Pulling Strings - Theodore Nott

3. Cheers!

 Ophelia was finding breathing a very challenging task at the moment as she reached for her neck, searching if there was anything physically impeding the action. It was fruitless, she knew the shortness of breath was merely a mental blockage provoked by the sudden panic attack that she was experiencing.

She tried to force the air into her lungs and calm the ringing in her ears to make sense of the people speaking to her. Her family was staring at her, she could see her uncle's mouth moving but she couldn't hear any sounds coming out of it. It felt like she was in her own world, unable to break free.

A hand on her knee finally forced her to concentrate on something and very slowly, the sounds around her returned. She looked up from her lap and found the hand belonged to her brother, giving her what she thought looked like a pity smile. She immediately shook him off her and dug herself further away on the sofa. Her eyes wandered over to the table in front of her, there were still remains of half eaten scones and dirty cups. It was hard to come to terms with the fact that just a mere few hours ago she had been sipping tea here, completely unaware that in another room her future was being decided for her. She was going to be sick.

"Ophelia, say something." The voice of her uncle, now loud in her ears, forced her to raise her head and look at him.

She opened her mouth, only to close it back again. Her tongue felt like lead, and her throat was dry, she couldn't possibly speak like this. But also, what was there to say? She wanted to shout and scream, curse all of them and storm out of the room but it wouldn't change a thing at the end and she knew it. That was the saddest part of it.

However dry her throat was, she made her effort to swallow before attempting to speak again. "What is there to say? It seems like you have already explained everything in quite the details." Her voice sounded weak, tired and hoarse which didn't make sense, she barely remembered shouting or even speaking.

It had been barely an hour ago when their guests had finally left. She couldn't wait another second more, she needed to lock herself in her room and cleanse herself from the awkwardness of the day. But her uncle had other ideas, instead forcing her to sit tight in her place while he started speaking. At first, she didn't know why she was being made aware of the family's money problems but judging by the looks of surprise in her mother's face, she was glad she wasn't the only one in the dark. Her uncle went on and on about how the family was going through a complicated time, that it was imperative that everyone tried their best to help keep it afloat.

She nodded along to everything, but still, what could she do? She didn't know about finances, less than that, she didn't even know how her family had money or where it came from, that was always her father's job and later her uncle but something told her then that the latter might not be doing a very good job at that. At any rate, what Ophelia understood from the conversation was that they were near ruin, it shouldn't come as a surprise considering the state of her home and the fact that they only had one house elf, but somehow she had convinced herself all this time that this was just a result of her uncle's indifference towards their family state, not because there were actually no funds at all.

The severity of the problem was not lost on her but she still didn't know whatever she could do to help the family. So, she decided to ask, a very foolish decision thinking back to it.

"That was the point I was trying to get to, we'd finally come to an arrangement today and Lord Nott has decided to help with our financial situation," Her mother's face lit up at this new piece of information while Ophelia noticed her brother's fixed stare on the floor. "And that's where you came in."

Ophelia tried not to let the surprise and possible dread show in her face. "Me? What am I supposed to do? Marry the old bloke?" The joke didn't seem to land well with her audience, that was when she noticed how rudely she had just spoken of Lord Nott and before she could apologise further for her misdeed, her uncle got ahead of her.