𝟙𝟝 - 𝔹𝕦𝕥 𝕎𝕙𝕪
With Sirius and Ophelia both missing since the breakfast fiasco, and James rocking up to first class looking nervous; it was safe to say people were worried for Ophelia. So when the three of them walked into the Great Hall together at lunch, people were shocked. They were even more shocked to see smiles spread across the trios face.
Ophelia had noticed this attention and it caused her to freeze. Whispers and points were made towards them, not helped by the fact that both James and Sirius were still covered in pink and glitter. Unbeknownst to anyone was the fact Ophelia didn't want any attention, she'd been keeping to herself in an attempt that people wouldn't find out the truth. The last time she had had this much attention was the sorting ceremony, thankfully other than a few odd glances no one had mentioned anything to her about 'Ophelia Montgomery'. Every muscle in her body urged her to run, yet she remained frozen. James continued to walk ahead, or rather strut, blind to what was happening behind. Sirius however had noticed Ophelia pause.
Three other people had also spotted the sudden change in Ophelia's mood. First was Lily Evans, the red headed girl was always fast to pick up on emotions even if from across a room. There was something though about Ophelia she couldn't work out, it was like the girl was keeping a piece of herself hidden. But why? So she had found herself watching the girl a little more closely recently, yet the only thing she had spotted was that she could be a little jumpy.
The next person to observe the change was Professor McGonagall, she had just been informed by her colleague that Ophelia had missed her Care of Magical Creatures class. She was just about to leave the Hall in search of the girl when she spotted her enter. At first the lady was pleased to see Ophelia, but then she noticed the change and wanted to get involved; this would cause more unwanted attention though. Yet two words stayed on her mind, she seemed happy seconds ok yet now she was a shadow of that. But why?
Finally there was Remus Lupin, he wouldn't admit it but he could quite literally sense when Ophelia entered a room, especially her 'scent'. At first he looked up with slight excitement, he had been wanting to congratulate her on the prank all morning, but the moment his eyes met hers, he spotted the colour drain on her face. But why?
"Snap out of it." A click in front of Ophelia's face brought her thoughts back down to earth. "Sorry, didn't mean to sound harsh it was just you were all in a daze." Sirius gave a gentle smile.
"Sorry, not sure what came over me." Ophelia did know what came over her, but she wasn't going to say that. "I'm not that hungry though, I might go study instead." Ophelia went to turn on her heels.
"Fi come -"
"Mr Black, Miss McGonagall how lovely of you to join us today." Minerva had worked out a plan to speak to Ophelia without bringing unwanted attention.
"Oh Minnie does that mean you missed us." Sirius sent a flirtatious wink to the Professor.
"Quite the opposite Mr Black, Mr Potter do not sit down just yet I would like a word with you too." Somehow the lady knew that James was just about to take his seat from behind them.
"Hello Minnie, your hair looks ravishing today." James appeared beside the Professor with the usual cheeky grin plastered across his face.
"Boys, do I need to remind you of my name?"
"You think we would forgot your beautiful name, oh I am hurt." James clutched at his chest like he was in pain.
"Stop the dramatics Mr Potter, this isn't a muggle theatre." A straight line was still the shape of Minnie's lips, but she was struggling to keep it that way. "You three will be joining me for detention tonight, straight after our Transfiguration last lesson. Do you understand?"
"No place I'd rather be."
"I look forward to it." Sirius and James both replied but Ophelia was still scouting the room in search of anyone who would be eyeing her suspiciously.
"Miss McGonagall?"
"Yeh, yeh detention tonight." Ophelia replied but never made eye contact. James and Sirius left and headed towards their usual seats at the table.
"Are you ok Miss McGonagall?" Minerva tried to follow Ophelia's eyes but couldn't work out what the girl was searching for. Ophelia didn't respond. "Ophelia?"
"Sorry, yes perfectly fine, just tired I had a long night you see." Ophelia forced a smile.
"I do see, in fact I think the entire school saw that too. Now I think you should go get some lunch before the next lesson starts dear."
"I'm not that hungry,"
"Fi! Come on!" Sirius yelled over from the table.
"I think you are being beckoned, Fi." Minnie spoke, with a hint of question at the end.
"Sirius has decided that is my new name." Ophelia rubbed her arms unconsciously, whilst keeping a smile. "I best go, see you later Minnie." With one last forced smile, Ophelia headed over to the table leaving a concerned Minnie behind.
"Here she is, our reigning pranking Queen." Dorcas mimicked someone bowing down from her seat.
"Why thank you." Ophelia responded with a mocking curtesy. It was amazing how quickly she was able to snap out of her mind when it was necessary. However acting was basically second nature to her for more reasons than one. Taking a seat between Dorcas and Marlene, Ophelia could feel a pair of eyes on her. It made her nervous, she wasn't sure why but it did, it felt like someone was trying to X-ray into her soul it was that fixed. Attempting to shake off the feeling she reached forward to grab any kind of food in front, in the end it was a sandwich. Rather than eat it though she just felt too unnerved and instead found herself moving it around the plate with her fingers. Every so often she'd answer questions on the prank or crack a joke but that pit in her stomach just wasn't leaving. It didn't help she still felt some eyes on her, but whenever she looked up she couldn't see a source. Until this final time, when her eyes finally met those warm milk chocolate eyes. Remus Lupins eyes.
"You ok?" Remus mouthed over to Ophelia. Ophelia just replied with a quick nod, but Remus recognised that nod from the countless mornings after a full moon. She wasn't ok. He'd also spotted the lack of food Ophelia had eaten in the past ten minutes. But it was clear she didn't want to talk about whatever was bothering her so he had another idea. "Library?"
"Please." Ophelia was grateful someone had offered a getaway, she wasn't particularly close with Remus but whenever she was with him she felt comfortable.
"Hey Ophelia, I need some help on my Bowtruckle assignment, would you mind helping me?" Remus asked aloud this time.
"Sounds good, do you want to go now?" Ophelia played along with the ruse, or at least she thought the assignment help was an excuse.
"Yeh, lets go now. See you guys later." Remus sent a smile to the rest of the table before gathering his things and Ophelia followed. They remained silent until they had left the Great Hall and were out of prying ears.
"Thank you." Ophelia ended the silence rather quietly.
"For what?" Remus guessed what for, but he wanted to hear it.
"Oh, maybe I got the wrong idea. Doesn't matter." Ophelia looked ahead as she carried on walking.
"Shit, no I use the assignment as an excuse." Remus realised now may not have been the time for pride.
"Ok, yeh well thank you for noticing I needed to get out."
"You're welcome, I said we'd go Library but did you want to go outside? Get some fresh air?" They had just reached the doors which lead them either outdoors or further into the castle.
"Sounds lovely."
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Ophelia followed Remus outside, in fact she followed him for a few minutes in comfortable silence before they reached a spot she had never been before. They ventured through a natural row of trees that formed something similar to a street, with one final branch hanging down and over like an small archway. Bending down to go beneath the archway, Ophelia looked up once again to be greeted with a view of a small lake.
"Um, well, this is my place I like to go when I need some time alone." Remus shuffled on his feet a little, kicking at the dirt beneath him.
"It's beautiful." It really was beautiful both in looks and feeling. The air felt naturally warmer and even happier as Ophelia stood there. The lake it self embodied a sense of calmness, with slight ripples only disturbing its peace.
"I can leave you if you want?" Remus asked, although he did want to stay.
"Actually could you stay for a bit? If you don't mind." Ophelia looked up to the taller boy to reach his eyes, those eyes never failing to draw in her attention.
"Yes of course!" Remus responded rather excitedly before stuffing his hands back in his cloak pockets in an attempt to hide his joy. But Ophelia had noticed and it made her chuckle.
"I didn't realise I was that much fun to be with."
"Don't put yourself down, you're great company." Remus wanted to face palm himself right there and then, why was he acting so formal? "Are you ok though?"
"Not really no." Ophelia wasn't even sure why she was beginning to open to Remus, even if only slightly. "But I will be." Ending the sentence with a smile, Ophelia sat herself down on the grass.
Remus studied the girl for a second, or maybe more. Under the natural sun, he couldn't deny how beautiful she was. With hair looking like honey, gold and moonlight that had been woven together to create a masterpiece. Normally Remus only ever had negative connotations for the moon, but Ophelia's hair showed some beauty in even the worse. The blonde hair was pulled back into a messy bun, which made him realise he had never seen the girl with her hair down yet. But why?
Shaking the seemingly minuscule question from his mind, he took a seat down on the grass beside Ophelia. Rustling into his coat packet he soon felt what he was searching for.
"Here." Ophelia looked down to what Remus was offering her, in his hand he held a brown and golden chocolate bar with the words Honeydukes written across it. "It's Chocolate, I find it helps when I feel poorly or down."
"Thank you." Ophelia took the bar delicately from his hands, but accidentally brushed her hand against his knuckles. A warm yet tingly shock went through her fingertips as they touched causing her to shudder slightly. "You gave me an electric shock again."
"Looks like it." Remus had felt it too, but it didn't make sense to him. Why was it only Ophelia this so called muggle 'electric shock' had happened before with? Actually the only other time it had ever happened was in their first Potions class together. "I've been meaning to ask you how comes you know so much about muggle science?"
"Because it was a lesson." Ophelia answered before registering what she actually said.
"A lesson?"
"Yeh, I studied some muggle stuff for a while, went to a muggle school." Ophelia answered rather briefly whilst finishing off the chunk of chocolate. "This is really tasty."
"It's the best isn't it." Remus had noticed the deliberate change in conversation but didn't want to press on anymore, they weren't exactly friends and the last thing he wanted to do was ruin any chances of that. "Here have another bit." Remus broke another bit off and quickly shot his hand over towards Ophelia in a perfectly natural way. At least he thought so until he noticed Ophelia flinch and turn her body away rather quickly. "Shit. Did you think I was going to hit you?" The words had come out of his mouth once again before he had thought.
"It doesn't matter." Ophelia was trying to compose herself by counting the clouds in the sky.
"Hey, Ophelia it does." Remus reached his hand out once again and placed it on her lower arm gently, he didn't know why he did it but it just felt natural. Focused on Ophelia he was completely oblivious to the warmth that ran through his fingers when he had touched her. "Ophelia look at me please."
Ophelia turned to face Remus but tried not to meet his eyes, instead she focused above them on his mousy brown curls that fell just above his eyes.
"Why did you flinch?" Remus asked but this time with a bit more care in his voice.
"I don't know, I'm just on edge I guess." Ophelia lied, she hated lying. She hated the fact that being in the mere presence of a male would often make her more on edge, but normally with Remus in Potions she didn't feel this.
"You're not telling me the truth but its ok, just know where I am if you want to chat." Remus smiled and gently removed his hand from Ophelia's arm. He knew he wasn't the best example of someone who didn't hide things, his lycanthropy was the biggest secret he ever kept. So Remus decided to drop it for now and focus on positives. "Anyway did I hear Sirius call you Fi?"
"Yep, I quite like it actually. Never had a nickname as such before." A smile graced Ophelias face once again, a smile that this time was real. Remus found himself once again mesmerised by Ophelia's features. How her natural smile came from deep inside and wasn't just her lips. He could see how her blue eyes lit up, how her voice raised slightly and how her shoulders relaxed.
"It suits you. Short and sweet."
"Are you calling me short Lupin? Because if anything you're just a giant." Ophelia tried to stifle a giggle but it came out anyway.
"I dunno maybe you're just short."
The conversation continued causally from there, Remus noticed how visibly Ophelia seemed to calm the more they spoke. Ophelia filled Remus in on the prank and the future prank to be played on Minnie. Remus spoke about a book he had just began reading, which to his surprise Ophelia knew some quotes from. Time passed by rapidly from there, if it wasn't for the clock tower having such loud bells they wouldn't have realised that almost two hours had passed and it was time for their Transfiguration class. The two walked side by side back to the castle, Ophelia had never felt this calm so soon after one of her 'scares' as she liked to call them.
"You're welcome to go back there any time you like you know Fi?" Remus told her.
"Only if you're sure, does anyone else visit there?"
"Not that I know of."
"Wait, not even the Marauders?" Ophelia had slowed down her paces after hearing this.
"No, like I said it is where I go when I need some time. The guys wouldn't appreciate it like you did."
"Well thank you, that means a lot." Deep down Ophelia wanted to give Remus a short side hug but she didn't know how to go about it. Plus it was too late, they'd reached the Transfiguration classroom.
"Have fun with James." Remus smiled before walking away towards his usual seat. What was happening to him? But what he did know was that being beside Ophelia made him happy. He didn't even have to try and smile when he saw her, it just came naturally. Comforting Ophelia like he did so today when she felt down made him feel important. And hearing her laugh because of him was like the medicine he never realised he needed to take. But why? Why did he feel like this?
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Some more Remus & Ophelia alone time wooo!!
OK BUT SOMEONE TELL ME IS THE INTERACTION OK!! I want that awkward cute feeling haha! I love writing about Ophelia and Remus though ❤️
QOTC - favourite feature of the face?
My answer - eyes, if you hadn't guessed! Everything is about someone's eyes. They tell you so much.
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