Return to Europe

Chapter 11

It was well after midnight by the time Audrey got to Oliver's apartment. After she had left Draco at his house, she had headed straight for Oliver's. An hour after driving around deciding what she would say, she finally had the courage to confront him.

She could tell he was home by the sounds coming from his living room. Audrey could hear a female's voice. Oliver was not alone. The voice sounded familiar and it only took her a minute to realize it was Laurel in the room with Oliver. What in the hell was she doing at Oliver's? She had run out on Draco and taken his car to come see her ex-fiancé after she had just been proposed to? This girl was worse than Audrey had given her credit for.

"Laurel, what the hell are you doing calling me at this hour? What are you doing calling me at all? Do you realize that you have ruined my life?"

"Look who is talking. Oliver, we were going to be big news, and then you just called it off. For a while, I believed you were gay, but that's obviously not true. Why did you do it Oliver? Why couldn't you marry me, but rumor has it you recently spent twice the price of my ring on yet another engagement ring?"

"I couldn't marry you because I could never love you, not completely. I fell in love when I was at Hogwarts and never fell out of love. And yes, I did get another ring, but thanks to you, looks like I will once again be making a return."

"Look Oliver, I am sorry that I ruined things with you and Audrey. I guess I am just bitter and was already pissed off about the whole Draco thing when I saw her and decied to be my usual bitchy self. Who knows why I am like that? If there is anything I can do to fix it, just let me know, but right now, I really need help with this Draco situation." Laurel sounded so lost, so confused. Despite her hatred for her, Audrey couldn't help but too feel a small amount of sympathy for the girl. She still felt she needed serious help, though.

Audrey walked towards the swing below Oliver's balcony. She didn't want to hear about Laurel's problems with Draco. She was not surprised by that, but she was surprised by the earlier part of Laurel's conversation with Oliver. He had bought her a ring? He loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, but she had been too stubborn to see it. The guy she had pined over for years finally wanted her to walk down the aisle to him, just like she should have done a long time ago. Was it too late to fix what she had once again destroyed? She ran up to his door, hoping that Laurel had hung up, to set things straight for good.

"OLIVER WOOD, ANSWER THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!!" Audrey had been knocking for the past couple of minutes with no response from Oliver. She was surprised when he finally answered the door in a towel.

"My, aren't we anxious to see somebody who has no effect on you what-so-ever."

"Look Oliver, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything I have ever said or done to hurt you. I didn't mean it, I was just protecting me. There are a lot of things from my past that you don't know about, that no one knows about, and I've foolishly let it effect everything I have done, and most things I have done, I haven't done right. Please, just hear me out. Don't make any decisions about what you want to say or do to me until you hear everything, okay?" Oliver simply nodded, so Audrey started her story.

"Oliver, before I came to Hogwarts I was a different person. A person that fortunately you never got to know, or even know about. I did a lot of things I wasn't proud of. I smoked, I drank, I had sex just for the hell of it. I did everything that I knew I shouldn't. I tried to blame it on my family, on the people at school that were jealous of me, of the people that actually accepted me if I were the partier, rebel girl. I hated myself and everything that I did, but I couldn't stop. Then something amazing happened. I became a Weasley, I had a family who loved me, and I got a chance to go to the best school in the world, at least in my opinion. Everything in life was in my favor. I had never had friends like I found at Hogwarts. People I could trust and count on were not common before When I met you, you instantaneously were the best friend I ever had and I fell in love with you long before I had the nerve to tell you how I felt. Even more amazing was that you loved me too. You were my boyfriend, my best friend, my everything. Half of what was good in my life came from you. It was the best thing I had ever experienced. It was all too good to be true. Then I found out I had this amazing gift, I was the Skepsi. This great news came with a price, though. I was wanted by the Death Eaters. They needed me. I should have been scared shitless, but I wasn't. I felt that with you, nothing could bother me. This scared me. I was so dependent on you. I knew that if you ever stopped loving me, I would be lost. So I left. I walked away before you had a chance to hurt me, to destroy the person I had become. The person you helped form. I was finally someone that I could be proud of, and I didn't want a potential loss of you to destroy that. I thought about you everyday though, and it killed me. But eventually, I convinced myself it had been the best decision. I was helping others through my Skepsi work and I was safe from the Death Eaters and from you. So I met Chris, fell in love, and married him. I married him for safety. I knew that I could go on, even after loving him; and I have. But I don't think I can go on without loving you. I need you. I don't want to go another ten years thinking about what I gave up, wondering if I had passed up the greatest opportunity of love in a lifetime. I didn't know what it would be like when I saw you again, but the minute I looked into your eyes, I felt more home than anything I had made me feel. I fell in love with you all over again. I was scared, I didn't know if either of us was ready for everything to go back to how it had been. This made me vulnerable, so I believed Laurel and told myself that we never would have worked anyway. I realize now I was stupid. We can work, we have to work. I am not walking away from this again. I don't care if it means letting you hurt me, I just refuse to make the same mistake twice!"

Oliver was speechless. Audrey had practically told him everything he wanted to hear, except for one thing. "Audrey, ten years ago, you walked away from me without an explanation or even a good-bye. Now you walk in here, after once again turning your back no everything we had, with an explanation a decade late. How do I know you won't just leave me again? I need to know I am not going to lose you and my heart again. Are you willing to choose me, choose us, over everything you built for yourself in America? "

"I already have. I quit my job, sold my house, and moved here permanently. There's nothing for me there. Everything I need is here, and one of the most important things is standing right in front of me. Did I make the right choice Oliver?"

Oliver didn't respond, but reached for the woman he had loved more than anything in his life. She would finally be his. "Audrey, there's something I want to give you. Stay right there."

A minute later, Oliver returned with a small black box in his hand. "Audrey, no matter what we have been through or how many years and miles we have been apart, I have always loved you. Nothing in this world can ever destroy everything you have given me. You are my world and make me feel like there is something good, something special about me. I hope that I mean the same to you. After all that has happened, you are still the only one I can truly ever give my heart to." Oliver paused for a moment as tears began building in both his and Audrey's eyes. The moment was more perfect than either of them could have planned.

"There is something I knew I would one day have to ask you. I knew it from the moment I saw you and was certain of it the moment I kissed you. Audrey Weasley, will you marry me?"