A/N: I don't own Harry Potter or any related characters
This is for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
word count: 324
Warning: mentions abuse, non-con, homophobia
Druella waited until she was sure he was asleep. Her husband snored loudly enough to cover her footsteps across the room to the large bay window. She pushed open the middle panel and stepped out into the muggy night air.
"Cygnus asleep then?"
"He is, snoring loud enough to wake the dead. Orion?"
"Dead to the world. Drank his tea without question, added a bit more spirits than needed, but it worked. Are you certain about doing this, about leaving them?" Walburga asked, glancing around the darkened garden.
"I am. I never wanted to marry, much less a man like Cygnus, but there are rules and rules are meant to be followed."
"Meant to be broken you mean," Walburga laughed, shaking her head. Her black curls bounced against her pale face. Married life with Orion had not been kind to her features. Druella could see the start of a bruise over her left eye and she knew she'd seen her sister-in-law wince when she'd moved her arm.
"Be that as it may, we do this, we leave them, we'll never be allowed back into the wizarding world."
"It's a price I'm willing to pay, Dru. I can not stay with him, can not take his actions every night in the name of marriage duties," Walburga whispered. Druella nodded. She was under the same pressure to produce an heir. There had been a few nights she'd tried to object only to find her words had little to no meaning in her own household.
"Where will we go?"
"North, I believe. We should get a start, we've already wasted enough time dallying. Have you got everything?"
Druella held up a shrunk suitcase and nodded.
"Let's away then," she said, touching Walburga's arm as they looked at each other with a passion that was forbidden in society. Together, hand in hand, they slipped into the night, leaving behind the lives they hadn't chose to start something new.