*trigger warnings, mentions of violence, stalking, blood & sexism.

"Do not open that door." The voice was toneless and guttural.

Ophelia could have sworn her feet glued to the ground at that moment. Rather than be able to run, all she could do was continue to stare at the man's reflection.

"Lia Montgomery, you have no idea how long I've waited to meet you." Although the voice remained toneless, an air of composure and gallantry came with it too. "Please, turn around."

What unnerved Ophelia more in this moment was how sangfroid the stranger behaved. It was almost like they were chattering with a friend; not creeping up on someone.

"Don't be scared." Even in the distorted reflection from the glass door, Ophelia could see a smile grow on the stranger's shadowed face whilst he spoke.

"I'm not scared." Ophelia gritted the words out through her teeth, not realising what she had said until it was too late.

"Oh, that's interesting." The man let out a callous chuckle whilst speaking. "Don't be shy then." He sarcastically over-pronounced the adjective. 

Ophelia knew she shouldn't have turned around. She knew she should have just ran. But planning didn't seem to be an option for her, instead Ophelia was acting on impulse. That's when she found herself facing the man, without even realising she had turned.

A baseball cap was resting on the man's head, casting a shadow over the majority of his face. His eyes were hidden by the darkness, something Ophelia found rather disconcerting.

But his smile, that was clearly evident. His mouth spread so unnaturally wide that it made his moustache quiver.

"Beautiful." The man reached his hand towards Ophelia's face but was halted by Ophelia's own hand.

"Don't touch me." Ophelia wasn't too sure where this confidence was coming from. This confidence certainly wouldn't have been here when she was with the Montgomery's. Maybe that was because this time she had a life worth fighting for.

"Now, now Lia. You know me." He spoke mockingly.

"I don't think I do." Ophelia felt the man's hand shift in her grip, there was no chance she would be strong enough to hold him like that for much longer.

"Come on Lia, you have seen me everyday since your return." The manic smile seemed to temporarily shrink to a thinner line until he saw the realisation on Ophelia's face.

That baseball cap, it had towered over paparazzi's on her first day of rehearsals. It had sat proudly on a man's head in a restaurant she had eaten at. It was tucked under an arm of a man she had given a signature too. It was sat on the head of the man on the bench just minutes ago.

"H-how did you get in here?" Ophelia wanted nothing more than not to show fear, but the stutter slipped out of her mouth.

"That's for me to know Lia, not you."

"Stop calling me Lia." The use of the name that brought Ophelia so much misery lit a fire in her stomach, bringing back the confidence she had fleetingly lost.

"Let's not be feisty now." Ophelia could feel the agitation burning from the man's hand, his frustration causing the hand to tremble more in her weakening hold.

"Do you think this is normal?"

"What isn't normal is a woman to feel able to speak with so much attitude towards a man." The man pulled his hand from Ophelia's grip easily, amplifying the fact he was much stronger.

"Leave." Ophelia tried to ask calmly. "Leave, before I phone the security."

"Oh dear Lia, you and I both know you'd never get to your phone in time." The man mocked Ophelia, enjoying seeing the temporary fear flood Ophelia's eyes.

"What?"

"Your phone, you keep it in your bag." The man looked down to where Ophelia's handbag rested askew on her shoulder. "In fact, it's always in the second compartment, inside a zipped pocket. There's no way you'd reach it before I stopped you."

"Why are you here?" Ophelia chose to ignore the disturbing comment and instead chose to question.

"For you." The man answered matter-of-factly, like it was an obvious answer. "You must see our connection."

"I'm sorry but I think you should leave." Ophelia didn't want to amuse the man any longer. "I'm going to turn around to open this door and you're going to leave, if you do that I won't report this incident."

The man stood silent, no emotion on his face changing whilst Ophelia attempted to give orders.  Taking this as a sign, Ophelia spun to face the door. But as her hand turned the key, the plait in her hair was pulled back.

Instead of seeing the comfort of the house's hallway, Ophelia was staring directly into the eyes of the stalker.

"You are not going anywhere without me." The man spoke the words like firing individual bullets, each word followed by spit landing on Ophelia's face.

"Let. Me. Go."

Before the man had time to respond, Ophelia shoved her elbow backwards into his stomach.

The man was taken by surprise, causing him to let go of Ophelia's hair. This gave Ophelia the chance to fall forward to the door.

Without hesitating she battled with the key that hadn't fully turned. Every millisecond feeling like an entire minute passing by whilst waiting for that click.

It didn't take long for the man to regain control though, with one shove he had Ophelia's face smashed against the door.

"Why can't you just be obedient Lia Montgomery." The man whispered into Ophelia's ears.

"Because I am not someone's property." Ophelia spoke through the taste of metallic that began to fill her mouth.  "And my names not Lia Montgomery," Ophelia paused the turning of the key, "it's Fi McGonagall."

As quick as she could, Ophelia pushed the door open whilst stomping on the man's foot. It didn't seem to phase the man because he came stumbling through the door with Ophelia, one hand still attached to her back of her neck.

Out of panic Ophelia tripped on nothing, causing herself and then him to fall. In that topple the man's grip had fallen and using the only advantage she had, Ophelia used her size to slip from beneath him.

There was no escape plan in Ophelia's mind. All she did was run. Her light footsteps hitting the floor a stark contrast to the angry footsteps that followed. She needed protection, she needed to have an upper hand.

"Stop running Lia, we are just going to go round in circles otherwise." Deep breaths were taken between each word, proving to Ophelia he wasn't physically fit. Rather than stop for those words, Ophelia grabbed the closest thing to her.

A glass vase.

She turned on her heels to see the man casually walking into the room. Soon she would be face to face with the intruder once more.

But this time she was prepared.

Before he had chance to stop her, Ophelia dropped the vase to the ground. Glittering glass fragments sprinkled the floor; some ricocheting from the ground back upwards, slicing any bare skin it contacted.

Without thinking of the pain, Ophelia took the moment to grab a large piece of glass. A feeling like a million knives pierced her hand but Ophelia fought to keep that grip.

"Don't come near me." Ophelia pointed the shard towards the intruder, holding on to every ounce of confidence like it was the biggest weapon she had.

"What will you do? Stab me?" The man chuckled, but even Ophelia could spot the flash of fear in his eyes. "I just want to talk, get to know you."

"Don't. You don't want that." Ophelia stepped backwards with every word, until the moment her back touched a counter.

"Oh I do though." The man's inopportune smile returned, believing Ophelia was stepping back out of fear.

"Please don't do this, just go." Ophelia tried one last attempt at pleading. But unbeknownst to the intruder, Ophelia was feeling beneath the counter for something at the same time.

"Do what? Offer you my love." The intruder was now less than a metre from Ophelia. He tilted his head slightly, like he was trying to investigate Ophelia's face. "So beautiful, so-"

It all happened so fast. One moment Ophelia was touching the button, the next he was reaching for her face and in response Ophelia had launched her bleeding hand forward.

Realisation hit seconds later for the pair. Ophelia dropped the shard from her hand, blood dripping onto the ground and creeping across the tiling. The intruder stumbled backwards, shocked to see Ophelia had the confidence.

"Y-you actually did it?" The man grasped onto his stomach, fear returning to his eyes. "I'm going to die."

"Fuck." Ophelia shook her head in realisation. "The police will be here soon, they'll help." Ophelia seemed to forget everything that had just happened, and found herself wanting to help the man.

Although something prevented Ophelia from breaking that wall fully. She threw over a tea towel to the man so he could apply pressure to the wound.

The wound she had caused.

Now all she needed to do was get out, even if she had no where to go.

With a limp, Ophelia walked past the man and headed towards the front door. The door was still wide open from where the pair had fallen in, so with a deep breath of fresh air, Ophelia stepped out.

Right then was when Ophelia's brain began to register the events that had just occurred. Everything had become too much too quickly. Clenching her eyes shut, she hoped that this was purely a nightmare, that she had yet to wake up.

But when she finally allowed her eyelids to flutter open, she was still here. And pulling up on the drive was Steve the security guard.

"In there." Ophelia groaned, now starting to feel the pain from the injuries she had received.

"You're bleeding." Steve tried to run towards Ophelia, but it was clear he was physically prepared for such an incident to happen.

"He's worse." Ophelia explained whilst allowing the sound of sirens in the distance to calm her slightly. She heard Steve grunt in response whilst he passed her but chose to ignore this and close her eyes once more.

From then, it was like the world passed by in a hurry but Ophelia herself was left on pause. She was sure at least three dozen people had passed her. She was sure multiple people had spoken to her. She was sure people had checked her wounds. She was sure she had watched the intruder be taken away in handcuffs, walking and certainly not dead. She was sure someone had taken her into the living room but wasn't sure when, who or how. She was sure some familiar faces had arrive, but who or when? Again she didn't know.

"Squirt?" T-Rex stood concerned looking at Ophelia, never had he experienced this in his lifetime of a security guard. He had arrived just over ten minutes ago and Ophelia was yet to have noticed.

"Hm." Ophelia hummed in response, her eyes still firmly closed.

"Is there anyone else you want to contact, maybe Minnie?" T kneeled down in front of Ophelia, hoping that by being lower down Ophelia would feel safe enough to open her eyes.

"I can't. She'd be so angry and I can't do that to her." Ophelia opened her eyes at the mention of Minnie, fearing the disappointment that the lady would have in her.

"Any friends from your new school then?" T didn't want to stay on the topic much longer, concerned he would add more stress.

Ophelia paused to think for a moment, she could contact Lily - that would be the obvious option. But Lily lived so far away in a muggle household, there was no way she could get here so quickly.  There was one other person Ophelia wouldn't feel ashamed to tell, who would make her feel like she had family around.

"Yeh, I'll contact them now."

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"Knight to D7." James commanded, the white horse-shaped piece glided forward towards Sirius' Queen.

"No James, have mercy, don't kill my queen she's innocent." Sirius pleaded, holding his hands in a prayer like stance.

"Nope." James shook his head whilst a grin formed on his face; his knight quick to jump onto Sirius' queen and smashing it into hundreds of tiny pieces.

"And I thought you were my best friend." Sirius sunk down in his seat dramatically, giving a toddler like pout to accompany his theatrics.

"Boys, even Monty wasn't this dramatic over a game of chess." Euphemia paused her crocheting to look up at her son and the boy who she saw as a second son.

"I'll have you know, love, that the reason this never happened with me is because I always called checkmate within four moves." Fleamont walked in from the adjoined kitchen and placed a kiss on his wife's cheek. "Or two moves if I was playing against you."

"Yes, yes, we know you're a champion at chess." Euphemia rolled her eyes playfully at her husband. "That is why our son is so competitive."

"Mum I am still here you know?" James groaned, he knew if he didn't stop his mum know the embarrassing stories would begin. Although, it's not like Sirius hadn't heard almost all of them. A soft pecking at glass prevented those embarrassing moments being retold though.

"Is that an owl?" Fleamont took his glasses from his head and placed them over his nose, but still squinting to look out into the darkening night.

"It is. Sirius darling, open up the window for them." Euphemia asked due to Sirius being closest to the window.

"Of course." Sirius stood, intrigued to see what an owl would be doing here. Usually postal owls would appear in the morning, this meant it must have been someone's personal owl; he just hoped it wasn't from his parents.

As soon as the window was unlatched the owl swooped in gracefully, spreading its fawn speckled wings with each movement. However, it's yellow eyes seemed focus on one person in the room and that's the direction the flight followed.

"That's Virginia isn't it?" James stood the moment he saw the ear-like tufts heading towards him. He placed his arm out in front of him and Virginia gratefully accepted the perch, giving a series of low hoots in response once her claws had settled into his jumper.

"Virginia?" Euphemia questioned, watching both young boys expressions change to something of excitement to confusion.

"Fi's owl. But she normally only sends us a letter once a week." Sirius explained before turning to James again. "Who's it addressed too?"

"Me." James replied, untying the letter from the door of the owl whilst speaking. "Something doesn't seem right."

"Open it then." Sirius clambered over the armchair, rather than walk around, then propped himself beside James. Disgruntled by the lack of personal space, Virginia swooped off of James' arm and moved herself over to the fireplace.

Not thinking twice as to the idea that this could have been a private letter, James tore open the envelope and tipped the paper onto his lap. With Sirius leaning over his shoulder, the pair began to read.

"Well I think Fi wins for the best prank." Sirius slapped James on the shoulder playfully once they had both finished reading. "I almost fell for that."

"Sirius I don't think this is a prank." James shook his head, rereading the letter in his hand.

"Bloody hell, I need to meet this Fi if she's managed to defeat my son." Fleamont laughed.

"I don't think she's joking dad." James was growing frustrated. Euphemia spotted this and summoned the letter over to where she sat.

"Oh merlins beard James.  Of course she is, it's absurd to think she was. For starters her last name is McGonagall." Sirius rolled his eyes at James. "Monty, Fi is a great prankster as you can see."

"She's not pranking us." James gritted his teeth.

"James darling, what makes you think that?" Mia asked, reading the letter whilst she spoke.

"I just, I just know that Fi wouldn't go this far." James turned to his mum, fear filling his eyes that broke the ladies heart.

"James you can't be falling for this?" Sirius groaned.

"I think you need to go bed James." Fleamont joked.

"For fucks sake Dad I'm not a little kid, you don't need to tell me when to go bed." James moaned, not caring if he was coming across rude. "Mum, please I think somethings wrong."

"I don't think it will cause us any harm to check." Euphemia felt her motherly instinct kick in, even if it was for a girl she had never met.

"Thanks mum." James' shoulders dropped, visibly relaxing by his mum's caring nature.

"I'm going to laugh so hard when you realise it was a prank." Sirius grabbed his wand from the side to place in his pocket.

"Just shut up for a second Sirius." James scolded Sirius, just wanting him to not joke in this moment.

"We can apparate there, that will be quickest." Mia placed down her crochet neatly, before standing up and taking James' arm. "Monty, you take Sirius to the address on the paper. We will meet you there."

Without letting the boys respond, Euphemia began to apparate; holding on tightly to her sons arm protectively whilst they transported.

None of them were prepared for what they were met with when they landed.

Swarms of muggle cars and muggles were crowding a gate like children trying to leave school. Spontaneous flashes of lights filled the darkening sky and spotlights from above hit the ground in front of them.

"Still think it's a prank?" James gave a glare to Sirius before shoving his way through the crowd, closely followed by his parents and a silent Sirius.

They struggled to reach the gates, constantly being shoved by people who acted like unseeing hands were dragging them this way and that. But with some silent charms from Fleamont, they managed to get there.

"Curly hair, glasses." A man stood behind the gate and stared at James before turning to Sirius. "Long hair, looks ridiculously posh. You two must be James and Sirius."

"Uh, yes. Correct, Sir." James stuttered slightly, shocked by the height of the man in front. "Oh these are my parents too."

"Right well, quick in you come. I'll take you to Lia." The man  opened the gate slightly, allowing just enough room for the four to pass through unfollowed.

"Lia?" Sirius questioned.

"I forgot you don't call her that. Ophelia then." T replied, keeping things short.

The rest of the walk was quiet, apart from the odd time Euphemia tried to comment on how pretty the neighbourhood was.

Once they reached the house, the four noticed the disarray the place was in. Speckles of blood stained the floors, objects were thrown about and voices filled the air.

Pushing past some of the brightly dressed muggles, James didn't wait for the rest and followed the blood trail into a living room. Fear filling him more, James looked around frantically for Ophelia over the sea of muggles.

A door opening turned his attention from the many muggles. Stepping into the room was Ophelia with a gait that was faltering. Her usually perfect plait was ragged, loose hair falling over her bruised face that contorted with effort. Blood was covering her clothing and exposed skin like a river that had burst its banks.

But nothing hurt James more than the sadness in her eyes.

"James?" Ophelia spotted James stood at the door, not yet realising Sirius or the Potter's were with him.

"Fi." James let out a sigh before running over to the girl he saw as a sister and swooping her into a careful hug.

Ophelia collapsed into the hug, a hug that told her that she was safe. Safe inside her cocoon that was her Gryffindor family.

"I think you have some explaining to do."

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hey! just a quick note to say thank you for all your support as always, this chapter was so challenging to write for me because I wanted it to be perfect. so i hope you love it!

also I now have an insta specially for my Wattpad! please feel free to follow for exclusive updates & aesthetics for Panacea (and future stories!). It's @jacindacharles.wp x