OPHELIA - D.M

12

— — —

After dinner had finished, Ophelia had gone on an evening walk with Luna and Pheonix. It had been a while since they last hung out so she thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up. They were strolling by the black lake with Pheonix in tow as she mooched around them, enjoying the crisp winter air.

A blanket of snow coated the grounds as they trudged through the night, wrapped up in their thickest and wooliest clothes. Even Pheonix was wearing little boots and a coat to keep her from being too cold. Luna looked down at the cat who walked beside them both and smiled.

"You know, Pheonix is more dog than cat at this rate with her clothes and stuff," she laughed as she looked at her sister who threw the black cat a treat.

"She's just the best behaved kittycat in the world is all," the girl grinned proudly back at her. "I even got her to sit last week!"

"Most cats wouldn't do that," Luna hummed as they stared out at the iced over lake.

"No, they wouldn't. Pheonix isn't most cat's though," she smiled softly in fondness.

"Have you heard from Draco? Do you know if he's okay?" Luna asked causing the brunette to groan at the mention of him. She was trying to appear unbothered by Draco's disappearing act but with each time she was questioned about how he was doing it became just a bit harder of a facade to maintain.

"No, I don't know if he's okay. He'll show up sooner or later though," she said, purposefully not making eye contact with Luna. She didn't want her sister seeing how worried she was, and with one look into her eyes she knew that she would know.

"I'm sure he will," Luna nodded, knowing better than to press Ophelia further on the matter. "Neville asked me to be his girlfriend."

"What? I thought you already were his girlfriend?" Ophelia replied, shocked at the revelation, as they began to head back into the castle - it was cold after all.

"Why would you think that?" Asked Luna her voice sounding dream-like as usual.

"Uh... I don't know because you're all over each other and you look at each other like you've been married for fifty years and have ten kids together?" Said Ophelia as if it were obvious enough, her arms extended out at the absurdity of the question.

"We look at each other like we hate each other?" Asked Luna, completely serious, causing her older sister to laugh and sling an arm around the girls shoulder.

"No, dummy! Like you're in love with each other!" She said nuzzling Luna's hair causing the girl to scowl and flatten it.

"Please, you and Draco look at each other like that yet no one thinks you're together," the blonde girl scoffed as she pushed Ophelia's arm off her.

"We do not look at each other like anything, thankyou!" She exclaimed, absolutely dumbfounded by the accusation as they rounded the corner towards the Ravenclaw tower.

"Yeh, sure. Hey, who's that funny looking boy running towards us?" She said, causing Ophelia to turn her attention to the chubby first year flailing his arms around as he ran towards the two. He was a Slytherin. One of the boys she had appointed to notify her if he had seen Draco.

"Ophelia! Ophelia!" He said as he finally reached the two, before stopping and putting his hands on his knees and leaning over puffing. His face was beat red with trails of sweat running down his forehead - he kinda looked like Crabbe after quidditch practice. She stepped towards him and leaned down slightly to let him whisper in her ear.

"Shit. Okay, thankyou," she said before handing him some coins from her pocket and letting him scamper back off to wherever he came from. "Sorry, Luna, gonna have to leave you here. I've got business to attend to," she said before picking Pheonix off the ground and pressing a kiss to her sister's temple.

"Okay, see you soon. Give my condolences to Draco!" Luna shouted out as she watched the girl sprint off down the corridor, ignoring the overheating sensation from the amount of layers she was sporting.

— — —

Ophelia burst through into the Slytherin common room, panting slightly as she had to run from one end of the castle to the other. Luckily she didn't have to go up any stairs since Slytherin was located in the dungeons.

She heard a crash as she walked in, only to see Draco stood by the fire drunkenly throwing bottles of firewiskey and butterbeer that he had likely downed at the fireplace, causing it to roar with green flames each time. The boy stumbled around as he screamed profanities into the air, oblivious to the crowd of students around him watching the boy unravel.

Ophelia quietly shooed the students away into their dorms telling them not to worry and that she had it handled before approaching Draco.

"Nice technique you've got going there, although you're getting more glass on the floor than in the fire," she said picking up a bottle and throwing it into the angry fire as he turned his attention to her and let his head fall back.

"What do you want now, Lovegood? Not got the hint that I don't want your pity right now?" He said as he let a dry chuckle fall from his lips, before hiccuping and stumbling back. The girl caught him before he fell to the ground and helped him sit in one of the black leather armchairs that dotted around the room.

"I'm not pitying you, Draco, but you have to get your shit together soon. I know you're upset and you have every right to be but you're gonna start getting in trouble if you carry on with the skiving and drinking," she said looking at him with concern. He definitely looked thinner and the bags under his eyes were heavy and dark, he looked like she did when she was in that argument with Luna - only worse. It pained her to see him like that and considering they were barely friends she wasn't sure why it hurt her so much. The boy let out a loud dry laugh at her words before looking into her eyes and leaning in towards her - it was as if he was a shell of himself.

"And what does it matter to you, Ophelia," he dragged her name out, as if he were taunting her with it.

"It matters to me because I care about you, Draco. As much as it pains me to admit, I care about you, and I care what happens to you," she said. Her eyes looking into his hopelessly, as if she was begging for him to let her in.

"Ha! You don't care about me. How could you care about me when my own parents didn't? Even when they knew they were going away they didn't stop to ask if I was okay. Not even my mother. Well guess what?... I don't care about them," he paused, searching into her eyes as if he was searching through her soul, "and I definitely do not care about you either."

His words were like venom as he pulled himself up out of his chair and stumbled his way towards his dormitory, leaving her to clear up the mess he created as she sat impossibly still before wiping away the single tear that had escaped her eyes.