15 June 1977
2:32 pm
"Goddamnit! Regulus Black catches the snitch! With a score of 230-70, Slytherin wins! FUCK, this win means that Slytherin has won the Quidditch house cup!" shouted Emmeline Vance. Several people in the crowd expected Professor McGonagall to yell at the commentator for her choice of used language, but the professor stayed silent, wallowing that her house had lost.
Ophelia swore under her breath as she dismounted her broom and walked over to the Gryffindor team. She would congratulate her brother soon for his win, but he was wrapped up in celebrating with his team and she didn't want to interrupt that happiness that would soon be leaving very shortly.
Sirius wrapped an arm around her, "Go talk to James, he needs it."
Ophelia looked around and couldn't find the boy her brother was talking about until Sirius pointed up at the sky and Ophelia saw James looking off into the distance, still up in the air. She mounted her broom again and flew up to where he was. James didn't notice her fly up to him and continued to look out at the Black lake.
"Hey James, you alright?" she asked, gently.
"Hey, Phee. Yeah, I'm okay," he looked over at her and smiled an unconvincing smile.
"Come on, let's go get changed, yeah?"
James nodded and the two of them flew down to the changing rooms. Instead of leading them into them, though, Ophelia took his hand and brought him behind them so they could have a bit of privacy. She wrapped her arms around him and brought him into a hug. He put his head on her shoulder and after a moment she felt him start to shake. She snaked a hand into his hair and gave him a moment to cry in peace, knowing he needed to let it out.
After a minute or so, she pulled back, cupped his jaw, and wiped a few of the tears away.
"I'm- I'm sorry, Phee. It's just- It's just that I feel like I've let the house down. I'm the captain, I'm the one responsible for our wins and losses. We not only lost this game, but we lost the house cup. And to Slytherin of all houses. I'm the one to blame, it's my fault," he said, his voice breaking.
"No, James, it's not. You may be the captain, but that does not mean you're responsible for who wins and who loses."
"That's what the captain is there for, though-"
"No, the captain is there to help guide us. To train us and help us better ourselves at quidditch."
"And I haven't trained you well, I haven't guided you to victory like I was supposed to."
"James, you trained us as well as you can, that's obvious. We were wonderful out there, we just lost. It's okay that we're not always the best, that we're not always number one. What matters is that we tried our best and that we had fun doing it. And besides, we were better than all the other teams. Slytherin has always been really good, but we were better than Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw by far. That has to tell you something."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm still just disappointed," James said.
"And you have a right to be. But hey, you're going home in just a few days' time, you have that to look forward to."
"Yeah, thanks, Phee. I love you, you know that?"
"I love you too, Jamsie."
✩☾✩☽✩
16 June 1977
12:53 pm
While the fifth and seventh years were busy taking their OWLs and NEWTs, the rest of Hogwarts got out of classes early and had a few days to enjoy the campus until they went home.
Earlier that day, Remus and Ophelia enjoyed their first picnic as a real couple, and they both really enjoyed spending that time with each other. Ophelia's eating has gotten much better since she and Remus had begun to work on it, and she felt as close as back to normal as she could get.
The rest of the marauders, Lily, Marlene, and Alice had shown up and eaten the rest of their food. They were all sitting around and talking, looking out into the Black Lake and admiring the beauty of the castle in the summer. It wasn't too hot, but warm enough and sunny enough that Ophelia and Lily were sitting out of the shade, sunbathing as they were listening to the marauders try to do wandless magic.
Peter and Remus were laughing at James and Sirius over who could do it better, yet neither one had managed to do anything. They could all do wordless magic, yet none of them could manage wandless, which made them -- especially James and Sirius -- frustrated.
"Accio book!" shouted Sirius, flailing his hands around at some attempt to bring the book he had thrown any amount closer to him.
Ophelia laughed and muttered, "dumbass," under her breath. Clearly, it was not as quiet as she had intended because Sirius shot his head towards her.
"If you think it's so funny, why don't you give it a try. Go on," he said.
Ophelia sat up and took a moment to center her magic. She took a deep breath and extended her arm. "Accio book," she said, focusing all of her magic into her arm. She had practiced wandless magic before, so it didn't come as too difficult. Her biggest struggle was trying to do wandless and wordless magic, which only the most experienced witches and wizards could do. She had yet to do anything of substantial importance, but she vowed to keep practicing over the summer holiday.
The book flew into her hand with ease and James, Sirius, and Peter looked at her with their mouths hanging open. Remus wore a proud smirk, as well Alice, Marlene, and Lily, all of whom had already seen her practice.
"Hey, what's that?" asked Alice, pointing at something flying towards them in the distance.
"Did you do that too? Don't tell me you've learned wordless magic as well?" exclaimed Peter.
"No, I didn't do that," Ophelia said, looking at the thing in confusion.
As it got closer, Ophelia recognized it to be a paper airplane. Someone charmed it to fly towards them.
Lily caught it and showed the group. She opened it, expecting to see a note for one of them on the inside, but nothing appeared.
"Revelio," she said, pointing her wand towards it. Nothing happened, and realization showed through her eyes. "It's charmed so that only the people who the sender wants to read it can see it."
"Well it came to us, so obviously it's for one of us," said Remus.
"Let me try," Sirius said, extending his arm for Lily to hand it to him. "Revelio," he said. He looked at the paper for a few moments before looking up at Ophelia.
"Nothing's happened. Maybe it's for Alice or Marlene, from Frank or Dorcas?" Peter suggested.
"No, it's appeared for me. I think you just can't see it. Phee, come here, see if you can read it."
Ophelia stood up and walked over to where Sirius was sitting. She took the piece of parchment and read what was written in messy chicken scratch handwriting.
In the north wing, something's wrong, I don't know what's happening
Please hurry
-R.A.B.
Ophelia took notice of how it was much messier than his normal handwriting, but it was still his handwriting nonetheless.
"It's from Reg," she whispered, standing up with Sirius.
"Why would he send that? You guys never talk, I thought Regulus was a blood supremacist," said Marlene.
Ophelia looked around and saw a group of Slytherin boys in their year sitting close to them, close enough to be within hearing distance, and didn't want to risk anything.
"He is. Mother and father love him. We're not really close since we have very differing views. He calls us blood traitors whenever he sees us," she lied. The rest of them, other than Sirius and Remus, didn't know too much about Regulus, so they all believed it willingly and Ophelia knew her plan had worked since she saw Mulciber looking over at them with a small smirk on his face. Sirius quirked an eyebrow to himself, as an act of agreement on what she said, to which she ignored, knowing their differences.
"What are you-" started Remus, but the twins had already started on their way up to the castle.
Once they got up to the seventh floor, they rounded the corner to get to the North Wing. It was generally empty, as it was this time. The only people in it were Ophelia, Sirius, and Regulus who they found on one of the couches in the middle of the room. Bookshelves lined the walls of the large room, the only light coming from the few large stained glass windows that towered above them and the scattered lanterns giving off orange light to the few feet around it.
Regulus heard their footsteps as they entered the room and stood up, swaying a little bit. He stumbled over to his siblings and Sirius grabbed his shoulders to keep him steady. Regulus and Sirius were never too close, but Ophelia could tell that Sirius really did care for him by the way he was looking at his brother with genuine concern.
"Shit, Reg. What happened?" he asked.
"I don't- I- I don't know what's going on," he stammered, his breath quick and shallow.
"Hey, calm down, Reg," Sirius said.
"No! No, I won't calm down! You don't get a say in this! You left, remember? You left and now Ophelia and I are the ones to pick up the mess you left behind. Why should I calm down? I've never gotten to figure out what I think or how I should act and you want me to calm down? I've been labeled as bad, I'm the bad guy, right? What if I don't want to be the bad guy anymore? My entire life, I've always thought of muggleborns as mudbloods and anyone other than purebloods as inferior. Mother and father ingrained that into my brain, and yours too.
"But you want to know the difference between us? You're able to be whoever you want to be, to think whatever you want without facing discrimination from the rest of your house. If I were to even say muggleborn, I would be called a blood traitor. Why the hell is that? Why can I not get the chance to figure out what I believe in without being told to calm down? Why can I not change my mind? I'm fifteen for fuck's sake, I don't have my entire life planned out! I've never gotten a goddamn moment to sit and think for myself. It's always 'Regulus do this', 'Regulus believe that'. You got out of that, we haven't."
"Reggie-" Ophelia started, her voice breaking from keeping the tears in and hidden. She didn't let them fall, she wouldn't.
"No, Ophelia. He needs to hear it!" Regulus stepped back out of his brother's grip and instead looked him dead in the eye, not bothering to wipe the tears from his face or notice the tears welling up in his brother's eyes.
"You've told me I'm bad before I've ever gotten to be anything. As soon as I start thinking, 'what if I'm not the bad guy everyone thinks I am? That everyone wants me to be?' I have to snap out of it in fear of getting shunned by my own house, my own family. It's crazy. What are you compared to what I am? They never told the truth for ten minutes, but hear this, Sirius. This is me. A crying, weak, pathetic mess because I haven't gotten ten minutes of truth. Why does everyone have to lie all the fucking time? Why can't I get the opportunity to figure out what's true and what isn't without someone telling me what I am, without mother and father breathing down my neck?
"You're disowned, Sirius. I don't get that privilege. I don't get the freedom of being able to do whatever I want, because reality check; I still care what mother and father think. And as much as it kills me to say it, I don't want to leave them. Because I'm scared. I'm so fucking terrified of them that I can't leave that goddamned place. Do you hear this? What am I doing in a house where all I do is not good enough? The only time mother and father are proud is when I'm making a complete fabrication of myself and my entire dignity is lost.
"The second I can say I know who I am is the second they kill me! Because I have a feeling that I know who I am and it's not who they want me to be. I can't leave that stupid place because then they'll know who I am and I can't face that. I can't face the fact that maybe someone isn't proud of me. I can't even think that I'm not who they want me to be without breaking down.
"I'm a fucking actor, Sirius. All I do is an act, but guess what? Here I am, here's the real me! And the fact that this is who I am, terrifies me to no extent. The fact that maybe, just maybe, who I actually am is someone who is not the same as the people who raised me. I don't want to get hit, sure, but I can't stand up to them as you have. I can't just run away in the middle of the night because I think that might kill me before they get the chance to even think to."
Silence engulfed the room after he was finished and he started to fall before Ophelia caught him and started walking him to a place where the two of them could be alone.
"It's gotten worse, hasn't it?" Sirius asked for what felt like the hundredth time.
"Of course, it's gotten worse, Sirius, how could it not?"
Emotion flooded Sirius' face after someone told him the truth, that Ophelia hadn't lied to protect her brother from storming into Grimmauld Place and getting himself killed. He made to run after them but Ophelia cast a quick spell that made him temporarily immobilized and the two ran off before he could say anything more.
a/n
so this was originally actually supposed to be a pretty happy chapter but then i got the reg idea and just kinda rolled with it, i think it shows a lot of character development
anyway stay tuned for A LOT of shit to go down im kinda really excited to write it
love you all <33