Belladonna

“You can go now” Filipe almost begged his sister.

“Why do you want me to go away?” Bella questioned. “What are you trying to hide from me?”

“Nothing” he buffed. “It is not cool to be dropped off by your sister.”

“Slow down, Mister Cool” she laughed. “You’re 11. Nothing you do is cool.”

With the winter holidays finally over, all the students were found at King's Cross ready to go back to school. It felt weird to be a student again, be a teenager again. Ofelia felt like in the past two months she had matured so much. Going back to Hogwarts was like trying to age backwards. Although her head was more worried about why her brother was such a dickhead lately. What was he doing at school that he didn’t want her there?

“Hi, Fill!” two girls walked right over them batting their eyelashes at her brother.

“Hello, ladies.”

“Oh, is this what you are hiding?” Ofelia mocked him. “You’ve become a male prostitute.”

“You cracked the code.”

“Oi!” a young voice called behind them. “Fill, mate!”

A young boy with poodle hair and a very tall boy with platinum hair ran up to them shaking their tales like Labradors.

“Did Muriel Prewett just say hi to you?” the poodle boy interrogated him.

“Yeah” her brother smirked.

“Cool...”

They started talking between them secretively like they were plotting something. Actually, she felt a little disgusted by how her little brother was growing into a pre-teen.

She pictured Monty walking through the crowd, so she abandoned his brother, who wasn’t paying attention to her anymore, to reach her friend.

“I’m scared” was the first thing she said. “Your Gryffindor kids are turning my brother into a complete dickhead.”

“That’s funny” he acknowledged, “because us Gryffindors always say the same thing about your Slytherin arses.”

“Who are they?”

“'Think their names are Ramon Herrera and Cory McCormack.”

“Noted.”

They started walking towards the train. Although they had been away, they still had prefect duties to fulfill. They were both exhausted. They had spent the last days of their holidays doing all the homework they hadn’t done when they were absent. As they entered the train and walked over to the Prefects’ carriage, she couldn’t help by noticing that there were multiple students that stare at her. Some of them did it in awe, almost not believing that the one that had defeated the darkest wizard of all times was walking near them. But others weren’t so pleased with her presence. Others hadn’t like what she had done.

“Potter, are those girls glaring at us?”

“Eh...” he turned towards the girls while wrinkling his nose. “Not at us, at you.”

He was right.

It became even more noticeable when she entered her common room that evening. There were some nasty faces staring at her with mean frowns and daggers on their eyes. It was completely logical if you thought about it for more than just one second. Most of the kids in Slytherin, at least the pureblood ones, were the sons and daughters of acolytes. The very same acolytes that had to face the trials now. If she used to think that her common room wasn’t safe, now it was a minefield.

She had always believed she was brave. She had always vaunt about her skills and her wit. But there was a reason why she wasn’t sorted into Gryffindor. Her greatest feature wasn’t bravery; it wasn’t courage. And she couldn’t help to remind herself that, as she walked back to her dorm, with all those vicious eyes piercing her back.

“If I appear dead by tomorrow morning, it will have been that Yaxley kid. Mark my words” Ofelia stated when she came out of the bathroom.

She was alone with Druella, as of course Walburga decided to spend the night with her lover.

“Or maybe you finally break the last straw and we couldn’t take it anymore, so we murdered you while you were sleeping” Druella said with a dead serious face.

“I don’t feel safe in this room either.”

“You shouldn’t.”

Walking towards her bed, she saw that on top of Druella’s dresser there was a bouquet of roses perfectly arranged in a glass vase.

“What’s with the flowers?”

“Nothing” she snapped. “Can’t I redecorate?”

“With dead roses?”

“Yes! What’s the bloody problem? It’s my side of the room!”

“There is no problem. I was just asking” Ofelia responded. “Someone is feeling a little cranky in here...”

“Oh!” Druella gasped like she had lost it. “I’m sorry. Are you the only one here who is allowed to actually feel something?”

“What is going on with you?”

“Nothing” she repeated. “My life is perfect.”

“Does this have to do with Cygnus? Drue, I...”

“No!” she yelled. “Nothing is going on. You can go back to your amazing life now, with important tittles and awards and your new boyfriend.”

“Why are you-?” She was trying to be comprehensive.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot that he hasn’t actually asked you formally.” She was being mean for no apparent reason. “Do you realize he is 30, right?”

“He hasn’t turned 30 yet...” Ofelia tried to explain.

“There’s no difference, Belle!” she yelled. “He’s an adult. He’s playing with you.”

“That is not true.”

“And how do you know that?” she asked, but Ofelia didn’t have a proper answer. “Love? Bullshit... Belle, not two weeks ago, he had a son that was your age.”

“You don’t know the story. He had it at 14. He didn’t know that he existed until-”

“That doesn’t make it worse!” she interrupted her. “He’s an adult and you are not. It doesn’t matter what they are trying to make you believe. The age gap is too much.”

“Your parents had the same age gap...”

“And look how it turned out...”

They remained silent for a couple of seconds. Anger was filling Rizzo’s blood now. She knew that Aberforth could be playing with her. But wasn’t love about risks? Any boy could hurt you if you let him in. It wasn’t even a requirement to be a boy. Look at Minerva and Poppy, she thought, Pomfrey had hurt Minnie in the summer and nobody was meddling between them. Why should they interfere with her love life? And Druella wasn’t even sure why she was mad at her friend. Maybe she was just mad at herself.

“I don’t know why you care” Ofelia barked.

“Me neither...”

In six years of friendship, the three girls had never fought before. Now, staying at the same room was nearly unbearable. Both girls had resorted to not speak to each other until the other one apologize. The only problem was that both of them were very proud and stubborn to admit that their fight was insignificant and immature. And stuck in the middle was poor Walburga, who didn’t want to pick a side between her two best friends. Walburga had suddenly turned into a child of divorce that had to divide her week in fractions to spend time with her parents. However, her parents were not divorced. These were her friends and it was getting a little ridiculous.

But life went on and their friends had problems of their own to be playing mediators. Nobody was going to solve their issues. That was something that they had to solve the two of them together, with no one else.

“What would you say if I said that I’ve organized a concert for this Saturday?” Chuck asked that very same Thursday while they were studying in the library.

“I say it’s a waste of time” Ofelia answered without looking up from her textbook. “We don’t have where to play.”

“If only one of us was dating the owner of a pub at Hogsmeade...” Potter sighed.

Ofelia raised her eyes from her studies slowly to capture her friends and band members staring at her with puppy eyes.

“We are not dating.”

“You shagged twice and he met your father” Monty pointed out. “What do you call that?”

“We like each other, but we are not dating” she clarified. “Plus, we haven’t spoken since I came back to Hogwarts.”

“Then, write to him” Chuck suggested. “Have some balls and do it.”

“I don’t have balls. I’m not a boy.”

But she knew that her Hufflepuff friend was right. If they wanted to play, the best way was to use her charm with Aberforth. Also, she couldn’t sit and wait for him to finally write to her. She had to do it and if he rejected her, that would mean that he wasn’t so interested after all. Who was she fooling? She was terrified to write to him! If he had been playing with her, Druella was right, and she certainly couldn’t take that.

Even if she was mad, giving it a second go, she understood why Druella had said what she had said. They didn’t know Forth like she did, and the problem was that she didn’t know that much either. That was making her so insecure: knowing so little about him meant that he could be a big fat liar. She couldn’t get the image of all those women at the funeral, who supposedly were his “friends", out of her head. Friends, my arse.

Dear Aberforth,

No, that isn't right.

Dear Forth,

I hope that you are doing well. I’m fine, just busy with school. The last two weeks have been a mess, as we were supposed to hand in all the homework that we missed. Las week, I had to do all the midterm exams in a row. It was exhausting, but I survived. I mean if I could defeat Grindelwald, sixth year at Hogwarts it’s a piece of cake.

Anyways, I’m not writing to you just to brag about my amazing skills and expertise. I know that you’re probably busy and don’t want to get involved in whatever I do with my dumb friends. But I have a business offer for you. My friend, Charles Nale –maybe you remember him–, has promised a big deal of students that we were playing with our band this Saturday. In case you don’t remember, we have a band. That’s why I sneaked into your house to ask you if we could play... It doesn’t matter. I just wanted to know if you would be up to lending us your pub to do our concert. It’s a great deal because they are a lot of students that will pay an entrance and they will pay for drinks.

Of course, we’ll just get a percentage of the money gained by the admission. The rest is all yours. We can arrange the percentage after the concert. Please, tell me if you accept in order to organize the concert properly.

Love,

Bella.

P.D.: If you don’t want to do it, it’s fine. We’ll manage.

Dear Bella,

Fine. Be here by 11 o’clock. But it’s a one-time thing.

His answer was short. There was no sign of care or devotion, rather than the “dear” written carelessly on top of the single line. Then again, Ofelia was used to it. Aberforth being cutting in his response wasn’t worse than the coldness and mistreatment of Riddle. Well, putting it like that, every treatment was better than Riddle’s. So, she tried not to be so shaken about it. After all, maybe he just didn’t have time to write a longer reply or maybe he was feeling sad and he didn’t want to express his feeling in a letter. Maybe he didn’t have much ink left, so he decided to write a quick response instead.

Whatever the matter was it wasn’t important. What her friends had cared about was his green light. As Aberforth had established, they were there by 11 o’clock sharp. They had planned to impress the crowd so much, so that next time he wouldn’t refuse for them to play there. As they arranged their instruments with Ames’ help, Dumbledore made very clear again that it was a one-time thing and that if he didn’t like it, he would cancel it. It didn’t matter if they were in the middle of their act.

He was harsh, but Ofelia kept in mind what Credence had said once about his bad mood: he only behaves like it when he likes you.

Half an hour later, there were more than twenty students lining outside. Walburga and Minerva (Druella had decided to stay back at the castle) acted as ticket ladies, charging five sickles to come inside. By midnight, there weren’t enough tables for all the students, so many were standing while drinking butterbeer. Forth was too busy serving customers to realize that the concert was about to start.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!” Monty practically screamed into the microphone, to which many girls cheered back. “We are the Pitchfork Kids and after a long time of waiting, we are back to please your ears.”

“1, 2, 3, 4” Chuck counted and started to play his drums.

The crowd immediately started to enjoy the music when they recognized the lyrics that Ofelia was singing. It wasn’t a secret that they had gained some fans over last summer. Bella sang trying to keep her mind off the waiter in the bar. She didn’t turn to look at him, not even once. However, after singing five songs, they took a one-minute break to get a little bit of water for her sore throat.

“Are you having fun?” she asked into the microphone, speaking for the first time. The crowd yelled as if that was a real answer. “Alright! What do you say if we play a new song, lads?”

“Oh, I don’t think they can handle it, Bella. Do you think they can handle it, Monty?”

“I say we give it a go, Chucky-Boo" he laughed.

“Orright, but don’t call me that.”

“This is our new song: Gorgeous!” Everyone cheered when they heard Monty play the first sound of the song. “You should take it as a compliment/ that I got drunk and made fun of the way you talk/ You should think about the consequence/ of your magnetic field being a little too strong.”

Ofelia sang staring at her crowd, while playing the piano keyboard. But when the chorus arrived, she couldn’t help herself. Her eyes that seemed to have a life of their own searched for Aberforth and found him in the bar. She sang “You're so gorgeous/ I can't say anything to your face/ 'cause look at your face/ And I'm so furious/ at you for making me feel this way/ But, what can I say? / You're gorgeous.”

Her hands were trembling, but she tried to cover it while playing the piano and singing. Her eyes looked right into Aberforth’s blue eyes, and even in the long distance, she noticed the bright smile decorating his face. His grin could only stand for his ego getting bigger and bigger. But Ofelia convinced herself that that grin meant he was pleased with the show.

After the concert, everyone left. They stayed a little bit more to pack their instruments, while Ofelia went to speak with Forth. They had to solve how much was the pay. However, her mind only cared about where was their relationship on. Maybe he just wanted to blow her off. And she could accept that, but she needed to know before getting her hopes up.

“So... how much did we made tonight?”

“100 galleons only counting the tickets” he announced.

“That’s so much! And I bet that we could double that.”

“Yes, I bet you can...”

“Does that mean that we can still play here?” she asked hopefully.

“Yes.”

“Thank you” she whispered and then she cleared her throat. “So, we were thinking we take the 90 per cent of the tickets.”

“What? Are you crazy? In any case, I take the 90 per cent.”

“It’s our show and my friends helped you to take care of the customers” she pointed out. “We can make it 85-15, if you want.”

“No way. 20-80.”

“Ha! You are a thief! 70-30.”

“40-60.”

“This is my final offer. We take 65 and you 35.”

He thought about it for a moment and then he showed her his hand, so that she would shake it.

“Deal” he declared.

“I would have accepted at 20 per cent” she whispered when they stopped shaking their hands.

“I would have accepted at 15.”

They laughed and started to divide the coins. When they had the money separated, she handed it to Chuck, as they thought that the Hufflepuff Common Room was the safest place to store it.

“Did you like the show then?” Ofelia asked Forth, as they were getting ready to leave.

“Yes, you have a lovely voice and the boys know how to play” he smirked. “Plus, I always enjoy when someone compliments me like that.”

“What?”

“You’re so gorgeous...” he sang softly.

He had a rough voice, but Ofelia thought that it was marvellous to hear him sing a song that belonged to him.

“Oh! You thought that song was about you?” she laughed. “Why?”

“Because you wouldn’t stop looking at me.”

Guilty. She didn’t know what to answer to that.

“Belle!” Walls called her, as they were already on their way to the door.

“I have to g-” she turned around to see Aberforth, but he interrupted her by grabbing her neck and kissing her.

“Stay?”

“If you ask it like that...”