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Format: Novella
Chapters: 11
Word Count: 26,021
Status: WIP
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Strong Language, Scenes of a Mild Sexual Nature, Substance Use or Abuse
Genres: Drama, Angst, Young Adult
Characters: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Lupin, Sirius, Fred, George, Ginny, OC, OtherCanon
Pairings: Other Pairing, Ginny/Dean, Harry/Cho, Harry/Ginny, Sirius/OC
First Published: 02/28/2008
Last Chapter: 07/26/2012
Last Updated: 07/26/2012
Summary:
She was used to a life of no restriction, no boundaries, no rules. This summer, she is thrust into a world that she has no respect for.
But Ophelia Williams begins to realise that finding her father, making friends, starting school and perhaps just falling in love, isn't as bad as she once thought.
“Now stay still everyone, while I give us a bit of light in here,”
Ophelia Williams’ ears pricked up as she heard the dulcet tones of a gruff voice waft through the open door. She cocked her head, confused. The meeting would not be over yet; the only other explanation was that he had arrived.
“No, there's a meeting on. You'll have to wait upstairs I'm afraid!"
The more friendly voice of Molly Weasley followed that of Mad-eye Moody. Ophelia rolled her eyes. Molly Weasley was by far the most molly-coddling woman she had ever had the misfortune to meet. At least she hadn’t tried fussing on Ophelia yet. Ophelia smiled as she thought of her own imaginary reaction. Her daydream was interrupted by the sound of feet on stairs and a conversation she couldn’t decipher. Ophelia shot up quickly, closing the door she was behind, save for a tiny gap, which she pressed her eye against. She caught a glimpse of a skinny, bespeckled, messy haired boy before he entered the room directly opposite her own, leaving the door open.
“Harry! You're here!"
Ophelia rolled her eyes again, listening to a high pitched voice ramble into what sounded like a well prepared monologue. The girl, who had spoken, Hermione Granger, had a tendency towards hysteria at times; Ophelia thought. She shook the thought from her head, as she concentrated on the conversation again. She wanted to focus on the newcomer.
“Well have you been attacked by dementors?” A new voice sounded, which Ophelia deduced to be Harry Potter.
"No- Thats why the order was tailing you, Dumbledore said-"
“Yeah well I had to take care of myself didn't I?" He sounded as if he was trying had not to shout out in anger. Ophelia laughed to herself. If it had been her, she would have expressed her opinion as loud as humanly possible. Maybe even with a few jinxes added. But that was Ophelia. Rash. Reckless. Wild. And, she supposed, people did not usually hex their friends.
“Not that I’d know,” She murmured quietly.
Ophelia heard shouting from the opposite room and smiled slightly. It looked like this kid decided to give into his anger after all. By the sounds of it, he had a bit of an ego problem. Also, a problem with overusing rhetorical questions.
Harry continued shouting. Not being interested in the ravings of an adolescent ego maniac, Ophelia grabbed the book she had previously been reading from her bed, and sat on the floor next to the door. She was engrossed, until she heard her own name from the bedroom opposite hers.
“Have you seen Ophelia?” The voice sounded like one of the Weasley twins.
“No. She’s probably in her room, like always. Why do you care, anyway?” A girl’s voice, presumably Ginny Weasley, answered.
“Yeah, why do you care?” Ophelia thought to herself. All summer she had shown no interest in talking to the other teenagers of the house. Why would they want to know where she was?
“No reason.” The twin shot back
“Who’s Ophelia?” Asked the voice belonging to Harry Potter. “An Order member?”
There was a long pause
“No.” said Ron Weasley awkwardly. “She’s living here at headquarters...”
“Beating around the bush, ey?” Ophelia thought, smirking.
“Yeah, but who is she?” Harry Potter asked again.
There was silence.
“Who is she?” Potter asked again.
“She’s Sirius’s kid Harry.” Ginny said suddenly.
“What?!” Potter said, shocked “Sirius doesn’t have a kid! Who is she? Where did she come from? Why is she here?”
“How about one question at a time, Potter. And don’t call me kid.” Ophelia muttered. She did not take kindly to being patronised behind her own back.
“Well, it’s kind of complicated. We don’t really know the whole story. She’s kind of quiet, you see. She doesn't really speak to anyone,” Hermione tried to explain
“Arrogant, you mean!” Ron muttered. Ophelia raised her eyebrows.
“We’ve heard, the Order all thought she was dead. The night that Sirius got arrested, her mother left her with her aunt and went after Sirius. But then, her mum got…well, she was there when Pettigrew escaped.” Hermione was saying.
“Or you could say she got herself blown up.” Ophelia thought.
“Well, the Order, and Sirius thought that Ophelia was with her mother, when…when it happened. But, she was with her aunt, and she never told anyone Ophelia was alive. I don’t’ really know why.”
“Because she was a paranoid old woman,” Ophelia said to herself, smiling as she remembered her crazy aunt.
“And then, when she was eleven her aunt died, and apparently Ophelia just took care of herself. The Order found her because she was doing business with Mundungus, and he let slip her name, and they found her and brought her here.”
“To rot forever.” Ophelia added under her breath. She cursed Dung for having such a large mouth. This old house was like a prison, and she didn’t care for anyone in it, regardless if Sirius Black was her father. She’d lived her life since eleven years old not needing anyone to take care of her, and she didn’t need some strangers trying to now. She slumped to the ground as she thought of the devastating fact that in September these people would be sending her to a boarding school. Ophelia couldn’t remember ever being forced to stay in one place since her childhood, and the prospect of ten months stuck in a school, of all places, made her feel like a caged bird. If she could get out of it, she would.
The sound of Molly Weasley’s footsteps on the stairs snapped her out of her reverie. She jumped on the bed and pretended to be engrossed in her book. She did not want the others to know she had listened to their conversation. She looked up as Mrs Weasley opened her door.
“The meeting’s over now, Ophelia. You can come down now. If you want, of course.” She said, before exiting quickly to give a much warmer announcement to the next room. Ophelia smirked. The way Mrs Weasley spoke to her, you’d think she was afraid. The side-effects of living with criminals, she thought as she stood up.
She exited the room quickly, before Harry and the others left theirs. A meeting in the hallway would be a cause for conversation, something Ophelia neither needed nor wanted.
a/n - This is my first attempt at writing fan fiction. This story is an idea that I've had in my head for a very long time, and I finally decided to get it out.Some text is taken from the Order of the Phoenix, by the lovely JK Rowling, and I don't own Harry Potter, cause if I did, I'd be filthy rich.
If you like it, review :) Thank you for reading
Dinner was always awkward for Ophelia. For the first few nights, the other residents of the house tried to engage her in conversation, but she mostly ignored their fruitless attempts, or else gave only one word answers. After a while, most of the others gave up on trying to hold a steady conversation with her. The only person who still tried was Lupin. Her father had not tried.
His attitude confused Ophelia. He seemed to not care about her; he had only spoken to her a couple of times since she had arrived, and that was mostly to reprimand her for using magic. Sirius did ask a couple of questions regarding her upbringing but after that, he seemed indifferent about her presence there.
Tonight, Ophelia knew that dinner would be especially uncomfortable. Harry Potter’s arrival had put the house in a state of frenzy for the past couple of days. She had heard that he had done illegal magic in front of a muggle, and had a hearing at the Ministry of Magic. Part of Ophelia felt sorry for the kid. Rule number one in criminal activity: Never get caught. Ophelia had always stuck to mostly magical places when she moved around. Mixed in with all the wizards and witches of age, she had never been detected in under-age magic. This Potter had a thing or two to learn.
Sirius had been especially agitated in the days before the boy’s appearance. This, Ophelia thought, had been a major factor in his blissful ignorance of her.
She walked sullenly into the kitchen, where Bill and Arthur Weasley were engrossed over blueprints of some sort, Mundungus was asleep in a chair, and Sirius was talking with Lupin. They didn’t notice her until she sat down next to Dung, and sighed loudly.
“Hello Ophelia” Lupin said, talking to her from across the table. “Why aren’t you with the others?”
Sirius glanced at Ophelia before getting up and joining Bill and Arthur.
Ophelia frowned slightly before answering. She realised that he meant the Weasley children, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. She shrugged.
“You say that like I’m always with them,” She replied dryly.
“Well, it would be nice for you to meet Harry,”
“Well, I’m sure the others have told him everything they’ve guessed about me.” She replied.
Lupin was about to answer her when he was cut off by the sound of a woman raving. The portrait of her Grandmother had woken up again. Sirius stood up abruptly, striding out of the room, closely followed by Lupin. Ophelia heard the sound of Sirius’ shouts added to the ruckus.
Not really listening, Ophelia pulled her wand out of her pocket and started to make an empty goblet levitate for something to do. As she was making it do cartwheels down the table, the door opened and Sirius and Lupin returned, followed by Mrs Weasley, the twins, Ginny, Ron, Harry and Hermione.
“Ophelia,” Sirius warned, when he found the source of the goblets gymnastic abilities. Ophelia rolled her eyes before levitating the goblet as high as she could.
“Ophelia!” Sirius repeated. Now, most of the room glanced toward her
She stared at him before taking the charm off the goblet, allowing it to fall on the floor with a loud crash. Sirius glared at her before angrily sitting down on the other side to Mundungus. Harry sat down next to him.
“Harry, this is Ophelia. She’ll be starting Hogwarts with you this year.” Sirius muttered, waving an arm in Ophelia’s direction, but giving no further introduction.
“Hello,” Harry Potter said, giving her a small smile.
Ophelia simply glanced up at him, and then back down to the table. Harry frowned.
“I’ll need some help with dinner unless you want it at midnight!” Mrs Weasley proclaimed to the room.
Ophelia stood up, using this as an excuse out of a conversation with Harry. She heard Sirius talking about her to him as she walked toward the kitchen.
Mrs Weasley set her to stir the caldron over the fireplace. She could see Harry glancing up at her as he talked to Sirius. Evidently he was giving him an explanation. Mundungus, who had woken up, leaned in to join their discussion.
“I’m not that interesting...” Ophelia mused to herself as she stirred the stew. And she didn’t think she was. In fact, being the daughter of an escaped convict was the most exciting thing about her, she thought.
Ophelia had never known her parents growing up. Until she was eleven, she had been raised by her mother’s aunt, quite a poor witch, who Ophelia thought was half mad. Ophelia had never been allowed out of her sight, and because of her great aunt’s paranoia, had been taught at home by her. Well, not really home, because Samantha and Ophelia Williams had lived in a room above the Leaky Caldron. Aunt Samantha had never answered Ophelia’s questions about her father, and all she knew about her mother was that she had died in the war against Voldemort, and that her name was Sarah. Ophelia had learnt not to ask questions about them from an early age, as it always resulted in an argument, and Ophelia hated arguing with her aunt. In fact, she had learnt more about her mother from the Order than she had from her aunt. Ophelia couldn’t remember much about the day Samantha died. It was almost as if she had blocked it out. She knew that she and her aunt had gone to a muggle store, and there had been a car, and then a muggle ambulance, and a hospital. She remembered running.
After her aunt’s death, Tom, the landlord at the Leaky Caldron had been kind enough to let her stay in their room, in exchange for helping him out around the pub. It was an interesting place to work, as Ophelia had a knack for eavesdropping. She soon found out that the Leaky Caldron was a hotspot for petty thieves to drink away their earnings. She also found out that you can get almost any information out of a drunken criminal if you asked the right questions. That was where she met Mundungus, and the two of them soon went into business together. Ophelia would find out about the goods, and Mundungus would “collect” them. Ophelia would then find a buyer and they would split the profits. Working with Mundungus soon gave her enough money to move out of her pub room and go into “business” full time. She had trusted Mundungus, as he was not a dark wizard, like so many others were. At least, she had trusted him until he had brought her to this prison.
“I think that’s ready now, Ophelia.” Mr Weasley said in her ear.
Ophelia jumped as she was brought out of her daydream.
“Sure.” she muttered, turning off the flames with a discrete flick of her wand. She went and sat down next to Lupin as plates were passed down the table.
“And then the gormless gargoyle buys all ‘is own toads back orf me for a lot more’n what ‘e paid in the first place!” Mundungus roared with laughter, in a discussion with Fred and George.
Ophelia’s ears pricked up. Was he talking about the toads stolen from Warty Harris? Anger flushed her face as she put down her fork and looked toward Mundungus.
“You told me those toads got lost!” She cried down the table, outraged at Mundungus’ double cross.
Mundungus looked up, guilty and surprised.
“Well, err; you see, the fing is-”
Ophelia cut across him. “I told you about that deal! Give me my cut!”
“Listen, Phee, err, they didn’t, erm,”
“How much did you get?” Ophelia shouted angrily.
“I think that’s quite enough!” Mrs Weasley said loudly. Ophelia looked round. She hadn’t realised that the whole room was now staring at her curiously, or that she had risen from her chair in her outrage. She sat down moodily.
“We don’t need to hear about your business dealings at the dinner table!” Mrs Weasley continued.
Ophelia stabbed her dinner with her fork. “He owes me money.” she muttered.
“Enough, Ophelia.” said Sirius, loudly from across the table. She glared at him.
“Those toads were worth a lot of money, actually. Forgive me if I’m a little tetchy!” she said through clenched teeth.
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” He replied, a little quieter, anger still evident in his voice. “You don’t need to do that sort of thing anymore. I’ve got enough money for both of us.”
Ophelia stared. Her father, actually seeming to care about her? Her shock was soon replaced by frustration though. Didn’t he realise, she could take care of herself? That she wouldn’t rely solely on him? That she couldn’t? She stood up from the table and walked out of the kitchen. She didn’t care if she was being rude. She didn’t even notice she was followed.
A/N - As ever, I don't own Harry Potter!
Thanks for reading! I really wanted to get ophelia's history out of the way, so sorry if this chapters a little boring. Chapter three will be a lot longer, I promise!
Ophelia kicked the wall hard in her frustration. Why were they keeping her in this place? She hated it here!
“You’ll break something, doing that” an amused voice said from behind her.
Ophelia whipped her wand out of her pocket, spun round swiftly and pointed it at the intruder’s face. It was a reflex. She hated being spied upon. Her eyes widened slightly as she recognised the man as Lupin, but she masked her surprise quickly.
“I could heal it” She said stonily, before lowering her wand. The last thing she wanted was someone offering a shoulder to cry on, especially her father’s best friend. She turned away from him and walked slowly to up to her room. She rolled her eyes as she heard the footsteps on the stairs that meant that he wasn’t giving up just yet.
“He’s only trying to do what’s best for you, you know” Lupin said, as she flopped onto her bed. Ophelia groaned.
“How does he know what’s best for me? He doesn’t even know me! None of you do!” Ophelia retorted, glaring at him.
“He’s your father, Ophelia. Give him a chance to get to know you. You’re a lot similar than you think.” Lupin said, advancing towards her, putting a scarred hand on her shoulder.
“I haven’t had a father all my life. I don’t need one now.” She said, shrugging his hand off. She didn’t understand what was with this guy.
“Maybe you’d realise you do if you’d just give him a chance.” Lupin stood up, his voice becoming sterner. “You can’t do everything on your own Ophelia. You’ll need a friend somewhere along the line and if you don’t start opening up now, there’ll be no-one there when you need them most”
“I don’t NEED anybody!” Ophelia shouted, rising up and glaring at Lupin, her breath coming in short stabs.
Lupin just shrugged and left the room. Ophelia kicked the wall again. Where did these people get off, trying to get her to ‘open up’, she wanted to be left alone, if she was being forced to stay here. Why wouldn’t they let her leave?! She couldn’t take it, she couldn’t live this way.
Ophelia screamed at the top of her voice, kicking her bed now. She grabbed her book off the bed and threw it across the room. Glancing at the desk it had sat upon, she pushed that over. She punched the wall, screaming slightly with each hit.
Then she stopped.
Breathing heavily, her mind raced. Everyone would still be downstairs, eating. She’d have enough time. She was practiced at this. She grabbed her wand and a jumper and left the room. Glancing around quickly, she tiptoed down the stairs, not making a sound. Her eyes on the kitchen door, she advanced towards the hallway. Still there was silence. She swiftly opened the front door and shot out of it, closing it behind her. Ophelia sighed briefly before walking away from the house.
She drank in the fresh air. It felt so good to be out of Grimmauld Place, to be finally free. Checking there was no muggles around; she turned on the spot and dissapparated.
Remus Lupin yawned. It had been a long night, and he was looking forward to a night without guard duty for once.
After the children had gone to bed, Molly scolded Sirius for telling Harry too much information about Voldemort’s plans. Sirius, having defended himself, had stormed upstairs in a huff. Remus chuckled, the similarities between his friend and his daughter were great, yet neither wanted to acknowledge the fact. He wished that father and daughter would stop being stubborn and start to create a relationship, but the way things were going, that seemed out of the picture. Remus knew Sirius cared more than he was letting on, but he did not know why he was holding back, but he had an idea.
Just as Remus was thinking these thoughts, Sirius burst into the room.
“She’s gone!” He shouted, looking around the sleepy inhabitants of the room in shock.
“Who?” Remus asked warily, even though he thought he already knew.
“Who do you think? Ophelia! I just went to check on her, and she is not in her room or in the house at all!” Sirius exclaimed angrily, slamming his fist at the table.
These words seemed to send a wakening jolt around the kitchen, Bill, Arthur, Tonks, Kingsley and Remus, the only people left, looked alert.
“We have to find her.” Bill said.
“Okay, we need to make a plan.” Remus said, standing up and taking control of the situation. “We’ll split up. Erm, Kingsley and Tonks, you can search the neighbourhood. She might have just gone for a walk.”
“In the middle of the night? Without telling anyone?” Sirius interrupted. “She’s run away.”
Remus ignored him. “Bill and Arthur, you go and see Mundungus. He’s her friend; she might have gone to him. And I’ll… I’ll go to the Leaky Caldron and ask around. Someone might know her old haunts.”
Everyone nodded, and they started to leave started to leave.
“What about-” Sirius began
“You need to stay here, Sirius. She might come back” Remus said. Sirius looked defeated, but nodded. Was Remus imagining it, or could he see worry in his old friend’s eyes? “We’ll find her”
And on saying that, Remus left Sirius standing in the kitchen alone.
Ophelia knocked back another firewhisky at the bar. The Leaky Caldron was busy for this time of night. From the sounds of it, a paticullary rowdy group of people had just been successful in some type of long con. She ordered another drink.
Ophelia had been rash in leaving the house. When she had arrived in the pub she realised she hadn’t bought any of her belongings with her, and she only had a couple of galleons in her pocket, not nearly enough for a room for the night, even in the places Ophelia knew. When she realised she’d have to go back to Grimmauld Place sometime that night, embarrassed and with her tail between her legs, she had decided to start drinking. Returning to that house after leaving was not something she wanted to do. She gulped down her drink in one go.
Standing up shakily, Ophelia managed to wobble her way to the toilet. Hazily locking the door, she leant against the cool wall and giggled slightly as she caught a glimpse of her reflection. Her long dark hair was tangled and her slate grey eyes were puffy and a little wet. She dreaded going back. She closed her eyes for a moment, and shook herself out of it. “Get a grip” she told herself. On opening her eyes, she saw a pack of cards stacked on top of the sink. She smirked.
Ten minutes later, Ophelia had made fifteen galleons in ‘Follow the Lady’. The punters were generous gamblers and they were too drunk to notice Ophelia’s unsteady sleight of hand, as she had drunk as much as any of them.
“Who’s next? C’mon mate, see if yer can win yer stake back, and if you find the Lady, I’ll buy yer a drink!” Ophelia shouted to a podgy man sulking after his loss. He placed three galleons on the table, and watched with blurry eyes as Ophelia quickly shuffled the cards and set them out. He did not pick the Queen, as was expected, and Ophelia laughed heartily as he stormed off in a rage.
After a while the punters got bored of losing their money, and Ophelia decided to leave. She could afford to get a room somewhere now, and was pre-occupied on deciding where. She didn’t see the man who had lost twice get up and follow her, accompanied by two cronies.
Staggering her way down the deserted Diagon Alley, Ophelia didn’t hear the footsteps behind her.
“Oi, girly!” a rough voice shouted.
Ophelia turned round, seeing the man who’d lost all his money to her. He approached her, snarling, “Give me back my money, you little thief”
“Hey mate, you bet it, you lost it. S’not my fault you don’t know when to stop gambling” Ophelia cheekily replied, turning around to carry on walking. She was stopped however, when she saw two brutish men in front of her.
“Scuse me, you’re kind of in my way” Ophelia said, raising her eyebrows, trying to push past quickly. Quick as a flash, two strong arms were grabbed on to her, she struggled against the grasp, but it was like a vice. She numbly panicked as she realised her wand was in her back pocket.
The gambling man pointed his own wand at her.
“Give me my money back” He repeated.
“It’s in my pocket… I can’t reach it with this nutter holding me can I?” Ophelia sneered. She drunkenly worried how she was going to get out of this.
“Well, I’ll just have to get it myself” The main said greasily, leering at her, stubby claws outstretched.
“Or you could let her go and leave her alone!” said a new voice from behind Ophelia. A stunner suddenly hit the little man, and she was promptly dropped by her captor, who with his friend had advanced toward the stranger. Ophelia hit the floor and saw the two brutes get hit by two more stunners.
“Ouchh!” Ophelia shouted.
“You don’t need anyone, do you?” Remus Lupin said, offering Ophelia a hand. She ignored it and pushed herself up.
“I could of fought them off! Like they were itsy bitsy bugs! I just had my wand in my pocket!” Ophelia slurred.
“You’re drunk” Lupin stated simply.
“So?”
“Come on, let’s go home. Sirius is worried sick about you” Lupin sighed, starting to walk down the street.
Ophelia followed, scoffing. “As if. He hates me. You all do”
“I don’t hate you. I don’t think any of the others hate you. Sirius certainly doesn’t hate you. You just haven’t given us a chance” Lupin replied.
“Well, you keep me locked in that house day in day out! You never let me do magic, I’ve had to give up my whole life to go to a bloody…. school, you treat me like a child when I can look after myself simply perfectly!” Ophelia ranted, glaring at Lupin
“After tonight’s events I don’t think you can. Just give it a chance Ophelia. Why don’t you try out living like a regular teenager? If, when you get to Hogwarts, you really hate it, I’m sure Sirius would let you back home if you really wanted to.”
“Is that a promise?”
“It’s a possibility. Only if you start to be more sociable towards him though.” Lupin replied. “Now hold on to my arm. In your state I don’t think you could apparate if you tried.”
“Yes I coul-” Ophelia started turning on the spot
“Don’t try though!” Lupin said, grabbing her arm and with a loud CRACK he apparated her to the doorstep of Grimmauld Place.
He managed to get her inside quickly, and ushered her into the kitchen. Sirius jumped up at the sound of the door opening.
“I’ve found her. She was in Diagon Alley. I’ll send messages to everyone else, if you take her to bed.” Lupin said to a bewildered Sirius. “She’s been drinking” He added at the look on Sirius’ face.
Sirius sighed loudly. “Come on Ophelia.” He said, taking her arm and leading her out of the kitchen.
“It’s Phee, really Or Lia. No one calls me Ophelia much” She said, conversationally through the hall.
“Right”
They walked in silence up to her room, when Ophelia flopped on to her bed with her shoes still on. Sirius sighed again. He untied her laces and took off her trainers, placing them on the floor. “Why did you run away, Lia?” Sirius asked her whilst he was doing this.
“I felt really trapped. Like I was in a cage. I go where I want” Ophelia replied, looking at the ceiling.
“Maybe you’ll calm down more when you get to Hogwarts. Settle down” Sirius mused, sitting on her bed.
“I never settle.”
“That’s what I used to think. It’s going to happen one day, whether you like it or not. Hogwarts is a good place to be.” Sirius said. “Ophelia, I wish you would make an effort with us. I know I’ve not been the father of the year, but maybe we could start again? We can start to trust each other more. Ophelia? What do you think?”
Sirius looked over at his daughter, who was fast asleep. He pulled the covers over her and moved the hair out of her face.
“Goodnight Phee” He said, kissing her forehead.
And he stood up and tiptoed out of the room.
Ophelia opened her eyes. She had heard her father’s proposition. And it terrified her.
as ever, I don't own harry potter!
Over the next few days, Ophelia and Sirius’ relationship improved somewhat. They hadn’t become like friends, yet, but they were on civil terms with each other. Since running away, Ophelia had started to talk to the other teenagers more. They weren’t friends, as such, nor did Ophelia think of them as that. She mostly just sat with them, or helped them clean the house, listening to their conversations. Most of the time, Ophelia thought their topics a little immature, and more often than not, she found herself voicing her sarcastic thoughts by accident. Harry and the others didn’t mind though, they tended to laugh at Ophelia’s opinionated stance, rather than take offence.
Today, they were helping Mrs Weasley de-doxy the curtains in the drawing room. Ophelia made her way up there after a quick breakfast, accompanied by Fred and George, who were discussing ingredients for their joke shop products.
“What about the venom?” George asked
“What venom?” Ophelia thought
“Yeah, it’s a possibility. Is it harmful though?” Fred replied
“I don’t know. The real question is how?”
“Yeah, especially with mum there. Maybe we can slip some in our pockets or something?”
“Yeah maybe”
“Seriously, can you two read each other’s thoughts or something?” Ophelia asked, dumbfounded by their conversation.
“No…” they replied in unison, looking at her weirdly. “Why?”
“Oh, never mind” She said, shaking her head and walking into the drawing room, but stopping as she saw Ginny, Hermione and Mrs Weasley wearing the most hideous scarves around their noses and mouths.
“Didn’t you guys hear? The sixties are over.” Ophelia said.
“You need to cover yourself from the fumes of the spray” Mrs Weasley said, pointing towards the pile of scarves.
Ophelia snorted. “Believe me, if I wanted to get high, I wouldn’t do it with a can of Doxyide”. But she reached for one of the ugly scarves nevertheless.
Fred, George, Harry and Ron joined them, and they spent the morning de-doxying the curtains. Mrs Weasley had just sunk into an armchair when the doorbell rang.
“Stay here” Mrs Weasley said, firmly closing the door behind her as she went to answer the door.
Everyone immediately ran to the window to see who it was, apart from Ophelia, who was not overly bothered.
“What’s Dung got all of those caldrons for?” Hermione asked. Ophelia shot up and looked out the window. There indeed, was the gingery-headed man, with about twenty stolen caldrons by his feet.
“Looking for a place to keep them? Mum won’t like that at all” Fred said with a smirk. “Shall we get the extendable ears?”
But then an unearthly sound echoed from downstairs, “WE’RE NOT KEEPING A HIDEOUT FOR STOLEN GOODS!” Mrs Weasley yelled.
“Doesn’t she know how much they’ll sell for?” Ophelia asked, shocked. No-one answered her
“YOU ARE NOT BRINGING THEM HERE MUNDUNGUS!”
“Mate, I’m going down there. If she just lets him keep them for the night, I can find a buyer” Ophelia said, leaving the room. She ran down the stairs, determined to stop Mrs Weasley from kicking Mundungus and his caldrons out. She bounded through the hall, waking up the portrait of her grandmother in the process. She came up to the doorway, where Dung and Mrs Weasley were stood with Sirius and Kingsley, who were doing their best to quieten the argument.
“Mrs Weasley you have to let him keep them here! Just for one night?” She called, interrupting her mid-flow.
“We’re not bringing stolen caldrons into this house, thank you very much!” The older woman answered her. “And I told you all to stay upstairs!”
Ophelia raised her eyebrows. This woman really, really, got on her nerves. “Err, you can’t tell me what to do!” She said, loathing the woman.
“You are a child, Ophelia; you shouldn’t be such a criminal!”
“Well, I’ve survived this long being a criminal! That’s all you see when you look at me isn’t it! Some sneak thief? Well why shouldn’t I live up to my expectations?”
“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Sirius shouted, as Mrs Weasley opened her mouth to retaliate.
“Molly, stop trying to discipline my daughter okay? I think I can handle it myself. Ophelia come with me” And with that Ophelia was led away by her father into an empty sitting room.
“Ophelia you can’t keep doing this. You don’t need to steal anymore, can’t you see that?” Sirius asked her, looking at her with sad eyes.
“But don’t you know how much those caldrons are worth?” Ophelia said imploringly.
“No. And I don’t care either. And neither should you. I’ve got more than enough money for both of us”
“How can you tell me what to do? Where have you been all my life then, Dad?”
Sirius paled.
“I’m not trying to say I’ve been father of the year, I just want to be a good Dad now I’ve got the chance. What kind of father lets his daughter traffic stolen goods?”
“The kind of father that walks out on his wife and kid to go kill a man?” Ophelia retorted.
Sirius slammed his fist on the table and walked out of the room.
Ophelia stayed silent. She knew she’d gone too far. It wasn’t that she wanted to keep up the life of a criminal. Deep, deep down, she knew the things she did were wrong. But she couldn’t help it. She’d chosen her lifestyle, five years ago. She’d become accustomed to grifting her way through life, and she just didn’t think she could change. She sighed heavily and made her way back to the drawing room. Upon entering, the rest of the teenagers quickly jumped away from the door, as if they had been eavesdropping, except Harry, who was examining a tapestry in the corner of the room.
Ophelia made her way over to him, not wanting to answer the other’s questioning gazes.
“What’s that?” She asked him. He jumped. Ophelia smirked.
“The black family tree” He answered, finally taking his eyes off it. “I’m trying to find you and Sirius”
“You won’t have much luck with that” Sirius’ voice sounded from behind them both. “My dear old mother blasted me off it when I ran away from home. I used to be right there” He pointed to a black, charred circle on the tree.
“You ran away?” Ophelia asked, forgetting she was mad with him. “Why?”
“Don’t you know what kind of wizards this family was?” He replied, not looking at her. Evidently he didn’t forget their argument.
“Death Eaters?” said Harry
“That was just my little brother. My parents thought Voldemort had the right ideas though. I hated them, with their pureblood mania.” Sirius spoke with bitterness in his voice.
“But where did you go?” Harry asked.
“Your Dad’s place, of course! Yeah, the Potters loved me; they kind of took me in as a second son. And then when I left Hogwarts, I got a place of my own. My uncle Alphard left me a bit of money when he died, that’s probably why he’s not on here either.”
Ophelia didn’t know what to say. Sure, she had realised by the state of the house that her ancestors weren’t squeaky-clean, but she’d never realised just how much her father hated them. Grimmauld Place must bring back bad memories for him. Maybe she wasn’t the only one who felt trapped in this house.
Trying to push back these feelings, she examined the tree. "Boy did your mother hate a lot of her family" she said, noting the numerous burns on the tapestry.
"Yeah," said Sirius. He pointed to one of them. "That used to be Tonk's mum right there. Andromeda. She was my favourite cousin, but married a muggle-born so..." He trailed off, and Lia pictured Walburga Black blasting the name with her wand.
"I didn't know we were related to Tonks..." Ophelia trailed off, looking at Sirius.
"I'm not the only white sheep of the Black family" Sirius said laughing to himself slightly at the pun. "Andromeda got disowned by her family, of course. Her own sister swore to kill her." Sirius pointed again to the tree.
"Bellatrix. She's in Azkaban now."
Lia remained silent.
Ophelia peered through the gap in the Library door. There was Sirius, sitting in an old armchair, reading the Daily Prophet. It should be easy, Ophelia thought, for a daughter to go in and start a conversation with her father. But why wouldn’t her feet let her go any further?
“He won’t mind, you know, if you go talk to him” A voice whispered from near her ear.
Ophelia pointed her wand at the intruder’s chest, just by pure instinct. She saw Remus Lupin stood calmly before her.
“Do you ever tire of sneaking up on me?” She replied in a low whisper, putting her wand in her pocket.
“Well? Are you going in or what?” He ignored her question, and gestured toward the door.
“I don’t know” She said, peering through the gap again. “You know, I never like to be disturbed when I’m reading, so I’m just going to go” She turned around, and ran down the hall, right past Remus. She felt embarrassed, being surprised like that, when trying to sort her own feelings out. She burst into the empty drawing room, and flopped onto the couch. She heard Remus knock on the door before entering
“What’s the real reason?” He asked her, sitting opposite on an armchair.
“The real reason for what?” She replied
“For not wanting to connect with your father?”
“You know, you should be a therapist. They’re good at asking stupid questions.”
“You should stop trying to change the subject”
“What subject?! There’s nothing to discuss, okay!”
Remus just looked at her, eyebrows raised. “I won’t tell anyone, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Ophelia looked at him with scrutinising eyes. This guy seriously needed to back off if he knew what was good for him. Ophelia opened her mouth to tell him as such
“Well, besides the fact we’ve had an argument, it’s just scary, to have someone care for me. I’ve never had anyone like that. Everyone like that in my life has just left including him, and I’ve had to fend for myself… And I’m not complaining about it, I just don’t know how long he’ll stick around for this time, and I don’t know what to talk about with him, I don’t know what to do….” She stopped. Had she really said all that? She meant to insult Remus, not to open up to him!
Remus laughed. “Just talk about anything, Phee! The weather, the news… Why don’t you ask him about Hogwarts?”
Ophelia rolled her eyes. “Please, I’ve heard all I want to about that place”
“Go on, go and ask him about Hogwarts… I bet you still have some unanswered questions” And with that, Remus practically pushed Ophelia out the door and toward the Library, before whispering, “And Sirius will never, ever, leave again like he did”
Ophelia rolled her eyes, and walked into the Library. Sirius looked quite surprised to see her.
“Hey Phee” He said uncertainly, which somehow gave Ophelia confidence.
“Hey…I was wondering if you could tell me about Hogwarts. What House do you think I’ll be in?”
It was a Saturday morning, the day of Harry’s trial. Ophelia woke up suddenly, as if an alarm had gone off in her ears. After realising she’d never be able to get back to sleep, she got up, grumbling and made her way to the kitchen.
She was surprised to see Tonks, Lupin, Mr and Mrs Weasley and Sirius there.
“Is this the house that never sleeps or something? Don’t you guys know what time it is?” She said.
“Five fifteen am” said a gloomy Sirius, who managed a smile in Ophelia’s direction.
“Whatever. I’m making breakfast.” She said, walking towards the stove.
A few minutes later, Ophelia had managed to make bacon, eggs and toast for the group all by herself, well, with a little magical help of course. She was surprised to find that she was enjoying herself cooking.
She was just finishing off her delicious eggs when Harry walked through the door, looking surprised to see them all there. He looked like he was awaiting a death sentence, Ophelia thought.
“Want some brekkie Harry?” She asked him, thinking a meal would make him feel better.
“Just – just some toast, thanks” He stuttered out, sounding surprised it was Phee that offered.
Ophelia expertly cooked the toast, again feeling quite proud of herself as she placed it in front of Harry, who Mrs Weasley was fussing over.
“Thanks”
“It’s alright!” She replied, rolling her eyes at Mrs Weasley to him. He smiled weakly.
“Don’t worry Harry, in a few hours time you will be cleared” Mr Weasley said, looking towards the boy. “Amelia Bones is questioning you; it’ll be in her office”
“Chill out about it, there’s always loopholes in these kinds of laws” Ophelia offered, trying to cheer him up.
“Just don’t lose your temper” Sirius said abruptly
“I think we’d best leave now, Harry. No use just hanging around here, I think” Mr Weasley said.
“OK” Said Harry, standing up, looking happy to leave. “Well…See you later then”
“Good luck!” Ophelia called as he left.
Mrs Weasley busied herself with clearing the breakfast pots, and Ophelia went to talk to Sirius, as Tonks and Remus looked busy discussing Order business, or something.
“Lets look busy, or Mrs Weasley will give me a job to do” She said awkwardly, trying to improve her father’s spirits.
He chuckled. Ophelia brightened; maybe she wasn’t as bad at this as she thought.
“So, do you think Tonks and Lupin are getting it on?” She said, gesturing to the two deep in discussion.
Sirius laughed even more. “Remus is the biggest prude I’ve ever met. Of course not!”
“Oh, I don’t know. He’s got all the body language going on”
“Maybe he’s a secret Casanova” Sirius chuckled
“Maybe he’s getting it on with Mrs Weasley too, look at the way she keeps looking at the both of them”
Sirius couldn’t take any more; he burst out in his bark like laugh, making the kitchen look round at him.
“What are you two laughing at?” Remus asked.
“Nothing…nothing” Ophelia said, smirking.
After loitering around the kitchen for an hour or so, Ophelia decided to go and read in the Library. Grabbing her book out of her bedroom, she climbed the stairs, immersed in reading the defensive spells the book offered. So immersed, in fact, she didn’t see the red-headed George Weasley bounding down the stairs she ascended.
WHACK! George ran straight into Ophelia, not stopping in time. They both skidded and rolled down the stairs, and landed on the thankfully carpeted floor together.
“Ouch” Ophelia said, opening her eyes, to see Georges green ones staring straight back at her. He’d landed right on top of her, an uncomfortable and embarrassingly close position.
“Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going” He said, not moving, but keeping his gaze locked with hers.
“No, it was me, I wasn’t…” Ophelia trailed off, unable to keep her dark eyes off his bright green ones.
Suddenly, realising their position, Ophelia whispered, “Erm, do you mind like, standing up?”
George snapped out of his gaze. “Oh, Merlin, yeah of course!” He stood up, and offered a hand to Ophelia, who pushed it out of the way and stood up on her own. She tried to step left past George, who did the same. Then, they both stepped right. Ophelia, embarrassed and freaked out beyond belief, stood out of the way, and let him past. George left in a rush, and Ophelia started the stairs again.
“Man that was weird”
a/n - As ever, I don't own Harry Potter and anything else you recognise. Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed so far!
And check out my other story, it's a Remus/OC called an unlikely situation
Ophelia spent most of the morning reading books in the Library with Remus, who was pursuing the daily prophet. It wasn’t usually her thing, but the ancient Blacks seemed to have an interest in obscure, forgotten magic; not excluding Dark magic, but Lia didn’t read those books. The Old Magic interested her, but it was mostly legend and myth, often referencing back to medieval times. Lia supposed the spells described were just fiction, and completely useless. Still, it was fun reading about them.
“Anemoi ventus” She read, looking up a spell to create a small cyclone directed at your enemies. What was curious was the description didn’t mention wands at all.
Lupin looked up at the sound of her voice “What are you reading?”
Lia looked up; she’d forgotten he was there. She held up the tattered, dusty book from her hands. “This book on Old Magic. It’s quite interesting, actually.”
Remus frowned “Old Magic? You’re not thinking of experimenting, I hope?”
Lia laughed. “I wish! It’s all a bunch of crap-”
“Language!” Remus interrupted.
“Oh, get a grip,” she replied. “What I mean is that it’s not real magic. It’s just a bunch of made up rubbish, isn’t it?”
Remus didn’t say anything, but looked back to his paper
“Isn’t it?” Lia repeated. Remus still stayed silent, but Ophelia couldn’t mistake the uncomfortable look of someone keeping a secret on his face.
“No way! You could actually do all this shit?” She asked him, excited.
Remus looked even more uncomfortable, but resigned himself to answer.
“Well… it’s not impossible.” He replied, slowly.
“So why doesn’t anyone use it?” Lia asked, looking at the pages of the book.
“Wizards who’ve tried in the past couldn’t control the power” Remus replied again, looking at his paper in hopes of dropping the subject
“What happened to them?” Lia persisted.
Remus sighed. “They died”
Ophelia sighed. “But the stuff in here, it’s insane, it’s…amazing,” she said, staring at the pages in the book with a kind of awe.
“Don’t even think about it Lia.”
She shrugged. “I’m not going to practice it… I just like reading about it”
Remus frowned. “Maybe we should clear out this library next,” he muttered to himself, though Ophelia heard.
Ginny suddenly burst in through the open door.
“Harry’s back! Free of all charges!” She shouted, looking between the startled pair.
“That’s wonderful!” Remus exclaimed, folding up his newspaper and standing up.
“Aren’t you going to come congratulate him?” He asked Ophelia, who hadn’t moved.
She nodded, and stood up slowly to put the book back on the shelf. While Remus had his back turned, however, she snuck it up her jumper, hiding the shape by folding her arms.
“I’m just going to change, this jumper’s itching me,” she said as the three of them walked out the door.
“Okay. We’ll be in the kitchen” Remus said. He and Ginny carried on downstairs while Lia went to her room.
Closing the door, she pulled the book out, and placed it on the floor. Kneeling down, she felt for the floorboard she knew was coming loose. Wriggling it out of its place, she lifted the board up and slid the book into the small space beneath.
When she got downstairs, she found everyone in the room congratulating Harry. The twins and Ginny were doing some sort of war dance to an annoying chant that went: “HE GOT OFF, HE GOT OFF!”
She shook her head slightly and sat down at the table.
“Congrats,” she said to Harry, who sat opposite her, with a grin on his face. “So what was it like?”
“HE GOT OFF, HE GOT OFF”
“Absolutely terrifying. It wasn’t just Amelia Bones, it was the whole Wizengamot” He replied, a little louder. He looked up at Ophelia. “Have you… Did you ever-”
“HE GOT OFF!”
“Have a trial?” She offered, talking louder still and raising her eyebrows. “No chance, I’m to clever to get caught, unlike someone I know”
Harry laughed.
“HE GOT OFF, HE GOT OFF, HE GOT-”
“Seriously you three, shut the hell up!” Lia yelled.
Only her father did not seem overjoyed by Harry’s good news. Lia noticed him become increasingly more distant to everyone over the next few days. She’d often wake up to the noise of him climbing the stairs past her bedroom to Buckbeak the hippogriff’s lair, only coming back down for dinner in the evening.
It was one of these mornings when Ophelia received her first Hogwarts letter. She’d just been woken up by footsteps stomping the stairs, and had half a mind to have a go at Sirius for constantly waking her up. She got up out of bed and threw some cropped jeans and a jumper on. She was just attempting to brush the tangles out of her messy long hair when she saw the owl from the corner of her eye. She jumped.
“Merlin’s beard!” She exclaimed. She walked over to the open window and untied the letter from the owl’s outstretched leg.
Unfurling the rusty coloured envelope, she saw a crest in the middle of it; a lion, eagle, badger and snake all assembled around the letter “H”.
“Hogwarts” She muttered under her breath, ripping open the envelope.
Dear Miss Black
Due to your special circumstances, we have allowed you to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for your OWL and NEWT qualifications. Please remember that this is a one-off allowance, so please use your time at school accordingly. You will be joining the fifth-years in your first year, studying for your OWLs. After this you will be taking NEWT courses for the remaining two years.
Due to your father’s current situation, I think it would be best that you keep to your mother’s maiden name, Williams, to avoid suspicion and trouble at Hogwarts. You will be sorted along with the first years on the first of September.
Enclosed is a book and equipment list.
Yours sincerely
Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster
“Blah blah blah” Ophelia said to herself, keeping the book list but scrunching the letter into a ball and throwing it over her shoulder. She left her room and walked into Harry and Ron’s room, where they were opening their own letters.
“Oh, hi Lia,” Harry said.
“So how do I get sorted?” She asked, with no pre-amble, sitting herself on Ron’s bed.
“What?” They both asked, confused.
Ophelia rolled her eyes.
“My letter said I’d be sorted when we get to school. I know about houses, just not how they choose them.” She replied, laying down and creating bubbles out of the tip of her wand.
“Oh, you just have to put on the sorting hat!” Ron replied.
“Sorting hat?” Lia snorted. “I didn’t know I was joining a cult as well as a school.”
Harry chuckled and Ron scrunched up his empty envelope and threw it at Lia.
“Oi!” She exclaimed when it hit her in the face. “That hurt!”
“It’s only paper!” Ron defended.
“No, there was something hard in there,” Lia said, grabbing the envelope and unfolding it. She tipped out a small gold and red badge. “Here, see! You threw a damn badge at me!”
“Badge?” Ron asked, reaching over and taking it from Lia’s hand. He studied it before opening his mouth and just gaping at it.
“Yes, that’s a badge Ron, bout the same size as a button with a pin at the back?” Ophelia sarcastically commented after several moments passed.
“Pr…Prefect?” He said, wide eyed.
Several things then happened at once. Harry, who’d not been listening to Ron and Lia’s conversation, looked round; two loud ‘CRACK’ noises resounded, and Fred and George apparated either side of Ophelia, who had thrown the empty envelope back at Ron, who didn’t seem to notice.
“What’s that Ron?” George asked, taking the badge from Ron. He leant past Ophelia to do so, and she moved back awkwardly. The memory of the other day’s weird stair incident was still fresh in her mind.
“Prefect?” George asked, looking at the badge disgusted.
“Ron got Prefect?” Fred replied, taking it from George. “No way!”
George picked up Ron’s Hogwarts letter.
“It says so here. Merlin, Dumbledore must be off his rocker,” He said
"Yeah, who’d make Ron a prefect?” Fred laughed
Both twins looked at Harry. “We both thought it’d be you,” they said in unison. “Winning the Triwizard, and fighting Quirrel and everything” Fred continued.
“But maybe they took points away for all the mad stuff” George offered.
“Yeah, well at least one of you has got their priorities right” Fred said, getting up and shaking a bewildered Harry’s hand while George clapped him on the back.
Harry still didn’t say anything, and Lia thought he seemed a little shocked too. Ron offered Harry the badge to look at, and he took it, with a hint of jealousy
“I’m sorry but what the hell is a ‘prefect’ when it’s at home?” Ophelia asked the room at large.
Fred and George opened their mouths, but were beaten to it by another person.
“They basically enforce rules, and help out students when needed” Hermione’s voice sounded from the door. She was staring at the badge in Harry’s hand. “Harry – you got it? Me too, look!”
“Enforcing rules?” Lia scoffed. “Who’d want that?”
“No… Ron’s prefect. Not me” Harry muttered to Hermione, ignoring Ophelia’s comment and giving the badge back to Ron.
“Ron? Are you sure?” Hermione asked.
“Yeah,” Harry replied
Hermione turned beetroot red as she looked at Ron, who looked a little peeved at her reaction to the news.
“It’s my name on the letter.” He said stonily.
“Well… that’s, that’s great!” She stuttered, trying to rectify her mistake. “Come on, why don’t we go downstairs, I’m sure your Mum will want to know!”
She grabbed his arm as he mumbled something inaudible, and dragged him out the door and downstairs.
“Utterly disgusting. Another prefect in the family!” Fred said, shaking his head.
“Our reputation will be ruined.” George added, pretending to cry.
Both twins put their arms round each other and dissaparated with a “CRACK!”
This left Ophelia and Harry sitting awkwardly in the room together. He still looked upset. Ophelia thought it was because he didn’t get prefect, which baffled her.
“You know, prefect doesn’t sound that good. I’d rather be breaking the rules, then getting people to follow them,” She said awkwardly.
Harry smiled “Yeah, I suppose so.”
“And with those two on the side of the law, we can get away with a lot more!” She concluded, standing up. “It’s always good to have an inside man.”
She offered a hand to Harry, to help him stand.
“C’mon I’m friggin’ starving. Lets go get fed.”
Mrs Weasley was so overjoyed at the fact Ron was a Prefect; she couldn’t stop talking about it. Unfortunately for Lia, she had to endure three hours in Diagon Alley shopping for school supplies with her.
“I just can’t believe it, that’s everyone in the family so far! Well except for Fred and George, but they’ve always been trouble makers”
Ophelia rolled her eyes as she and Mrs Weasley made their way towards Madam Malkins. Mrs Weasley opened the door and she and Lia entered.
“I mean, prefect can only lead to greater things, can’t it?” Mrs Weasley said.
Ophelia ignored her.
A tall witch came out the back room, carrying pins in her hand.
“Hello dearies! How can I help?”
“Dearies?-” Ophelia started to say, but Mrs Weasley cut across her.
“Hello there! This is Ophelia Williams. She needs new robes for Hogwarts. She’s starting this year” She said, smiling at the assistant.
“Alright then. Do you want to come through to the back love, I’m with another customer but I’ll only be a couple of minutes.” The witch replied, making her way back through the door.
Ophelia rolled her eyes and followed her out of the main shop.
“I’ll go and get your books and equipment then, Ophelia!” Mrs Weasley called to her as she left.
Lia walked through the door and saw a blonde boy stood on a stool in the centre of the room, being measured for robes. The shop assistant was looking for the right size through the stacks of cloth at the side of the room.
“So, starting this year then? Are you a transfer student?” The witch asked, glancing towards Lia. The boy looked at her too, interested.
“No” Lia said simply.
“Home Schooled?”
“No”
The boy on the stood laughed quietly. The shop assistant seemed to sense she was being rebuked, and stopped her questioning.
“You can get down now, Mr Malfoy. I’ll just be right back with your new robes” She said to the boy, before leaving the room. Ophelia thought she recognised the name, but she couldnt place it.
“So you’ll be new to Hogwarts then?” The boy called Malfoy asked her, stepping off the stool.
“Well obviously” Lia replied shortly, looking at the boy curiously.
The boy chuckled again. “What year will you be in?”
“Fifth. Though I should be in Sixth. I need to take OWLs” Lia didn’t know why she added that. Maybe it was because the boy intrigued her a little, where did she know the name from?
“I’ll be a fifth year too. So do you know what house you’ll be in?” He replied.
“No idea” Lia replied, getting sick of the questioning.
“I’m in Slytherin. Draco Malfoy” He said, extending a hand to her. Ophelia realised where she recognised the name from. The black family tree. So this was her second cousin. Wierd.
Ophelia took it. “Ophelia...Williams” She said, not returning his smile.
“Mr Malfoy, here’s your robes” The shop assistant had come back in, extending a paper bag to Draco.
“See you at Hogwarts, I bet you’ll be a Slytherin.” He said to Lia, leaving the room.
The shop assistant stayed silent all through Ophelia’s fitting, sensing the girl wasn’t in the mood for idle chatter. Lia, on the other hand, pondered Draco Malfoy’s last statement. Would she really be a Slytherin? Sirius had told her she’d be in Gryffindor, like him. Of course, Lia didn’t really care where she was placed, but it would be nice to be in the same house as her parents. But, all the Blacks apart from Sirius had been in Slytherin.
“And with my past record, I don’t have the best reputation” She thought.
Ophelia paid for her robes and left the shop. She had no idea where Mrs Weasley would be. Ophelia smirked. All thoughts of Gryffindor and Slytherin fell from her head. This was her chance to get some things she needed that defiantly weren’t on the book list.
That night, there was a party for Ron and Hermione becoming prefects. Mrs Weasley had hung a banner up across the kitchen, and put on a spread of food. Ophelia entered the kitchen, surprised by all of this.
“Hello Lia” Sirius said to her, handing her a butterbeer.
“Hey. Isn’t there anything here stronger than this?” She asked, gesturing to the drink.
“Not for you.” He replied, drinking his own mead.
Ophelia sighed, putting the bottle to her lips.
Sirius and Lia were joined by Mad-Eye-Moody. Ophelia wasn’t fond of the old Auror. He was extremely paranoid, and she got the feeling that he didn’t like her that much either.
“Prefects ey!” He said, eyeing Lia. “I suppose you’ll never get the honor, being new, and coming from your side of the tracks and all.”
Ophelia just rolled her eyes and walked away. She spotted Fred, George, Harry and Dung in the corner, and wandered over
“Ten galleons the lot, if you’ll take them quickly,” Dung muttered, and Ophelia saw gold changing hands.
“Tsk Tsk, buying illegal goods and no-one invited me? I’m shocked.” She said, grinning.
“Shut up, Lia!” Fred hissed, looking around in alarm, as Dung sliped away,
Ophelia looked at him. “Nah, don’t think I will,” she said. “What are you buying?”
“Tentacular Seeds” George said, smiling at Lia, which she tried hard not to return.
“I could of got you them for about seven galleons,” Lia replied, smirking. Both twins looked at her in shock.
“What, now you tell us!” Fred exclaimed, looking annoyed. Lia laughed.
“Oh just-” Fred began.
“Have fun in Diagon Alley, Ophelia?” George interjected, seeing Fred’s annoyed face.
“No,” she replied. “Your Mum was doing my head in.”
Fred, George and Harry laughed.
“How are the snackboxes coming along?” Harry asked the twins.
“Great thanks! We needed these seeds for the fainting fancies,” George said. “C’mon Fred, we should probably get these upstairs.”
“Right. See you later guys” Fred said to Harry and Lia.
“See you Ophelia.” George said to Lia as he left, his hand brushing against hers. She tried her hardest to ignore the butterflies in her stomach as his fingers passed hers.
Harry, looking slightly guilty, slunk off to talk to Moody. Ophelia didn’t want to be around the old auror, so went to talk to her father again.
“Hey” She said, poking him in the arm.
“Enjoying yourself?” Sirius asked her.
“No, not really,” She said, honestly. “Sirius, I need to ask you something.”
“Fire away.” He replied, taking a swig of mead.
“I know you said I’d be a Gryffindor… but, what…what if I’m a Slytherin?” she muttered quietly.
“You won’t be a Slytherin Lia. You’re too good for that,” was Sirius’ answer.
“Yes, but Sirius, what if I am?” She persisted.
“What’s brought this on hun?” Sirius asked her. Ophelia was alarmed slightly by the use of the word “hun”, but didn’t comment.
“It’s just, this boy in the robe shop today. He said I’d be a Slytherin. And, like all the Blacks have been, apart from you, and I’ve done some pretty bad stuff in my time,” she said. “What will you do if the hat puts me in Slytherin? Everyone says that’s the Dark house.”
“Ophelia.” Sirius said. “Look at me.”
Ophelia looked up into her father’s face, into the eyes that looked like hers.
“You’re not a bad person, you’re not going to be in that house. And even if you are in Slytherin, I’ll still be here. I’ll always be here” He said, seriously.
Ophelia smiled.
“Thanks.”
At that moment, Mad-eye walked over, carrying a photograph.
“What’s that, Mad-Eye?” Sirius asked, gesturing to it.
“The original Order of the Pheonix.” He replied, handing the picture to him. Sirius looked at it.
“Wow, I’d forgotton how many people there used to be.” He looked over at Lia. “Come here”
She walked over, slightly curious.
“Look. That’s your mother and me” Sirius said, pointing to a corner of the photograph.
Ophelia looked to where he was pointing.
There was Sirius, looking younger than she had ever seen him. His hair was shorter, and he also looked happier than ever. But Ophelia only cared about the woman next to him. She was tall, like Lia, and had the same dark wavy hair, though Sarah Williams’ was more neat and kept than Ophelia’s. They had the same shape of face, though Ophelia’s jaw was a little stronger, and while Sarah’s eyes were almond shape and blue, Ophelia’s were round and slate-grey, like her father’s. Looking at them both, Ophelia had an idea of what life could be like, life with girly chats with her mother and flying broomsticks with her father. Meals would be home made and always on time, instead of whatever Ophelia could afford that night. She’d have her own bedroom, she might even decorate it with pictures of her family and friends, instead of sleeping in hotel rooms and empty houses. She might of even had brothers and sisters.
Ophelia blinked back tears. She half wished she’d never seen the photograph.
“Are you okay Lia?” Sirius asked her.
“Yeah… I’m going to go to bed, I think.”
Ophelia walked out of the room, not really concentrating on where she was going. Noises floated through her ears, but she wasn’t listening. She’d never seen a photo of her mother before. She’d never realised how much she looked like her. And she was dead. Sarah Williams had died, was murdered before Ophelia was even two years old. And Ophelia couldn’t remember her.
“It’s not fair!” she muttered, finally looking up. There was Harry.
“Ophelia!” He shouted. “Help, Mrs Weasley….Boggart, she’s…”
Before Ophelia could demand an explanation, Harry had grabbed her hand and pulled her down the corridor and into the drawing room. There was Mrs Weasley, crying on the floor, over the dead body of Harry Potter.
“What?” Ophelia said, looking from the dead Harry to the living one.
“I’m going to get someone. You stay here with her!” Harry said, pointing to the sobbing Molly and leaving the room.
“What! Harry, no, I’ll go-” but he had already left.
Ophelia tentivly stepped forward. She hated people crying, and she hated Boggarts. Maybe if she didn’t look at it, it wouldn’t change.
She stepped towards Mrs Weasley again. The body of Harry Potter remained so.
Lia stepped forward once more. Suddenly, the Boggart began to change.
A tall, hooded, black dementor swooped forward, towards Lia, who had frozen.
A man in a blood stained white coat approached a young Ophelia.
“I’m sorry…we couldn’t save her.”
The dementor moved closer towards a still frozen Lia.
“I want my money, bitch!” A greasy landlord yelled at an older Ophelia, cowering in a corner.
“Just wait, until tomorrow!” She shouted, in desperation, as his fist raised. Harry
returned with Sirius and Lupin in tow, but stopped in shock of the scene. Ophelia was frozen still.
Sirius pushed past Harry and ran towards her. “Ophelia!”
An intimidating wizard towered over a fifteen year old Lia.
“You’re the one who organised my produce stolen then?” He asked pointing a wand at her. “Crucio!”
Ophelia fell backwards, as Sirius caught her just in time.
“It’s alright Phee… I’ve got you.”
“Dad,” Ophelia whispered, before passing out.
Lia’s eyes fluttered. She heard whispered voices around her, and could make out blurry shapes surrounding her.
“I don’t understand, if it was just a Boggart, why did it affect her so badly?”
“Sometimes, if fears are that strong, Boggarts can imitate a creature’s power.”
Lia’s head swum. Yes, there had been a Boggart, and of course it changed into a Dementor. The only thing she could not protect herself against. She opened her eyes. She was lying on her bed. Slightly concerned about how she had there, she sighed and tried to sit up properly.
“She’s awake!” A voice shouted.
Lia winced. “Please, please, don’t fricking shout,” she said.
Sirius came up to the side of the bed.
“Stay still Ophelia, you don’t want to strain yourself,” he said, worriedly.
“I’m not an invalid!” She said, sitting up and getting out of bed, ignoring the shock of Sirius’ concern. “I’ve only fainted; it’s not the end of the world.”
Lia noticed Lupin stood in her doorway. Why was the guy everywhere she looked these days?
“You should take it easy anyway.” He said. “Can I get you anything?”
Lia rolled her eyes. “No. Now go away, I want to sleep.”
Remus took the not-so-subtle hint, and left the doorway. Sirius, however, nodded, but stayed by her bedside, frantic worry still on his face.
Ophelia suppressed a yawn. “Seriously Sirius, I need to sleep. Go away.”
He stood up reluctantly. “Are you sure you’re okay?” He asked.
“I’m fine!”
“If there’s anything you need-”
“I’m fine.” Lia repeated, a little louder. Sirius seemed to admit defeat and left the room, shutting the door behind him as if it was made of glass. As he left, he grinned broadly.
She had called him ‘Dad’.
Ophelia lied down, but her eyes were wide open. She was so tired she could sleep all day, but she was still wide-awake. The Boggart had opened up old fears. There were always men like that. Dodgy landlords, unhappy customers. Even the man Remus had rescued her from in Diagon Alley. She daren’t close her eyes in case they infiltrated her dreams.
She rose up again. She decided to pack her trunk for Hogwarts to waste time and, hopefully, avert her thoughts.
She looked at the bags of school equipment purchased in Diagon Alley. Sighing slightly, she started to sift through them.
A pair of hands started shaking Lia. She was surrounded by blackness, and couldn’t see a thing. The stranger was shouting inaudible words.
The Boggart was still fresh in Ophelia’s mind. Without thinking, she pulled back her fist and punched the stranger right on what she thought was it’s face.
“Bloody hell!”
“Wait a minute,” Ophelia thought. “That sounds a lot like…” She opened her eyes. The darkness, it seemed, was the inside of her eyelids.
And the stranger…
“Oh shit! George!” Lia said, scrambling up from where she had fallen asleep on the floor. George was staggering in the middle of her bedroom, hands covering a profusely bleeding nose.
“Whad did you do thab dor?” He shouted, still grasping his nose. “I thing dit’s broken!”
Ophelia started to walk towards him. “Let me have a look,” she said. “I’m sure it’s not as bad as it looks.”
George looked petrified at the thought. “No!” He stumbled backwards, towards the door. “I’ll go to by Mum!”
Ophelia still tried to get to him, but the stacks of books and caldron on the floor were a hard obstacle, and she tripped and fell flat on her face. George took the opportunity to run.
“Ouch.” Lia said, groaning on the floor where her face was mashed against the Standard Book of Spells: Grade 5.
She knew she’d better wait a while before going downstairs, Mrs Weasley hated her enough without the added knowledge that she’d just broken her son’s nose.
Standing up slowly, Ophelia looked at the mess on the floor. She’d fallen asleep while she was sorting through her books. Grabbing her wand, she made a flourishing movement, scooping everything off the floor and into the open trunk. She then went to the little wardrobe, and threw all the clothes in. She didn’t care about tidiness. She was just about to go and have a shower before she remembered one last thing.
Lia knelt down to the loose floorboard near her bed, and wriggled it out of place once more. Grabbing the Old Magic book, she stuffed it at the bottom of the trunk, and replaced the floorboard.
After a refreshing shower, Ophelia walked down the stairs to the kitchen, where Mrs Weasley was running around franticly.
“Fred, go and remind Ron to pack his new socks, oh, and Ginny don’t forget your new pyjamas!”
The two siblings rolled their eyes, and left the kitchen to continue their packing. Ophelia looked at the clock. It was 10 o’clock. What was Mrs Weasley fussing about? They had a full half an hour before they had to leave!
The other occupants of the kitchen were Remus and George. Lia attempted an apologetic smile at George, but he wasn’t looking at her. She scowled and went to make herself some toast.
If George was going to ignore her, she wasn’t going to beg for his forgiveness. She sat down next to Remus, which alerted Mrs Weasley of her presence.
“And Ophelia! Please refrain from punching people when they’re trying to wake you up please!”
Anger was evident in her voice. Lia rolled her eyes.
“It was a reflex Mrs Weasley! I couldn’t help it!” She protested, after swallowing her mouthful.
“Reflex or not, I wasted fifteen minutes to fix George’s nose, so now we’ll all have to be quicker in getting ready to go!” The older woman retorted, bustling around the kitchen with arms full of clean laundry.
“Whatever,” Lia muttered, earning a chuckle from Remus.
“What?” She asked him, turning her head.
He grinned. “You are so much like Sirius.” he replied.
Ophelia swallowed the rest of her toast.
Ten minutes later, everyone was finally ready, after Ginny nearly got knocked out and Mrs Weasley had probably lost her voice from shouting so much.
Harry was going to leave first, with Tonks and Mrs Weasley, and then Ron Hermione and Ginny were to go with Mr Weasley, followed by Mad-Eye with everyone’s trunks, and finally, Ophelia, Fred and George.
It was all a bit complicated, Ophelia thought, just to get to school.
Harry, and Mrs Weasley were about to leave when Ophelia heard Mrs Weasley shouting again.
“Sirius! Dumbledore said NO!”
Wondering what her father was doing, Lia got up from her chair in the kitchen, where everyone was waiting, to go and see what was happening.
In the hallway, Harry stood petting a huge shaggy black dog, and Mrs Weasley was looking at it in anger.
Lia was confused. Where was Sirius, and where did the dog come from?
Remus had followed her and was standing behind her.
“What’s with the dog?” She asked. “That’s body guarding gone a little too far.”
“That’s Sirius,” He said slowly, as if it was common knowledge.
Lia was even more confused. “Right, that’s Sirius.” She said sarcastically. “I get it, Sirius, dog star, very funny. But really, what’s with the dog?”
The dog cocked its head at her while she was talking, and sprung at her. Ophelia stepped backwards quickly putting her hands to her face, waiting for an impact, but it never came.
She lowered her arms from her face. In front of her stood her father.
She looked at him in utter disbelief.
“You’re an animagus?”
Behind her, Remus gasped slightly. “You never told her?” He asked.
Sirius looked at the floor like a naughty schoolchild. “It’s not something that ever came up, really.”
Lia was still in doubt. “You’re an animagus?” She repeated. “How?”
“Well…” Sirius began. “It’s a long story. You see the thing is…”
He looked at Remus guiltily.
“Remus is a werewolf.”
There was a slight pause.
“Yes, I know that, but what does it have to do with you turning into a dog?”
“You know?” Sirius asked, surprised.
“Yeah, Remus told me ages ago.” Lia said.
“I didn’t know you and Remus talked that much.” Sirius said in bafflement.
“We talk all the time.” Lia said, a little annoyed at her father.
Sirius looked at Remus with an odd expression. “Oh really?”
There was an awkward pause in the air. Ophelia looked at her father angrily. So what if Remus talked to her? He actually treated her like an adult, rather than Sirius, who was rather mollycoddling at times.
“We really have to go now!” Mrs Weasley said, breaking the silence. Lia looked up in surprise; she’d forgotten she and Harry were still in the room. Mrs Weasley was looking stressed still, while Harry was looking at the floor uncomfortably.
Sirius promptly transformed back into a dog, and left with Harry and Mrs Weasley. Lia stormed back into the kitchen.
“Do you want to know why he became Animagus?” Remus asked her when they’d sat down.
“No, don’t bother.” Lia replied. “If he can’t be bothered to tell me I don’t want to know.”
She sat in a moody silence, until it was just her, Fred, George and Lupin left.
“Right, that’s been five minutes, we can leave now.” Remus said, looking at his watch.
Fred and George sprang to life, and bounded towards the door.
Remus looked at Lia and smiled. “Boys, we’re apparating there, remember?”
The twins turned round and grinned sheepishly. “Oh yeah!” They replied.
“Ophelia, you’ve never been to the platform before, so you’ll have to side-along with someone I’m afraid.” Remus said to her.
“I’ll do it!” George said. He walked over to where she stood.
“I thought you hated me because I broke your nose?” She whispered.
George grinned at her and leaned in close, and she got those uncomfortable butterflies again.
“Forgive and forget, that’s my motto,” He breathed into her ear, his lips brushing against her ear lobe. Lia squirmed. He was doing this on purpose, the prat.
“Are you ready? Three… Two…”
“Hold on tight, Lia” George said to her, and grabbed her hand, as she rolled her eyes and tried not to think of how nice it felt.
“One!”
A millisecond later, they had appeared on a busy train platform. Ophelia wrenched her hand away from George’s and looked around her.
There were hundreds of wizards and witches around her age, all chatting to each other like old friends. It felt like she was at a party that she wasn’t really invited to, as she saw all the girls gossiping, the boys laughing, and the parents saying emotional goodbyes.
She turned around to speak to the twins, but they weren’t there. Neither was Remus. Lia looked around in alarm, till she saw them standing with everyone else from Grimmauld Place, including the black dog she now knew to be her father.
They were all saying their goodbyes. Ophelia allowed herself to be hugged by Mrs Weasley, as she said goodbye.
“We’ll see you soon, I expect,” Tonks said, hugging Ginny and Hermione.
“Write, all of you….now be good twins…on the train, hurry!” Mrs Weasley was saying distractedly, as the children said final goodbyes and turned toward the train.
Lia turned to Remus.
“See you at Christmas, I suppose.” She said. Remus nodded.
“Have a great first term, Lia,” He said, smiling at her.
Ophelia cursed herself, before giving him a hug. “Thanks… thanks for everything.” She said.
“See you at Christmas.” He replied, letting go of her.
Ophelia turned to follow Ginny on the train, when she saw Sirius the dog with his paws up on Harry’s shoulders. She ignored this scene and got onto the train, sighing slightly.
When Lia hauled her trunk on the train, Ginny was the only familiar face she saw, followed by Harry who boarded after her.
“Lets go find a compartment guys.” Ginny said, pulling her school trunk behind her. Lia didn’t say anything, but followed afterwards.
“Have you seen Ron and Hermione?” Harry asked the redhead.
“Yeah, they had to go to the prefect’s carriage for a bit.” Ginny replied, looking in compartment windows. “Hey Neville!”
Lia looked back at Harry. From his expression, she guessed he still wasn’t happy about not being a prefect. Feeling unsympathetic, she angrily turned away.
“Hey Harry, Hi Ginny!” The round faced boy Ginny had greeted stepped forward a little. “I can’t find anywhere to sit at all.”
Ophelia looked past Ginny into the compartment they stood near. There was only one girl in there.
“Obviously not looking hard enough.” She muttered before opening the door. “Alright if we sit here?” She asked the girl while putting her trunk in the luggage space.
The girl had dirty blonde hair and blue eyes that looked far too big for her face. She looked round from Neville, to Ginny, to Harry, and her eyes finally rested on Lia, who was already sat down without an answer.
“Yes.” She said.
Ginny stepped into the compartment. “Guys, this is Luna Lovegood. She’s in my year but in Ravenclaw.”
“You’re Harry Potter,” Luna said, looking back at Harry. He looked baffled.
“Err, yeah I am.”
“This is Neville Longbottom, and Ophelia Williams, Luna.” Ginny carried on. Lia noticed Neville give her a shifty gaze.
“I’m new.” She said to him quite rudely, answering his unspoken question. She had a feeling this would be a long ride.
“Williams, Ophelia!”
Ophelia gulped. After a boring train ride, in which the only exciting moment was an exploding plant, and an equally boring carriage ride, they had finally arrived at the castle.
As soon as she stepped foot inside, a witch introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, and pulled her aside with all the little kids to be sorted.
She’d stood at the back of the group as McGonagall read out names in alphabetical order, and she could feel people’s eyes on her. It was very uncomfortable. And now it was her turn to go up there and put on the bloody hat.
She tried to put on her confident street persona, but in this situation, with hundreds of people her own age gawping at her, whispering to each other about who she was, it faltered.
She was out of her element.
Lia walked up to the stool in full view of the entire school, and sat down. McGonagall attempted to place the hat on her head but Ophelia stopped her, taking the hat into her own hands.
“I think I can put a hat on myself, ta,” She said, placing it on her head.
Cheeky aren’t we?
“I didn’t know a hat was so conversational,” Ophelia thought.
Well, when you only get out once a year, it brings it out of you
“So aren’t you supposed to be sorting me?”
Impatient too?
“No, just can’t be bothered to chat about the weather.”
Alright. Lets see what’s in this mind of yours.
Stubborn, very stubborn. You might want to work on that. And, ah yes, headstrong too… And lonely.
“I’m not lonely, hat.”
That’s the stubbornness.
“Whatever.”
I think I know where to put you…
Ophelia held her breath.
George sat on the Gryffindor table, with his fingers crossed.
The hat opened its mouth.
“SLYTHERIN!”
Chapter 7: The three rules of Slytherin house
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It had been one week since Ophelia had been sorted. And in just one week she learnt that there were 3 very important rules for being a Slytherin.
The first was that if you were a Slytherin, every other house in Hogwarts despised you, and you were supposed to despise them.
Now, this was something Lia didn’t really care about at first. Who cared is a bunch on immature kids didn’t like her? She didn’t need the support of them to get by.
But after a week of shoves, jinxes and whispering behind her back she started to resent the fact she was part of the most hated group in school. And it seemed everyone wanted a crack at the ‘home schooled Slytherin weirdo’, as Lia had heard an obnoxious Ravenclaw describe her – before jinxing her, of course. She’d quickly become one of the least liked people in school, just because she was a Slytherin.
The worst thing was the no-one from Grimmauld Place had spoken to her since the sorting. She’d spotted Hermione and Ron in the corridor the other day, and had started to walk towards them to say hi, but Ron had nudged Hermione quickly, and both of them hurried away, though she swore she saw the brunette give her an apologetic smile.
She hadn’t even seen George since the sorting.
Also, the first rule applied to people who’d left Hogwarts too. Early Tuesday morning, Ophelia had a surprise at breakfast. A large barn owl swooped towards her place, with a letter attached to it’s leg. Lia slowly unfurled it, recognising Remus’ writing.
Dear Lia.
I hope you’re having a good first week at school, and you like it more than you expected to. Everyone here is fine, though the house is very quiet now it’s just me and your Dad here. Mundungus dropped by, asking for you, he’d forgotten you were going to school.
We’ve heard about what happened at your sorting. Don’t worry about it. I know you’ve heard bad things about Slytherin, but there are some nice people there, everyone else just stereotypes.
Don’t forget to study hard. I think Sirius wants to say something so I’ll give this to him and let him send it.
Love, Remus.
Ophelia.
Remus told me. Don’t listen to his rubbish about there being nice people in that house. Go to see Dumbledore, there must have been a mistake. No daughter of mine and your mothers could possibly be a Slytherin.
Sirius.
Lia balled the letter up in her fist. How was it that Sirius’ best friend’s letter was more affectionate than her father’s? And as for Sirius, no way was Lia demanding a re-sort. If he didn’t like her being a Slytherin, he was going to have to lump it.
The second rule was not to mess with the girls of Slytherin house.
On her first night, Lia made the mistake of crossing Pansy Parkinson, by accidentally sitting on her bed.
“Argh!” The pug faced girl screamed as soon as she walked through the dorm door and saw her. “She’s sat on my bed! Do something!”
Pansy’s second in command stepped forward from behind her, the butch looking Millicent Bullstrode.
“You can’t sit there, that’s Pansy’s bed.”
Even her voice sounded manly.
Lia looked in disgust at the two ugly girls stood before her, but didn’t have the strength to argue back. She slowly stood up and heaved her trunk to the bed furthest from Pansy’s.
“Is she even pureblood?” Pansy hissed, loud enough for Lia to hear. “I’m not having any old Mudblood in our dorm!”
Lia clenched her fists.
“I mean, look at her. She’s so scruffy she probably doesn’t even know who her parents are, let alone what blood she’s got!”
Ophelia sighed, and pulled her wand out of her sleeve. Spinning round, she strode forwards and pointed it right under Parkinson’s fat chin. Pansy opened her eyes wide at the sight of Lia’s snarling face.
“Do you want to shut your ugly face?” Lia said, not hiding her instant hatred for the girl.
Parkinson was surprisingly calm, though she kept glancing down at the wand pointed at her. “No, actually I don’t.” She said. “You don’t know how things work round here, do you? I’m in charge h ere. Nothing ever happens in this house without me finding out. I can make your life hell, newbie. I can make your housemates hate you within the space of half an hour. And I wouldn’t want to get on the bad side of them. So I’d get that wand out of my face if I were you.”
Ophelia sighed, and moved her wand. Naturally, she decided to punch her in the face instead.
At the end of the first week, it wasn’t just the Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and Grffindors that hated her. It was her housemates too. It seemed Pansy’s pathetic threat was one she had followed through. Lia didn't know how she'd done it, but now most of the house treated her like scum.
Lia soon found out Pansy liked to big herself up though. All this “I’m in charge of Slytherin talk” was rubbish. She was only so high up in the social spectrum because she was screwing Draco Malfoy, the real hierarchy in Slytherin. Younger students feared him, and older students respected him, all because his family were so well connected. Draco had been civil to her during the first feast, remembering her from the robe shop, but after Lia punched Pansy, he didn't want anything to do with her.
It made Lia miss the Leaky Caldron even more. She used to have that kind of respect. Grown men used to beg her for help in their criminal dealings, because Ophelia knew everyone in the criminal world. Sometimes, she wondered how they were surviving without her. She’d got close to writing to Dung a few times, before remembering she wasn’t supposed to be a criminal anymore. She was supposed to be a schoolgirl.
The third rule wasn’t really a rule, but more a fact of Ophelia’s new crappy life.
Tracy Morgan was an absolute life saver.
Another Slytherin outcast, Lia had warmed to her like no other person. She was the closest thing to a friend Lia had ever had.
“Hey look girls it’s the Mudblood and the freak!” Parkinson sneered on Friday morning, as she passed them at breakfast.
“Oh look Phee, it’s the Pug and the Slags!” Tracy imitated Parkinson’s high pitched whine before Ophelia had a chance to retort.
Lia still hadn’t got used to school life, so it was a relief to have someone to defend her, not that she’d ever admit it.
Trace was branded a freak because of her dress sense. She had two piercings in her nose, three in her ears and one in her tongue. Her jeans had rips and she always adorned her uniform with badges and pins.
“She’s gotten fat, anyway,” Trace commented while buttering toast.
Relief or not, Tracy was still a Slytherin. “And she’s got spots.” She added.
Lia snorted. “It’s cause she cakes make up on her ugly face all day,”
“If she was clever enough to read, she’d look in a beauty spell book.” Tracy commented. “I don’t’ get why she calls you Mudblood still, both you’re parents were wizards.”
“Hmmm” Lia murmured, watching the Gryffindor table. She hadn’t told Trace about Sirius, because he was still a wanted man, just that she never knew her magical parents, but lived with her aunt, which was practically true.
“Potions next,” Trace said vaguely.
“Yeah…” Lia said, watching Fred and George fool around on the Gryffindor table. For a moment, George’s eyes met hers, and she looked away sadly.
“Right, potions!” Lia said, glancing at George one last time.
a/n -
I just want to say, THANK YOU! to everyone that's reviewing this story. I absolutly never expected such a positive response, and all your lovely reviews really make my day.
Now for a little bad news, I don't expect to be updating untill after the summer now, I'm really sorry for all you guys that are desperate to find out what happens to Lia, and I'm sorry to any fans of An unlikely situation especially since I haven't updated that in an age, or Hogwarts according to Tallulah Rynn, but my boyfriend is moving away soon, so I really need to spend the time with him that I can.
But I promise there will be big updates in september!
“She actually looks like a frog!”
It was a Wednesday morning and Ophelia was sat at the back of the Defence against the Dark Arts classroom, awaiting her first lesson from Umbridge.
Lia glanced at Trace as she slid into the seat next to her.
“Tell me about it,” She replied, watching as Hermione, Ron and Harry entered, the latter giving her the slightest of smiles. Lia didn’t return it.
“Good afternoon children!” Umbridge said loudly when the last student, Malfoy, swaggered in. Lia smirked as she heard the word “children”. She got the feeling herself and Umbridge were going to get on like a house on fire.
“Well, that won’t do!” The squat woman exclaimed when nobody replied to her. I’d like you to please reply, “Good afternoon Professor Umbridge…Good afternoon class?”
Lia snorted loudly as the rest of the class chanted back at the teacher. Umbridge looked at her for a moment, but decided to stay silent for now.
“Wands away and quills out please.”
Trace sighed from beside Ophelia as she grabbed parchment out of her bag. Lia put her wand in her pocket for now. She felt a little vulnerable without it. Umbridge started to write something on the board, and Lia felt her concentration ebbing away already. And to her annoyance, her thoughts seemed to float towards a certain red headed twin. George hadn’t spoken to her since her sorting, which annoyed her, and the fact that it annoyed her added to her annoyance. For some reason, every time she saw him her heart sped up, her breath caught in her throat and every sane thought that was in her head completely left. There was something wrong with her.
She couldn’t even talk to Trace about it, because to Trace, she was Ophelia Williams, who was a transfer from home schooling, and who hadn’t spent the whole summer with a great part of Gryffindor house, past and present. Nah, to Trace, Lia was another Slytherin, outcast from the rest but in some ways just the same, just like her.
“We’re not going to use magic?!”
Lia snapped out of her thoughts as she heard Ron’s exclamation. Frowning slightly, she looked up and saw many of the class with their hands up, and so she looked at the course aims she should have been copying. He was right, it didn’t mention using magic at all. How ridiculous was that?
Umbridge was now speaking to Hermione. “Yes Miss Granger?”
“Isn’t the whole point of Defence lessons to practice defensive spells?” She asked, trying to sound polite, but Lia could hear the anger evident in her voice.
“I’m afraid you are not qualified to decide the ‘whole point’ of my lesson Miss Granger. Some very clever and much older Wizards have devised this new study programme. This means you will be learning in a secure, and risk-free-”
Harry interjected before Lia could open her mouth.
“What’s the use of that?” He said “If we get attacked it won’t be risk free!”
Umbridge smiled in a sick way. “Hand Mr Potter. Surely you do not expect to get attacked during my classes?”
A Gryffindor girl raised her hand. “So you’re saying the first time we’ll use these spells will be in out exams?”
Umbridge continued on. “If you have studied the theory-”
Lia’d had enough of this idiocy. “Yeah, we might not get attacked in the lessons but what about outside of them?” She shouted, not bothering to put up her hand. “If we never get a chance to practice the spells how are we suppose to use them in the real world?”
“There is nothing in the ‘real world’ that would want to attack students such as yourself!”
“Are you really such a sub-standard defence teacher that you think there’re no dark creatures in the world? There’re such things as Leithoids, Chimeras, Dementors, not to mention dodgy Wizards you pass in the street who think they can have a go! Are you trying to tell me that we don’t deserve to learn how to fight?” Lia shouted.
“Detention Miss Williams. Tomorrow night, my office.”
“Save it. I’m leaving.” Lia answered, standing up grabbing her things and walking straight out the door.
“Like I said children, there is nothing that would want to protect students such as yourself” Lia heard Umbridge say as she stormed out the door. She’d pay for walking out later, she guessed but she didn’t care. She’d been holding in her anger since she got here, and her frustration with Sirius, George and not to mention Pansy Parkinson had vented out slightly with her outburst at Umbridge.
She started to wander the corridors. She didn’t want to go to the common room; her housemates were too annoying to endure. She certainly wasn’t going to go back to class. She figured she’d go to the owlery and write to Remus or something.
Now she had a destination, she started to storm up the flight of stairs. That Umbridge woman had to be the most stupid person she had ever met in her entire life. And that included some of the stuff she’d had to endure in Grimmauld Place. Surely the whole point of magic school was to learn magic? Ophelia thought that the sooner she left this place the better, if the teachers were like that old toad.
She’d reached the owelery. She pushed the door, but it seemed to be stuck. Something was jamming it the other side.
“Oh, for Merlin’s sake!” She exclaimed, pushing it with all her might. It suddenly opened, and Lia found herself falling onto whatever had been blocking it.
Or whoever, it turned out to be. This was an annoyingly familiar situation.
“Err…Hi” The obstructer said.
Lia shot up as quickly as she could. “You wanna save the formalities for when I’m not lying on top of you George?”
He seemed to snap to his senses. “Ha, yeah… of course.” He stood up, slower than she had done, and Lia found herself looking anywhere but him, otherwise she was sure she would not be able to speak at all.
“You really shouldn’t be blocking the door, you know!” She said, more angrily than it was supposed to come out.
“Well, I didn’t expect some lunatic to barge right in here,” he said, half laughing, until his face seemed to remember something and he stopped. “Err, I have to go anyway. Bye Lia,”
Don’t go Lia thought, but snapped herself out of it.
“Hey, maybe we can hang out sometime? I haven’t spoken to any of you lot since we’ve been here.” She spat out as quickly as she could, cursing herself at the same time for it.
George’s eyes lingered on Ophelia’s robes. “Err, maybe. I think everyone’s busy with all the homework though, but I’ll see.” Not meeting her eyes, he left swiftly.
It was only after he left that Lia noticed what he’d been looking at. Her Slytherin house badge.
Dear Remus.
This school is the biggest pile of dragon dung I’ve ever had the misfortune to endure. I want to come back to Sirius’ house, as much as I thought I’d never say that.
It’s just… I guess being a Slytherin is harder than I thought. After Sirius’ letter I was utterly determined to prove him wrong. Just because I’m in the same house Voldemort was, it doesn’t mean I’m going to turn out like him, does it? Everyone here seems to think so. Everyone in my own house hates me because of some stupid childish rumour, and everyone in the other houses hates me because they think I’m just like the rest. I have one friend, and even she’s a bit of a bitch, though to be honest, I probably am too.
And don’t you dare tell anyone from the Order how sappy this letter was or I’ll break your face.
Lia.
After sending her letter, Lia wandered the corridors some more, still annoyed by George. What an absolute, well, you can guess the kind of names she was coming up for him.
“Argh!” She shouted in frustration and kicked a nearby suit of armour.
“Shouldn’t you be in class, Miss Williams?” A voice sounded behind her.
“Probably.” She replied, turning around to see none other than her headmaster. Crap.
“And why aren’t you in that class?” He asked her, but she thought she saw a smile in his eyes.
“Because it’s all a bunch of, well, rubbish, if I’m going to be honest!” She replied.
Dumbledore smiled. “Well, they say honesty is the best policy. Do you want to tell me why you walked out of Professor Umbridge’s class?”
Lia frowned, how come he knew what she’d done?
“A good headmaster always knows where his pupils should be, Ophelia. Especially those prone to skipping lessons.”
“That toad isn’t let us use magic! And that’s completely ridiculous, so I left the lesson.” Lia exclaimed.
Ophelia expected the Headmaster to be angry, but he simply sighed slightly.
“Ophelia, you must understand that Professor Umbridge is working for the Ministry. As much as I… disagree with her teaching methods, for now it would be best for you to keep on her good side, to avoid further…suspicion.”
“What are you getting at?” Lia asked.
“I think it would be a good idea not to give her reason to be curious about you. Given your…home situation. Professor Umbridge is in direct contact with the Minister himself.”
Lia opened her mouth to speak.
“Now, as it’s nearly time for lunch I suggest you run along to the Great Hall. Goodbye Miss Williams.” And with that he briskly walked away, humming softly to himself.
Lia just stared after him. Was he trying to say that Umbridge could find out about Sirius? The only thing she knew for definite after that conversation was that her Headmaster was the strangest man she’d ever met.
“Oh my lord, Phee, I cannot believe you!”
Lia laughed to herself as Trace sat next to her at dinner that night.
“I bet Umbridge exploded.” Lia said, helping herself to some sausages.
“Oh, she barely had time to readjust herself before Potter started on her too!” Trace exclaimed.
Lia put down her fork, glancing over to the Gryffindor table where Harry sat looking very uncomfortable. “Harry? That goody-goody? What did he say?”
“Ooh, first name terms with Potter are we?” Trace said in a sing-song voice, but she was only joking. “Well, he started shouting about You-Know-Who wanting to kill everyone, and all that guff.”
“Oh right. Well hopefully she’s forgotten about my punishment.” Lia replied, watching George enter the hall with Fred. He looked straight towards the Slytherin table, as if he was looking for her, but Lia looked away from him with all her strength. She would not be some simpering obsessed little girl. He didn’t want to know her, and that was the end of it. Merlin, you’d think she had a crush on this boy! She didn’t, she reassured herself. Of course she didn’t. Did she?
“Oh yeah, she told me to remind you, you’re detention’s tomorrow night at five.” Trace said bluntly, sticking her fork into a potato.
“Great.”
a/n - Oh my lord, I apologise for the wait, I know I said september but I've had the suckiest month in the world and I've just not been inspired to write at all.
But I'm back baby! This is a bit of a quickie chapter but I'm working on the next one ASAP. I don't want to give anything away but there will be more George/Lia stuff going on, as well as Lia meeting Luna Lovegood, which I'm really looking forward to writing!
So, yeah, read and review!
“Yeah, and he reckons he fought You-Know-Who, and won. How ridiculous is that?”
Ophelia groaned as she opened her eyes. If she heard one more comment about Harry Potter and how his mind was deteriorating she was going to explode. It was all the whole school was talking about yesterday, and it seemed they hadn’t forgotten.
She sat up as Parkinson and Bullstrode gossiped some more. Well, you could say gossiping, it was more of Parkinson rabbiting on, and Bullstrode grunting in agreement.
Lia crawled out of bed and into the bathroom.
“Morning Mudblood!” Pansy said spitefully. Lia just rolled her eyes, too tired to retaliate.
After her shower, Lia came back into an empty dorm room, which was usual for a school day. Trace was very much a morning person, and she was usually one of the first for breakfast, and Pansy left the dorm early to go and flirt with Draco, and of course wherever Pansy went, Millicent went too.
This left Lia with the mornings to herself, though by the time she was up, she had about ten minutes until her first lesson.
Lia’s bed was, annoyingly, the furthest away from the bathroom, and the nearest to the windows. At least she had the curtains around it, to block out the noise of Bullstrode’s snoring. Her things were strewn around her corner of the room. Lia vaguely thought she should tidy it one day soon, before deciding not to.
She grabbed her school shirt and kilt, which she detested. Lia never wore skirts. Pulling on her green and silver tie, she got her books and walked down the stairs to the Slytherin common room. It was an ugly room, or so Lia thought. It could almost be a dungeon, with the low ceilings and the greenish hue cast from being underneath the lake. It was adorned in skulls and snakes, and Slytherin banners. There were two small sofas, but the rest of the furniture was hard backed and uncomfortable. There was a small bookcase, full of books about Salazaar Slytherin, the founder of the house.
Lia did not pass through the room quickly, as she usually did. It was empty, as was regular in the mornings, and Lia wasn’t going to let Parkinson’s earlier comment slide. She strode over to Pansy’s usual spot, one of the green velvet sofa’s in the far corner, where she sat in the evenings, gushing over Draco. She put her wand to the place where she knew the pug-faced girl would sit, and muttered some well chosen words.
On her first evening, her head of house, Snape, had given a speech on house unity, and how he would severely punish inter-house fighting. But Lia never played by the rules, especially when provoked, and anyway, Snape had seemed like a bit of a creep to her, even if he was in the Order.
Later, after a mind numbingly boring Charms lesson, she met up with Trace outside the Transfiguration classroom.
“Why are you so happy?” She said to an extremely chipper Trace.
“Just had an awesome Herbology lesson.” Trace said, grinning. “I shared a plant pot with Thomas Roen from Ravenclaw. He so couldn’t take his eyes off me.”
Lia just scoffed softly. Trace claimed to be in love with a different boy nearly every day. It seemed this Ravenclaw would be the topic of many conversations for the next hour or so.
The door opened, and McGonagall, the transfiguration teacher came out. The class attempted to file into the room, but McGonagall stopped them
“Now, class, kindly wait a moment while I explain this years seating arrangement to you!”
The corridor erupted in load groans.
“Seating arrangement?!”
“But who am I going to copy off now?”
“Doesn’t she know we share this class with the Slytherins?
Ophelia glared at the last speaker, a Gryffindor boy with sandy hair.
“Settle down students!” McGonagall shouted. “Now after problems with last year’s OWL class I had decided to assign you your seats. There is a seating plan posted on the door. Find your assigned seat and sit in it. There will be no changes to it.”
Ophelia and Trace, at the back of the line had to wait a while to find out their seats.
“I don’t care where I am as long as it’s nowhere near Parkinson.” Trace muttered, as the line grew smaller.
“Same,” Lia replied, watching the space near the door. From the rest of the class’ reactions, McGonagall hadn’t been kind in assigning seats.
“Score! I’m sat next to Malfoy, that’ll really annoy the pug!” Trace grinned evilly as they looked at the plan. “What about you?”
Lia looked at the parchment to see her name written at the back of the classroom next to…Hermione Granger.
She groaned. Hermione was alright, but she was just a little too annoying.
Lia found her seat and sat down. Hermione gave her a small smile which she ignored. This year was going to be very long.
Half an hour later, she was enjoying herself much more. They were vanishing snails, and Ophelia, who had mastered this spell when she was about fourteen, had vanished hers on the first go, and was now watching Hermione struggle with hers.
“How did you do yours so quickly? This is really complicated magic!” She eventually said, looking at Lia in annoyance.
“Yeah well when you deal in stolen goods, sometimes you need to get rid of it quickly.” Lia answered dully.
“Well done Miss Williams, Ten points to Slytherin!” McGonagall sounded from her left, as she was checking on the class.
“Whoop,” Lia muttered under her breath.
Hermione looked even more annoyed.
“Look, you’re flourishing your wand a bit. You need to keep the movements sharp and swift.” Lia finally said, fed up with the Gryffindor’s frustration.
Hermione looked even more annoyed that Lia was trying to help, but she tried anyway. The snail vanished.
Hermione gave Lia a small smile, and Lia went back to observing the class’ struggles. She saw Trace leaning heavily towards Draco Malfoy, silently sniggering at Parkinson’s enraged face. By the time the bell had rang, no one apart from herself and Hermione managed to vanish their snails, and they were the only ones not set the homework.
After a quick lunch, it was time for Care of Magical Creatures, again with the Gryffindors. For two houses that were supposed to hate each other, they sure shared a lot of lessons, Lia thought. What a stupid idea.
This class was outside in the grounds, and without Trace, who took Muggle Studies for some bizarre reason, Lia walked down towards the small wooden hut, where the teacher stood waiting behind a table. She heard a loud, shrill giggle that she knew all too well as Malfoy, surrounded by Pansy and his usual band of ignorant followers made their way onto the grounds.
The joke wasn’t on her, for once though, and as they approached the table, it seemed pretty clear it was on Potter.
“Is this everyone?” The Professor, Grubbly-Plank, said. “Good. Now who can tell me what these creatures are called?”
Hermione lifted her hand quickly and Lia cringed. To the right of her, Malfoy did a stupid impression of her, jumping up and down like a moron, which Parkinson found extremely amusing.
Ten minutes later, and Malfoy still hadn’t stopped with his stupid impressions. Lia was getting sick of Pansy’s shrill laughter, and as Hermione answered another question correctly, she’d had enough.
“Cut it out Malfoy! No one finds you funny, apart from the brain-dead” She said, angrily, glancing at Pansy. He looked round for the source of the interruption and smirked when he saw Ophelia.
“Going to make me, Mudblood?” He replied.
“Keep calling me that, and I bloody well will,” Lia said, raising her eyebrows at him.
“What, Mudblood?” He antagonised.
“What’s the disruption back there? Ten points from Slytherin!” Grubbly-Plank shouted.
Lia looked round and realised most of the class was watching her and Malfoy. Defiantly, she raised her wand and sent a Jelly Legs Jinx at him, and he toppled over.
“Miss Williams! Twenty points from Slytherin!” The teacher shouted.
“Whatever,” she replied, turning back around to watch the lesson, and she saw Harry grinning at her. She managed a small smile back.
Grubbly-Plank spent a few more minutes talking about the bowtruckes, whilst Theodore Nott performed the counter-jinx to fix Malfoy’s legs. He looked extremely peeved off, which Lia was glad about. They got set a task to sketch the magical creatures, and she, sighing, stepped forward to retrieve one, when Malfoy stood in front of her.
“I’d be careful, Black.” He said, menacingly.
“Excuse me?” Lia said, raising her eyebrows. How did he know her real name?
“I know you’re not really a Mudblood. I'm just going along with that little rumour to amuse Pansy.” He smirked. “Like I said, I’d be careful, unless I wanted people to know who I really was.”
Lia was still unimpressed. “Like I give a shit what a load of poxy school kids think, Malfoy. Now get out of my way.”
She shoved him away and walked off. Malfoy didn’t say anything, but she was sure she saw him look at her in a peculiar way as she left him.
It was five o’clock that evening, and Ophelia was on her way to Umbridge’s detention. Making her way down the corridors she wondered how Malfoy knew about her last name. She’d been so careful at Hogwarts, and she couldn’t think of anything that would have given her away. Maybe she should write to Remus again. She still needed to reply to his last letter.
Dear Ophelia,
In fear of getting a 'broken face', I didn’t show anyone else your letter. Although Sirius did ask how you were. Maybe you should start writing to him?
Of course you won’t turn out like Voldemort. I stick by what I said before, some outstanding witches and wizards have come from your house and they are not dark in the slightest.
I’m not convinced everyone hates you. Silly rumours lose their power after time and I’m sure you’ll make friends soon. And if not, dungbombs under the bed are always a good idea.
And you’re not a bitch. Just a little…truthful.
Tonks and Arthur are here in the kitchen as I’m writing this, they hope your well.
Remus.
Lia’d finally reached Umbridge’s room. She grimaced. It was full of flowers, pictures of ugly, ugly kittens, and the sort of décor you’d find in an old woman’s house. Slowly, she walked in, to saw Potter standing there. She looked at him curiously before Umbridge spoke.
Lia jumped. In her flowery outfit, she was nearly camouflaged against the hideous wallpaper.
“You’re late, Miss Williams.”
“Yeah, I got lost,” Lia replied, not missing a beat. “I’ve only been here a week and I didn’t know where your office was.”
“That is not my problem,” Umbridge replied. “Now, sit down, both of you. I hope you understand why you are here. I will not stand for disruption in my classroom, especially with extreme lack of respect for the school rules with walking out of lessons, silly comments and nasty attention seeking lies.”
She aimed the last part towards Harry, who clenched his fists.
“Now sit down please.” She continued. Lia looked behind her and saw two desks set up with parchment and quills on them. Lines? How cliché.
“I would like you, Mr Potter to write ‘I must not tell lies.’ And Miss Williams, you must write, ‘I must always follow rules’”.
Lia rolled her eyes.
“How many times?” Harry asked, dully.
“Oh, as long as it takes to sink in!” Umbridge said.
Lia lifted her quill. “You haven’t given us any ink.” She stated.
“Oh, you won’t need any.” Umbridge squeaked, as if she was trying to stop herself from laughing.
“Okaaay then…” Lia whispered. She put the quill to the page and started to write the lines Umbridge had set her.
I must always follow rules.
As she put the quill to the page, the words appeared on the parchment in shiny red ink.
I must always follow rules.
Umbridge sat herself down behind and looked at them both as if waiting for them to say something.
I must always follow rules. Lia heard Harry make a noise next to her. It sounded a little like a sigh.
“Yes Mr Potter?” Umbridge asked, smiling her sickly smile.
“Nothing.” He replied, glaring at her.
I must always follow rules.
“Yes that’s right.” Umbridge said.
I must always follow rules.
Lia noticed a tickling sensation on the back of her hand. She went to scratch it and her breath caught in horror.
I must always follow rules, shining brightly on the back of her hand, before it healed again, leaving an angry red patch where it had been. She looked at the red ink on the page.
She was writing in her own blood.
“Everything alright, Miss Williams?” Umbridge had noticed Lia’s pause in writing.
Lia looked at the woman with all the hatred she could muster. Her first thought was to angrily stand up, upturn the desk and hex the toad.
But she was at school, and things were done differently here. From her first few days, she had learnt that the type of fighting you had to do was sneaky, and secret. So she composed herself.
“Everything’s fine Professor,” She replied, giving her a wide grin.
An hour or so later, she and Harry were free to go. The left the classroom at the same time, and started down the corridor together. Harry looked just as angry as Lia felt.
“She’s an old hag.” Harry stated simply, clenching his fists.
“She’s a toad.” Lia added, quickening her pace.
“We’ve got to do something about her.” She said suddenly, stopping. She was too angry to even realise she and Harry were having an actual conversation, something that hadn’t happened yet at Hogwarts
“Like what?” Harry said, sighing. “She’s here because of Fudge, we can’t do anything.”
“I don’t know. But we can’t let her get away with this bullshit!” Lia kicked a suit of armour in the corridor. It shouted in displeasure.
They both stayed silent for a while.
“The Gryffindor tower’s this way,” Harry said finally, gesturing to his left. “I’ll… see you around, I suppose.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Lia replied, turning around to go back to the Slytherin dungeons.
“Oh, Lia!” Harry said suddenly.
“What?”
“Thanks…cheers for sticking up for Hermione today in class.” He said, smiling slightly.
“Yeah, well, someone had to jinx Malfoy, he was driving me crazy.” Lia replied, running her hands through her hair.
“Goodnight,”
“Yeah, night.”
When Lia got to the door of the common room, she heard hysterical screaming coming from inside. Smirking to herself, she gave the password and walked into the room.
Pansy was running up the stairs, her face covered in huge red boils and blisters. It seemed that Lia’s hex had worked. She laughed heartily, and Trace came up to her.
“Well done Phee.” She said, giving her a high five.
“Hey, I had nothing to do with that!” Lia feigned innocence, but grinned evilly.
“How was Umbridge?” Trace asked, as they followed the shrieking Pansy up to the dorm.
Lia contemplated telling Tracy about the detention, but something told her that Lia complaining about it was just what Umbridge wanted. No, she wasn’t going to let Umbridge get to her.
“Alright. Just lines.”
Later that night, Lia woke up absolutely starving. She’d missed dinner because of that stupid detention, and now she was famished.
She sat up, and put a jumper on. She vaguely remembered Remus telling her about the kitchens at Hogwarts, and that they were near the Hufflepuff common room, which wasn’t far from her own. She got out of bed and walked past Trace, Millicent, and Pansy’s empty bed (She was still in the hospital wing) and walked out of the door.
She crept out of the common room, and walked down the dingy corridor.
After about half an hours aimless wandering, she heard loud footsteps behind her. They were quick in pace, and sounded like they knew exactly where they were going. It could only be a teacher.
Cursing silently, she scuttled down the corridor, round a corner, looking for a place to hide. She spotted a broom cupboard on the left of an old tapestry. She quickly went towards it, and opened the door, dashing inside. It was full of mops, and other cleaning equipment. It stank. Lia held her breath
After a few minutes, it seemed as if the coast was clear. The footsteps had died down; whoever it was must have gone another way in the labyrinth of hallways. Ophelia opened the cupboard door, stumbled out, and finally took a breath of clean air.
“Lia?” A voice whispered to her. Lia looked around suspiciously. The noise came from the tapestry on the wall. She got her wand out, and took a step towards it.
“Hey, it’s only me!” The voice said, and George Weasley stepped out from behind the tapestry, holding his hands up.
Lia didn’t lower her wand.
“Hiding from Filch too then? What are you doing up so late?” George asked brightly, smiling at her. Lia was very confused. Last time she saw this boy, he was desperate to get away from her. Now he wanted to talk?
“Finding the kitchens.” The words came out of her mouth even though she didn’t want them to.
“Oh, I’ve just come from there. They’re just round the corner here, wanting me to take you?” He offered her his hand.
“What is your problem?!” Ophelia blurted out.
“Excuse me?” He asked, looking very confused.
“I mean, you spend all summer trying to get into my pants, or whatever you were doing, and then as soon as I get to school, you don’t speak to me at all! And when I tried to be nice, or something, you just totally disregarded me! Now all of a sudden you’re being all chummy again? What is with you?!”
George looked stricken. “Look, I’m sorry about yesterday, okay? It’s just…”
“It’s just what?” Lia spat out angrily. George stumbled. “C’mon Georgie, spit it out!”
“You’re a Slytherin!” He managed finally.
“Yes George, I’m a Slytherin. Slytherin and proud! But newsflash to you, you’re the only one of us that gives a shit about it. You’re the only one who’s acting like a complete idiot because of it.” She turned on her feet and walked away.
“Ophelia, wait!” George said, following her.
“Save it!” She said, not looking round.
Suddenly, she felt a strong arm on her shoulders that spun her around. Before she had a chance to think, her mouth was captured by his, in a kiss that made her knees want to buckle. Ophelia hungrily returned it, all anger flying away. She lifted her arms and put them over his shoulders, and his moved from her shoulders to around her waist. As the kiss continued, Ophelia’s wand dropped from her hands and onto the floor. George lifted one hand and ran it through her wavy hair.
Suddenly Lia’s senses came back to her. What was she doing, snogging George Weasley like there was no tomorrow? Opening her eyes, she drew away from him.
“Lia, I’m-”
WHACK! Ophelia slapped George straight across the cheek and stormed off towards Slytherin dorms.
“Lia!” George called, but she didn’t stop until she got into her bed.
“Crap.” She muttered, as her stomach grumbled loudly.
a/n -
:D
Finally, I get to write the kiss! I've been waiting for this since forever. Typical Ophelia reaction, don'tcha think?
Sorry if this chapters a bit boring guys, I know I promised some Luna Lovegood and Lia interaction, but I think this chapter ends perfectly, and it'll fit in better in the next installment. Watch this space!
“Where the hell is my bloody wand?!”
“Geez, calm down Phee. Where did you have the thing last?”
Lia was most defiantly not in a good mood the next morning. She was still starving from the previous night, she’d gotten hardly any sleep, and, oh yeah, she’d stupidly snogged George Weasley in the middle of the night.
And now she’d lost her wand.
“Don’t patronise me Trace.” Lia scowled, giving her friend a death stare. “I had it last night when I was with-” She froze where she stood beside her bed and promptly stopped speaking. The last thing she wanted was for Trace to find out, but her audible gasp told Lia she had already heard enough.
“You were with someone?!” Tracy squealed. “I wondered why you came to bed so late. I just thought you’d gone to the kitchens or something. So? Who was it?” Trace looked at Lia in excitement
Lia thought on her feet, a lie coming quickly to her lips. “I did go to the kitchens dumbass. I ran into some bloody Gryffindor who tried to give me detention.”
“Was it that Johnson again? Who does she think she is?”
Lia sighed in relief as Trace bought her story, and ignored her rants about the Gryffindor Prefect. Instead, she searched under her bed for her wand for what seemed the millionth time, but it was nowhere to be seen. That must mean that she’d left it in the corridor with George. Wonderful.
“Damn it!” She exclaimed out loud, crawling out from under the bed.
“Yeah, I know, she’s a real bitch isn’t she?” Trace continued, thinking Lia was listening to her. Lia rolled her eyes.
“Shut up Trace. I left my wand in the potions corridor…I’m gonna go see if anyone has nicked it yet.” She grabbed her jumper and threw it over her head.
Trace flopped back into her bed as Lia left the dorm. “Don’t forget we’ve got Defence in half an hour!” She called to her.
Lia scowled as she remembered the detention she’d had yesterday with Umbridge. Glancing down at her hand, she saw it was still red raw, and she clenched it into a fist. She’d already decided that she was going to teach Umbridge a lesson, she just didn’t know how yet. She wasn’t used to fighting her battles in secret. In her old life, she’d just give Umbridge a nasty hex.
Lia walked down the dungeon corridors, trying to remember which one her encounter with George occurred in. Last night she’d been too pissed off to recount her steps. Bloody Weasley! Why did he have to kiss her like that? Or rather, why did he have to insult her and kiss her in the same moment? His words from last night still rang though her mind.
“You’re a Slytherin!”
What was with him, and his stupid games?
Lia looked around the spot she’d stood the night before. She looked all around her, even in the closet she’d hidden in from Flitch. Her wand was nowhere to be seen.
“So that means Weasley’s got it.” She said to herself dully. She cringed inwardly. Having to go to him and ask for her wand back seemed very demeaning to Lia. But she couldn’t put it off. She felt so, so weak, without her wand. It was an odd emotion for Lia to encounter, and she defiantly did not like it. It looked like she’d have to speak to George sooner than she wanted to.
Scowling, she made her way to the Great Hall. This day was not going right for Lia. She stomped her way up the steps and into the Entrance hall, where students were making their way too and from breakfast. She peeked into the hall, where she saw Fred and George joking at the Gryffindor table and her heart leapt. She had a peculiar feeling around her midriff and for some reason, all she wanted to do was go over there and snog the boy senseless.
“Stop it!” She told herself. She breathed inwards and prepared herself to walk over there, constantly cursing the butterflies in her stomach. She’d just taken the first step when a unknown face popped up in front of hers.
“Hello!”
Lia took a step back, and took the stranger’s appearance in. She had the longest, blonde hair Lia had ever seen, and the biggest eyes that made her look like some sort of owl. But what really caught Lia’s eyes were the things this girl was wearing. She had earrings that seemed to be fashioned out of radishes, a necklace made out of corks, and she was clutching a magazine labelled ‘The Quibbler’, which explained the girl’s appearance to Lia. Only weirdoes read that magazine, it was full of crazy conspiracy theories, and spells that didn’t work.
“Err, hi?” Lia answered.
“You’re Ophelia Williams.” The girl said in response.
“Yeah, I know my own name, thanks. What do you want?” Lia said angrily. She really wanted to get her wand back as soon as possible.
“I’ve got something for you.” The girl replied, smiling.
Lia waited, looking at the girl curiously. She was quite strange.
And annoying.
“Well? What is it?” She asked, getting more annoyed by the second.
“You see, he said he would give it to you yourself, but he doesn’t have time. So I got asked. Apparently he seemed very distracted at the time.” The girl said in her slow voice. “I think his head was full of Wrackspurts.” She added in a stage whisper.
“Look, I’ve got things to do. What the hell is it you’ve got to give me?” Lia asked, ignoring the comment about make believe creatures, as she noticed Fred and George stand up at the table. The girl promptly smiled, and started rooting through her bag.
“Can you hold this please?”
A large mushroom, several beetle eyes, what looked like a bag of frog legs (But Lia wasn’t sure), more butterbeer corks, and finally, last month’s issue of the quibbler came out of the girls bag. Lia stood there with her arms outstretched while the Weasley twins walked right past her. She opened her mouth to speak to George, but he ducked his head and practically sprinted past her. Lia’s heart sank, but was quickly full of anger. So he was ignoring her now? Oh wait, of course. One of the most popular Gryffindors in the school could not damage his reputation by speaking to a lowly Slytherin in public!
“Here you go!”
Lia snapped out of her silent rage. “What!” She said, not hiding her anger.
“Your wand. George Weasley asked Harry to give it to you, and Harry asked Ron, and Ron asked Ginny, and Ginny asked me.” The girl smiled again, and passed it to her.
“What- that many people had my wand? Why didn’t George just give it to me himself? He’s just bloody walked right past me!”
The girl gasped. “Maybe a Blibbering Humdinger crawled in his ear when he was sleeping! They can-”
“Whatever, cheers for giving me my wand.” Lia cut in, throwing the pile of objects into the girls hands, and walking to Defence.
She really, really, bloody hated George Weasley.
Hermionie’s got an idea
Lia looked at the note that was thrust onto her desk during the Defence lesson. She glanced at Trace, who was busy writing notes to the Herbology boy she had a crush on. She then glanced at Harry, who was the one who threw the note to her.
Hermionie’s always got a bloody idea. Care to expand a little?
She flicked her wand to levitate it to Harry’s desk. She looked back to the chapter they were supposed to be reading; something about counter curses. They were bloody pointless, in Lia’s opinion. All you need is a powerfull sheild charm.
About getting back at Umbridge
Harry threw the note onto Lia’s desk again. Lia read it quickly the sighed.
Well what is it then? I’m getting to that. She wants me to teach people defence.
A study group? Whoa, that’s really fighting back in style.
I know when you’re being sarcastic, even in writing. She wants me to teach spells. The stuff Umbridge will never let us learn. So we can help arm people against Voldemort You-know-who.
I’m not a coward, you can say VOLDEMORT. So basically, it’s like some sort of underground… rebellion against frog face? I’m up for that.
I’m not too sure. Me, teaching people spells? They all think I’m a nutcase. I’m not that great at magic myself anyway. You know more than me.
No chance Potter. Have you forgotten majority of the school hate me? I’ll help you though.
Will you? Even though, y’know…
I’m a Slytherin? Sure. If anyone has a problem with it I’ll curse them.
Lia, I’m not sure that is the right way to go about these things.
Joke, Harry. Just tell me that time and place and I’ll be there. Anyway, what was that business about my wand this morning? Why didn’t George give it to me himself?
Cause he was “too busy”? I think it’s because he’s got a crush on you though. Why did he have it in the first place?
Lia?
Hello?
Lia scrunched up the last three messages from Harry. All she wanted to do was forget that stupid kiss.
Dear Remus
Tell Sirius he can ask me how I am himself. If he hasn’t accepted that I’m a Slytherin by now, he must have a screw loose in his head. I just…wish he’d stop being so stupid. Can’t he see he’s behaving exactly like his family did?
Pretty much everyone still hates me here, but I’m a big girl, I can handle it.
Lia.
Ophelia made her way up to the owlery at break time with a letter for Remus. She was still fuming at the fact that George gave away her wand to about a million people. Never mind the fact that it was her only protection and without it she felt incredibly vulnerable! Instead of giving it to her straight away he had to hand it down like a bloody game of pass the parcel!
Making her way up the stairs, Lia was so engrossed by her anger that did not notice another persons footsteps behind her own. It was only when she felt the sharp point of a wand to her back that she snapped back to reality. Her hand went quickly to her pocket.
“Hold it there Black. Wouldn’t want to do anything rash, would we?”
“Shove it Malfoy. Unless you want that wand sticking up where the sun sure as hell doesn’t shine.”
“Hold it there dear cousin. I’ve got something I want to say to you first.” Malfoy drawled, pushing his wand further into Lia’s back. Lia rolled her eyes. What an amateur. In a flash, she’d extracted her wand, spun around, and dug her own into Malfoy’s chest.
“If you’re going to ambush the best, you snivelling little rodent, I suggest you practice first.” She sneered into his arrogant face.
“Oh and you think you’re the best do you?” He practically spat back at her, raising his wand higher.
“Yeah I do, and I think that if you want to go back to pug face with all your body parts attached where they should be, lower your wand.”
Malfoy laughed. “You think you can beat me?”
Lia sighed. This kid was really doing her head in. She just wanted to send her letter in peace. “Yeah I do. EVERTE STATUM!” She flicked her wand and Malfoy was sent hurtling backwards. “Impedimedia!” Malfoy stopped falling in mid-air moments before he would have hit the stone steps. “Now well you’re just hanging around let me make a few things clear” Lia snarled into his frozen face. “You have no hold over me, okay? I do what I want, I say what I want, I go where I want, and nothing you can do to me will change that. So get off your high horse Malfoy, cause you’re just a measly little school kid to me. And don't call me cousin. I don't need reminding I'm related to scum like you.”
And with that, Lia promptly turned around, and carried on her way to the owlery, not bothering to release the spell on Malfoy. Someone else would come across him…eventually.
Reaching the owlery, she went to find a school owl to send her letter. This had proven difficult last time. She didn’t know why, but the birds just seemed to hate her. She went over to a small looking brown owl.
“C’mere birdie… I just want to send this lette- Argh!” She shielded her hands in front of her face as the bird flew at her, before flying out of the window.
“Stupid animal!” Lia exclaimed angrily.
“Want a hand?” A familiar voice sounded from the doorway.
“I can manage, thanks.” Lia muttered through clenched teeth.
“It doesn’t look like it” George replied. And it was true, Lia was currently grabbing at the birds as they flew away from her. She sighed angrily.
“Here you bloody go then!” She shouted, thrusting the letter at him. He took it slowly.
“You’re not going to hit me again are you?” He asked, smirking. Lia clenched her hands into fists.
“I might.”
“Why are you so angry at me? We seemed to be getting along just fine last night,” he said, and Lia’s heart fluttered at the smirk on his face.
“You’re the one who bloody ignored me this morning? Aren’t you forgetting? I’m a Slytherin!” She said, sarcastically. “Aren’t I supposed to hate everyone just for no reason?”
George’s eyes went to the badge on her robes, and he seemed to falter slightly.
“Just forget about that for a moment okay?!” He said with new bravado. “Look, I felt something when I kissed you. Just stop being such a bitch and give me a chance!” He approached her as he said it and now they were so close their noses could be touching.
Lia sighed and looked down. “It clearly bothers you, or you would talk to me in public rather than just when we’re alone. It bothers you George so no, I’m not going to ‘just forget about it’! I’m a Slytherin okay, and that’s never going to change. I thought I made that clear last night. I can’t change that I used to be a criminal, I can’t change that yeah, sometimes I enjoy duelling people, I can’t change that I’m a ‘bitch’, or so you say.” Lia leant forward and did something neither of them expected, she kissed him harshly on the lips. Closing her eyes, she savoured the moment. When she pulled away, George was looking at her in a way she couldn’t describe.
“Just let me know when you’ve finally accepted who I really am, okay?”
And with that, Lia walked out of the Owlery, even more confused than when she went in there. She passed Harry in the corridor, who looked concernedly at her.
“You okay Lia?” He asked.
“Oh piss off Potter!”
a/n - Sorry for the ridiculous wait, I'm really stressed with school, and uni applications and everything at the moment!
Meet us at the Hogs Head on the first Hogsmeade trip. The note had said.
At first Ophelia was surprised Hermione had chosen such a dodgy place to discuss their ‘study group’. But here she was, sat inside the pub, nursing a fire whiskey and waiting for the Gryffindor trio.
After Harry had asked for her help during their defence lesson, the topic had not come up for two weeks. Until a couple of days ago, when the owl had come to her during breakfast. Thankfully, Tracey had stayed in the dorm when Ophelia went down to the great hall that morning. Somehow, she didn’t want to involve the other Slytherin with this.
“Why’s she here?” Ron’s voice made her look up. She scowled. Since she had been sorted into Slytherin, the red-head had all but ignored, showing his distaste whenever she was near.
“Harry asked for my help you twat.” Lia replied, raising her eyebrows at him. “And since I know more magic than your bigoted little brain could possibly handle, I think you need it.”
Harry chuckled at Lia’s response. “Chill out Ron, we could use her help.”
Ron slumped into the seat opposite Ophelia. “Fine. But don’t blame me when she runs off to her little snake friends and screws us over”.
“In case you haven’t noticed, the rest of that slimy house despises me Ronald.” Lia retorted, resorting to using his full name, which he hated. “And believe me; you’re far down on my list of people that I want to screw”.
“Now that’s a list I’d like to see.” A voice from behind Ophelia whispered. She whipped round and found herself again uncomfortably close to no other than George Weasley.
Doesn’t he understand the concept of personal space? She cursed in her head. George hadn’t spoken to her since she’d (stupidly, she reminded herself) kissed him in the owlrey. Sometimes in the Great Hall she’d catch him glancing at her, but he always looked away when she looked up.
Guess he can’t get over the stupid green badge on my robes. Ophelia cursed the stupid house system, and the idiots that had come up with it. Her life would be so much easier without it.
“What are you doing here?” She asked him with disdain.
“We’re here for the meeting” George replied, looking down at her with amusement. He still hadn’t moved away from her. She was going slightly breathless with the closeness.
Stop it Ophelia Lily Williams!
She moved back and looked behind George to see a large group of people at the bar. There must have been about thirty students there. She recognised Ginny, Fred, and the dippy girl Luna, but the rest were strangers. And not one of them was another Slytherin.
Lia turned around angrily to face Harry.
“You failed to mention this many people were coming!" She hissed at him, staring him down.
“I didn’t know either!” He replied, looking genuinely pissed off. “Hermione and Ron were organising that.” They both looked sheepishly back at him.
“Well a lot of people were interested” Hermione replied vaguely, looking like she hadn’t expected this many people either.
Harry sat in a stony silence, glaring at Hermione.
This kid definitely has anger issues. Ophelia mused. But for once I am on his side.
“They've just come to hear what you two have got to say” Hermione said in an annoyingly patronising voice.
“Yeah, they’re really gonna listen to me and Harry, He’s a teenage delinquent and I’m in Slytherin.” Lia said sarcastically. George looked on with curiosity. “I’m out of here before I do something I regret.”
Hermione grabber her arm as she tried to stand up. “Just wait, please." The Gryffindor looked at Ophelia with such pleading eyes that Lia just sat down again.
By this time the group of students had gathered around, pulling up chairs and settling into a quiet hush. A few of them were giving her confused looks, quite a few more, dirty ones, Lia noticed.
Trapped in the Lion’s den.
“Erm, Hi!” Hermione squeaked.
Oh darling, never going into a public speaking career. Lia thought.
“Well, you know why we’re all here” Hermione continued. “I erm, had the idea that it would be good if we got together and studied Defence. I mean, practical defence using our wands, since Umbridge isn't going to teach us, we need to do it ourselves."
“Just a coincidence this is your OWL year then?" A boy from the back shouted out to her.
Lia rolled her eyes, was all everyone thought about in this school exams?
“That doesn't matter." Hermionie replied. Ophelia looked up in mock shock. "The main reason is, Harry's telling the truth. Voldemort really is back."
Lia laughed inwardly at the group’s reaction to hearing the name. One Ravenclaw even split her drink all down herself.
“Excuse me but where’s the proof in that?” An ugly boy retorted, looking at Hermione. “All we got told Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that he brought the body back. I think we’d all like to know-“
Lia glanced at Harry who looked visibly angry.
“I’m not going to talk about Cedric Diggory. So if that’s what you’re here for you can sod off.” He stated, glaring at Hermione.
Lia had an idea. She raised her hand, smirking slightly at Harry’s confused reaction. Lia was not one for waiting for permission to speak.
“Err, yes Lia?”
"A little birdy told me you can produce a patronus. Is it true?" She asked steadily, smirking at him.
“Yeah…” He asked, not realising what she was trying to achieve.
The group gasped audibly. Easily impressed. She thought.
For the next couple of minutes the group were asking Potter the truth about certain rumours. Lia has to say, she was pretty impressed. Who knew this scrawny speckled boy could have killed a basilisk, won the triwizard tournament, fought off a group of dementors and not let it go to his head? She looked at Harry with a little more respected, and he flashed a quick smile at her, thankful for the conversation change.
“So we're all agreed that Harry's going to be our teacher?” Hermione asked the group, who agreed as a whole.
“No, wait” Harry said. “Yeah it’s true I did all that stuff, but there’s someone here who knows a lot more about Defence than me, and I want her to teach you, too”. He looked at Ophelia, who glared back at him shaking her head slightly. Don’t do this now Potter. I said I’d help you, I didn’t say I’d teach these idiots
“Ophelia Williams.” He finished, smiling at her uncomfortable face.
Again, the group reacted as a whole. Negatively.
“HER?!”
“Doesn’t he know she’s a Slytherin?”
“Why would we let her teach us anything?” The same ugly boy that had angered Harry shouted above the others.
Lia couldn’t take this. She stood up angrily.
“Why should you let me? LET me?!” She retorted. “I don’t even want to teach you poxy school brats. I’m only here because a friend asked for my help. But let me tell you something. For the past five years while you’ve been safely tucked up by Dumbledore, I’ve been out there, in the real world, learning stuff by myself, learning stuff you wouldn’t even dream of doing. I know what it’s like to have to fight off Dark Wizards, I know how to defend myself both with magic and muggle style, and in situations where you’d run off and tell a teacher, I can fight back. Now you tell me why I should LET YOU learn this stuff from me.”
She sat down in a huff. The room was silent. Even the barman was staring at her. George was looking at her with a strange look on his face. Lia suddenly became embarrassed.
“Enough of this, I’m out of here.” She grabbed her bag and stormed out of the pub.
Why had she lost her temper like that? Not only had she made herself look an idiot, she had also blown her cover story. Might as well start calling myself Ophelia Lily Black. She cursed. She sighed.
All she wanted was to get out of this school, out of this village, out of bloody Scotland! She turned on the spot and disapparated.
Remus Lupin was sat in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place, exhausted. This month’s full moon had been a difficult one.
It was easier, yes, now that the Wolfsbane potion was available to him, but it didn’t make the pain go away. Sirius had offered to stay with him, as Padfoot, but Remus refused.
Those days were behind them both.
He sighed, wondering when Sirius would stop being stubborn and talk to his daughter. They were so much alike. Slytherin house shouldn’t come in the way of that.
He hadn’t let it get in the way of bonding with his God-daughter.
He was contemplating this when he heard the front door bang. He stood up, grabbing his wand. Sirius was upstairs with Buckbeak, he wouldn’t have heard the noise. It was just him and the intruder.
Edging quietly to the hallway, he saw the figure approaching. He acted fast.
“STUPEFY!”
The intruder didn’t miss a beat, and conjured a very strong shield charm.
So strong in fact, that Remus’ spell rebounded and hit him.
Sirius had come running down the stairs, wand outstretched, coming up on the intruder from behind. The figure turned round and punched him square on the jaw, before realising who it was.
“Fuck.” Ophelia said.
“Is he going to be ok?”
“Is he going to be ok? What about me?” Sirius replied angrily.
“Oh get over it Sirius, he’s worse off than you. He got hit with his own stunner.” Lia replied.
After the initial shock of realising that it was her father she had punched in the face, Lia acted quickly and levitated Remus’ unconscious body through the sitting room, where she laid him on a sofa.
“Can I ask what you are doing here?” Sirius asked, getting over the initial shock that his best friend had managed to knock himself out.
“Hogsmeade weekend.” Lia said. “And Hogsmeade blows.”
Sirius smiled slightly.
“Plus I might have blown my cover story.”
“WHAT?!” Sirius shouted.
This made Remus’s eyes fluttered open. “Why are you shouting?”
Lia ignored her father and turned to the man lying on the sofa. “Remus, are you ok? I’m so so sorry!”
“I’ll be fine, but can I ask why you’re not in school?”
Lia frowned. “It’s a Hogsmeade trip. I’ll go back before they miss me, don’t worry.”
“That’s beside the point. You can’t just go wandering off from school like that, it isn’t safe.”
Sirius looked strangely at his friend’s concerned behaviour. Why was he acting so parental?
“Forget about that for now. What do you mean you’ve blown your cover Ophelia?”
“You’ve WHAT?!” Remus was the one shouting now.
“Will you just calm down! It’s not that bad. I just got mad at this guy saying he didn’t want me to teach him defence, and ended up shouting some things at him. Might have let slip that my home-schooled story isn’t exactly true” Lia blurted out, looking slightly guilty.
“What are you on about teaching defence?” Sirius replied, looking extremely confused
.
Lia sighed. Harry was going to kill her for not keeping the secret. She told her father and Lupin the story from the start, how Umbridge was not teaching them anything, and how Hermione had the idea of a secret defence club, and Harry had asked for her help. And how that stupid boy had offended her.
“He just bruised my ego is all.” Lia finished.
“So let me get this straight.” Sirius said. “You’re helping Harry teach a bunch of kids defence so you can prepare yourself for the war against Voldemort?”
“Yes.”
“Even though it’s probably against school rules, and you’ll get in a lot of trouble if Umbridge finds out?”
“Yes.”
Sirius let out a bark of laughter, and grabbed Ophelia in the tightest hug she had ever received.
“Wait, what?” Ophelia asked, pulling herself away.
“I’m so proud of you!” Sirius replied, smiling at her. “This is the exact sort of thing me or your mother would have done.”
Lia glared angrily.
“Aren’t you forgetting that no daughter of yours or my mum’s could have been a Slytherin?
Sirius paled slightly. “Ophelia, I’m sorry. I was angry. All my family have been in Slytherin, and practically all of them have turned out to be dark wizards. I was afraid you were going to turn out like them.”
“Well I’m not! I hate the dark arts just as much as you do. Anyone could tell you that. Remus could have told you that!” Lia replied spitefully. “He’s been more of a father to me than you have.”
Sirius looked at Lia with sad eyes, and walked out the room.
Lia’s stomach dropped. “Too far?” She asked Remus, who had watched the whole affair with worried eyes.
“Maybe. He’s really trying Lia.”
Ophelia scoffed. “Trying? I’m sorry but when has that man ever been a father to me? He walked out on me when I was a toddler because avenging Harry’s parents was more important to him than keeping his family safe. Running off to kill Pettigrew with absolutely no concern about the implications it would have on me. And here we are fourteen years later, and now he’s angry at me for how I’ve turned out when it’s his entire fault anyway. Not speaking to me because of what stupid house I’ve been sorted into, and now I’m doing something he actually likes, flipping 180 degrees on me! How dare he talk about my mother? If I haven’t turned out like him or like her it’s his entire fault. Thanks to him I had no parent’s growing up. He might not have held the wand, but as far as I’m concerned, he killed her.” Lia ranted, angrily. She’d had it with Sirius’ behaviour.
Remus stood up angrily. “Don’t you dare say that.”
Lia looked up. “What, it’s true.”
“Yeah and don’t you think he knows that? Do you not think that every time he looks at you he’s reminded of that night? Where he lost his best friends, his wife, and his freedom? Of course he’s conflicted. Give him a break, Ophelia.” Remus shouted at the girl.
Lia looked up, hurt. She’d never been shouted at like that before. She followed in her father’s footsteps, out the door, and then she walked out of the house.
George sighed deeply. He couldn’t sleep. Thoughts about the day’s events kept rushing through his mind. He had been genuinely surprised when he saw Lia at the meeting in the Hog’s Head, and even more so when Harry announced that she would be helping him teach them the spells.
He wasn’t surprised however when she shouted at the boy from Hufflepuff when he had offended her.
She was the type of person who never took crap from anyone. After she'd left the meeting finished quickly, all of them signing the parchment Hermione had brought. He'd tried to find her afterward, but no one had seen her. She didn't even come to the Great Hall at dinner.
He rolled over in his bed. Sounds of the rest of his dorm mates sleeping deeply surrounded the room, accompanied by Fred’s loud snoring. Then, he heard something that sounded like padded footsteps. He sat up slowly. Everyone was asleep weren’t they? He opened the curtains around his bed slowly.
He was definitely surprised to see a pair of grey eyes staring back at him.
“Hiya.” Ophelia simply said. The smell of fire whisky was evident on her breath.
“Lia, what the HELL are you doing in my dorm?” he whispered in hushed breath. “If anyone sees you in Gryffindor tower you’ll be in so much trouble.”
“I like trouble.” She replied, giggling. “C’mon it’s me. Breaking in here was a piece of cake.”
“Let me ask again, what are you doing in here?” George repeated. Lia simply threw back the curtains and climbed into his bed. “Ophelia what are you doing?!”
“In case you haven’t realised I’ve had a bad day. I wanted to see you.” She pouted.
George’s mind was racing. Here she was, in his bed. He wasn’t ashamed to say he’d dreamed of this moment. She’d been so angry at him the last time they’d been alone together. He still remembered that kiss. He’d meant to run after her and say, no he didn’t care she was a Slytherin, whisk her off her feet and carry her up to this very bed. But he was a coward and he didn’t. Yet here she was.
He sighed again, happily this time.
“What happened?” He asked, gently brushing the hair off her face. She’d been crying.
“Stop it with the sentimental bullshit, ok?” Lia said, slapping his hand away. “I don’t want to talk.”
And then she did something that George did not expect. Lia moved towards him and kissed him hungrily. He found himself kissing her back, enveloping her body with his arms. She bit his lip, and moved her hands to his tee-shirt, lifting it over his head. George kissed her again as soon as it was off, and soon her top met the same fate. They never stopped kissing, and soon all their clothes found their way to the floor. George knew he should stop but he couldn’t. As if she noticed his hesitation Ophelia stopped kissing him too look at him and say the words, “I want this.”
George had her approval, and he grabbed her and kissed her again.
The sun was bright. Why was the sun in the dungeons? Ophelia opened her eyes groggily. Her head was pounding. Why were her bed sheets red all of a sudden? And why exactly did she have no clothes on? She slowly took in her surroundings. This wasn’t her dorm in Slytherin house. She looked next to her to see a sleeping George Weasley. The memories of last night came rushing back to her.
“Oh crap.” She muttered.
Quotes taken from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, chapter "in the hogs head" pages 302, 303, 304 and 305, by JK Rowling.
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