The Sun, Moon & Stars

54. March 10th, 1994

The next couple days were torturous. Visiting Sirius was out of the question given Buckbeak's situation; every spare moment spent consoling Hagrid -whom was beside himself about losing his friend.

Nothing they said, or did, seemed to be good enough. No heartfelt words of praise would make the Ministry reconsider the decision, or soothe Hagrid's pain. Despite that, the four of them did everything in their power to change the fate of the innocent hippogriff. Hermione spent hours in the library researching laws and regulations to find some sort of loophole the Ministry hadn't considered, Ophelia had lengthy discussions with Remus about the legality of the situation and Ron and Harry took on the job of distracting Hagrid - keeping him as upbeat as possible. Still, none were successful.

Draco Malfoy seemed to be nothing but pleased at the news of Buckbeak's execution in the coming months; not even putting in an effort to hide his smug grin as he passed them in the corridor. Ophelia couldn't help but grind her teeth everytime she saw him - cringing at the time she might have considered him a friend, and doing her best not to attack him whenever there was a time slot available to do so.

Divination was going terribly. Professor Trewlawny had driven Hermione to the brink of insanity; causing her to drop the class - something unheard of for Hermione Granger. Ophelia couldn't very well say she blamed her though, if her father wasn't a teacher himself she would drop it the moment the opportunity presented itself. She couldn't very well do that though; and left partnerless, the class was becoming increasingly difficult to pass without Hermione's, though sparse, expertise.

To make matters worse, if that was even possible, Buckbeak's situation wasn't the only issue keeping her from Sirius. Hermione kept a close eye on her; never letting her out of sight since she caught her sneaking back that night. Though she was worried, she never raised her concerns in front of Harry or Ron; which was something to be thankful for given the situation. She would have to be more discreet on their next visits however.

Pushing all that aside though - today was March 10th, 1993. Remus Lupin's thirty-third birthday.

'HAPPY BIRTHDAY!'

His bed squeaked as Ophelia launched herself onto the end of it, shaking at his body that was rolled up under the crimson covers; giggling as he groggily swatted her away, Ophelia having just slipped into his room.

'Too early.' He grumbled, pushing his face into the pillow and tugging the covers closer to his body as she tried to pull them away.

'It's never too early on your thirty-third birthday.'

'Am I really that old?' He groaned, voice coming out in croak as he continued to shimmy away from her nagging.

'Oh hush, you don't look a day over twenty.'

'Mhm.' He replied, thoroughly unconvinced, 'flattery gets you nowhere this early in the morning, darling.'

'It's only eight.' She retorted back, her positive tone not fading in the slightest.

'Mhm, and that's three hours too early for a Sunday.' He grumbled.

Ophelia let out a melodramatic sigh, falling onto her back with a hardly graceful flop,

'I guess I'll have to eat all the chocolate myself.'

As if on cue, he sat up, honey eyes narrowed in suspicion of whether or not she was joking (which she wasn't),

'Oh, you're evil.' He accused, index finger waving accusingly at her; as he ruffled his messy hair, rubbed his tired eyes like a small child and stretched slightly.

'Evil, but persuasive.'

'Five minutes.' He conceded, and she smiled brightly as she hopped up, kissed him on the cheek and fled to the sitting room to wait for him.