"Reg, come here," whispered Ophelia in a panic.
"Phee?" said a six-year-old Regulus, rubbing his eyes after just waking up.
"I'm here. Come to me," she whispered. The boy walked over to his sister and she enveloped him in her arms. Sixteen-year-old Ophelia picked up six-year-old Regulus and walked quickly to the door and out of Regulus' bedroom.
"What's going on?" Regulus asked. There was so much noise. Too much noise.
"Nothing's going on. We just have to be quiet. Really really quiet," she whispered.
There was a bang. And another. And another.
Ophelia ran down the stairs quietly, making sure that she stepped over the steps that creaked.
A scream. Sirius. Sirius' scream.
Ophelia closed her eyes for a moment, trying to block out the noise of her twin crying out for help.
"Sirius-" yelped Regulus in fear, but Ophelia quickly put her hand over his mouth.
"Quiet, remember? You need to be silent, okay?" she whispered gently, trying to stay as calm as she could for the sake of the poor boy that she was holding.
She ran into the library at number twelve Grimmauld Place. She turned to the right and hid behind the furthest bookshelf.
Another scream. Lily. Lily's scream.
She heard a voice shouting slurs repeatedly.
"Whatever you hear, promise me that you won't say any of those words," she whispered to Regulus, a chance to save a little bit of his innocence.
"I promise," he whispered.
Bangs were coming from all over the house, the noise was overwhelming. She held onto Regulus tighter as he curled up in her lap.
"What's going on, Phee?" he looked up at her with tears in his eyes.
"I don't know Reg. I don't know."
The siblings heard a pair of harsh, angry footsteps, stomping on the marble floor that was the entrance to the library.
"Ophelia, Ophelia, Ophelia," hissed a voice. It sounded cold and cruel and sent shivers down her spine.
"I know you're in here, dear girl. There's no need to hide. I won't hurt you. That's a promise."
Ophelia gripped Regulus tighter as the footsteps got closer to where they hid.
"And I believe there's another little one in here as well? Regulus, is it?" said the voice.
A man stepped into the space where the two were hidden.
"Ah. Found you," the man smiled cruelly.
Ophelia recognized this man. He had been at her house once, many times really, but after a while, he started to become unrecognizable until she wasn't sure if it was the same man or not.
He was younger than when she usually saw him at her house. Younger than the first time she saw him. He had to have been almost as old as she was, maybe a little bit older. His dark brown hair curled over one of his eyes, his dark eyes pierced through the girl like he was reading every thought she had ever had. He was wearing a dark suit and wore an evil smile.
"I don't believe we've met, have we Ophelia?" he smirked. Ophelia couldn't find any words, so she just stayed silent. The man bent down to where he was at eye level with the boy.
"And you must be Regulus. I have a feeling that you'll come in good use to me when you grow just a bit older."
Regulus buried his head into Ophelia's chest, trying to block out everything from the world and take in his sister's presence.
"What do you want from me?" she said, her voice just above a whisper. Regulus cried into her, but she restrained herself from letting out a sob. She had to be strong. She had to stay strong for her Reggie.
"I want the child." Ophelia's eyes widened and she grabbed even tighter to Regulus, holding him in her arms as tight as she could without hurting him.
"No!" she gasped.
"Give me the boy, Ophelia."
"No! Take me! Take me instead! Just not him!"
"Stupid girl, I don't want you. I want you dead."
"I don't even know who you are!"
"Let me introduce myself while you give the boy to me. Hello Ophelia, my name is Tom. Tom Riddle. I've seen you around here before, but you were a bit younger and I was a bit older. Now you know who I am. Give. Me. The. Boy."
"Please, Tom," Ophelia begged.
"I see you've given me no choice. I keep my promises, however. I promised I wouldn't hurt you. I won't, there's no need to worry about that. And I promise that I won't hurt him. But I can't promise that he won't hurt you," he smiled evilly.
"What do you m-"
"Imperio!"
Regulus fell limp in Ophelia's grip for a second before tensing up and squirming harshly.
"Reg! Reg, please stay calm!"
"Let me go, Ophelia! Let go of me!"
"No, Reg. No, please stay with me. It'll be alright."
"No, Ophelia. Let me go!" The small child wiggled his way out of her grip and fell onto the floor in front of her. Before she could grab him once again, he stood up, took her wand from her, and walked to the man named Tom.
Tom crouched down once more so that he and Regulus were face to face.
"Good boy, little one. Now, take this," Tom handed out his wand and Regulus reached for it, dropping Ophelia's wand so that it rolled further away from the girl.
"Regulus stop! Lift the curse off of him!"
"Quiet girl!" snapped Tom. "You have done so well, Regulus. Just a little more. Point it at her."
Regulus immediately followed his orders and put Tom's wand towards her face.
"Do it," he hissed. "You know the spell, all you have to do is to say it."
There was a moment of silence in the household, where there were no loud bangs from outside of the library, no screams of pain. Just silence. Then, everything went dark.
✩☾✩☽✩
Ophelia gasped, sitting up in bed. She was up in her dormitory, safe in her bed. Not in Grimmauld Place, not with six-year-old Regulus. She was with a happy and safe Lily and Sirius. She was shaking as tears spilled down her face. She couldn't stay there, she needed to go somewhere else. There was no way she would be able to get another second of sleep that night.
She put on a sweater over top of her nightclothes and walked down the spiral steps into the common room. Moonlight flowed from the paned window illuminating large rectangles on the floor. She expected to be alone, to be the only one awake at this hour, but she was proven wrong.
Sirius sat on one of the red chairs in front of the fireplace, his eyes red and puffy and his elbows on his knees as he gazed deeply into the fire. He wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings, something that Ophelia was glad for at that moment, as she wiped her eyes and got a hold of herself quickly, once again putting up a brave face so that she could be there for those she loved.
"Sirius?" she called out gently. His head shot up and he looked at Ophelia with fear in his eyes. She ran over to him and enveloped him in a hug.
"Siri, what's wrong? What happened?"
"I'm sorry Phee. It's just a nightmare," he whispered, his voice shaking.
"It's alright, it's alright. Would you like to talk about it?" she asked gently.
Sirius started crying harder, shaking, and his breaths came in short gasps. He was having a panic attack. He looked around the room, his eyes darting all over and him jumping every time he heard a small noise.
"Okay, It's alright. You're okay. You're safe. Look at me Sirius." Sirius lifted his wide eyes to hers, and she could see the pain in them. "Take a deep breath with me, okay?" They took a few deep breaths in sync, and Sirius was starting to feel like he could breathe again.
"Look around the room, Sirius. Can you tell me a few things that you see?"
"I- I- can't- I can't- I don't-'' he spluttered.
"It's alright, you're safe. You're at Hogwarts with your friends and family. No one is in danger, mother and father are not near us, James is upstairs in his bed, sound asleep." She tried to come up with as many assurances as she could since he had not yet told her what the nightmare was about.
"There's um- there's a scarf over there, on that chair. And a book on the floor there," he gasped.
"Very good, can you tell me a few more?"
"Um- there's- there's an empty cup on that table, and a pair of shoes by the portrait hole."
"You're doing great. One more Sirius. Give me one more thing that you can see." His eyes darted around the room, he was clearly still panicked.
"There! There's an um- a- there's a divination textbook," he said.
"Good job. Can you tell me a few things that you can feel?"
"The- the chair, you hugging me, my uh- my shirt, and um- the rug"
"Great job, what are three things that you can hear?"
"You talking, loud snoring from one of the dormitories, and my breathing," he was starting to get faster as he collected himself.
"What about two things that you can smell?"
"The fire and an opened inkpot."
"And one thing you can taste?"
"Toothpaste."
"Good job, I am so proud of you, Siri."
He sniffed and wiped his eyes, calming himself.
"Would you like to talk about the dream?" she asked gently.
"No, I- I don't think so," he looked up at her. "What are you doing down here?"
There were two choices that Ophelia had. She could either tell Sirius the truth, that she'd been having nightmares very frequently, and she had another. But then he'd worry about her and that was the last thing she wanted. He would tell her to go to Poppy or tell her friends. Or she could tell a lie, say that she couldn't sleep. Then he wouldn't worry, there would be no need to go to the hospital wing, and she could continue being the one to look after him, not the other way around. For as long as she could remember, she was the only person who could calm him down after nightmares, and she didn't want him feeling that burden upon himself to have to comfort her after she had a nightmare. The decision was easy, really.
"I couldn't sleep, that's all," she smiled and Sirius took her excuse with no questions as he fell asleep in her arms.