No Means to Use the Stove

Things That Have to Be Done

It was then that the doorbell rang.

She had been waiting for it and still it surprised her. She froze for a moment. The doorbell rang again. Without truly realizing her actions, she got up, moved to the door, and opened it.

"Hello, Charlie," she said. It wasn't like she didn't recognize her own voice, it just didn't feel to be coming from her own mouth. It was like she would have been two different people at the same time. The other walked steadily and talked calmly, coldly, and coherently, while the other...just watched, not making even a slightest of motions. She focused her gaze, not on his eyes, but on the bridge of his nose. It would seem to him that she confronted him, though she in fact would be safe, not seeing him at all. She concentrated on the wrinkle in between his eyebrows and was secured by that action.

"Hello."

There was a moment of silence. The other Anna relished in it and pondered analytically what had caused it.The other just waited, still not moving, for him to speak. Eventually, he did.

"Please, just tell me what's wrong. Come back. Don't leave me. I love you."

He had said all the important, all the necessary words, and Anna still wasn't satisfied. Neither was the other her. For a moment there she had been all herself again, one whole person, and looking at Charlie she had seen his love and desperation and sincerity, and she had almost broken down. But then she had realized that she had seen something else too, something in the corridor when she had opened the door. There had been a glimpse of something. A glimpse of something of an Auror.

Charlie hadn't come by himself. He had come with Harry. Or with Ron. It didn't really matter which of them was with him. To beg her to come back, he wouldn't have needed Aurors. To Obliviate someone, a member of official personnel was probably required.

She should have known it at once. There was something that made them very similar, him and her. He would have never begged the woman who had rejected him. Neither would she have begged him, had he left her. They wouldn't have "fought for their loved ones," no sir, they both would have just left at the first indication that the other loved someone else or didn't for some other reason want to be with them any more.

They called it pride. They called it being self-sufficient and only wanting love when it was as freely given as it was received. Inwardly they both knew that as much as it was all those things, it was also a proof of their secretly low self-esteem. It was a wonder they had ever even come to begin their relationship in the first place, when any small act from the other could have been interpreted as a wish to break it up.

No, people like her and Charlie, they didn't come to ask for explanations. They were perfectly capable of creating masses of those in their own heads. Therefore, he wasn't here for the reasons he had presented, nevermind how much she would have liked to believe his words instead of the hard facts.

And because Charlie, according to this logical line of thought, wouldn't have come here on his own, his words - his beautiful, meaningful words - had only been a way to avoid the guilt. He didn't really mean them, he just wanted to do the decent thing, to give her one last chance. To give himself one last chance, really. Charlie didn't want to be the villain of their story and Obliviating her would certainly make him one. Maybe she should help him a bit; maybe she should ask for it, she thought, amused in a weird, detached, and bitter way.

"I know why you are here," she heard herself say. "Won't you just do it, please?"

"What are you talking about?" he asked, too suddenly, and she knew that he knew that she knew.

"Stop beating around the bushes, Charlie," she said and her voice sounded dull. "We both know you are here to Obliviate me. We Muggles don't have the right to remember, do we now?"

He stared at her, dumbfounded, scared, astonished. He didn't think he would have to do it to some one who knew, she thought and found herself oddly content for the obvious fact that her knowledge caused him discomfort. She wanted to distress him, if only to gain some control over the situation.

"Before you do it, I would only like to know how exactly does it work," she continued flippantly. "I mean, it has been eight months since we met, three weeks since you told me you were a wizard. How do you perform the "risky business" of Obliviation without totally messing up my brain?"

Charlie stared at her. She discussed it like it would have been a totally normal procedure. She didn't want to talk about the reasons for which she had left him, she didn't beg him not to Obviliate her. She just stood there, looking him in the eyes with a vacant expression in her own, and waited for him to answer.

Charlie didn't know what to answer. He wouldn't have come at all had it not been required, that was true. He was here to Obviliate her, that was true as well. But seeing her stand there, in the doorway of her apartment, had made him forget his pride and fear of rejection for a moment. He had truly meant what he had said, when he had begged her to come back. Merlin help him, for a fleeting moment there he had even been grateful for Ron's advice, ready to use it! But she wouldn't come back to him. She would rather be Obviliated than even talk to him. She really wanted to get rid of him. In a sudden thrust of anger he answered her shortly and matter-in-factly, in almost a harsh manner.

"It would be too dangerous to wipe out all of your memories from such a long time frame. You'll remember our relationship as it was until I told you the truth. Only your memories of my appearance are to be changed, so that you won't recognize me if we'll meet again by chance. The last three weeks..." now his voice trembled, barely noticeably, "Hermione proposed that we should replace the memory of me telling you about the Magical world with me telling you about being already married. She reckoned that would be a believable reason for you to leave me."

He stayed silent after those words and felt slightly nauseous. That was the best plan they had been able to work out, but it still wasn't a very good one, in his opinion. He would still have to molest the mind of his loved one, she would still suffer. She would hate him....even if, in her memories, he would look different. And she hated him at the present time. He looked at her, grimacing, and expected her to yell at him, to show her hatred fully now, when she still had the chance.

Instead she said, "How very considerate of you. Please, remember to thank Hermione for me. I won't be able to. Remember, I mean." She sounded almost sincere, but knowing her, he didn't miss her sarcasm. And she was totally justified to feel bitter and sarcastic, he knew.

The other thing he knew was that now was the time when he should have raised his wand and said the spell. But he couldn't. No matter how coldly she acted or how illegal it was not to Obliviate her, he couldn't do it.

"Would you get on with it?" she said. She couldn't take it much longer. She couldn't watch him standing there, freckles shining their innocent, clueless glow on his slowly paling face. How did those freckles seem to have a life of their own, she caught herself wondering and her eyes, of their own will, followed the small, brownish spots on his face until she deliberately stopped them. She had to hurt him and fast, to make him stop hesitating, to keep her own decision standing, to prevent her other self from taking action. And she even wanted to hurt him, wanted to scare him, so that he would never come back and she would never have to love him again.

"I don't care what you have been scheming with the know-it-all. I would rather forget all about you. Do it, and then you can heal your own broken heart with your pensieve. Isn't that thing just for that? To make sure you wizards don't have to feel anything? That you don't really have to remember anything?"

Charlie stared at her, surprised at her attack. His wonder angered her further.

"Stop staring at me! No one has Polyjuiced himself to be me! I can be angry and mean and vicious all by myself, if there's a reason to be. And you can't say there isn't, now!"

"Anna, please, I don't want to do it. Please, come back with me! Then I don't have to Obliviate you." He sounded whiny even in his own ears.

"Great! What marvelous choices you present me! Back to being an useless ornament or get a lobotomy! Come back to me or lose your mind! Or is it so that I should suffer being with you just to protect you from having to be cruel?"

"Lobo- what?"

"Nevermind!" she practically screamed. He had to do it now or she couldn't keep the façade up any longer. "Just do it!"

"I can't!" he yelled back.

"You have to!" Suddenly she went to the door, opened it and asked the empty corridor in a perfectly calm manner, "Don't you agree, Harry?"

It had only been a guess. Lucky guess, she gathered, as Harry Potter dropped his shield of invisibility and came in.

"Make him do what he has come here to do," she commanded the Boy-that-had-Beaten-the-Evil. "You are familiar with the things that have to be done."

As she said it, she saw an almost unnoticeable wince on Harry's expressionless face and deep inside her, the other her regretted hurting him. But she couldn't show her regret. She couldn't show any weakness at all, she couldn't even feel any weakness, or she would be ruined.

"Are you sure it is over?" Harry asked her.

"Yes," she answered without looking at Charlie. She wouldn't let her love ruin her. She couldn't go back.

"Absolutely sure? You won't be able to change your mind later."

"Yes. I know." She didn't look at Charlie, but she looked at Harry, straight in the eyes. Harry's shoulders tensed, but his voice was still calm as he addressed Charlie without turning away from Anna.

"Charlie, you heard her." Charlie didn't answer. "If you don't do it, I will, and as I don't know all the memories I should be removing, it could cause quite a mess."

Harry and Anna both turned to look at Charlie expectantly. He didn't stir. He didn't look at either of them. He hardly seemed to breath. Then Harry raised his wand and pointed it at Anna. He opened his mouth. At the same instant, Charlie draw his wand and charged towards her. Harshly he yelled:

"Obliviate!"