obliviate - j.potter

prolog

Artemis ran through the darkened forest. Her breathing was irregular and heavy from all the running, but she had to run.

She had to run to get a break from everyone, even if just for a moment. A break the young witch had always longed for.

She wiped her face, her eyes, with the back of her hand. She would probably have stumbled over a tree trunk if she hadn't wiped away the tears. But would that have been so bad?

With luck, she would have stumbled and hit her head against a rock, finally getting the long-awaited break. But she knew that life, the whole universe even, would never grant her a break.

She was simply too important, and not even in a good way.

Artemis knows her duties, and she knows how she will be used in the future.

Although she is still at school, safe in school, and no one would dare to oppose her - Artemis could see the blood on her hands.

The blood of people she would kill in the future.

And that terrifies her.

Artemis stops in front of the small lake in the Forbidden Forest and gasps for air.
Her lungs burned, her chest rose and fell painfully. Everything hurt.

Her knees grew weak, and she felt overwhelmed by the guilt weighing on her shoulders. She had never hurt anyone, but she knew that this guilt was from the future.

The young girl falls to her knees and starts to cry.

It wasn't silent crying. It was loud, pain-filled crying. Her sobs could be heard throughout the forest, her desperate cries echoing from tree to tree, and her hands becoming wet with tears.

She just wanted a break.

The girl screams in shock as she notices the deer by her side. The deer also startles and stumbles over its own legs.

Her sobbing and screaming immediately stop, and with a racing heart, she looks at the animal.

She hadn't heard him, even though you could hear him walking through the rustling leaves.

The deer looks at the girl curiously.

Artemis starts to laugh.

How often does a deer see a girl despairing by a lake? Probably not often.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," she said and reached out her hand to the deer.
The deer looks uncertainly at the hand but then stands up and slowly approaches her.
The deer follows her every movement, but the slight smile on the girl's face doesn't seem like she's about to kill him.

The deer touches her hand with its head and lets her stroke it.

Artemis runs her hand over its short fur, scratching its chin and ears.

"I wish I were a deer too," she whispered to the animal, although she knew the animal wouldn't understand her.

The deer snorted.

"A simple life, no obligations. No parents threatening you when you make a mistake. No punishments for speaking your mind," she said softly.

The deer lays its head on her lap and just listens to her.

Artemis was happy that she could finally tell someone what had been weighing on her for so long, even if it was just an animal.

"I could fall in love, whoever the unlucky one would be," she laughed and stroked its head. "A simple life with my friends."

The deer makes a disapproving noise. Artemis laughs again.
"My friends may not seem the nicest, but they can't help it. If they were like me, their parents would find out, and punishment would be inevitable," she said quietly.

Artemis felt the sadness and despair slowly ebbing away.

She sat with the deer for hours until the sky brightened again.

The young Slytherin said goodbye to the deer and returned to the castle.

The deer watched her until she disappeared completely from its sight.

The deer slowly changed, taking on the form of a boy.

The boy's heart raced, and his entire face was scarlet.

"What the fuck just happened?"