Belladonna

“What is he doing?” Druella inquired standing behind Bella’s back.

“I don’t know. I can’t see anything” she answered focusing her eyes on the target.

Wow, she really needed glasses. She couldn’t see a thing past a few feet apart.

“I see him” Walburga announced. “He is flirting with some other girl. What a snake!”

“I knew it. He’s over me...”

“No, he is not!” Ofelia declared. “He just needs someone to adjust his ideas.”

“Wait! Where are you going?”

“To adjust his ideas.”

Ofelia walked through the winter garden right towards her friend, while the girls stood behind. Walburga was trying to calm down Druella, as she seemed to be having a nervous breakdown. He was laughing at something that the girl had said, but he stopped when he saw Rizzo walking towards him with an angry look on her face.

“What is this?”

“Excuse me?” the girl asked because of her rudeness.

“You are excused.”

“Bella, what are you talking about?” Abraxas tried to hide his laughter.

“You are flirting with another girl, Malfoy. That is what I’m talking about.”

“You have to have them all, right, Rizzo? Now that Riddle isn’t here to scare them away, you are dating every boy in the castle” the girl whined standing up, ready to leave.

“Yes, sweetheart. I’m a bitch and I collect them like stones. Get over it.”

“I didn’t know you had become so possessive over me” he said once the girl left. “Is there something you might want to confess?”

“Why are you flirting with other girls when you are in love with Druella? My best friend.”

“Stop” he sighed. “I’m tired. I’m human too, you know?”

“But you love her...”

“Yes, but I can’t keep holding on to something that is not going to happen.”

He stood up and left her alone. He had been let down, but she couldn’t let this sly. She had a plan now and it had to succeed.

“I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t...” Druella repeated on and on.

“Rosier!” Ames shut her up. “Breathe!”

“He is going to reject me.”

“If he rejects you, then it’s his loss” Ames stated grabbing her by the shoulders. “But it’s better to love than to be a coward... or something like that.”

“Potter has already tackled him!” Ofelia announced, as she saw how Monty and Chuck forced Abraxas into one of the empty classrooms. “You have to go!”

Druella took a deep breath and stepped into the room. She closed the door behind her and they couldn’t see or hear anything else. They waited for about ten minutes, but they never came out of the room.

“I think they're shagging” Potter said after a while.

“What? No!” Ofelia said.

“Why wouldn’t they come out then?” he pointed out. “We should go.”

The boys started to discuss whether they should leave. But she got distracted when she saw her little brother sneaking out with his friends. Although they were supposed to be in class, they were heading to the gardens carrying some weird bags with them. She felt the urge to follow him outside and grab him by the ear and pull him back inside. She just didn’t want him to get in trouble. There were some dangerous creatures outside the castle and Gryffidors were stupid enough to go near them. Well, the word that they would use was brave, but she knew better.

Normally, if this was any other student, she would chase them and take points from their house. But this was her little brother and she didn’t want to embarrass him in front of his new friends that he seemed to be so fond about. If Braulio was in her place and she was Filipe, then she probably be grounded. But again, this was her little brother and she wasn’t a party-pooper like Braulio.

So, she watched him go and sneak out with his friends, feeling almost proud of him.

“Is that Forth’s owl?” she heard Ames say, which brought her back into reality when she spotted the animal flying around her.

“Yes, it is!” she exclaimed and tried to catch the letter. “It’s for me!” she cheered when she read her name on the envelope.

“Why, yes” Monty rolled his eyes. “None of us has a secret relationship with him, other than you of course.”

“Shh!” Chuck said. “What does he say?”

Dear Bella,

How are you? I hope you and your friends are having fun at the castle. Me? I’m having trouble enjoying myself with no company around me. You were right though. Reopening the Hog’s Head is keeping me really busy. However, I still feel alone at night.

Therefore, I was wondering if you would like to come tonight. I know it’s a Tuesday and you’re a very busy woman. But if you have some free time, maybe you would like to come to my place and spend it with me. I’ll make dinner for you and then I’ll make sweet love to you.

No pressure though. I can always find something else to cheer myself up.

Forth

P.D: I hope your friend catches that bloke. I’ve been racking my brain, but I can’t remember his name.

“He’s inviting me to stay over at his place tonight” she told them. “Does anyone carry with them a feather and a piece of parchment.

She knew she could just use the other side of Forth’s letter to give him her response. But she wanted to keep the letter. She didn’t care how dumb it sounded. Chuck offered her some parchment that was in the very back of one of his gown’s pockets.

Dear Forth,

I can make some space in my busy schedule. I’ll be there by 8 o’clock if it’s alright with you. But if you keep on calling it “sweet love”, I’ll be forced to speak with you no more.

Bella

P.D: His name is Abraxas and everything went as planned thanks to me, of course.

Ofelia didn’t want to admit that she might had grown attached to that cherry blonde bastard of shaggy beard and tough hands. But what could she do? When you fall, you fall, they said. They had been seeing each other for a while now, and she couldn't picture the end of it. At least for now. She was too deep into it, hoping she wouldn’t drown. Rumours were starting to go around the castle, as many students had seen her go around Hogsmeade when she wasn’t supposed to be there. He must be getting something in return for lending them the Hog’s Head, Ivy Parkinson would tell to anyone that would listen.

“She is a nosy kid. Leave her alone!” Aberforth would say.

“She is not a kid. She is a calculated bitch that loves to step on my toes any time she has the chance” she would complain.

For Aberforth, this was just some children’s game. But Ofelia knew better. It was her image after all, the one that was being disrespected. She had to do something about it or the rumours would spread to everyone. Also, it wasn’t just that. People would imply that she hadn’t gained Scamander’s trust by fighting the war. And that did upset her much! However, the magic of Aberforth Dumbledore was that it didn’t matter what the outside was doing or planning, once you were naked in his bed. Ofelia might have caught the habit of resting in his arms after having sex, staring at the ceiling under the dim candlelight. She could fall asleep right there, while he traced patterns in her bare skin with his fingertips. Slow and careful. She would fall in a trance because of his mesmerizing voice telling her stories about his trips and journeys, amazing her with the muggles and what they would do for fun. He would even tell her about his favourite books: The Demon Lover, Great Expectations, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde...

He even lent her his copy of that one new book Animal Farm.

“Do you remember my sister?” he said out of a sudden.

“Yes, Ariana.”

“I never told you how she died...”

“You said she was an obscurial, just like Credence.”

“But that is not how she died” he whispered. “She was murdered.”

“Oh... You don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to. I know I am always asking questions, but you don’t need to feel pressured-”

“I want to tell you.”

Ofelia shut her mouth. He was a very non-communicating person, so she should better take advantage of the situation.

“It all started when my father went to Azkaban. He took the blame for my little sister. She couldn’t control her magic and these muggle kids were bothering her, so I guess she exploded... But you know how they treat people with this kind of illness around here...”

They take them down. That was what he was implying. People that had this type of illnesses were assassinated “for their own good”.

“Our mum took care of her while we studied, but she soon died too. Albus was already off age, out of Hogwarts, planning to travel the world with a friend and do research in whatever... I don’t know. The thing is he had to give everything up to take care of us. A fourteen-year-old and a demented witch. He loathed us for that.”

“But he is your brother...”

She couldn’t understand how you would hate your own kin. Even if she had some fights with her brother, she would never hate them because she loved them. And Ofelia’s mind worked in black and white: either you loved them or you hated them. It wasn’t that complicated.

“I know, but he felt like he was losing his potential wasting time with us” Aberforth expressed with such a sad undertone. “The summer that I met Credence's mother was the same summer where Albus met Grindelwald. And they immediately felt a connection between them.”

“A connection?”

“Yes, they would spend every minute of every hour together. And when it was night time, I would see owls going back and forth from our houses all night long.”

“How romantic” Ofelia declared bitterly.

“It was far from romantic” he stated. “Grindelwald had him twisted around his little finger. Or maybe both of them were equally mad for each other. I don’t know. At the time, I didn’t really care what they were doing.”

“What were they doing?”

“I would like to say that they were just shagging, but it was beyond that. They were making plans about the muggles. They believed that they were inferior and so they were planning to rule over them. Or something of that sort.”

“Dumbledore?” Ofelia questioned. “But he fought against-”

“I’m afraid my brother changes parties depending on what he has to lose. After that summer, they hated each other and Albus decided to ruin Grindelwald’s plans. However, what no one knows is that his plans were actually their plans.”

She couldn’t believe what he was telling her. No, actually she could. She always knew that there was something odd about the professor and everyone refused to believe her. After all, her gut had never been wrong. But what she couldn’t believe was that she had put her trust on him when he could have been responsible for what happened to her family all those years ago. It meant that he was equally guilty for it, even if he didn’t actually do anything. She knew that it was going too far, but the man had have dinner with them. For Merlin’s sake!

“What does this have to do with your sister’s death?” she suddenly realized.

Forth took a deep breath, like the memories of that day went over his mind all over again.

“It was the end of the summer. The family of Credence’s mother had finally moved away and I had nothing else to do but taking care of Ariana. That was when I understood that nobody was taking care of her, as Albus was too busy planning his little ruses with Grindelwald. And I had been most of the time busy as well, but now that I knew she had spent most of her afternoons on her own, I couldn't let it like that. I was going back to Hogwarts in a few weeks and I knew that Albus was too blinded by Grindelwald. So, I decided to confront him in his office at the old house. Little I knew that his boyfriend was there too and he wasn’t going to let me convince Albus to leave him when they were about to make their greatest achievement.”

“He attacked you.”

“Not exactly. He was smarter” he pointed out. “He put Albus against me, dragged as to the edge. Soon our argument turned into a fight with our wands out. I can’t really remember when Grindelwald took his wand too or when Ariana entered the room. She was scared. She didn’t want us to fight.” A single tear fell off Forth’s face. “We are not sure whose spell hit her. But when we stopped, she was already drop dead.”

Bella could imagine the little girl from the portrait falling to the floor. Pale and still. Eyes open, but no life in them.

“What happened with Grindelwald after that?”

“Well, you can imagine that the honeymoon was pretty damn over for them” Aberforth laughed, even if he didn’t think it was funny. “He left.”

She could see it all right in front of her eyes. The dead body, Grindelwald leaving the house like it was on fire and Dumbledore running after him. But the boy, a young Aberforth, was staring at his sister. He kneeled right besides her, thinking to himself that he had done it. He was a murdered. He was the murderer.

Wondering what she could say to make him feel better, she held him tight against her naked body. But what could you say to someone that believed he was guilty? It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t do it. She didn’t know for sure. So, she just hugged him until they both fell asleep, while Rizzo wondered about how many families did Grindelwald wreck.