Her Fiance's Bestfriend

She loathes him.

The lie comes as easy to her as the next.

She doesn't want to marry him.

The pair had been betrothed since they were merely eight years old, and every moment since he had put a distance between her that made her heart ache. She understood what it meant from the start to be engaged to a Gaunt.

An honour.

A privilege.

An order.

She could not turn down the proposal, no matter how many times Ominis willed her to do so. Marrying a man who hated her beyond reason was the lesser of two evils when it came to her family. A loveless marriage was far better than the fate that awaited her at the hand of her father lest the engagement not come to fruition. Her family was fading, and she was the last hope to maintain their bloodline, even if that meant losing their name to the Gaunt's.

That was how little she had a choice in the matter. Her parents would rather lose out on their centuries old family name than allow their daughter the option of a happy future.

But perhaps it may have been a happy one.

If Ominis Gaunt didn't loathe her too.

Her head hit the table with a heavy clunk, earning her a variety of confused stares from her housemates. She had spent the day doing as she always did. Trying to get Ominis Gaunt to acknowledge her. If she didn't have a choice in her partner, she had decided from a young age that she would at least form a friendship with the man in order to make her future easier. Ominis, however, had a different plan, and as a result refused to even respond to any attempt she made to communicate.

And so she had sworn, if he didn't respond by the end of today, that she would give up.

She had committed the last six years of her life at Hogwart's to a man who thought of her as less than dirt and she had finally decided that she deserved to live life for herself.

But as the end of the day loomed, and he had once again turned a blind eye to her advances, the thought of finally moving on seemed far too daunting. Hence, the head hitting the table in the middle of dinner.

She had forgone everything for Ominis Gaunt. Friendships, relationships, a personal life. As she stared at the darkness formed by the wooden surface against her forehead, all she felt was numb. What was her life worth if she could up and decide one day to move on? The last six years meant nothing in the pages that made up the story of her life. A waste of time and energy.

They meant as much as she meant to Ominis.

And it was infuriating.

She did not chase after him for love, or companionship. She merely wanted his friendship. An easy future where they wouldn't live in silence. Together and yet a thousand miles apart. Screw him. He had taken her life from her out of spite, and she was sure as hell going to take it back.

She had six years to make up for.

***

Sebastian Sallow was a flirt. It was a known fact throughout the school.

A troublemaker, a top duellist, and a heavy flirt.

And she was going to take that to its full advantage. She definitely needed the practice after all. If she was going to make up for all her lost time, she had to go hard and heavy on life or she was going to run out of time to get the most out of her Hogwart's experience.

She managed to swap with Garreth Weasley in their potions class, claiming her station was much more obscured from Professor Sharp's view where it was positioned in the corner. He took the offer without a second thought.