Engraved Love | J. POTTER

18 | initiations and pyromania

O P H E L I A L O V E G O O D

With the way they were grilling her with questions, you would think she was the one who had done something wrong. And at this rate, she wasn't entirely convinced that she hadn't done something wrong.

"And you're sure there were six other people alongside Coralena?" the Minister asked the girl for what was probably the millionth time.

"Yes," she answered. "I'm certain."

"And you didn't recognize any of them?"

"No," she huffed, "I recognized all of them. I just only know the names of two. Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Black."

"Lucius Malfoy is a highly respected-"

"I'm sorry," she swiftly cut off his appraisal of the boy. "I thought we were here to discuss what had happened."

"We are," he nodded. "But-"

"So that's what I did," she pointed out. "I'm sorry if it's not what you would like to hear but it's the truth."

The Minister's gaze flickered over to Dumbledore who sat with his hands calmly folded on the table. Ophelia looked over at the man and took in his neutral expression. There was a glimmer in his eye that could only be described as one thing. Pride.

"Why did this happen?"

This caused Ophelia to hesitate. She knew exactly why this had happened. Fenrir Greyback was going around collecting his mutts for his pack and had used Coralena to coral them. But she wasn't going to tell him that.

"I've been asking myself the same thing," she informed him as she leaned back in her chair. "How is it that six death eaters managed to get in and out of Hogwarts undetected?"

"I think we've heard enough from you, Ms. Lovegood," the Minister cleared his throat as he closed his notebook. "We'll be in contact with your family, I'm sure they'll want to check in on you."

"Don't bother," Ophelia said as she stood up. "I don't have a family."

J A M E S P O T T E R

"What's taking so long?" James inquired as he paced back and forth in the room. The three boys watched him as he did so.

"It's been like five minutes," Sirius pointed out.

Remus turned to look at the boy, "You have no sense of time, do you?"

"All of us were out in ten minutes tops," he pointed out as he ran his hand through his hair. "It's been half an hour."

"I'm sure she's fine," Remus stated. "She was friends with Coralena. They probably just have more questions for her."

"Right," James nodded in agreement but he wasn't sure he actually believed it.

The door to the dorm opened and he immediately turned around. As soon as he saw Ophelia, he pulled the girl into a hug. It took her a moment to figure out what was going on before she hugged him back.

"Hello to you too," she greeted and pulled away so she could look at him. He smiled down at her before pressing his lips to hers.

"Bleh," Sirius gagged and Remus shot the boy a look. "I liked it better before you guys told each other how you felt."

Ophelia pulled away and glanced over at the boy, a blush creeping its way up her neck. She shook her head slightly and her hair that was slowly changing color reverted back to its normal blonde state.

"What took you so long?" Peter asked, not bothering to beat around the bush.

"You would think I had committed a crime," she huffed as she crossed the room, not releasing James's hand as she took a seat on his bed. "The Minister kept asking me questions and he would ask the same questions over and over again. I almost lost it on him."