The world had been foggy for so long that Olivia quickly found her mind scrambling in confusion as she drank the drops of the remedy. She remained silent as she waited for Draco to return.
As she sat there waiting, she did her best to recollect her thoughts.
My birth name is Olivia Louise Potter. I have a brother named...
She paused a moment. The image of a boy's face was present in her mind, but his features seemed to be a bit of a mystery to her. He had her hair, but his face was much too similar to Draco's for it to be accurate. She tried not to despair as she continued.
I was raised here, in Malfoy Manor, by Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. Narcissa was nice whenever I behaved, and Lucius...
Olivia wished that those memories were something she would've forgotten. Thankfully, it was more a general feeling of disgust and shame that washed over her as opposed to vivid imagery.
I went to Hogwarts when I was 11. I was sorted into... not Slytherin, which made Lucius mad at me. That's when I lashed out at... At Draco and some others with my weird powers.
I went home for Christmas and snapped at Lucius, too. I was arrested and went to prison.
The prison had a name to it she knew. It was a very bad prison from what she could remember, but why particularly was missing from her memory entirely.
There I met someone. The man in my dreams, the dog-man was there.
She had seen this man in her dreams for however long she'd been here at least, but hadn't been able to name him since the first month in.
He taught me to become a bird and we escaped prison.
Wasn't that also called something important? Becoming a bird? Olivia was sure not everyone could do it, though she wasn't sure when she had learned any of this information. Had the dog-man taught her?
We went back to Hogwarts because we were trying to save...
Her brother's name escaped her again, though his face became more clear in her mind's eye.
I don't think it went well, but my brother is still alive, so it must've gone alright, surely. Next Dog-man and I fled to... America? Canada? Across the Atlantic somewhere, on the back of a flying creature.
Another face popped into her mind. It was a girl this time, with blonde hair and brown eyes. Olivia felt the need to crawl into a corner just to escape the girl, but she couldn't figure out why or who this girl even was.
We went back to the UK after America... right? And then.... and then....
Olivia blanked completely. She knew significant time passed between being in America and ending up in the Malfoy cellars, but where she spent any of that time was completely lost to her. She knew Bellatrix was involved with getting her to the Manor in some way, because she could remember her adoptive aunt's terrible laugh as they apparated here, but that was about it.
She couldn't help but cradle her now aching head in her hands as she waited for Draco to return.
When he finally returned, Olivia pleaded at him with her eyes to explain anything but Draco just hissed in return, "I can't here. Take these clothes," He handed an odd assortment of clothes over to her, "And we'll head to the water closet down here. Once you're done changing, I'll need you to unlock the door so that I can try to untangle your hair and I'll explain everything then. Are you feeling strong enough to stand and walk?"
Olivia nodded and followed Draco to the water closet, stumbling slightly on her legs that hadn't supported any weight in quite a while. She dressed as quickly as she could to give them more time, fumbling to zip up the back of the dress and doing her best not to poke any holes in the tights with her ragged nails. She unlocked the door for Draco as instructed, praying that he could explain what was going on and why she had gaps in her memory.
Draco entered silently, clicking the door locked behind him. Olivia motioned to her mouth to see if she could talk, and once Draco gave her the go ahead she did exactly that, "Draco what the bloody hell is going on? How long have I been here? What have I been drugged with?"
Draco shushed her before she could ask anything about her memories, "I said I would explain as we tried to brush through your hair. Take a seat and we'll do exactly that, okay?"
Again, Olivia bit her tongue and nodded as she was told as Draco launched into his rushed explanation. She briefly wondered if it was the remnants of whatever control she'd been under or if it was the pure panic in Draco's eyes that made her so obedient.
"So this is going to sound absolutely horrible and I'm truly sorry but I need you to stay focused today so I'm going to keep this simple. You've been here for a year now and have been drugged with Amortentia and some other potion to dampen your powers and to keep you obsessed with me so that you wouldn't act out. Today I was given the remedy to the Amortentia, which is what you took earlier, and I will be giving you the rest later on whenever I am instructed to by the Dark Lord."
"The Dark Lord? What—" Olivia's heart dropped to her toes at the news, fully understanding the panic in Draco's eyes. And, yet again, she was cut off.
"I'm supposed to give him my reports on the tasks he's given me, one of which being keeping you here and under control. So, when he instructs me to, I will give you the rest of the remedy and more of the power-dampening potion as per his instructions. I don't know what he's going to ask of you to do to you but I can guarantee he will keep you alive and will do whatever to get you on his side. This is where I need you to be especially creative.
"I gave you enough of the remedy to clear your mind slightly, but when we're around people you need to stay as obsessed as ever until I give you the rest of the remedy, at which point you will need to be as sick and groggy as you feel now. Once I give you the potions I may or may not be dismissed from the room, but in either case you need to succumb to joining his side as quickly and as genuinely as you can. Once you do, he will hopefully call me back in to either administer more Amortentia or to just take you back to the cellar. Once we're back here, I'm going to need you to be as inconspicuous as possible until I can come up with a plan to get you out of here."
"What happens to you? If I get out and it's discovered you helped me?" Olivia instantly asked, knowing the answer but wanting Draco to be the one to say it. She was thankful for what Draco was doing to save her, of course, but she knew she was not about to let him become a martyr on her part.
"They'll probably have my head." Draco said in a broken voice, "But it'll be alright because you'll be safe and away from here."
"Draco I'm not going to let you do that. I can handle this place as long as I need to to keep you safe." Olivia said immediately, though the voice of reason in the back of her mind knew very well that continued residence here could very well mean more potions, and she was terrified of just how much she would be forced to forget as a result.
How much longer until I'm just a shell? The rational/panicked voice in her head asked ominously, and Olivia did her best not to show it.
Draco just sighed, "I'm not letting you stay here where I have to try and keep my father away and now have to worry about the Dark Lord torturing you too. I'm getting you out of here."
"Then I'm taking you with me. They can't kill you if you're not here." Olivia flinched as Draco powered his way through another mass of knots. Her reasonable side began to second-guess the offer as soon as she offered it, especially since she had no idea where to go once she got out of here, but the braver side of her didn't care one bit. They would figure it out.
"Where would we go? They would never allow me to join them with my background. You need to go to your family and they would kill me just as quickly."
Olivia stared sharply at him through her hair as best she could, "Draco, you're just as much family to me as— as anyone else. If I tell them you are staying, then you are staying. I'm not backing down from this."
Draco checked his watch and swore, "Shit, ten minutes until we're supposed to head upstairs. We'll discuss this afterwards, now I need you to help me with your hair so that we can be early."
Olivia ran her hands through her battered curls as Draco finished brushing to the best of his abilities. They both decided that was good enough and, after securing Olivia back within her chains and detaching them from the wall of the cellar, the two made their way upstairs in a sea of fear and determination.
"Careful of your thoughts," Draco whispered before redoing the Silencio charm on her.
Instantly Olivia wondered how the hell she could be "careful of her thoughts" but she pushed any doubts away and tried to focus on being obsessed with Draco. Thankfully, the lovestruck portion of her thoughts still remained enough in tact that it wasn't too hard to accomplish (though it left a rather horrible taste in her mouth).
Draco walked behind her as she shuffled along in her chains, with his wand barely grazing the spot between her shoulder blades. She knew— or rather, hoped— that she could trust him to at least use non painful spells if need be.
"Draco, you're ready, good, good," Narcissa ushered the two down the hallway with Lucius right on her heels.
"Remember your manners, Draco, and keep her under control," Lucius gave as his own word of advice. Olivia did her best not to break down just in the presence of him while she was shackled.
"Hurry up, we mustn't keep him waiting!" Bellatrix hissed at them from the door that the Dark Lord was apparently behind. In an instant, Bellatrix took the place of Draco behind Olivia and Draco placed himself in front of her. Olivia reached out towards him in an act of longing, but Bellatrix's wand was soon jabbed into her back.
"No moving unless we tell you to, filthy half-Blood!" Olivia genuinely gulped in fear at the comment, knowing Bellatrix wouldn't show the same mercy Draco would.
A stodgy man with a silver arm that Olivia vaguely recognised opened the door for the procession, and Olivia found herself truly terrified for her life.
The dark wooden floor was cold as Olivia was pushed to her knees. The door closed solidly behind them. Olivia refused to look up and could feel herself shaking.
A colder than should be possible hand grabbed the underside of her chin and forced her to look into the piercing red eyes that was attached to it.
"Excellent work, Draco."
~~
Up to date authors note!: Hi y'all, it's been a little long since the last update, but in my defence I did just move across the country to uni sooo you'll have to forgive me😅. In case I haven't already said sorry for the change in writing/updating pace, I really am sorry if anything gets screwed up with this life upheaval I've got going on. If it ever gets too bad, yell at me to update in the comments and I'll do my best!
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Ngl writing Voldemort has me shaking too (though for entirely different reasons). I feel like my brain has little to no barrier between movie Voldy and book Voldy but I know I was much more scared of the book version, so I'm going to do my best to capture that here.
And just in case anyone is confused, the two parts of Breaking are really just meant to show the two sides of Olivia/Draco. And, if all goes according to their plan, expect a lot of chapters in a similar format since Olivia has quite a few gaps to fill in and I feel like Draco will be a good set of eyes to help everyone see the full picture.
Anyways please leave feedback and I hope that you enjoyed!