WHO: Thorfinn Rowle & Val Avery. WHAT: Plans are made. WHEN: Sometime late last week. WHERE: The Rowle Estate in the Outer Hebrides. WARNINGS: N/A.
Val stared at her phone with disinterest, scrolling past different posts from various people that she followed on Wiztagram, sighing to herself every now and again. She ignored the company in the room, despite her feet being in his lap and her actually enjoying the rousing foot massage she was receiving.
Still. She didn't totally care at this moment.
She switched from the Wiztagram app and to her Photos app, going over some photos recently. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw a picture of Keats and she struggled to keep her expression neutral as she scrolled past that as well. Her finger tapped on a particularly lovey-dovey selfie with Thor, and for a moment, she smiled to herself — only to feel guilty again a moment later.
Shifting her weight, Val moved her feet away from Thor and immediately sat with her logs crossed under the weight of her body.
"I think we should… stop this," she started, gesturing between the pair of them. "It has been a great run, but…," Val trailed off, offering Thor the smallest of shrugs.
There had been a lot of Thor’s mind recently. Between the deaths and outings of his fellow Death Eaters, he was beginning to feel uneasy about about everything happening in magical Great Britain and Ireland. While he couldn’t quite put his finger on what exactly was the problem, he knew he didn’t like it.
But what he did like was spending time with Val. Though they hadn’t exactly discussed what was happening between them, she did manage to make him feel more at ease when they were together. Or at least she did until she tried to... could it even be considered a breakup?
“Well this is a bit sudden.”
"Yeah, well," Val started, though she wasn't even sure that she had the explanation that Thor probably needed to hear for all of this to cease. She, instead, settled for a shrug and picked up her phone again, out of habit, to have something else to do.
Her stomach did a flop and she suddenly felt queasy. "I don't want more people around me to die," she finally explained, very clearly alluding to her brother's untimely demise. "I don't want more Death Eaters around me to die."
He thought about her words for a moment. “So you want to break up with me under the assumption that it would make things easier on you if I died?” Thor asked as he turned to look at Val.
"Aren't you just twisting my words here?" Val asked, both of her brows shooting up.
“I really don’t think I am here,” Thor said with a shake of his head.
She sighed and sat up straight, letting herself reach for his hand. She gave it a brief squeeze and gulped a bit, as words formed in her head. She needed to be coherent, she knew.
Val finally exhaled loudly, before speaking. "Thor, I don't want you to die. And I'm not assuming that you will."
“I don’t want to die either.” His voice as quiet. While others in his ranks where more than willing to have their lives ended for the cause, Thor wasn’t. He was far from willing to truly give up everything for the Dark Lord, though more and more it seemed like he wouldn’t have a choice in the matter. “And I’m going to do everything in my power to not let that happen.”
"Everything except leave," Val was quick to snap.
Thor frowned. “I can’t leave now, Val, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t leave.”
That perked her interest, as she glanced at Thor with a curious expression. "Oh?"
“My father -- he had plans in place in case things started falling out of our favor,” he explained after a moment of silence passed between them.
Val studied him in that silence, as though she could read his thoughts. Still, when Thor spoke, she wasn't expecting that. She squeezed his hand again and softly asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"
Biting his lower lip, Thor looked around the room even though he knew no one in his presence or the house would mention what he was about to say. “I’m starting to believe this isn’t going to end well,” he admitted in a quieter voice. “And I’m not going to Azkaban, or worse, if that happens. I’m going to get myself as far away from here as I can.”
After having these sorts of chats with some people, Val honestly was not expecting this. She stared at Thor, half expecting him to laugh and suddenly take it all back. But he was serious, she knew, and he didn't even look remotely amused by the possibility of it all. "Good," she commented, nodding. "On both accounts. I don't want you to go to Azkaban or —"
Val couldn't bring herself to finish that comment and instead she cleared her thought and nodded once again.
“You can come with me, if you want,” Thor offered. “I don’t know what your family has planned, but my offer will always stand.”
"I —"
Val hesitated, not sure if she trusted herself enough to actually be candid with her response. She figured it must have taken Thor a lot to even offer that, but she frowned anyway, and looked at her lap. "What about your family?"
“They’ll be fine,” Thor said and he actually believed his words. “They won’t be dragged too far into this as long as I’m gone.”
"I was going to scram if anything goes south, actually," Val admitted, her voice low and slightly wavering, as she shrugged. "Sinistra thinks we should leave too, but — it's just so hard to think of it with … Keats, you know."
Thor nodded as he reached forward to squeeze her hand. “I know. Though it’s a lot harder to think about what will happen if I don’t.”
Val remained quiet for a few seconds, as if mulling over everything that she possibly could. There was so much to think about, so much to consider, and yet, as she looked up to catch his gaze, she felt oddly calm and reassured. She trusted Thor, and to have him offer something so big was definitely quite generous.
"I'd change my name," she informed him, biting her lower lip for a moment. "I don't know what it would be but still."
“We’d have to change a lot of things,” Thor answered in a hush toned.
"If that happens, you know you won't be able to get rid of me ever, right?" Val asked, letting one hand reach for his cheek.
Thor’s lips actually curled into a smile. “And that’s fine by me.”