Belladonna

Ofelia left the castle at first time in the morning without talking to anyone. Thank Merlin, she didn’t bumped into Riddle on her way out. Who she did found on the train was Abraxas and Ivy. But she didn’t sit with them because she didn’t want to deal with the pureblood girl. Her older brother was waiting for her at the London station ready to take her home when she arrived.

Christmas and New Years passed without any further complications. If you didn’t consider overthinking about Potter and her feelings about him, a further complication. She was sure that she would have to stop talking to Monty as soon as she arrived to Hogwarts, but she was so sad about it. She really liked spending time with him and although the kiss was nice, it didn’t feel right. To respect their friendship, she had to put an end to the whole thing. Or at least, that was what she decided to do: Stop talking to him.

Now, enough about her stupid teen drama. Worse things were happening in the Wizarding world. Grindelwald had escaped in his way to Azkaban, much to Ofelia’s great disappointment. e wasH hiding somewhere in Europe and the Aurors were going crazy trying to find him. He was hiding at the Rosier’s mansion in Paris actually, the one that Druella had to abandon at the beginning of September. Her aunt Vinda and Grindelwald were on the run together.

Speaking of the Rosiers, they was the real tragedy happening on the winter break. Or at least, Druella Rosier was real tragedy. Ofelia could not believe her eyes, as she entered the Black Mannor by the English sea. It seemed so surreal to celebrate a union like this one. They were still too young. 

“Belle!” Walburga appeared through the crowd with her lilac gown and her hair in a high ponytail. “Come quick!”

She grabbed her by the arm and made her run away from the party taking her to the second floor. She took her to her room, where Druella was getting ready. Her mother was lecturing her. Apparently, she had tried to escape earlier, but she got caught and now she didn’t have a choice. The engagement was a fact and neither of them could stop it. 

“I give you ten minutes to finish getting ready. If you’re not downstairs by then, I’ll drag you down myself. Did I made myself clear?” Misses Rosier stated and then left the three girls alone.

“What happened?” Ofelia ran towards her friend and held her in front of the mirror.

“It didn’t work” she cried on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Drue” she whispered in her ear. “I’ll find a way of stoping this.”

“There is no way” Druella insisted, cleaning her face. “You can’t change this, Belle. You can’t save everyone.”

“Maybe not us, but I will change it for the better” she swore with her eyes watering.

They helped her fix her make-up with a spell. Druella was wearing a long-sleeve Persian blue dress with the earrings matching the colour. She looked like a queen, like a member of the royal family. But her eyes were of the most unfortunate woman in all England, as she walked down the stairs to celebrate her engagement with Cygnus Black. As Walburga and Ofelia accompanied her towards her fiancé, it felt like they were leading her to her death, to the end of her life. Because that day was the day in which their childhood ended. The day in which the girls were forced to become women.

When they went back to school, Druella was a full-grown woman in a long-term engagement with one of the heirs to the Black’s fortune. Everybody stared at the girl like she was some kind of celebrity now. She kind of was as they had made an announcement on the Daily Prophet. And she was the first girl in their school year to have secured marriage after school. What was even worse, now the target was on Walburga, the shiny pearl of the Black’s catalogue. All the Slytherin purebloods were keeping an eye on her.

“Ladies” they heard Longbottom behind them.

“Good morning, Ames! Had a nice holiday?” Walls asked catching the eye of some of the Slytherins that were passing by.

“Sure did” he smiled and then he turned to Druella. “Congratulations on your engagement. Saw the news the other day.”

Rosier rolled her eyes hating that the news were already spread through all Hogwarts. She turned around without even responding to him and entered the train.

“Forgive her, she hasn’t been well” Black apologized and then hopped on the train too.

Ofelia smiled at him awkwardly and then followed her friends. She didn’t want to hold a conversation with Longbottom, specially knowing that he was one of Potter’s closest friends. She could feel that Ames already knew she had kissed his friend and that he already knew she was going to ghost him. Was she behaving like a bitch for letting him down? She was feeling horrible, and yet she couldn’t help by wonder why Potter hadn't write to her. Not even a Happy New Year’s Day card. Now, she was even more confused, thinking that maybe Potter had just been using her. Maybe now that he had gotten what he was looking for, he wasn’t interested on her anymore. That thought made her shiver, she couldn’t believe that everything was just a big fat lie.

“Where are you going?” Ofelia asked Walburga when she saw that she was fixing her hair and checking herself on the mirror.

They already were in their dorms after dinner. She didn’t saw Potter at the Great Hall that night, which was even more confusing. Where was he? She came back to her room with her head made a mess. She lied in bed staring at the ceiling, like she had done with Potter the afternoon that they had sneaked into her quarters. While Druella was brushing her teeth, still feeling down.

“I got an owl from Chuck” she explained turning back from the mirror. “Apparently, there is a birthday party going on in his Common Room and he invited us.”

“A party?” Druella popped her head out of the bathroom. “That’s exactly what I need right now. A party.”

“And how exactly do you plan on getting to the Hufflepuff Common Room?” Rizzo laughed still staring at the ceiling.

“Well, if we would happen to have a prefect friend that knows exactly where the Common Room is…” Walburga sighed and faked an innocent smile.

“Ah, there it is” Ofelia sat down. “I don’t feel in party mood tonight.”

“Oh, c’mon! Please…” the raven-hair girl pouted her lips. “Don’t be so salty.”

“Go on, Belle” Druella came out of the bathroom only to insist. “If you’re feeling down because Potter wasn’t at dinner, you’ll probably see him there.”

“I’m not sure I want to see him yet” she expressed.

“Belle, if you ask for my opinion-”

“-I’m not asking for your opinion, Walls-“

“-If you ask for my opinion,” she repeated “I think that it’s best to confront him now and tell him how you feel. Letting the time pass by, can really hurt you.”

She knew Black was right. It was the most reasonable thing to do. So although she was ready to go to sleep, she changed her pijamas for a nice blouse and left the room. Thankfully, the Hufflepuff Common Room wasn’t so far away, it was in the basement pretty close to the dungeons.

The Hufflepuff parties were very loud, the girls soon found out as they entered the common room. They had never been at a student’s gig. People would practically yell over the music, as they danced to the muggle rock. There was a strong smell of weed around the room, but luckily enough the small windows at the beginning of the roof were widely open.

“There he is!” Walburga exclaimed and ran towards his boyfriend without even turning around to see her friends.

She jumped on top of Nale and kissed him on the mouth fiercely. He was sitting around one of the fires in the middle of the place. As they got closer to the group, they realized that he was sitting with his friends: Longbottom, McGonagall, Pomfrey, some Hufflepuffs and… Potter of course.

“Look who arrived: Misses Black” Ames mocked Druella, who punched him on the arm as she sat by his side.

“Don’t you dare call me that or I’ll evaporate your bone structure.”

“Wally’s friends” Chuck cheered, making Ofelia laugh for the cute nickname. “Well, sit down then. We don’t bite.”

Bella did as she was told, sitting in front of Potter. The fire dancing between them, like it was trying to keep a wall in between. He glanced at her, as if he was checking in. Then, he turned back to the Gryffindor girl he was flirting with. Oh, how dare he-

“Having a nice time, lads?” a plus-size lady appeared wearing a sunflower dress and a matching pointy hat. She spoke while she grooved, making Minerva burst out laughing. Apparently, they were friends.

“See, Wally, this is the birthday girl” he presented her. “Pomora!”

“Hiya!” the three girls greeted her.

“Have fun, people. This is the party of the year!” she roared making the people around her exclaim in response. “Here grab a beer” the girl offered to Rizzo.

“Cheers!”

The night followed peacefully. Two hours later, Druella and Ofelia were twisting to the sound, claiming all of the dance floor. The two ladies were the centre of attention, two stars glowing in that tiny crowd. Walburga was long lost with Chuck. Only Merlin knew what they were doing.

“What are the princesses of Slytherin doing so far away from their dungeons?” someone said behind them.

“Abraxas?” Ofelia said, completely surprised. “Drue, look who it is.”

“Malfoy, I didn’t recognize you without your doggy” she acknowledged him while toying with a lock of hair. “Or is she chasing her tail somewhere in here?”

“No, Parkinson is not with me” he denied with a cocky smile. “But I was just about to ask you the same question about your fiancé. Or does he not know that you are here tonight?”

Rosier’s face immediately turned into a bitter frown, hating the mention of Cygnus.

“Enough both of you” Ofelia hissed. “If I wanted to hear about those two, I would have stayed in our common room.” The two Slytherins nodded silently. “How about we dance?”

“I don’t like muggle music” he stated.

“You don’t like it or you just don’t know how to dance to it?” Druella questioned raising an eyebrow.

“Was that a dare, Miss Rosier?”

And just like that, Malfoy took out his coat and threw it to a random student. He grabbed Druella’s hand and forced her further into the dance floor just to prove that he was a great dancer.

An hour later, Bella was sitting again next to the fireplace, just staring at it while drinking her fifth beer. She was pretty entertained with the dying flames struggling to keep surviving. She almost didn’t notice the scene that was happening right next to her. Druella had let her guard down just a little, as she was genuinely laughing to something that Abraxas had said to her, which by the way Ofelia thought it was pretty bizarre since he wasn’t particularly a comedian. The fire was about to die with a lonely flame starting to get smaller and smaller. But when it became a sparkle, Ofelia leaned in and extended her hand towards the fireplace. She focused her mind feeling the heat running through her veins and stopping inside of the pads of her fingers. And then the fire grew back again, standing strong and dancing with vigour.

“That’s a nice trick” Potter sat right next to her. “I’m going to call you for the next children’s party I host to entertain the kids."

“Because you host lots of children’s parties, Potter…”

“I’m back to Potter? I thought I told you that you could call me Monty, Bella.”

“Rizzo” she corrected him, making him snort.

“Bella, can we talk?” he whispered aggravated, but she didn’t answer. “If you’re mad because I didn’t write to you, that’s what I want to talk about…” he continued, but there was no response again. “Well, it isn’t like you wrote to me either...”

“I didn’t know what to say to you” she finally said in a hushed tone.

“Me neither.”

“Let’s go talk” she agreed, leaving her beer on the floor.

They walked outside the common room and stood there in silence for a while. Even though they could still hear the music on the other room.

“What is going on?” Monty asked. “Why are you behaving like that?”

“Me? You have been ignoring me the whole night. You didn’t even look at me” she belted. “I wasn’t even going to come. I am the one who is supposed to be ignoring you.”

“You’re right. I was ignoring you. It was wrong” he apologized. “Wait! What do you mean by ‘I am the one who is supposed to be ignoring you.’ Explain yourself.”

Ofelia felt cornered, so she turned around ready to leave. This was starting to look like an interrogatory for her. But she couldn’t go far because Potter grabbed her by the elbow and made her face him again. He wasn’t looking calm, actually he seemed pretty angry now.

“Don’t runaway and talk, for Godric’s beard” he clenched his jaw.

“Fine, but don’t speak to me like that.”

Fleamont noticed that he was still grabbing her, so he let her go.

“Sorry” he mumbled ashamed of his reaction.

“We kissed” she said, as if he didn’t know that fact.

“Yes, about that…”

“Let me finish” she asked and he closed his mouth. “Before we started school, you asked me out at Diagon Alley and I said no because I didn’t care about you. Then, we became friends and I did care about you. Merlin, I was having a great time. But we kissed…”

“Bella…”

“Don’t get me wrong” she continued. “It isn't like I didn’t want to kiss you. I just realized after it that…”

“You don’t like me in that way” he finished for her.

“Yes, I’m really sorry, Monty, and I don’t think that I could be your friend when you have feelings for me.”

They looked each other directly to the eyes. Ofelia waiting for him to snap. She imagined the worst. That he would cry inconsolably. That he would yell at her uncontrollably. Potter just stared at her processing her words.

“Oh, thank you, Godric Gryffindor” he sighed loudly.

“What?”

“I liked you, Bella. But I understood too late that I like you as a friend.”

Rizzo’s mouth drew an “O” with her lips.

“Don’t get me wrong. You’re amazing, Bella” he said almost laughing. “And the kiss was great, but…”

“Sure, the kiss was great” Ofelia agreed finally smiling. “But it didn’t felt like…”

“Like what you’re supposed to feel.”

They stared at each other again, but this time they both reacted on the same way. They burst out laughing because they were two bloody idiots. Two weeks without speaking and awkward glances at the birthday party for nothing really. They hugged it out like mates and then laughed again.

“Friends then?” Monty established.

“Friends.”

They started walking back to the party without any doubts and with happy smiles glowing brightly on their faces.

“So did you had fun with that Gryffindor girl you were trying to snog?” Ofelia smiled cheerfully, since she was speaking again to her friend.

“Oh, let me tell you all about it…”