Belladonna

Fleamont Potter always loved enjoying a sweet Fortescue ice-cream right in the middle of the summer. Actually, he was just going to get some, walking through the people in the main street of Diagon Alley.

It was the summer of 1944 and the war was at its hot peak. War propaganda was everywhere, which seem pretty ironic, since right beside the posters there were children buying their first wands. There were lots of recruiting to put an end to Grindelwald. But there were also followers undercover trying to get more people into that bastards’ ideals. So when Fleamont saw one of those on top of a little podium, he just thought it would be a good idea to make it fall from it with his wand. It was just a silly joke from a fifteen year-old. But he knew deep down that it was more than that. He wanted to enlist, to fight, even if he was a little too young to do that yet.

He was the only son of the Potters, so he kind of had that only child syndrome in some way. He was the ideal Gryffindor boy. Bold, reckless and the heart of a lion. He was friendly and kind to his own. But do not get confused. He was also the founder of the duelling club.

“Monty, mate!”

He smiled as his best friend grabbed his back and push him into a hug. Charles Nale was Monty’s closest friend in the whole world. He was this muggleborn, black jock that played for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. He may look very tall and manly, but he was actually the golden retriever type of boy. Both of them became inseparable in the duelling club and had done everything together ever since.

“Look who’s coming right there” he pointed behind Monty’s back. “Your cute girlfriend…”

It was true. Well, not the part of the “girlfriend” thing. But the girl that was walking behind him was defiantly the one that had kept him up at night lately. Was it so wrong to have a crush in the seeker for Slytherin? Was it so wrong to like Ofelia Rizzo?

“She is so out of your league” Ames Longbottom teased him. He was Monty’s childhood friend and they both shared a dorm in the Gryffindor tower.

Yes, Rizzo was too much for him. But he had a crush on her ever since they travelled in the boat together in first year. He remembered thinking that she was too pretty to be real. And of course, what does an eleven year-old do when he is attracted to a girl? He splashes her with lake water.

She looked gorgeous with her wild curly hair swaying with the wind. She did not dress like her friends, Walburga and Druella in both of her sides. They used dresses, elegant but fresh dresses for the summer. Ofelia was wearing black pants and a simple white blouse. He had all the reasons to like her. Not only she was beautiful and she had a modern sense of style, she was top of her class last year ad a perfect Quidditch player. And she was classy, but actually knew what hard work was.

“Maybe I should just walk right up to her and introduce myself” suggested Fleamont in his usual optimistic way of seeing life.

“You know what, mate?” Charles said and started enumerating all his amazing qualities. “You’re right. You’re handsome. You’re smart. You’re head of the duelling club. You can play the guitar…”

“Gee, maybe I should try dating you, Chuck.”

“Here she comes. Say something to her” Ames encouraged him.

The problem was that those three girls walked right passed them, as if they were invisible. They entered the shop right next to them, leaving Monty with the word in the tip of his tongue and both of his friends laughing at him.

“Did you see the war propaganda?” Walburga asked, as they entered the shop of herbs for their Potions class. “You don’t think the two sides are going to go full on into battle, don’t you?”

“Well, there had been enough battles these past years” explained Ofelia matter-of-factly. “If declaring war it’s the way of finally putting an end to that bastard, then I’m on favour to go to war.”

It was no secret that she had a non-objective point of view when it came to taking Grindelwald down. She wanted him gone. She wanted him to suffer. Sometimes she would even dream that she would stand right in front of him and without mercy she would burn him into ashes.

“Merlin, sometimes you can be so drastic, Belle” Druella rolled her eyes.

Having some alone-girl time was pretty difficult for these three girls. Prude, upper-class ladies were not supposed to walk by themselves on the street. As well as they were not allowed to meddle with family business or to have any kind of strong opinion. Let aside have a formed idea on the war. It was hard enough for their brothers to let them wander around. Ofelia bet that her brother was even looking for her in the crowd at that exact moment. It just was so exhausting to have a life fully controlled by others.

“I’m starving!” Walburga growled. “Let’s go grab something to eat, please!”

“Excuse me!” a boy exclaimed out of the blue when they were leaving the shop. “I’m Fleamont Potter. I was just looking at you and thought: Merlin’s beard, she needs to go out with me…”

Ofelia knew perfectly well who that boy was. She just was not interested in that loud Gryffindor that was close friends with her biggest rival, Minerva McGonagall. Honestly, she would personally had thought that he was only asking her out, so that the hatstall could get her with her guard down. Also, there was no possible way that she could fall for a comment like that.

“I mean, I think that you’re great. Maybe we could go to Fortescue’s right now and…”

“You have no idea how to speak to women. Am I right, Potter?” she interrupted him, making him erase his bold smile. “Not interested. Sorry, not really in the mood for ice-cream right now.”

“Oh, well, we could go grab lunch” he suggested not really getting the message.

Now, the thing with Bella was that she did not like hurting people’s feelings. However, she would light like a match if she felt annoyed or that she was not being understood.

“I meant that I don’t feel like going out with you” she said directly.

“No need to be like that, mate” one of his friends meddled.

“Like what?” Drue asked rudely.

“Nothing. There’s no need to get all nasty. We’ll leave” the other friend, the one from Hufflepuff, tried to be the mediator and grabbed his friends to leave.

“Bloody Grindelwald supporters” the other friend murmured, when he turned his back.

Now, Ofelia could take everything… Except that.

“What did you just call me?” she interrogated, forcing them to turn around. “Don’t you ever call me that or associate me with that bastard because I swear on my mother’s grave, you’ll regretted the rest of your fucking life.”

The three of them stood there in silence. She was already intimidating for her beauty and sharp brain. But seeing her angry was beyond intimidating. It was as if she was a freaking dragon that would breathe fire.

“And respect women. No, I don’t need to go out with you, Potter. I only need to be respected” she continued. “You want a war for the excitement of it? Well, I only ask to not be treated as an object and actually have a voice in this misogynistic society. I swear to you, Potter, mark my words… that when I get into the Ministry, I’m going to make Theseus Scamander include women in the field.”

She did notice that her conversation had gotten a little too personal for her. Even noticed some random people staring at her. But she had already spilled everything, so she turned around to leave the scene when she still could. When she walked past the group of people with her friends behind her, she found her older brother standing there with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Had fun putting up a little revolting show there?”

“The movement is called feminism. I’ll lend you some books on it.”

Spending the day in the city was always so fun for the Rizzo siblings. They would get to see and experience all those type of things that they could not in the middle of nowhere. Buying their stuff for the school year made them feel important, as they were not so used to carrying galleons with them. However, it was genuinely the best part of the summer because they would get to see their friends. They did not have a giant group of friends. Bella loved to visit Walls’ hometown and she would arrange with Drue, so she would come from her house in Paris the same week. And Braulio would get to see his very dear friend Tom Riddle, who he would worship and Ofelia could not stand at all.

He would never talk. Not like in a shy kind of way, more like in I’m-better-than-you kind of way. He would push her to compete in knowledge, as if he was not two years older than her. So when he started calling her dumb, she found herself stealing her brother’s books to get at Riddle’s level. In some kind of way, it inspired her to study and do better. He was actually the reason why she was top of her class.

They were finishing lunch at the Leaky Cauldron when Cygnus Black, Walls’ older brother, entered the restaurant looking for her.

“Oh, I’m leaving. See you at the train, lads.” Druella practically escaped the place by the back door.

She felt really awkward around him. Especially since she heard her mother speaking about an engagement with that prick. Cygnus took her sister with him and flew out, as if he did not really wanted to talk to them.

“Did you saw the war posters in the streets?” Braulio asked cautiously.

“Yeah, maybe that’s the only way of catching Grindelwald and put an end to this whole affair.” She liked that no matter which were the rules in this society, her brother actually felt like her opinion was as valid as or even more valid than anyone else’s. “Are you thinking of enlisting…?”

Braulio let out a huge growl, as if that single question stressed him off.

“You know that I want him dead as much as you do” he started explaining. “And I know that you want to have your own personal revenge on him-“

“It’s not revenge. It’s justice”

“Yes, but I’m older than you and therefore wiser.” She thought that was ridiculous, but she wanted him to finish. “And I don’t think that involving myself will bring any good to our family. It’s a way of bringing the spotlight into our case and I’m scared that Grindelwald will realize that we slipped away. I’m scared he will come back for us. I need to be the oldest and choose what’s right for this family.”

Ofelia did not personally agree. She thought that Grindelwald could not care less about what was her family doing. She thought that he was probably planning on how to attack the Ministry and kill Professor Dumbledore or something. She believed that although her brother’s fears made sense, he was most scared of what the Slytherin lads would do to him if he openly went against that wizard. Slytherin House was not the funniest place to be when you did not agree with most people’s ideals.

“What if I would like to enlist?” she asked already knowing that he would oppose to it.

But he did not answer. He got too distracted by the handsome young man walking right up to them.

“Tom!” he waved, so that he could find them.

Braulio and Tom were complete opposite poles. Her brother was kind and friendly, someone that seemed approachable, even if he would not really share his loud opinions to anyone. And Tom was really mean with an I’m-in-a-funeral face. But he knew how to communicate his ideas to everyone and how to convince anyone of them. The young man approached to their table and let Braulio give him one of those manly hugs. Then, they sat next to one another, completely excluding Ofelia of their conversation. Although she was used to that every time Riddle was in the picture. Therefore, she just focused in her plate, not even saying a word to his brother’s best friend.

“I’m so excited with you’re coming to Clovelly!” Braulio said out of nowhere. “You’re going to love the place. There’s this crazy cave that has…”

“Sorry” she interrupted him. “What was that?”

“What?” her brother freaked out.

“You just said that Riddle is coming to Clovelly with us.”

“Didn’t I tell you that Tom is staying at home?”

“No?”

“Oh, I thought I did.”

She knew that her brother was pretending that he forgot to tell her. He omitted that Tom was staying because he knew that she would highly oppose. She could not believe that he was coming to her house. That was like her only Riddle-free space and now it was completely invaded. She felt miserable.

“Sei pazzo? Come hai potuto invitare quell'idiota a casa nostra? Questo è sabotaggio. Vuoi che la mia estate finisca nel peggiore dei modi. Chiaramente l'hai fatto apposta e non ti perdonerò mai, Braulio.”

“Bella, calm down. Remember, no Ital-“

“Fanculo, parlo nella lingua che mi piace.” She was really angry. “D'ora in poi, tu ed io non siamo più fratelli.”

After declaring that “From now on, you and I, we are no longer siblings”, she just stormed out of the restaurant.

“What’s wrong with him?” Minerva McGonagall asked pointing at her friend Monty.

“He got rejected by Rizzo about an hour ago” Chuck told her as if it was the great gossip of the year.

“You went for the Slytherin princess?” Minerva laughed.

“Come on, Minnie, even you admitted that she is gorgeous” Monty looked up from his ice-cream.

“Stop calling me that. And yes, she is gorgeous. But she is also a narcissist and a bad loser.”

“I’m not upset because she said no” Fleamont explained. “I was actually expecting that. I’m upset that she now thinks that we are intolerant, arrogant douches that don’t support women.”

He was pretty annoyed with this whole situation. He was not a douchebag, he could take that she did not wanted to go out with him. What he did not like was the whole altercate that came after that.

“I mean, why did you have to call her that, Ames?”

“I just got really angry for the attitude that she gave you”

“You always take it to the next level, Longbottom” Charles rolled his eyes.

“What did he say to them?” Minerva questioned.

“I said that they were Grindelwald supporters and Rizzo snapped.”

“Well, aren’t they?” she asked looking at Charles for an answer.

“Apparently not.”

This clearly showed the view that the other houses had over the Slytherins. Everyone in the snake house were dark wizards with evil plans to get rid of anyone who make them uncomfortable.

“Well, it was lovely seeing you, mates.” Fleamont stood up tired of what his day had become. “See you at the train, arseholes.”

The sun was already starting to set and nobody wanted to be in those type of public places when it was dark. He was ready to head home in Godric’s Hollow. But first he felt like seeing that enlisting place again. To clear his mind a bit. Imagine his surprise when in that lonely corner of the street, he found someone standing in front of the recruiting stand. He approached from one side, she still have not noticed him. She looked upset, but not angry as before. More like concerned.

“Rizzo?”

Ofelia noticed him finally and felt very ashamed because she was actually crying. She cleaned her face, so that he could not see the tears on her cheeks. Instead, she made a rough face in hope of him leaving immediately.

“Are you Ok?” He got closer.

“Yes, Potter. Go away.”

“If this has anything to do with what happened earlier, then I want to sincerely apologize. I would have never wanted to offend you. You are like the cutest girl that I know. You are so smart and so talented in Quidditch. And you dress so cool and-“

“Shut up…” she whispered. “Please.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable… Again.”

“You don’t make me feel uncomfortable. I’m just having a really bad day.”

“Ames didn’t mean to offend you about Grindelwald. He just had the wrong idea of you and I’m sorry that that ruined your day.”

“Your friend has nothing to do with it. I just received some upsetting news. That’s all.”

They stayed quiet for a bit. Ofelia staring at the orange-reddish sky and Fleamont staring at her.

“D'you want to tell me about it?”

“No offense, Potter. But I don’t really know you.”

“I know” he said a little bit disappointed. “But sometimes it feels better when you talk to someone that it’s not really involved in your problems.”

She thought about it. Bella never spoke about her problems to anyone that was not her family. And even when she wanted to talk to them about it, she would feel bad of venting. Talking to Walls and Drue was easier, but it took her years to open up to them. However, she felt like she could just open up with this warm-hearted boy that came out of nowhere for her.

“My brother invited his best friend to come and spend a couple of days with us. But I don’t really get along with him. He hates me and always tries to make me feel like I’m less. And I was having a great summer and now he is here to ruin the last day of it.”

“Who’s your brother’s best friend?”

“…Tom Riddle.”

“Oh, yeah. He is pure evil.”

“I know!” she agreed losing herself a bit.

“Why do you think he hates you so much?”

“I don’t know!” she exclaimed with angst. “He’s had that attitude towards me since my first day at Hogwarts. I think that he is mean to me for the sick of being it. And that’s even worse because it means that I can't do anything about it.”

“No, there’s something you can do” Monty assured her. “You can make him know that he can’t get into your nerves. For what you’re telling me, that will drive him nuts.”

“That’s exactly what I should do actually” she agreed rubbing her eyeballs.

“Come here, bring it in…”

He forced her into a hug, which she found really weird. But it was comfortable to be hold in a moment like that. Fleamont was not much taller than her, but he had strong arms that held her tight into his chest. He smelled of cologne and some weird herb that she did not recognize. She tried to look in her memory because she considered herself a living apothecary. She could not find it and that made her really mad. What was that? She thought that it may be rude to sniff in order to have a better idea. Maybe she could just ask-

“I gotta go” he broke apart. “And you should too.”

Bella’s mind was still in the clouds about the strange herb that she did not even notice that he started to walk away.

“Potter!” she called him and he turned to look at her a little confuse. “Thank you for… listening. And I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier.”

He smiled. It was a genuine smile, not an arrogant one like before.

“See you at Hogwarts, Rizzo.”

He walked away and a few moments later she did too. But now with a mission for her last day of summer: not be bothered by Tom Riddle.