Ophelia was in her room with Delphina, who was helping her get ready for her date with Josh. She was nervous and antsy and nothing she picked to wear felt right.
"I need new clothes," she huffed out after throwing yet another outfit to the floor.
"You have an obscene amount of clothes, and that's coming from me," replied Delphina as she racked through her friend's wardrobe.
"None of them are good though!" She said as she threw herself onto her bed in frustration, accidentally spooking Phoenix in the process.
"Here. Try this," said Delphina as she threw some clothes at her. Delphina had picked out a pair of lowrise jeans and a cropped grey nitted jumper which hung off one of her shoulders. It was still cold out and Ophelia didn't know what Josh had planned so it seemed like a good shout.
Thankfully, Delphina's mastery when it came to clothes came in clutch and Ophelia had liked the outfit. She laced up her Docs and patted her jeans down in front of the long mirror that sat in the corner of the room. She tied her hair up with a claw clip and applied her jewellery, finally feeling confident enough to face the boy downstairs.
"Okay, I'm gonna get going now. Thank you, babe," she said kissing the girl on the cheek and rushing down the stairs.
She bumped into Draco in the common room, who had his nose in a charms textbook as he sat on the sofa opposite the boisterous green fire.
"Hey you catching up?" She said coming up behind him.
"Uh yeah," he said, as his eyes landed on where her jeans sat painfully low on her hips. "Thank you for the notes you slid under the door by the way, they were a big help you didn't have to do that."
"Ugh don't be silly, it was nothing," she smiled, pretending like there wasn't a flutter in her stomach at the way he looked at her. It wasn't actually nothing, it took her hours to rewrite her notes from her classes so that he would find it easier catching up.
"Where are you off to?"
"Oh uh, just out on a date," his eyes hardened at her words as he cleared his throat.
"Oh... a date. With who?" He tried his best to pretend that her words hadn't struck a blow to his gut.
"Josh Richardson, Hufflepuff," she said, her voice strained. It felt unnatural being this cordial with Draco. Usually they were either at each other's throats or acting like a married couple.
"Right, well um... have fun, I guess," he muttered, turning his attention back to his book. Draco couldn't ignore the pain that settled through his body, the insatiable feeling of jealousy or the anger that transpired throughout his bones as he imagined her laughing, joking and kissing a bloody Hufflepuff.
"Thanks, I'll see you at breakfast?" She said as she stepped back towards the door.
"Yeh, see you," his voice was curt and isolated, as if he was blocking her out. Ophelia frowned at his tone but left him to it nonetheless.
Ophelia spotted Josh stood against the wall opposite the Common-room entrance and beamed as she approached him. He looked good, really good. He wore a black buttoned shirt with blue jeans and a brown leather jacket.
"Hey, gorgeous. You ready for the best evening of your life," he said as she approached him, letting her lean up to plant a kiss on his cheek before he wrapped an arm around her waist and resting a hand on her slightly exposed hip.
"Slow down there, Richardson. That's a big statement to live up to," she joked, looking up at him as he smirked down at her.
"And I can guarantee that I'll live up to it," he quipped before removing his arm from her waist and wrapping it around her shoulder lazily pulling her into him as they walked.
There wasn't many people around since most were at dinner or heading back to their Common Rooms for the night, so the docks by the black lake were clear. Josh had set up a picnic blanket with a basket and floating candles, overlooking the lake, which happened to be Ophelia's favourite spot.
"Oh my god," she said as she stalled for a moment, taking in the scene in front of her, which was straight out of a romance movie. "How did you know this was my favourite spot?"
The cheeky grin on his face only magnified when he realised he had gotten it right.
"Well, I didn't, but I like to take my walks around here most evenings and I usually see you sat here writing in that journal of yours," he said, watching the way her eyes glistened between the candle-light and the moonlight.
"Why have you never said 'hi' before?" She asked, her eyebrows furrowed as she took a seat on the blanket. Josh sat down opposite her, pulling out two blankets from the picnic basket and holding one out for her to take. "Thanks."
"Well, I would've. There's been plenty of times I've wanted to but you always look so entranced in what you're doing and I don't want to disturb you," he said as he brought out a bottle of fire-whiskey and two whiskey glasses, filling them both and handing one to her.
"Well, in future, feel free to disturb me," she responded, clinking her glass with his before taking a sip.
Ophelia had been having a wonderful time with Josh so far, they had many joint interests such as their love and fascination of animals, she had gone off on a tangent about how incredible Phoenix was at one point and he couldn't help but listen to it all, completely mesmerised. The two just clicked, and it was nice how easy it felt with Josh. It was never easy with Draco, not that they were ever a thing, of course.
At one point, the boy had stood up from his seat, discarding the blanket that hung over his shoulder and reached his hand out for her to grab, inviting her to dance with him. There was no music, obviously, so they hummed along to the tune of Vienna by Billy Joel. They shared an interest in muggle music and entertainment, as well.
At some point during the song, they had switched from humming it quietly to full on belting the lyrics as they span each other around in the night air, occasionally stopping to laugh to themselves. Ophelia liked the way Josh made her feel free, he didn't care what anyone thought of him, which in a sense was probably why he was so popular and confident, and that energy was rubbing off on her.
They finished the song, remnants of laughter still on their lips as they looked into each other's eyes, just now realising how close they were. Ophelia's eyes traveled from his eyes to his lips and she noticed that his did the same. Without much thought, she stepped closer, bridging the gap between their bodies as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Their eyes kept flitting to each other's lips as they leaned in slowly, the boy having to bend a considerable amount before she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and closed the gap.
Josh tightened his hold on her back to stop himself from stumbling forward into the kiss while she let one of her hands massage and pull the ends of his hair. The kiss was gentle and sweet, nothing like her kisses with Draco, which were filled with electricity and passion, but it was still nice. It felt nice to be held in such a gentle way, by such a gentle boy.
When they pulled apart, their foreheads rested against each other as they smiled to themselves. She had tucked her bottom lip into her teeth for a second, savouring the sweet taste of his lips, before they giggled like children would after their very first kisses. Josh landed another peck to her lips before pulling back, not removing his arms from around her waist though, he wasn't quite ready to let go of her touch yet.
"We should start heading back, before it gets too late," he said, to which she nodded, still slightly unsure if she had the capacity to speak actual words. The girl cleared her throat before responding:
"Yeah, probably." They took a moment, standing in each other's arms, before they started to get ready to leave. They packed up the cheeseboard and grapes that they had unsuccessfully attempted to throw into each other's mouths as if they were in a movie, as-well as the firewhiskey and blankets.
Josh tucked the picnic blanket under his arm and carried the basket with the same hand, keeping the other free to hold hers. He liked her touch, it was delicate and soft; nothing like he had originally thought she was before he had met her, and he led her back towards the castle, completely satisfied with the way the date had gone.
— — —
The next day came and Ophelia was sat at breakfast with her group of friends. She had woken up that morning feeling extremely giddy - did she have the same electricity with her kiss with Josh than she did Draco? No, but she enjoyed it nonetheless and who's to say you need passion and electricity when you like someone? Safe and comfortable can be just as good. That's what she was telling herself anyways.
"How did the date go yesterday?" Asked Delphina as she tucked into her pancakes. The question caused Draco's head to snap up in Ophelia's direction, anxious to hear that it was the worst date of her life and that she wouldn't touch Josh Richardson with a ten-foot-pole, but of course that's not what she was going to say.
"It was really good," she said with a shy smile on her face. "He took me for an evening picnic by the lake, we had blankets and we danced and... yeah it was good." She of course wasn't going to say that they kissed, not in front of Draco. She didn't know why she was so reluctant to tell him about it, they were never together - the most the two had shared were a couple make out sessions. They had never dated, or had sex so she didn't know why she didn't want him to know.
"He took you on a picnic?" Draco scoffed. "Very original." Ophelia kicked his leg under the table causing him to yelp and scowl at her. "What? I just think you deserve more than a meagre picnic."
"Thank you very much for your unnecessary opinion, Draco, but it was lovely," she nodded at him curtly causing the blonde boy to roll his eyes and direct his attention back to his food.
"So you like him then?" Blaise asked, causing Draco to glare at him subtly.
"Yeah, yeah I suppose so," she said dismissively as if she hadn't given it much thought.
"What does 'suppose so' mean? You either like him or you don't," interjected Delphina, eager to get more information than what the girl had provided.
"Well, he's a lovely boy, he's charming and sweet, sings like he's being strangled, but sweet," the girl shrugged, putting her fork down and wiping her mouth with a napkin. "I just don't know him well enough to know if I like him."
"You so like him," Delphina scoffed digging back into her breakfast.
"Awhh! Little Ophelia's got herself a boyfriend," Theo sang as he wrapped his arms around her, swaying them back and forth as she laughed.
"I do not!" She defended herself swatting the boy off her.
"Well, do you wanna fuck him?" He asked, causing the girl to fluster.
"Theo!"
"What? Do you?" She anxiously looked over at Draco who was pretending to not be listening to the conversation as he stabbed at his bacon rather aggressively.
"It's too early," she said assertively causing the boy to roll his eyes.
"It's never too early to know if you have sexual tension with someone, O. You either do or you don't and if you don't the relationship is doomed," he said, causing her to stop chewing on her piece of toast. "How quickly did you know you wanted to fuck Draco?"
Ophelia almost spat out her food, while Draco choked on his coffee.
"Draco and I never fucked," she said, deflecting from the question.
"No but you both wanted to, how quickly did that come about?" He continued, not picking up on the awkwardness at all.
"Look, I don't know. Shut up now, Nott," the boy shrugged in response carrying on eating his breakfast and sipping on his coffee as the girl tried to reign herself back from the embarrassment, avoiding Draco's eyes at all costs.