Belladonna

Bella felt invincible since her little brother had said that he would choose her in the case of siding with one of his siblings. Of course, she usually felt invincible, so nothing had actually changed. However, as she stood outside the room she shared with Forth in the Leaky Cauldron smoking a fag, she considered that it didn’t feel right. It felt like a competition had grown between the two of them. And, yeah, she was winning, but it would just be better if they were in the same team again.

This made her wonder if they had ever been in the same team at all...

Click.

The sound of one of the doors in the hallway cracking open made her hide in the darkness of the night. To her surprise, it was just Potter crawling outside of his bedroom. Going for a smoke as well, she thought. But of course, he was way more considerate than she was. He wouldn’t smoke in the hallway, so he went downstairs for some clear air. As she didn’t lose the defect of being an arsehole, she followed him just to scare him in the middle of the night. She walked a few feet apart of him trying not to make any sound at all. But she was even more surprised when Potter abandoned the building with a fishy look on his face.

“Where the hell are you going, Potter?” she mumbled to herself.

She could just leave him alone because even if the war had ended, it wasn’t safe to go outside so late at night all by yourself. Plus, as far as she knew, Potter could have been imperioed and he was going right into a trap. So, under all these excuses for being nosey, she went outside as well to keep on following him.

He walked through Diagon Alley with a paranoid twitch in his eye occasionally. She was so confused by his behaviour, as she followed him over the weirdly empty streets. However, when he entered to the Knockturn Alley, a cold shiver ran down her spine. Maybe he had really been imperioed. The alley seemed to be way more alive than Diagon Alley, in the sense that there were some particular creatures making dirty businesses in there. Potter as well apparently. Ofelia saw how he approached a rather slim man that used a giant coat over his body and seemed to have a nasty cold even if it was summer. They spoke in whispers mostly, so she couldn’t catch the words. But what she did saw was how Monty exchange some sickles for a bag of cocaine.

“Oh, Monty. What have you gotten yourself into?” she said to herself and hid when she saw him say goodbye to the dealer.

He walked straight into her direction, while he put the bag in his back pocket. Fortunately, he couldn’t see her, as she was standing next to some empty barrels. So, when he walked right past her, she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and forced him into the wall. He was ready to throw a punch right into her jaw, but he stopped himself when he saw who he was dealing with.

“What are you doing here?”

“I followed you” she explained. “What are you doing here?”

“It doesn’t matter. Let me go.”

“No! Monty, you have a problem.”

“Oh, do I?”

“Yes, you do” she said. “You can’t keep on doing cocaine. Someone must help you.”

“I don’t have a coke problem” he reacted defensively. “I have it under control. I was only buying because we are going back to school, and I won’t be able to buy any there.”

“You shouldn't be buying any cocaine, Monty.”

“Since when are you such a prude, Bella? Let me go!”

“I’m just worried about you-”

“Well, well, well... What do we have here?”

Some nasty-looking man interrupted them. Ofelia let Monty go and searched for her wand in her back pocket, but she didn’t show it at first. Monty felt the danger as well and took a defensive posture towards the man. He had dark eyes and a furry skin from his neck to his arms and chest. He was not wearing a shirt and his trousers were extremely dirty with a dire smell coming from them, or maybe from his entire body. He was standing alone, but something told Ofelia that there were more like him hiding in the shadows, waiting for their cue to come out.

“What are these young kids doing in such a frightful place?”

“We were just about to leave” Potter said with a cutting tone.

“So soon?” Another man appeared. “But you just arrived.”

“Stay, please. Don’t mind us.” Another insisted.

They were starting to crawl out of their hiding spots.

“Fenrir, please” the first man grinned showing his sharp, yellow teeth. “I have the impression that we might be coming up as scary-”

“-Why, you are wrong” Ofelia interrupted him, and Potter cursed to himself as the man turned back to them.

Damn flaw of hers! That of always having the last word.

“I’ve seen you on the news” the man confessed. “Belladonna Rizzo...”

The way in which he pronounced her name made her shiver. It made her realize that this wasn’t a simple encounter. A coincidence. They wanted to find them. They weren’t some simple robbers; they appeared as some agents of evil.

“I have a feeling that we’ll see each other soon enough.” He stepped aside, so that they could leave the nasty alley.

Potter and Rizzo didn’t tell their friends about the weird encounter with the weird men in the alley. After all, they would have to justify a lot more if they did. For starters, what were they doing there in the first place. However, there was something that was undeniable: they were dangerous.

Troubles all aside, the train was parting that very same morning to begin their last first day at Hogwarts. They were so excited to finally be the oldest at school. So, with plans to make that year their best year, they tried to ignore the concerns of the future that every moment was getting closer. Ofelia arrived earlier at the train station than she would usually do. Maybe it was the nerves. Maybe it was the excitement that couldn’t keep her still for more than two minutes.

Head girl.

When she had read the letter with the gold badge that came on the envelope, an enormous feeling of pride grew in her chest. All the effort from all those years at school had finally been worth it. She had beaten every female student in her year and now she was Head Girl. She had beaten Minerva. This moment might had been the peak of her school career. Of course, Aberforth had said it was obvious that she would made it to Head Girl. But she had had her doubts. After all, there was a moment in last year where she had almost failed all her classes. But she assumed that Headmaster Dippet had chosen to ignore that little setback she had at the time. Anyway, she walked to the Prefects’ carriage to meet the new Head Boy. She knew it wasn’t Monty or Abraxas, so that left the two boys of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff to the position. Though Ofelia couldn’t understand why they would have chosen one of them in comparison to war hero Fleamont Potter and top-class Abraxas Malfoy.

“Hi, Rizzo. Had a nice summer?”

The voice that came from the inside of the carriage made her jump.

“Minnie?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Don’t call me that” McGonagall groaned. “And I’m the new Head Girl.”

“What?!”

“Don’t sound so surprised.”

“That can’t be true” Ofelia argued. “I’m the new Head Girl!” she pointed to the badge clipped to her school uniform.

“No, I am” Minerva showed her own badge. “There must have been a misunderstanding. There can’t be two Head Girls.”

“Yeah. Who’s the Head Boy anyway?”

“Morning, ladies” Abraxas entered the carriage with a bright smile.

“Malfoy, are you the new Head Boy?” Minerva asked.

“No, unfortunately” he grinned. “But that’s precisely why I’m here” he explained. “See, Dippet was sure you’d lose it when you’d find out that both of you’ll be Head Girls. So, he sent me a letter explaining that this was a calculated decision and that there will be no Head Boy this year. Just the two of you.”

“But why?”

“Apparently, none of the boys were impressive enough. And you two were too impressive” he explained. “Now, turn that frown upside down. Girl power, or whatever...”

“This can’t be happening...” Minerva whispered, but she couldn’t hide the smile dancing in her lips.

“Well, Minnie, I look forward to our partnership this year.” She extended her hand at her.

“Stop calling me that!”

Explaining to the prefects the situation was hard enough. No one was happy about it, especially the male prefects. But fortunately, Malfoy stayed at the reunion to show the letter from the headmaster where it specified he had taken that decision. No one could go against what the head of the school had to say, but the girls were sure that by the next day, many parents would write to him with eternal complains.

“You knew!” Minerva complained to their friends when they met them back at the castle.

“We wanted you to find out on your own” Monty explained. “In that way, it would be more fun. See?”

“Sure” Ofelia rolled her eyes. “Tossers...”

Ofelia didn’t mind traditions. Sure, Christmas, New Year’s Day and birthdays were okay. And having an occasion to celebrate was always a good excuse for a gig. But there were some other traditions that she just couldn’t care about. Like the Seventh Years' Welcoming Party. The tradition stated that all seventh years had to celebrate the first Saturday of their year in a posh party that take place at the Great Hall. Only they were allowed. No other years. But of course, their professors were there at the dinner and waltz. She just didn’t care about showing off some dress and talking about the future. She usually didn’t mind about the future, but it felt like that conversation was getting old. She already had achieved most of her life dreams. Her future wasn’t a dream or a wish she had. It wasn’t something that she expected. Her future was her present, and she didn’t hope for it. She knew it was already happening.

The other things about the future that she did in fact wished for were things that she couldn’t confess to her teachers and fellow classmates.

The same happened to her friends. Walburga couldn’t confess to her pears that what she wished for the future was to get married to the love of her life and leave her family behind never to be seen again. And Druella, as her exact opposite, couldn’t admit that she wished not to get married and to live an easy life with a simple job. Abraxas couldn’t admit that he wished to break up an engagement. Chuck couldn’t admit that he loved the youngest daughter of the Blacks. Monty couldn’t admit that he had a coke problem that he wished to control... The list just went on and on.

So, when Ames said that they should ditch the posh party and have a gathering of their own in the grounds of the school, they accepted at the spot. They dressed casually and Potter brought his guitar. Ofelia made a small fire in the middle to keep themselves warm, as the summer was slowly brushing away. And of course, the booze couldn’t lack.

“What do you think they are doing?” Walls asked after a while.

“Who?” Minerva asked.

“Them, at the party.”

“They are probably faking laughs and wondering where we are” Chuck said and then took a sip from one of the firewhiskey bottles.

“And lying about what they really want for the future” Rizzo added.

“D’you know what we should do?” Monty cheered setting his guitar aside. “We should all write in a piece of parchment what we actually want for the future.”

“And then?” Ames encouraged him to continue.

Monty stared at him for a couple of seconds and then proceeded. “’Guess we should burn them.”

Everyone agreed. They grabbed a piece of parchment that they had found in one of the bags and cut it into pieces. Then, they took their time writing their wishes down, everyone in silence.

I want to be Minister of Magic.

I want to have a good relationship with my brothers.

I want my friends to be safe.

I want to be right about Forth.

When all the pieces of parchment were ready, they threw them at the fire and watch it burn for at least 5 minutes. She wasn’t sure if this was going to work, but she liked the idea of writing down her wishes for only her and the fire to know.

“Hey, um...” Abraxas hesitated.

“What is it?” Druella asked him.

“Well... I purchased something the other day at Diagon Alley. I think it’s pretty cool, but...”

Abraxas was the newcomer to the group, and even though everyone liked him, he still felt like he wasn’t that close with the pals that weren’t form his house.

“What is it?” Ofelia inquired.

“Yeah, show us!” Monty exclaimed and everyone joined in cheering “Show us, show us, show us, show us!”

“Fine, fine.” Abraxas took from his bag a muggle-looking artefact that was made of metal and seem to have a lens on the front.

“What is that?” Walburga questioned with a frown in her face.

“It’s a camera!” Chuck exclaimed with excitement. “You take pictures with them.”

“Pictures?”

“Yeah, it’s like you leave in a piece of paper a replicated image of a moment” he explained to his girlfriend.

“Sort of like the movies” Ofelia guessed.

“Something like that” Minerva agreed. “Except it’s just an image. It can’t move like they do in the films. It’s still.”

“Not this one” Abraxas grinned. “It’s a camera like the one from the muggles, but it has been adapted with magic. When you take a picture, it captures the moment with movement. Like the one that they use for the pictures on the Daily Prophet.”

“Oh, that’s so cool!” Ames seemed to be fascinated.

“Do you want me to... take a picture of you?” Abraxas asked.

“Of us?” Monty questioned. “Take a picture of us and you, Malfoy.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, aren’t you our friend as well?” Monty smiled. “Plus, how will we remember the moment if you weren’t there?”

“Okay, sure.”

They place the camera in front of them and they stood up with the fire behind them. Abraxas made sure that everyone appeared in the frame and then ran to take the picture of them together. When it ended, Ofelia was amazed: all her friends were there. Minerva used a multiplying spell so that everyone could keep a copy, even though Abraxas kept the original one.

So, as they went back to their seats to keep enjoying one of the last nights of the summer, Ofelia felt so happy with the immortalized moment resting in her hand. And she didn’t wonder about the dreams she and her friends had thrown to the fire. She didn’t wonder if burning them was the right thing to do. She didn’t wonder if they were still dreams if they now had turned into ashes.