Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ When the Spirit Breaks, When Does the Body Follow? ❯ Runaways: Drabbles XXV-XXVII ( Chapter 8 )

Drabble XXV: At the Stop

She chose neither.

Eileen left the Dursley residence with the clothes on her back, her wand, and a twenty-pound note she’d pilfered from Vernon’s wallet. She took the bus to the grocery, met Tobias at the stop, and together they headed for the train station.

They purchased one-way tickets to Cokeworth, a village in the Midlands. It was greyer than she’d envisioned, no doubt from the pollution caused by the paper mill, the area’s largest employer. Tobias had grown up in Spinner’s End, in his grandparents’ two-story end-of-terrace house. They’d deeded the property to him, and now it was theirs.

Drabble XXVI: Charity Shop

Tobias pawned her wedding ring. It was enough to purchase a second-hand cot and a pram, as well as other needed baby items, such as nappies, onesies, and blankets. She bought one pacifier brand-new.

He hadn’t lied, precisely, Eileen told herself; they did, in fact, have enough money to get to Cokeworth. It was everything else that was less certain. She lived in her wool outfit for weeks before her condition necessitated a trip to the charity shop. Thank goodness for his grandparents’ old furniture, otherwise they would have been sitting and sleeping on the floor!

Love was never easy.

Drabble XXVII: Obliviated

By Muggle standards, she was a bigamist. All right, by wizarding standards, too. Polygamy was better-tolerated in magical circles, but still frowned upon. Here it was illegal. Marital contracts in Muggle England were between one man and one woman, with nothing in-between.

As much as she would like, Eileen couldn’t serve Vernon with divorce papers. Getting away meant staying gone. This was why she’d Obliviated the memories of everyone who saw her that Saturday morning. It was also why, in order to marry Tobias, she’d conjured another birth certificate using her full name and real birthdate.

One wife, two husbands.