Belladonna

Dear Belle,
Have you arrived fine to your house? Drue told me that Riddle in fact is staying with you. What a pain in the ass, really! Hope he isn’t bothering you that much.

Moving on, my parents finally left to Germany along with Cygnus! Can you believe it? They are letting me stay with Alphard at the beach house in Hastings. I’m going to be able to spend time with Chuck. It’s amazing. I was thinking that you could come with us, so that you can get away from that prick. Also, I’m planning a gathering on Friday with everyone. Potter, Longbottom, McGonagall, etc, etc. A nice party to welcome the summer.

Tell me if your father agrees. You can come any day. No trouble.

Love,
Walls.

Dear Walls,
This is great! You’ll tell me everything when I arrive. I haven’t ask my father, but I’m sure he's going to accept. He can’t expect me to stay here all summer with Riddle sleeping under the same roof as me.

I swear he's driving me nuts. He takes over everything that is around him. And he has charmed everyone in the house. Even Filipe! I swear if I ought to cook dinner one more time for him, I’ll throw myself from the Astronomy Tower as soon as we come back to Hogwarts.

See you soon!

Belle.
P.S: Can I use the Floo Network?

Ofelia had to wait until the night for her papà to arrive. He was working all day at the coast with the other fishermen. In times like these, she would stay inside her room all day or escape to the woods and explore. She wasn’t joking when she said that Riddle had invaded her home. She was used to Braulio being completely fooled by his charm. But her little brother and father? That was way too much for her to handle. He had found a place to stay at Diagon Alley, but they weren’t going to give him the apartment until September. She was sure that it was a big, fat lie. But, of course, Ofelia believed that he made every move with the sole purpose of upsetting her. She was right after all: Tom Riddle did turn out to be a big disappointment. Not because he wasn’t the heir of Slytherin or because of his acquaintances joining him in the mattress. It was because after all that accumulated potential he had collected over his years at Hogwarts, he didn’t pursue a nice job in the Ministry or continued to study. He had settled with a boring, flat job at Borgin & Burkes. What a let-down! She couldn’t believe that her biggest enemy, the one she thought it matched her intellectual, was so easily conformed with a mundane job.

“Papà!” she exclaimed running down the stairs when he arrived.

“Wow! What a great welcome” he cheered as her daughter hugged him.

It smelled like raw fish and salt water, but he also smelled like wood and mulberries. He would often collect some in his way back to the house.

“Be careful, papà” Braulio warned him from the living room, while playing chess with Riddle. “When she gets all lovely, it’s because she wants something.”

“How dare you?” she broke apart, outraged.

“Cosa vuoi?” her father laughed.

“Walburga invited me to spend some time with her and Druella at her house in Hastings” she explained trying to wear her best smile. “I know I’m supposed to help you out, but I’m bored all day. I want to see my friends.”

“So, you want to stay some days at the Black’s house with Walburga and Druella…”

“And will Potter be there?” her brother teased her, which made her want to hex him.

“Who is Potter?”

“No one, papà, a friend.”

“No one or a friend? Which one is it?”

“A friend, papà.”

“And is it a girlfriend or a boyfriend?”

“Hard to tell” Riddle spoke for the first time, as he moved the queen across the chessboard.

Ofelia fired him daggers with her eyes and he just smiled staring at his game knowing that he was bothering her.

“He’s a boy, but he will not be there.”

“A boy, huh?” her father sat down in his own armchair and opened the bag of mulberries he had collected. These were his favourites. “Must I have a chat with him?”

“Not at all, papà” Ofelia laughed innocently. “Believe me, he's just a friend.”

“I don’t have to worry, then?”

“No, papà” she smiled brightly and then turned to the young gentlemen. “You should even be more worried about Riddle, truly.”

Tom raised his head from the match, taken by surprise. Oh, she loved when he had that look in his face. It was bloody worth it. Braulio and her father stared confused at both. Ofelia act innocently like the thing she had just said was completely normal, and Tom pretended like he didn’t get it.

“Va bene” her father suddenly said. “If you want to go, you can go. But you have to behave.”

“I promise I’ll behave” she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

She already had everything packed and didn’t waste much time in goodbyes. She appeared at her friend’s house, which despite the fact that it belonged to the Blacks, it was a very warm, summer style mannor. It was a Thursday, so she wasn’t surprised when she saw her friends decorating the room in which she had just appeared through the chimney. After all, the party was the very next day.

“Belle!” Walls exclaimed when she turned around and noticed her.

“I’m here. You can stop crying now!”

“Yes, right” Drue rolled her eyes stepping down from the chair she was standing up on, since she was hanging some decorations to the wall. They couldn’t use magic as they weren’t off age yet. “We haven’t seen you in like five days and we were completely miserable.”

“I know you love me, Rosier. No need to hide it” she winked at her.

“Why are you such in a cheerful mood?”

“Probably because she is far from He Who Must Not Be Named” Walburga joked, making the other girls laugh as well.

“Well, well, look who is here” Alphard entered the room carrying a Mimosa in his right hand and his wand in the left one.

He raised his wand and with a flip it made all the decorations go to where they were supposed to go.

“Now, remember what I told you, baby sister” Alphard turned to the raven-hair girl. “You can make the party, but don’t invite the ones that will snitch on you. If our parents find out, they will kill us both.”

“I know, I know” she said with a big smile painted in her face. “Go have fun with your friends, have a great weekend! I’ll take care of the house.”

“Fine, love you” he agreed. “Have fun, kids, but not too much fun!”

“Have fun!” the girls wished him back.

“He’s coming back on Monday, so we have the house completely for ourselves” Walburga explained to the Italian girl, as soon as her brother left the place.

“Bonkers!” she exclaimed carrying her case to her shared room with Drue. “And when will the others come?”

“The boys, McGonagall and Pomfrey are staying at Chuck’s house. Did you know that he doesn’t leave so far from here?” Walburga crowed with eager. “I found him at the beach the other day, while I was having a stroll. It was a coincidence. He was with his muggle friends, so I met them. It was great…"

“Don’t lie!” Druella barked at her. “She’s been moaning all day about her encounter with the muggles.”

“How come? What happened?”

Walburga’s face warped into a sulky one.

“He has a friend who is a girl.”

“A-ha…”

“And she’s pretty” Black continued. “And funny, and they share a lot of interests…”

“Like?”

“She plays the drums, just like he does. And they are into the same stupid, muggle bands. It was quite annoying how they kept on talking about whoever the hell are The Andrew Sisters and that Ding Crosty.”

“I think it’s Bing Crosby” Ofelia corrected her, so Walburga glared at her. “It’s just that Chuck doesn’t shut up about him” she excused herself.

“Agh! I hate her! She was making eyes to my man!”

“Let me tell you a secret, Walls” Druella whispered in a confidential mood. “Chuck has eyes for you, and you only.”

“I know” she had a glowing smile in her face. “That doesn’t make me want to jinx her less though.”

They went down ready for supper. Her parents had taken the house-elf with them, so their meal was up to them. Ofelia being the most experienced in the kitchen area took care of it, while the other ladies acted as sous chefs.

“This is the book!” Walburga reappeared in the kitchen holding a rather rusted book that Alphard had lent her some days before. “‘Romeo and Juliet’ is called!”
Ofelia turned from her labours to observe her. She had read that book. Her father thought it was a good idea since it was situated in Old Verona, where he had grown up.

“It’s just like me and Chuck” she explained. “Star-crossed lovers that can’t be together, so they have a secret romance.”

“How much have you read yet?”

“They just got married. It’s so romantic!”

Wait til you arrived at the end, Bella thought to herself, hoping that their romance did not have the same tragic ending.

After eating some marvellous pasta, they went to the living room. Walburga continued to read her romantic book, while Druella was reading a magic medicine book.

“I think I might attend the Healers course next year.”

“Want to become a Mediwizard, Drue?” Ofelia asked, as she sat down next to the piano.

“Maybe, I found it quite interesting.”

“Go ahead then…”

She started playing some random notes in the piano and then started to play a real song. Chuck, Monty and she had been practicing some tunes before the term ended. It wasn’t perfect yet, but Ofelia could see the potential with her lyrics and Chuck’s innovative music. He swore it was a new genre that his muggle friends loved. So, she was practicing just the notes, not the lyrics. To be honest she was quite mad with Riddle when she had written them.

“WHAT?” Walburga jumped from her armchair, making the other girls jump too.

“What happened?!” Druella asked hysterically.

“Romeo killed himself!” she cried. “Belle, tell me this story ends well.”

“I’m not a liar, Walls…”

“But…” she pouted her lips and then went back to her reading.

Ofelia and Druella shared a glance and then continued their activities. She questioned if she should keep on playing where she left it or begin again. But she finally decided to start from the beginning when...

“She killed herself too!” Black shouted from the top of her lungs, when she played the first note.

“Oh, for Salazar’s balls!” Druella yelled closing her book, unable to keep on reading.

“THEY DIED!” she burst into tears.

“There, there. I know” Ofelia tried to console her.

“How could they do that?” she screamed. “Why would Alphard give me this book? He told me it was a romantic book. Bullshit!”

“Well, technically, it is” Ofelia said. “It just ends with a tragic ending.”

“Bullshit! I’m sending him a howler!”

English beaches weren’t the nicest place to take a nap, but Ofelia loved how the sun bathed her with the company of the waves crushing into the sea shore. The three girls were enjoying the summer breeze laying in the sun. It was almost paradise.

“Look who we just found” Potter’s voice invaded her ears.

“Three beautiful Slytherins, I presume?” Druella laughed.

“Of course, what else?”

“Chuck!” Walburga cried standing up. “They died…”

“Who did?” Longbottom questioned.

“No one” Chuck gesticulated while hugging his emotional girlfriend. “She means a book she read.”

Ofelia used her elbows to raise herself up just enough to see her friends standing in front of her. However, she was surprised to only see the boys, since Walburga had told her that the girls were also with them. As soon as that thought crossed her mind, she saw some feet away from them two girls having a heated conversation. Minerva was arguing actively, while Poppy was just glaring at the sky, like she didn’t want to have that conversation anymore.

“They have been fighting like this since we woke up” Monty susurrated laying next to her, as if it was the gossip of the summer.

“Why?”

“Who knows?”

Ofelia turned to observe the two ladies again. They weren’t arguing anymore, now they were walking right up to the group. What could they possibly be fighting about? In her mind, they were the perfect couple, another reason to hate Minerva.

She sighed, already sure that she would never know what all that was about.

“Hello, Monty” she grinned towards her friend.

“Hello, Bella.”

No one would have approved of a party as massive as the one that went on that night. But somehow the circumstances had allowed for more than fifty wizards and witches to be reunited at the Black’s Mannor in Hastings. Ofelia wasn’t even sure how they had arrived at the house. There were enough drinks to go on for another two days and the music was high quality, as Chuck was taking care of it.

“Ladies” Abraxas appeared from behind Ofelia and Druella.

“Brax! What are you doing here?”

Rizzo was quite sure that he was not invited. Although he was her friend, his acquaintances were enough to know with who his loyalty was.

“Druella invited me” he said smiling to the Rosier girl standing next to her.

“Hello, Abraxas. 'Thought you weren’t gonna make it.”

“I couldn’t miss The Best Party of My Motherfucking Life, as you described it” he grinned at her and she blushed.

Ofelia had never seen her friend blushing like that, actually she had never seen her blush at all. She didn’t even know that both share correspondence. Now, that was some piece of information.

“Well, I’m gonna grab another drink” Ofelia found her way out of their war of stares. “Glad you came, Brax. Bye-bye, Drue” she winked at the curly-hair girl.
Finding her friends in such a big crowd was not an easy job. But at last she did, inside the kitchen, as they were organizing the bottles.

“Did you know that our friend Druella has a crush in Abraxas Malfoy?” Ofelia asked in an undertone to Walburga who laughed uncontrollably.

“That make so much sense!”

After some dancing and singing to songs that she didn’t know the lyrics too, Ofelia could say that she was drunk enough to make some bad decisions. Like asking Poppy were the fuck was her girlfriend, without realizing that they were still on a fight.

“I don’t know! And if you see her, tell her that I expect her to rot.”

The words were harsh, but Ofelia had a message now to deliver. So, like Hermes, she ran through the whole mansion trying to find the Gryffindor girl. She was pretty sure she had asked every soul at the gig if they had seen her, but she finally found her in Walburga’s parents’ room.

“There you are!” Ofelia enunciated entering the room and sitting next to her at the window. “I have a message for you!”

“From?”

“Poppy Pomfrey, ma’am” she expressed with a forced British accent.

“Is it bad?”

“Atrocious.”

“I don’t want to listen to it then.”

“Fine, don’t think you should either.”

Minerva was sad. It was obvious. You didn’t have to be the smartest person in the room to realize that it was because of the fight, and well, Ofelia believed fervently that she was the smartest in any room, so…

“Why are you fighting?”

Being a nosey bitch was her poison.

Minerva turned to look at her with no emotion in her face. Merlin, Rizzo hated when people do that, when she was unable to tell what they were feeling. Maybe it was because her face was an open book. Or maybe it was because it reminded her of the impenetrable mind of Tom Riddle.

“She’s mad because I’m being a bad girlfriend.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“Well…” Minerva sighed. “I’ve been feeling a little lost ever since the accident happened” she referred to the Quidditch incident. “I don’t know what to do with my life and I’m definitely another Minerva now. And I’m not sure where she stands in my life at this moment. So, I think she’s upset because she feels like we aren’t going anywhere.”

“But you are in year six, you don’t have to have everything figured out.” Those were huge words coming from Miss Life Planned.

“Yes, but she is a year seven now. She knows what she wants” she explained. “Plus, I don’t think it has to do with figuring out our future. She thinks I’m pushing her away.”

“Why, are you?”

“…Maybe”

“Listen, it isn’t wrong to have doubts or be lost” Ofelia recited as she had told herself the same exact words hundreds of times. “You went through a lot this year, so you deserve to relax and have your time to figure things out. But if she can’t fit in your life right now, perhaps you should take a break.”

“What was the message?”

“'Thought you didn’t want to know.”

“Tell me.”

“That you could rotten.”

“Well, that’s quite graphic, isn’t it?” Minerva sighed and then forced a smile into her face. “What about you? Potter said Tom Riddle broke your heart.”

“What?!”

“I just asked what the song was about. It’s quite harsh” she sympathized.

“I should have never told him. He’s so nosey” she rolled her eyes. “Anyways, he didn’t break my heart. He’s just an ass and I can't stand him.”

“But you like him…”

“No, I hate him.”

“If you say so…”

“Stop! I truly hate him!”

“Fine, I believe you” she assured her, not believing a word she said.

They remained in silence for a bit, while Ofelia questioned why she was keeping her feelings to herself when Minerva did open with her's.

Fuck it.

“I thought that we might be… something after we were together a couple of weeks ago. But then I caught him fucking Prince’s mouth so… I was wrong.”

“You’re right he’s an ass and you should't stand him.”

“I know.”

They made eye contact and both smiled. Minerva did it in an empathetic way and Ofelia just smiled, pleased with her words... and a little drunk as well.

After that, they lost track of time sitting down in that window. Talking about nothing and everything. Rizzo told her about her brothers and her papà. How beautiful Clovelly was with the enchanted forest and the crazy, sea creatures. While Minerva spoke about her own muggle brothers and her father. How she wanted to leave it as fast as possible and move to Diagon Ally, the heart of London magic. Ofelia wanted to move there too.

“You should enter the debate club!” Ofelia kept on insisting a little too drunk.

“You’re saying that now, but tomorrow you’ll regret it!”

“No, I’m being serious” she looked her straight in the eye. “If you don’t want to join the debate club is fine, we can try for another thing.”

“Do you want us to be in a club together?”

“Well, I fear that if we stop doing an activity together, we might lose our rivalry.”

“Maybe we could ditch the whole rivalry thing.”

“Nope, that’s all I have.”

Ofelia was being dead serious even if she was laughing out loud. She felt like if she lost her rivalry with the Gryffindor girl, she must as well lose her whole potential. Competition was everything, they say. However, deep down, she was more scared of losing her attention. And if those two loved something, it was the attention.

“Girls!” Walburga entered the room with Chuck behind her. “There you are!”

“Everyone already left. Why don’t you go downstairs and help to clean up?” Chuck suggested, kissing his girlfriend’s neck.

“And leave the two of you unchaperoned?” Ofelia decided. “I don't think so.”

Chuck left from behind Walburga and grabbed the two girls by their elbows.

“Bye!” he closed the door on their faces.

“Teens” Ofelia grunted. “Full of hormones.”

She was so pleased when she had made Minerva laugh.

“You missed it!” Monty exclaimed when he saw the two girls appeared through the kitchen door. “The party was a blast. Where were you?”

“None of your business.”

Potter showed her a mean face, but she only laughed.

“Where’s Ames?”

“He left like an hour ago with a girl.”

“And where’s Poppy?” Minerva asked tentatively.

“Outside, looking for you.”

McGonagall nodded and went to the main door, without even saying goodbye to the two of them. Not because she was mean, she was just too focused in what she would say to her girlfriend.

“Close your mouth” Monty teased Ofelia. “She might notice that you’re drooling over her.”