No Choice But You // Ominis Gaunt x Reader

Chapter 20

Ominis's POV//

"I don't know what you said to her, but you have to fix it. Now," Anne said with a sharp tone. 

I closed the book on my desk and took in a deep breath. "I didn't say anything to her," I lied. I wasn't about to go around telling everyone what happened. It was obvious that y/n didn't tell her about what went down that night, or she'd probably be more angry with me. 

"You did something, and even I can't get her to talk," Anne told me. "She's messed up. Bad. Worse than before. I don't care what happened--you just need to fix it before it gets worse."

"I don't care what happens to her," I said. As the words came out of my mouth, I realized how wrong they were, but I wasn't going to admit something like that. 

"Yes you do, Ominis." Anned folded her arms over her chest and paced around behind me. Someone shushed her from the other side of the bookshelf and Anne only groaned and continued to burn a path in the floor behind me. "She's trying to cut everyone out again, and she's looking worse than she ever has. I know you care, and whatever is going on between the two of you needs to be addressed. Why won't you just tell me what happened?"

I leaned back in my chair, rubbing my hands across my face. I didn't like hearing that she wasn't doing well, but there was nothing I could do that would fix it. 

"She doesn't want anything to do with me," I told Anne. "And anything that happens between me and her stays that way. It's private."

"Private, my arse," she scoffed. "If you're not going to fix this, you can at least tell me what happened so I can try to do some damage control. And she acts like that with everyone. It's what she does--pushes them away when she gets upset. It doesn't mean she doesn't like you."

I thought about Anne's words, and it sort of made sense, but I didn't want to test that theory. If y/n was already in a bad mood, I reckoned that talking to me would only make it worse. I didn't want to cause her any more trouble. 

"How bad is she?" I asked tentatively. I don't recall saying anything too terrible to her the other night--I mean, I snogged her, but that can't be what she was upset about, right? 

"You know how bad Sebastian still was when he came back from Azkaban--what that sort of magic does to people who use it," Anne told me. "She's not even fighting it. It's eating away at her, and she thinks that she's doing everyone a service by getting as far away from us as she can. But you and I know better than anyone that if you don't face it head-on and work through it, it'll eat you alive. Remember how bad it was in you, when Sebastian and I first met you? You did the same thing--and did it help? No. We helped you work through it, and that's why you're still you."

Her words cut deep, and I didn't like to think that y/n was going through this all alone. 

I felt guilty, thinking about last year, and how bad it must have been. I didn't hear anything from her all year. I ignored her letters over the summer after fifth year, and she never tried to talk to me again. All she needed was something to be there for her, and I left her alone. It was worse when Anne brought up the fact that I had been through the same thing, and I was subjecting her to the things I knew hurt the most. 

Being alone. 

I knew exactly how she felt, and I was doing nothing to help. 

"Are you even going to say anything?" Anne raged. "Or are you just going to sit there with that dumb look on your face? She won't talk to me Ominis, I don't know what to do."

"I'll talk to her," I said after a few seconds. "I can't guarantee she'll want to talk to me, but I'll try if that makes you feel better."

"Thank you. That's all I wanted. I'll leave you be now." 

Anne left, and I put my head in my hands and pulled at my hair. 

Did I really say something awful enough to her to make her act like this? 

I went over the interaction in my head, trying to figure out what happened. I did make her cry, but I didn't mean to. She accused me of being the reason she was cutting herself off from everyone--that I was keeping her from them. 

While that was originally true, I didn't think I was still doing it, was I? 

I thought about the kiss we shared. Seeing as she kissed me back, I knew she at least had to be somewhat attracted to me, but I knew she didn't like me any more than that. But we'd both agreed that it was a mistake, didn't we? 

Or had that all just been me? 

Maybe she didn't think it was. Maybe she really did like me, too.