Obliviate ~ A Harry Potter Story

chapter 26

I awoke, calm, rested and warm.

Safe.

Sunlight streamed through the rounded window, basking the room in a soft orange glow, enhanced by the posters. My arms ached from how I slept on them all night, but I stretched them above my head then letting them drop back to the warmth of the sheets.

"Good morning," I said to Oliver without looking at him. He was sitting in a plush chair in the corner, for Merlin knows how long.

He mumbled quietly, "Nan told me to tell you that breakfast is ready when you want it." I sat up at the prospect of food, arching my back against the stiffness acquired from a full night of sleep.

"How are you?" His eyes were full of concern – a stark contrast from his usual mischief. Under normal circumstances, I would have lied and said I was fine, but we had been friends for too long for me to do that to him.

"Better now that I am out of that shithole." I allowed a small smirk to graze my face. He did not share my amusement. "Your Father is making you marry Zabini, like Aaron Zabini?"

"That is the only Zabini you know." His eyes just flickered in annoyance. "When?"

"The summer after our seventh year," I said, the amusement sliding off my face in one fell swoop. "Can't you just say no?"

I sigh, "I wish, but Father said that they made an unbreakable vow." I let my eyes drift to my hands resting on my thighs.

"An unbreakable vow for what?" My eyes moved from my hands up to the door where Oscar was standing in the doorway.

"My Father and Mr. Zabini made one for the marriage."

"So you really weren't kidding then." He sat next to me on the bed, Oliver joining us.

I grabbed a pillow, hugging it to my chest saying, "Why would I joke about something like that? You know how much I like my freedom." Oscar chuckled at that, likely remembering when they locked me in a small broom closet near the potions classroom and left me there in the first year. I burnt the wooden door down to a crisp and didn't talk to them for a week. My mouth curves up in a small smile at the memory.

"What are you going to do?" Oliver asked, getting back to business. I had woken up several times last night, pondering that very question, but to no avail. If they truly did make an unbreakable vow and weren't' just lying to trick us, then there was no way out that I could think of. I had considered just not attending the wedding, but I think that there would be some sort of magical bond making me go.

"What if you just said no?" Oscar said, unsure at first. "They made an unbreakable vow." I tightened my arms around the pillow, squeezing the life out of it.

"Not to the wedding, but at the altar." He sounded surer about what he was saying this time. I opened my mouth to object then shut it realizing that it might just work. I made no bond with anyone, but I would need to figure out a way to know exactly what they said because then I could find a loophole. This might just work.