Belladonna

“I think something’s wrong with my brother” Walburga said as she finished unpacking.

“Oh, yeah. I could give you a list about Cygnus” Druella ensured her.

“No, I mean Alphard.”

“What? Like he’s sick or something?” Ofelia asked, coming out of the bathroom.

“No” she repeated, “I heard mother saying that if he continued doing what he was doing, they would have to disinherit him.”

It was no secret that Alphard Black was an odd guy since school. Maybe it was the absence of a wedding ring at his 22, his lack of motivation for being an heir or his interest for spending his nights in bars. Rumour had it that he had wild affairs with boys his age. Druella and Ofelia looked at each other knowing that this probably had to do with it.

“I don’t know what to think. Everything is so confusing.”

She looked so frustrated about it. Bella knew that Walls was trying to fight everything that her family had taught her. An heir had to find a well-bred, pure-blood girl and marry her. But instead he was doing the contrary sleeping around with mudblood, gay boys.

“Do you love your brother, Walls?” she asked, trying to help her with her dilemma.

“Of course.”

“Well, nothing changes then. He’s still your brother, no matter what he does with his cock.”

“Or other’s cocks…” Rosier contributed.

“I know that” Black whispered with her eyes closed. “He can do whatever he wants. I’m mad because he isn't seeing past his own interests. He has a responsibility. He is the heir. He has to marry or everything will depend on Cygnus. I will depend on Cygnus.”

Walburga was actually really scared of Cygnus. The boy was mean and had a rage within himself. Although the girls did not knew what exactly was happening inside her house, that was another reason for Druella to stay as far as she could from him.

“The system is wrong!” Ofelia exclaimed full of anger. “Alphard should be able to be with whoever he wants. We shouldn’t depend on our brothers or our husbands. We should be able of working in higher places than just an assistant. We’re as capable as they are of anything."

“A world were women can be equal to men?” Drue ironized.

“In the U.S., women can be aurors. Merlin, the president of the MACUSA is a woman” Walburga said eagerly.

“Yes, but they’re not allowed to marry muggles” Bella objected.

“I’m not allowed to marry muggles anyway” she cared little and stepped into the bathroom again, as she was unpacking her hygienic stuff.

Ofelia stepped into their closet to start putting her clothes there. She was thinking of Alphard and how it was unfair for him. She did not have a problem with two men being together, or two women. As she was fine with muggles, half-breeds, elves, goblins…

“Did you hear what people are saying about McGonagall?” Druella said, laying her back in the closet’s door.

“That she’s better than me as a prefect?” she answered without interest, as she kept fitting her clothes into the closet.

“No, that she’s a dyke.”

Those words resonated in her head. Could it be possible?

“What?”

“People say that she has a girlfriend here at school.”

“Who?”

“No one knows” she answered and then looked at how her friend to know what she thought about it. “Oh, please, spare me. Don’t!”

“What?!”

“You always do the same thing. You compete with her in everything” she explained.

“I’m not going to be with a woman to compete with her! I’m not a dyke!”

“You seem pretty upset though” Druella pointed out.

“I’m not upset. I couldn’t care less!”

“It’s Ok, you know?” Walburga stood out of the bathroom, while brushing her teeth. “We’ll not judge you, if you finally admit you’re into her.”

“What? I don’t like Minerva McGonagall!”

“Come on! It’s fine. We don’t care” Druella assured her.

“It has nothing to do with the fact that she is a woman. I would never see Minerva McGonagall in that way, I despise her.”

“Like you despise Tom Riddle” Rosier said firmly.

“About that…”

She proceeded to explain everything that happened the night before. She did not want to go into detail about the kiss. But, well, the girls were pretty invasive and nosey. After all, nothing had changed through the years.

“But you hate Riddle!” Walls exclaimed in shock.

“I still do.”

“So, if you hate Riddle but you’re still aloud to kiss him, why is McGonagall off limits exactly?” Druella asked returning to the past subject, making Ofelia rolled her eyes at her.

“Never mind” she said. “It isn't happening again.”

“But you said it was amazing!” Black was so intertwined with the story.

“It was, but it also was a mistake.”

“Yes” Walburga agreed sadly. “Riddle may be hot as fuck, but he also is pure evil.”

“Oh, somebody just said a bad word” Druella teased her.

“You better wash that dirty mouth with some soap, young lady” Ofelia played along, as she enchanted a soap that was in the bathroom and made it float towards Black.

“No, get it off of me!” she yelled as the soap was trying to enter her mouth, making the girls laugh until little tears were coming of their eyes.

Druella, Walburga and Ofelia always walked together around the castle. Girls moved in packs. Potter hated that stupid Slytherin habit because he was waiting outside the Great Hall for a reason: to talk to Rizzo. His friends laughed at him, especially Minerva who claimed knowing the girl pretty well, enough to be sure that she would never looked in his way. Ames continued to think that although they were not Grindelwald supporters, they still were blood supremacists. But Monty knew better of course. He tried the whole week, but had no success at all. When the girl was not with her friends, she was with her brother. Slytherins and Gryffindors only shared Defence Against The Dark Arts together and that was not a class were they could particularly talk. Both houses hated each other and things would often become very nasty in that class.

So the boy tried for a month to get her alone. Not a chance.

Maybe the key to success was not trying at all, as he finally found the girl alone in the library one afternoon.

“You have no idea how hard it is to talk to you at school” the boy said sitting in front of her.

“Have you tried, and I may seem crazy for suggesting this, approaching me?” Ofelia ironized without even looking up from her book.

“I would have, if you weren’t with your friends all the time” he explained huffing.

“Potter, you know that my friends don’t bite, right?” she laughed, finally looking at him.

“Of course” he lied.

“Right” she rolled her eyes. “Well, you can talk to me when I’m with Walls and Drue.”

“Well…” he began unsurely. “You haven’t tried to speak to me at all.”

“I’m busy.”

Fleamont seemed pretty hurt by her declaration. Ofelia could be mean sometimes without even noticing because she was too focused in what she was doing.

“I didn’t mean it like that…”

“It’s fine. I’ll let you work.”

He got up and headed to the exit. Ofelia cursed herself and stood up too. Grabbed her stuff as quickly as possible and followed the angry Gryffindor.

“Potter, wait!” she finally caught up with him in the hallway.

“What are you doing?”

“I didn’t mean it like that” she repeated.

“Yes, I said it’s fine” he said still upset.

“But you’re angry anyways…” she pointed out waiting for him to say something, but when he did not answer, she continued. “Listen, I’m busy all the time. With the prefect rounds, I have less hours to sleep. The Quidditch practices are double now that the season is about to start. I’m part of the debate team and I was just writing my argument to why muggleborns should be able to be in the same classes as purebloods. Honestly, it’s sick. And I do four extracurriculars for my OWLs. Ancient Runes, Care for Magical Creatures, Arithmancy and Alchemy. And on top of all that, I have to study hard, so that I can continue to be the best student of…”

“Ok, Ok” he stopped her. “I understand” he smiled sincerely and she smiled back, blushing since it seemed that she always ended up venting when she was with Potter.

“Sorry, I guess it’s easy to talk to you…”

“It looks like you have a lot in your plate, Rizzo. Maybe you should slow down.”

“I can’t” she said, beginning to walk towards the Great Hall. “You see, I have a plan. I have something I want and I can only achieve it if I work harder than anyone else.”

“And what is that?”

“The Ministry.”

“You want to own the Ministry of Magic?” he asked very confused.

“No! I want to make it better” she explained. “I have all these written papers in muggle rights, better life conditions for half-breeds, a new financial system, end of elf slavery… and the list goes on and on…”

“Wow!” he whistled. “If you let me, I would love to read those papers.”

“Really? Nobody ever cared” she declared amazed. “Well, my friends know of course. But… everyone thinks that these thing are ridiculous.”

“And what do you think?”

“I think that… people that believe that changes are impossible believe that because they don’t really want to change. They’re very comfortable with how miserable their lives are.”

They walked in silence, walking to the Great Hall, although they had nothing to do there. When they arrived, they stood there one in front of the other not quite sure what to say. Then all of a sudden two girls from forth year appeared making a fuss. The Ravenclaw girl with glasses and an invasive acne was whining and moaning uncontrollably. While the other girl, a Slytherin, was making fun of her.

“Hornby, leave the girl alone!” she yelled and the two girls disappeared immediately.

“Huh, they’re scared of you” he laughed watching the girls run.

“They should” she joked.

“Please, you’re better than you think are.”

And they continued walking, wandering around the castle like they were the only ones there. They talked about everything and anything. About their friends, about their families. About their classes, about music. About the debate club and the duelling club. Both supported the same Quidditch team, which both were amused when they found out.

“Do you feel comfortable with your life, Potter?” she asked after a bit of silence.

“My life is not miserable” was his answer.

“That is not what I asked.”

“I’m a pureblood man that is well-positioned in society. I do completely fine in school. I have friends and two loving parents.”

“But…?”

“But… Although I have every ingredient to have a life full of commodities, I’m not comfortable with my life” he answered finally and Ofelia smiled, pleased.

“Very well, then.”

She could appreciate what Potter had just said. She understood perfectly. But even more important, she admired someone that did not settle down with what their lives had to offer. She admired someone that was capable of desiring more.

“Monty, there you are!” Minerva McGonagall exclaimed when she saw his friend standing on the hallway. “I’ve been waiting for you. You were supposed to go fetch that Charms book, so that we could finish our work.”

McGonagall was leaning against the wall, much to Ofelia’s disgust. She was laying very close to a Ravenclaw girl that was not interested at all in the two kids that had just appeared. On the other hand, Minerva felt curious for the two of them.

“I got distracted” Monty pointed out the obvious.

“Clearly.”

Minerva did not have trust in Rizzo after all those years of rivalry. She did not see the Slytherin girl as a threat because the only person she cared to compete with was herself. But since Ofelia insisted with so much passion to make them enemies, Minerva would often answer to that behaviour. So imagine that she was not pleased to see her so happy around her friend. It was logic for her to believe that maybe this was a ruse from Rizzo.

“Don’t give me that face. It isn’t like you were looking for me” Potter said, indignantly. “You were here with Poppy.”

The other girl finally looked their way and waved, not really interested in whatever was happening. Instead, she returned her eyes to the Gryffindor seeker and continued to observe her, like she had something special on her face. Ofelia felt personally curious for that girl. She took her time to analyze her, as the two friends argued of who was right. That Poppy girl was skinny with a French port. Beautiful blue eyes that caught everyone's attention effortlessly. The Ravenclaw girl surely was gorgeous. She had a beauty that actually made Minerva look even more exotic.

Stop thinking of Minerva’s beauty, she said to herself. Envy is not a feeling that fits in your chest.

But Bella could not help but wonder what the relationship between the two of them was. The rumour that Druella had told her suddenly came up to her mind. Could it possibly be true? Was McGonagall dating a woman?

She felt like asking Potter. But it was absolutely not the time or space to do it. Also, Fleamont was pretty into his conversation with McGonagall, which was not a fight anymore. They were just discussing what to do with the homework.

“It’s getting late. I should head to the dungeons” Ofelia said, kind of feeling left out by the girl of cat-like eyes.

“Ok, I’ll walk you there.”

“Oh, no need, Potter. I know the way just fine” Ofelia said with an arrogant smile. “Actually, it kind of looks like I walked you to your Common Room” she grinned pointing to the enormous magical painting of the Fat Lady.

“How do you know that’s the entrance?” Potter asked, since it was supposed to be a secret.

“Have my own methods, Potter.”