Belladonna

They left Hogsmeade that night to go to London, where Theseus was waiting for them. The mission was simple. There were some rumours that the acolytes were going to break into the Department of Magical Artefacts, so it was their job to stop whatever they wanted to do. It wasn’t just them of course, Theseus had brought some aurors that had volunteer to the mission as well. They arrived at the Ministry, but because it was late at night, it was almost empty.

Ofelia had never been at the Ministry before. She loved it immediately with the millions of offices windowing to the main hall, the owls flying around, the gilded statues and the fountain. They went down to the department where they were waiting.

“Marvellous, everyone’s here” Theseus said when they arrived.

He was accompanied by other five aurors.

“We’ll divide in whatever way you say, Mr Scamander” Dumbledore announced as there was no time to waste.

At the end, Ofelia was paired with one of the aurors, her professor and his brother. It was supposed to be at random, but she suspected that Dumbledore just wanted to keep an eye on her after the incident in the Hog’s Head.

“I take you met my brother, Miss Rizzo” he tried to start a conversation, as they wandered around the department in the middle of the dark.

“Yes, we met this morning” she said vaguely. “May I ask why are we working in the dark? Aren’t we giving them the chance to hide?”

“Excellent point of view, Miss Rizzo” he congratulated her, but didn’t do anything about it. “And how did you meet?”

“Albus” his brother interrupted him, “we aren’t here to socialize. Someone is about to break into the British Ministry of Magic, so stop chatting.”

Ofelia silently thanked Aberforth for his interruption. She didn’t want to admit that she had entered to his house and spied them just to know a little bit more about her professor.

“Forgive my brother, Miss Rizzo. He has a lack of manners.”

“I don’t really care about manners, professor” Ofelia admitted. “He can say whatever the hell he wants, as long as he doesn’t make me throw him a fireball right into his face again.”

“Great memories from tonight” Aberforth ironized, or at least that’s what she thought until she turned around and caught him smiling.

“What?”

“I guess we could start over. If we’re going to work together, we might as well get along, Miss Rizzo” he offered his hand. “Forth.”

She took a glance at his hand and then at his face. “Bella.”

“Sir, I think I heard something come from that alley” the auror informed.

“Wands up” he ordered and everyone took a defence position.

It was true. There was someone coming right up to them. Ofelia could here steps, but when the wands illuminated them, they were on their side.

“Oh, you scared us, professor” one of the aurors said. He was accompanied by the black woman whose name she had learned was Lally, the muggle carrying a fake wand and Potter.

“Hey, I don’t mean to be rude” Jacob spoke. “But could it be possible that this was just a prank? I mean there’s no one in here.”

“Jacob has a point, sir” Lally agreed.

“Not so fast!” Potter stopped them and pointed to the acolytes flying a couple of feet from them.

“They managed to steal an object, sir” Lally said.

It was true. One of them carried a strange-looking, metallic box. They started to attack them from air, so the black woman created a magic shield between them and the spells, even though she was more focused on protecting the muggle. They started to cast spells against the acolytes, but as they were flying there wasn’t much they could do.

“Monty” she whispered to him, forcing him to stop attacking. “That one is taking the box” she pointed to one of the acolytes who was getting away, as the other distracted them.

Potter looked around searching for something that might help them.

“Bella, the broom!” he passed it to her and she caught it hopping on it.

“What is she doing?” she caught the voice of the woman, as she flew the scene.

“She’s seeking the stolen artefact.”

The broom was old and it wasn’t as fast as her Comet 200, but there was no time to be choosy. She pushed herself forward to go toe to toe with the rival. She took out her wand when she was at his level and yelled clearly “Confundus” surprising him. He fell to the ground and was left unconscious, but Ofelia didn’t the care for the man. She only cared about the intriguing box that started to fall too. She leaned in and caught it on the spot proving why she was a professional seeker.

Then, she went back to stop where the others were. They had already chased the other acolytes. Some were being apprehended, the others had escaped. She hadn’t set foot on the ground yet when Dumbledore took the box away from her hands. Greedy old man!

“Mr Scamander, the artefact is safe” he announced to the Head of the Aurors, who was taking care of the acolytes.

“Thanks to the girl!” Jacob explained. “She was amazing! She went woosh and zizz and then she caught the box like bam!”

Bella couldn’t help by smiling, as the eyes turned to her. Her friends ran to her and congratulated her.

“She is the greatest seeker of our generation!” Monty explained to everyone in there.

“I’m the best chaser” Chuck added and his three friends turned to look at him like his comment was completely unnecessary.

“What’s inside the box, professor?” Miss Goldstein asked taking the box in her own hands and handing it to Theseus.

“Shall we open it?” Dumbledore politely ordered.

Scamander put the box in one of the desks and carefully opened it with his wand. Nothing popped or exploded from it, so everyone got closer to see the magical artefact inside.

“A time turner?” Newt Scamander asked.

Ofelia had never seen one before. It seemed to be made out of gold and have inscriptions on it, but she didn’t appreciate it as much as she wanted, since Dumbledore took it in his possession.

“A very special one” he clarified. “This one can make you go to wherever –or maybe the correct term is whenever- you want.”

She saw Aberforth roll his eyes to his brother’s explanation. “So, he was planning to go back and defeat you in some time of the past.”

“Maybe kill you as a baby” Newt offered.

“No, that wouldn’t make sense” Ofelia interrupted the gentlemen. “I don’t think that he would be so stupid to go back so many years ago.”

Everyone stared at her like a new eye had grown in her forehead, so she proceeded to explain.

“If he’d go back in time and kill Dumbledore as a baby, he’d changed the whole timeline. That would lead to him not getting the time turner in the first place and not actually killing Dumbledore. So, he’d be lost in an eternal paradox of multiple versions of himself wandering through time and space.”

“So, he probably wanted to go back to some days ago” Theseus concluded. “Maybe the day of the Qillin.”

“Precisely.”

“That means he’s desperate” Ames assumed. “He didn’t have a back-up plan.”

“Precisely” Ofelia couldn’t hide her smile.

“So, we saved the day!” Jacob exclaimed.

“Yes, Mr Kowalski, we saved the day” Dumbledore confirmed. “Mr Scamander, I take you’ll return this to where it belongs...”

Belladonna had a bittersweet taste in her mouth, as she and her friends were celebrating at the Leaky Cauldron with the other members of the party. It wasn’t because it felt weird to be at a celebration with all those renown heroes or because they had to pretend like they didn’t drink alcohol. It was because she hadn’t liked the simplicity of their mission. In her mind, Grindelwald was a sly man with almost a godly wit. She couldn’t bear the thought of the man of her nightmares being such a fool.

“Miss Rizzo, I must congratulate you” Theseus Scamander spoke behind her. “You have proven many people today how much is your worth.”

He left to join his brother in another table, but those words meant everything to her and eclipsed all her doubts about the dark wizard.

“Shall we dance?” Potter asked her when the magic instruments started playing and some people stood up to join the improvised dancefloor.

She grabbed his hand and pushed him in. It was a vigorous music, the one the instruments played. They jumped more than dancing, swinging around the room. Potter wasn’t the best dancer, but he was the greatest partner. They danced until her feet hurt, so she sat down in an empty table, while Potter went for something to drink.

Ofelia decided to take her boots off. “Oh, that’s nice” she almost cried feeling liberated. “What does a girl need to do to get a decent drink in here?”

“Are you talking to yourself, kid?” Aberforth appeared and sat down in front of her.

“Don’t call me kid. You are not my dad.”

“I’m older than you.”

“But not that old” she grinned and he seemed charmed.

Ofelia knew what she had to offer and she also knew when she had charmed someone. Yes, she was really curious for the new manager and also too intrigued by Dumbledore's secret brother. She had never seen a man that called her attention in that way. At least, with Tom was different. She hated him and somehow, she felt attracted to him. Minerva was different too. She felt envy and admiration and it had been an amazing experience. But Aberforth just seemed interesting and she had never known someone that was worth her attention like that. No one have ever called her attention just for doing nothing in particular.

So, when Fleamont came back to the table holding two butterbeers, she knew that she wasn’t thirsty anymore.

“You were amazing tonight, Belladonna” he admitted, as she gestured Monty to go away before Forth could notice him. “I never saw someone do something like that.”

Her friend smiled knowingly at her and turned around heading to Ames and Chuck.

“Do you mean my fire or my broomstick riding?”

“Oh, the riding for sure” he teased her.

“Then, in that case, yes. I’m very good at riding” she accepted and he took a glance at the crowd, like checking if anyone was watching them. “I can offer you lessons anytime you want.”

“Oh, thank you. But I’m a professional rider myself, you see.”

“Is that the case?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Why, until I don’t see it, I won’t believe you.”

He laughed softly and glanced at the crowd again. She felt enchanted by the way his wild, strawberry blonde hair fell over his face shinning in the candle light. He had a beard of a couple of days now that made him look more like a grown man.

“Are you aloud to flirt like that?” he questioned taking her by surprise by his direct words. “Doesn’t Potter feel jealous?”

“I’m afraid me and my friend gave you the wrong impression” she said with a ferocious smile. “I swear our relationship is only platonic.”

“You still have some nerve flirting with a man like me.”

“I’m not the only one flirting, am I?” she pointed out. “Besides, what exactly is a man like you? If you care to elaborate.”

“Handsome, older, wiser...”

“Handsome? Yes. Older? Sure” she agreed. “But wiser? I wouldn’t say that.”

“Ha! Why, I’m happy to know that I wasn’t wrong by the first impression I had from you this morning” he confessed. “You are a full of yourself.”

“You’re right I am, but there’s a reason for it.”

“Is it?”

“Yes” she nodded and came closer to him to speak slowly, “because when I enter a room, I light it up. When I decide that I’ll be the best at something, I become it. And when I want something, I make it mine.”

“So, you are not only conceited, you are also greedy.”

“I guess is one way to put it.”

They stared at each other for a couple of seconds, so Ofelia could give his face a closer look. There were no wrinkles on his face, despite the fact that he was 30 years old –Ofelia had made the math. He had the same eye colour as Dumbledore, which give her the creeps, but he didn’t have that superior, fake pity look on them. She also noticed how his lips were pretty full, but they were covered by that ginger beard making them seem more masculine. She abandoned his face to clock his body. He was as tall as Dumbledore, but he wasn’t as skinny as he was. His arms looked strong: not in the way that you may assume that he would exercise a lot, more in the way that you assumed that he did a lot of forced labour.

“I’m going outside for a smoke” he announced out of the blue.

“Can I go with you?” she asked innocently. “I would like a fag myself.”

“Off we go then, kid.” He stood up.

“I said don’t call me kid” she insisted, but she wasn’t actually mad about it.

“Scamander! Scamander!” one of the aurors enter the Inn agitated and sweaty. “Scamander!”

“What is it, Hemmingway? Speak!” Theseus Scamander grabbed his shoulders and shook him, so that he would react and deliver the message.

“There has been an assassination!” he explained stopping the celebration. “The Minister of Magic is dead.”