’t do it, that I didn’t take your memories-” Danny shook his head once again then lowered his gaze to the ground, he didn’t want to think of the possibilities. “-I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.” He spoke truthfully with his brows furrowing as he once again moved to connect his gaze with hers, fingertips fumbling gently against hers. 

“Bad to happen to me? What do you mean, what could happen to me?” She questioned chewing her lip as fear began to fill her. She took a step back from him needing to clear her head and not feel so overwhelmed. She avoided his gaze as she didn’t think she’d be able to say what she had to say if she met his gaze. “Danny--” she paused and began to nervously bite her thumb nail. 

“I do say so.” He met her gaze giving her a pointed look as a grin tugged at his lips. Mason gave a shrug as he cleared his throat awkwardly. “It’s a brand of whiskey from erm… from abroad my bad. I just meant whiskey.” He gave her an awkward smile giving another shrug. 

“You wouldn’t happen to be new to town by any chance?” She stared at him suspiciously as he tried to backtrack on his words. He was clearly apart of the new group that had arrived considering her weird behaviour. It was just making her think that maybe Sam had a point with all of his crazy theories. 

As soon as Wren stepped closer to him, Danny allowed his gaze to move up to capture hers and saw the desperation behind her eyes. Quickly, he shook his head and stepped closer, encasing her in his arms he hugged her tightly. “Hey, it’s okay - I didn’t want to do it anyway. I wouldn’t want you to forget any of this.. Maybe just the bad parts - But I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do I promise.” He told her, his voice holding true. The young man’s hand gently rubbed up and down the blonde’s back for a moment before he stepped back, offering her a gentle smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. He knew that there would be something he had to do in order to make sure that no one else was to find out that the young muggle knew about everything that had happened that night. But, the more he thought about it the more he realised the only solution would be to take away her memories, but Danny had never cast a memory charm before, he didn’t know whether he would be able to do it, or if he could make a mess of it and he really didn’t want to take that risk - especially with Wren. “Come on..” He held his hand out for hers once again. “Lets get you out of here.” Danny smiled, wiggling his fingers.

Wren wrapped her arms around his waist tightly as she buried her face in his chest, wanting to hide away from the world and forget what was going on around them. His words helped ease some of the fear, glad that he wasn’t going to go along with what the other male had said, but that left a horrible feeling of guilt and dread at what that would mean for the young wizard. “So what happens now? Will you be in trouble or--” She questioned as she mumbled into his shirt. “Could this put you in danger?” Though her questions were pretty much answered when she saw his face as they parted from their embrace. She bit her lip to hold back the jumble of words and feelings that were building up inside of her, instead choosing to take his hand and trust in his judgement and what he was saying. 

Danny listened to the blonde speak and couldn’t help but smile at her words, he hadn’t really thought about it that way - he had never thought about himself as being brave or fearless either. Though knowing that Wren saw him that way was enough to make himself begin to. “So far you’ve proved yourself to be pretty damn strong so you’re good for now.” He smiled before giving her hand a quick squeeze as he watched her gaze fall to look at the point of contact. “Hey, don’t say that. They’re probably out looking for you right now.” Danny spoke, hoping to reassure the girl. The young Gryffindor exhaled deeply as the head of the guard sprinted away, his words weighing on the young wizard’s mind. As Wren began to question him, he moved his hand away from hers then ran his back through his hair before looking over at the girl, sadness laced through his features. “It-” He stopped then shook his head. “Protocol states that whenever a muggle finds out about us we must cast a memory charm on them, making them forget everything they saw in regards to the wizarding world.” Danny spoke, his voice cracking multiple times throughout the statement. “I don’t want- I can’t do that.. I don’t want you to forget about this.. About me.” The young male shook his head as a gentle sigh passed his lips. 

"I'm pretty sure I've proved that I'm a wimp, I mean, you found me cowering in a corner." The blonde pointed out feeling slightly embarrassed about it. She chewed her lip smiling as she felt the male squeeze her hand. "It's okay, I don't mind, they're safer inside anyway." Wren gave the male a small smile to reassure him she wasn't upset about it. She tried not to frown as the male dropped her hand. Stepping forward she shook her head vigorously, trying to catch the male's gaze. "Please don't do that. I don't want to forget. Please Danny. I promise I won't tell anyone. Don't take my memories." She begged desperately.

Mason shrugged, “It’s not that weird.” He replied matter-of-factly. “What about firewhiskey– I mean, erm, whiskey.” The male asked cursing himself for his mistake.

Her brows raised in question as she gave him a look as if to say really. “If you say so.” She made a hmm sound, still continuing to give him a dubious look. “A what?” She asked confused as she slowly grabbed a glass tumbler and turned behind her to pick up one of the bottles of whiskey to fill the glass with two fingers width. 

Danny smiled in response to the girl’s promise, her words enabling him to relax a little more about being seen with her. “Yeah.. Some of them.” The young man’s lips quirked to the side and he scratched the back of his head, sighing heavily before he shrugged his shoulders once again. As she questioned him, he peered toward her with yet another gentle smile. “I don’t need to be scared, because I know that we can all overcome this.. They may be able to fight better individually, but as a team we can overpower them - no doubt.” Danny told her. “If they are anything like you then I don’t doubt it at all, I’m sure they’re fine.” The young male spoke, hoping to reassure her. “Come on.. Lets get you out of here..” He reached out to take her hand once again before he heard a shout coming from across the street. Jenkins. Danny recognised him as the head of the guard and immediately cursed himself under his breath. What is she doing here? Are you crazy? Muggles are not supposed to know about us, do you know how much danger she is in? How much trouble you are going to be in once this all blows over? Danny’s brows drew together as he peered over at the blonde, mouthing a soft ‘sorry’ to her. Get her out of here, now - you know what to do. The man quickly bolted away and rejoined the fight, leaving Danny and Wren behind. “Come on.. Let’s go.” The young man sighed.

“I mean, I always liked to think that I was somewhat a strong person when I needed to be but...” She paused chewing her lip as she considered everything he was going through. “I don’t think I could go through everything you are. It’s crazy and-- I mean it’s terrifying. Yet you’re just carrying on like it’s nothing.” She stared at him in awe before looking down at their entwined hands with a small smile. She couldn’t lie to herself, there was something about him that made her feel at ease and like she was safe. “I doubt they’ve even noticed I’m missing though.” She tried not to sound sad at the prospect and instead gave a shrug of her shoulders. Wren looked up alarmed at the sound of the other person’s voice, her eyes widening in surprise as her stomach filled with nerves not knowing what team he was on. When he started lecturing Danny, she couldn’t help but feel guilty knowing that she was the reason he was getting in trouble, she gave his hand a  small squeeze in attempt at offering some kind of comfort. “Danny, what does he mean? Do what you have to do? What does that mean.?” She whispered as the scared feeling that she had earlier, returned. She didn’t like the way the Guard looked at her or the sound of his words. “Danny?”

Danny bit down on his bottom lip then nodded his head in response to the blonde’s question. “Yeah.. Maybe. But- I doubt there would be any way for them to find out..” The young male scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Peering back toward Wren as she spoke, Danny then furrowed his brow, it was a good question. “The people who are attacking us.. Most of them were trained at the same school we were, so they know the spells and.. Are trained to use them more violently I guess.” He sighed softly then bit down on his bottom lip. “Any of us could get hurt, but we have healing spells and potions for that.” Danny shrugged his shoulders as he walked ahead. “Wren, listen to me..” He stopped and turned back to face her. “All that matters right now is your safety, okay? I need to get you out of harm’s way and after all of this blows over - I will take you back to your family myself.” He told her with a gentle smile. 

"No one will find out. I'll keep it to myself, I promise." She assured him with a smile. Wren chewed her lip listening to the male. "So you mean some of the people your fighting against may have been your friends back in school? That's horrible." She felt sorry for them. They were all so young to be fighting. "You don't seemed that worried considering you're putting your life in danger. Aren't you scared?" The blonde asked softly. She pressed her lips into a thin line looking back behind towards the direction of her house. "Will my family be safe?"

Danny thought about her statement for a moment then bit down on his bottom lip, scratching the back of his head. “I.. I don’t know. I mean- I doubt it. It’s not like you knowing is going to cause any harm. Besides.. I had to tell you everything in order to explain what was happening. But.. Perhaps you may have been better off not knowing.” The young man ran a hand back through his hair.. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought about the long term results of one of the muggle population knowing about the wizarding world.. He didn’t know much about Wren, he didn’t know just how trustworthy she could be, who knew if she’d be able to keep it a secret? “I’ll be fine, we’re all trained for this.” Danny told her with a slight smile before leading her out of the building by the hand. His other hand held his wand, keeping it raised should any Death Eaters come their way. “Come on, it’s this way..” He whispered as he led her toward the outskirts of the town. 

“You don’t know? So there is a possibility that you could?” She pointed out as she chewed her lip nervously. Though there was still that part of her that was glad for knowing, she didn’t want to forget any of this. The chance of knowing about this magical world. “Okay well don’t take this the wrong way but... if you were all trained for this then why is it happening? Surely even with your training, you could still get hurt?” Wren couldn’t help but feel concerned for the male and all the other people out there. “Wait, where are we going? I-- I can’t leave. My family are here. My life is here.”