𝓟𝓱𝓲𝓵𝓸𝓹𝓱𝓸𝓫𝓲𝓪 || Regulus Black

3.3 - People Watching

Eating their sweets from Honeydukes, the four third year students decided to end their day by doing a little bit of people watching. 

"Oh, we saw that girl in Potage's earlier. She was looking at the same cauldrons as Pandora." Ophelia said, subtly pointing to a sixth year Hufflepuff student. 

"Okay, so pass if you've already had an interaction with her today." Regulus said. 

"Aww." Pandora said. "She actually reminded me of a combination of Ophelia and Barty, so that impression could have been hilarious."

Regulus pointed to a seventh year Ravenclaw walking near the Hufflepuff girl. "What about her?" He asked. 

"Oh she's definitely either addicted to sugar, or responsible for her whole house's candy stash for the season." Pandora said, noticing the girl's large bag of candy from Honeydukes.

"You guys suck at this." Barty chimed in after spending the last few minutes silent except for the crinkles of his candy wrappers.

Ophelia's eyes rolled so hard she was close to seeing the inside of her head. 

"Fine." Ophelia said, fed up with Barty's negativity taking over their Hogsmeade trip. "You try it on someone."

"Give me someone to analyse." He said with a cocky shrug. 

Ophelia scanned the pavement, looking for a challenge to give him. Her eyes landed on a couple of sixth years, a Gryffindor girl and a Slytherin boy. 

"Them." Ophelia said. 

"Really? That's too easy." 

"Try."

"Look at those two, look how hard they're fighting the urge to just rip each other's clothes off right now." Barty said, which caused Ophelia to cringe slightly. "They're obviously a hot couple, or about to become one."

"No way." Ophelia said. 

"Why does that get a 'no way'?" Regulus asked.

"Why does that get a 'no way'?!" Ophelia said, shocked that he would say that. "I've seen them around school, they're friends. Friends don't think about each other that way. Right?"

"Everyone thinks about everyone that way." Barty said. 

Ophelia's mood completely changed. Learning something new can always be strange, especially when it involves you. Her mouth morphed into a frown as soon as she started thinking about their recent skinny dipping day and putting two and two together with this new fact about the people around her.

"I don't think anyone in their right mind would feel that way for someone else yet." Pandora spoke up. 

The three others rolled their eyes. 

"Oh really?" Ophelia asked. "So that fourth year, Xenophilius? You don't think about him that way?" 

Pandora started to blush, and let out an awkward giggle. 

"Maybe I think about him like that a little bit." Pandora said. "But we're not friends or anything. We mostly just hang out at meals and in the common room."

"Isn't that exactly what you and Effie here do together?" Barty asked. 

"Sort of."

"And you're friends, right?"

"Yes, of course." Pandora replied. 

"See? That means you and Xenophilius are friends. You think of a friend in that way. Everyone thinks of each other that way at least a little bit." Barty proved his point, much to Ophelia and Pandora's dismay.

"Fine." Ophelia admitted. "Maybe some people think about their friends that way."

"Sorry, what was that?" Barty teased Ophelia. "Did you just admit that I'm right?"

Ophelia rolled her eyes, not wanting to answer his question. 

"I can't hear you, Effie." He continued. 

"Fine, yes, you were right." Ophelia grumbled. 

"Thank you, darling. That's all I needed to hear."

There was a minute without conversation as Barty chuckled at Ophelia admitting he was right. The silence was interrupted by Pandora asking "Ophelia, do you think of anyone that way?".

"What? No." Ophelia lightly scoffed. "I could never."