Obliviate My Choices {Book 4}

2. Finding the way home

Slowly I was dragged forward into conciousness by low swearing. Rubbing my eyes, I found I was curled up in a small ball under Arthur's covers, lent against his side. He was fully dressed in a Nirvana t-shirt and jeans, full of concentration as he jabbed a video game controller.

"Shit!" He yelled, throwing the controller down. He looked to his left, jumping when he saw I was awake. "Sorry, did I wake you?"

"It's fine, I needed to wake up sometime." I forced a smile, sitting up and stretching. To my surprise, golden light was dancing in through the window, but the sort you'd see in a sunset. "What time is it?"

"About half six in the evening." Arthur said sheepishly, picking up his controller. "I thought you needed sleep. Once you're ready I'll take you back to Surrey."

"Fun times." I said, picking up a towel that was folded on the edge of the bed with my jeans. "What video game were you playing to get all annoyed, anyways?"

Sheepishly, Arthur held up a box that said 'Space Invaders'. I rolled my eyes, and muttered, "You dork."

"At least I'm aware of it." Arthur said with a grin.

I took a shower, washing out my hair and putting it into a ponytail. As I dressed back into Arthur's jumper and my jeans, I wondered how things would change now. I mean, I'd make the decision to move on from Malfoy and recover--that was a big deal.

Would I just gradually not wince everytime I saw a present he gave me and learn to love somebody else like Arthur said? And what about in school? Would Malfoy go back to insulting me and my friends like he did before we were 'together?'

And most importantly to me, what about the friendship between Arthur and I? We'd never truly been close in the two years I'd known him, we'd go between talking all the time or none at all. Would we just ignore each other in school, or would we become closer after all I'd put him through this summer?

Emerging from the bathroom, I found Arthur struggling to do up the laces on his left boot. Without saying a word, I knelt down and did the laces up.

Going bright red, he muttered, "I can usually do them up, stupid blind eye." He cleared his throat, putting his glasses on. "Right, so you ready? We can get some fast food on the way."

"Why don't you just apparate me to Surrey, wouldn't that be quicker?" I asked, even though I wanted to spend more time with Arthur.

He pointed at a non-existent eyebrow above his right eye. "I'm not the best at apparating, I lost my eyebrow last night getting your pills."

"So what I'm hearing is that's how you lost your eye," I joked.

Arthur started laughing almost hysterically, actually having to bend over for a few seconds. "That's--That's just--great. Nobody will joke about this sort of stuff with me like ever!"

"Glad to be of service?" I said, picking up the carrier bag Arthur had put my (now) vomit free top and jacket inside.

We descended Arthur's stairs into his hallway, which was almost completley normal. If it wasn't for the moving photos and clock similar to the one in the Weasley house, I would have thought it was a muggle house.

The clock had Arthur's family and Cole's family on the hands. Camille, Alia and Elena all seemed to be home, while Cole was travelling--most likely to Gennie. I noticed that three hands had been pulled off--including his father's.

"Saw no point in having them on there." Arthur said stiffly. "My father's hardly around, and when he is, he whines about how I won't answer Cameron's letters..." He sighed before putting on a forced smile, and called. "Bye mum, I'm off now!"