selenophile || remus lupin

chapter fifty two

18 December 1976

6:54 pm

Ophelia landed harshly on the marble floor that she knew to be Grimmauld Place. Her mother released the tight grip on her wrist, undoubtedly starting to bruise. Walburga Black stepped back a second, eyes darting between her two children before narrowing her eyes at Regulus.

"Regulus, come here," she snapped. Ophelia heard the malicious tone of her voice and saw the genuine fear in her Regulus' eyes, and remembered the vow that she made to herself when she was just a young kid: while they were in Grimmauld Place, Ophelia would do everything in her power to protect her brothers. Now that Sirius is gone, she had an even bigger responsibility to take care of her younger brother.

"Why?" Ophelia quickly shot back. "He's done nothing wrong!"

"Don't be stupid. How many times have you gotten in trouble so far this year? And how many times has he written to us about that? Very few." She turned her glare to Regulus. "It's almost as if he's protecting his filthy blood traitor of a sister. Foul, disgusting-"

"No, he-"

"You do not interrupt me, girl!" shrieked Walburga.

"It wasn't his fault! I threatened him! I told him that I would curse him if he told you and father about my misbehaving."

Walburga turned back to face her son, "Is this true, Regulus?"

It pained Ophelia to look at her brother, the fear piercing through his eyes as he wildly looked between his mother and sister. Ophelia widened her eyes and subtly nodded.

"Yes, she told me that she would use the Cruciatus Curse on me if I told you and father."

"Very well then. Regulus, go to your room and don't come down until Kreacher fetches you for supper." At this, Regulus sent Ophelia a look of apology for what was to come but went up to his bedroom nonetheless.

"Now, you. You filthy arrogant little blood traitor! How dare you threaten your brother for doing what's proper? I bet you couldn't do the Cruciatus Curse if you tried! You have to mean it, you would never be powerful enough to make it hurt."

"Oh yeah? Want to test your theory?" Ophelia knew she was on thin ice, but she didn't care. Yeah, she was scared. She was absolutely terrified, but she often forgot her mother's limits and pushed her over the edge. She didn't care what her mother thought during these holidays, she would do what she wanted.

"Silence!" Walburga shrieked. "You know better than to say such things to your only brother! You of all people know what it's like to feel the effects of such a curse, and chances are, you'll be feeling it this evening."

"Counting on it."

"If you keep interrupting me, the curse will be coming sooner rather than later." Her mother's patience was wearing thin. "How about we go into the sitting room and we can have a nice little chat about your recent behavior?"

Ophelia knew better than to disagree with this, so she followed Walburga across the large foyer and into the sitting room, the family tapestry displayed upon the wall.

"While at Hogwarts, you have many responsibilities. Looking after Regulus, keeping up on your studies, making connections with people of proper taste. Not misbehaving, running around with those hooligans you call friends, and especially not getting detention after detention! Do you know how this is making you look? How it's making this family look? No, because you're a selfish, greedy little bitch who doesn't care about the consequences to this family. We have strict responsibilities in this family, Ophelia. As women, we are there to look after the men, marry a proper pureblooded man and have children that will carry on the Black family name. When you go off with those stupid boys of yours, you are neglecting your duties to look after Regulus, and you are making a fool of yourself. Keep up this behavior and you'll never get married, no suitable man would ever want someone like you!"

Ophelia kept a straight face throughout all of this, not allowing her mother to see any form of reaction to her speech.

"And what if I wanted to marry a pureblooded woman?" she smirked, knowing it was not wise to bring up homosexuality to Walburga, but wanted to piss the woman off in any way she could think of.

"A woman?" Walburga screamed, looking like she was about to have a heart attack. "We will talk of no such thing in this household! If you think that is a normal thing, you will get thrown out of this house and out of this family faster than you can say Salazar! You dare speak of such despicable behavior!" She got out her wand and pointed it at her daughter. She flicked it harshly and Ophelia felt like she had gotten punched in the stomach.

Of course, she didn't show this. She gasped, but kept a poker face and stayed standing. She would not let her mother get to her. She would not let her get satisfaction by showing pain. She flicked her wand upwards and Ophelia felt a searing hot pain across her face. She had gotten a large gash spanning from just above her eyebrow to her cheekbone.

Walburga looked at her, feigning sympathy, "ooh," she tutted. "That's going to leave a scar for a long long time, now won't it dear? Pity."

"Doesn't matter. It doesn't even hurt," Ophelia said through gritted teeth, jaw clenching tightly to avoid showing any sign of pain.

"Oh, but your dear friends, they're never going to want to hang out with you now. You have a filthy gash across your face, whatever are you going to do?"

"One of my best friends has several scars across his face. Nobody. Cares."

"Oh does he now? And what might his name be?"

"Do I look like an idiot? I'll never disclose anything about them to you. The second I let a name slip, you'll go off and kill them for being anything but a pureblood!"

"That's right, Ophelia. I'm glad that's getting through that thick skull of yours. I'm not afraid to kill a few mudbloods because you've become too dependent on them. But, I'm willing to make a deal with you."

Ophelia inhaled sharply, knowing this would be anything but good.

"And what, pray tell, might that be?"

"You stop hanging out with those filthy mudbloods and start being in respectable company, and a few lives shall be saved. Object, and let's just say, it won't be pretty."

"Well then, ugly it up. I wouldn't become friends with those snobby Slytherin purebloods you talk of unless one of them Imperius' me!"

"Diffindo!" Walburga shouted, a large gash appearing on Ophelia's side. She inhaled sharply and sucked in, but refused to let any tears fall.

Walburga strode up to her daughter and punched her harshly in the nose, blood quickly seeping out of it. Ophelia took her thumb, wiped away the blood, and licked it, just to spite her mother.

"You foul, disgusting little-"

"What? This is pureblood, what's so foul about it? Now's not the time to become hypocritical, mother." That was it, Walburga's breaking point.

"Crucio!"