Belladonna

A week into their seventh year, Ofelia had already made her schoolwork priority number one. This year there would be no distractions to keep her from becoming the most excellent student Hogwarts had ever faced. Nothing could keep her from her focused target: no dark wizards, no stupid sad boys, no drugs, no wars, but specially no deaths. She wasn’t asking for that much, was she? 

So that Sunday afternoon, she was found at the greenhouse, looking for some inspiration for her Potions project that she was supposed to hand in by the end of the term.  

“Oh, hello, Rizzo” a cheery Gryffindor approached her. “My project is pretty interesting, isn’t it?” She smiled at the flowerpots that Bella had been looking at for some minutes now.  

“Hi...” she couldn’t remember the girl's name, which made her feel horrible. 

“Euphemia” she whispered.  

“Sorry-I...” 

“It’s fine. I’m not particularly famous around here.” 

Ofelia felt so guilty. She remembered her, of course, but she was so consumed on herself that she didn’t waste time remembering the names of the people that she only shared one or two classes with. Euphemia was on her year though, and she had seen her having a friendly chat with Minerva once or twice.  

“Yes, I was looking at your plants-What are they exactly?” 

“Oh, it’s Belladonna” she beamed. “I’m growing them for my project.” 

“Why would you need poison for it?” 

“I’m no using the poisonous berries obviously, but I’m afraid what I’m doing must remain a secret. Everyone wants to steal the other’s ideas.” 

“Fair enough” Bella agreed. “I wouldn’t let the poisonous berries unprotected though, there are some vicious creatures marauding this castle.” 

“I’ll keep them safe.” 

An awkward silence rose between them. Again, Ofelia didn’t know much about the Gryffindor girl, other that she was her age and apparently liked playing with poisonous berries.  

“Oh, you have a ladybug in your hand!” 

Rizzo rushed to brush the red insect off her skin, but Euphemia stopped her. “No, don’t kill her. It brings luck.” 

Those words remind her of her mother, always telling her stories about lucky charms and bad luck. In her country, the ladybugs were called cocinelle and represented the same idea of magical luck. You were also supposed to count how many dots where on their skin to know how many children you would have with your husband. That was stupid. They always had seven dots. It was their nature.  

“Here, you can have it” she joined their hands until the lovely insect passed onto the Gryffindor’s hand. 

She didn’t have time for omens. Whether they were good or bad.  

“Hey, Rizzo” Euphemia said, while staring at the insect in her hand, in a casual way, even though Bella was under the impression that she had been planning for a couple of minutes how to phrase what came next. “You and Potter are friends, right?” 

“Of course, the best ones!” 

“So... nothing else has been happening between the two of you?” 

Bella met her eyes questioning what she meant by asking that, but she immediately deny it. “No, not like that. I’m asking-for a friend.” 

“You are a terrible liar. Has someone ever told you that?” 

Blush rushed onto her cheeks so deep that Ofelia could even notice the pinkness in her brown skin.  

“Do you want me to hook you up?” 

“No, no. Merlin!” she looked at her watch and then forced a smile trough her nervousness. “Look at the time! I gotta go.” 

She ran from the scene like a bloody criminal would have done. Now, Ofelia could have kept this quiet, as a fellow woman, but she thought it would be funnier to make Potter’s life a living hell out of this. Who knows? Maybe he could finally find love. 

“What’s her name again?” 

“Euphemia, don’t know her last name” she repeated for the hundredth time. “She is in our year though and she is a Gryffindor.” 

“Her last name is Sharma” Ames told them.  

They were going to the Hog’s Head, as they had one of their famous shows that night.  

“It doesn’t matter” Ofelia glared at Longbottom. “She’s into you.” 

“I don’t even know who you are talking about!” 

“Sure, you do, Monty” Ames chuckled with. “She is Effy.” 

“Effy is into me?” he shouted, eyes almost coming out of his face. 

“You do know her then.” 

“Yeah, she’s... peculiar” Monty admitted softly. 

“She seemed very sweet.” 

“She has a very strict family. She’s a bit of an airhead.” 

“Well, maybe you might discover your wrong tonight, Potter.” 

“Why?” Ames chimed in.  

“Because I invited her to the show.” 

“Are you nuts?” Ames said. “Why would you do that?” 

“Just because...” 

“Relax, Ames, I doubt she even knows how to go out of the castle” Monty said with vague interest. “Maybe she’ll coward and stay in her dorm. Or maybe the caretaker will find her the minute she comes out of the common room.” 

“Maybe, but I doubt it” Ofelia smirked. “I made Minerva escort her here. Did you know that they are roommates?” 

“You also brought Minnie into this?” Potter cursed.  

“She thought it was a terrible idea to try to pair both of you–She actually laughed at my idea for two minutes straight-, but then she thought it’d be funny.” 

“Of course, she did!” Monty exclaimed. “Minnie loves when I’m the butt of the joke.” 

“She said that Euphemia is a very nice girl though, and that she disagrees because she thinks that you don’t deserve her. The girl is too good or something” Ofelia explained. “But apparently, she is the only one that defended her when her dorm mates said that they didn’t want a dyke sleeping in the same place as them.” 

Both boys remained silent for a couple of seconds, while Ofelia showed them a winning smile. They didn't know that Effy had done that, nor that Minerva’s roommates had tried to kick her out last year.  

“I’m still not going to hook up with her.” 

“Nobody’s forcing you to do anything, Monty.” 

“But moving on from him is impossible/ When I still see it all in my head/ In burning red...” Ofelia sang their final song of the night and let Potter head for his guitar solo. 

Their friends greeted them with congratulations when they came down of the stage. Every day they were getting better and better. Looking back to the beginning of their music carrier, they weren’t half as good as they were now. But it was only natural to keep improving your skills like that. Plus, now they had figured out the connection between them, how to work together.  

“Blimey!” Walburga exclaimed and then hugged her boyfriend, who had some sweat in his forehead for playing the drums with such impetus.  

Potter approached the new girl, who looked at her surroundings with doe eyes and had a beautiful red dress. He looked at her as if he was obliged to speak with her, though no one was actually doing such thing at all. Ofelia couldn’t help by noticing that the forced smile that he had given Euphemia was masking shyness, and that is why he was so nervous. 

“Hi, Effy” he said. “Did you like the show?” 

“Yes, very much...” she admitted, but didn’t seem interested in continuing the conversation.  

“Would you like to dance?” he invited her when the magical instruments started to play some music on their own.  

“Maybe next time” she smiled politely and then went back to where Minerva was sitting. 

Potter looked back at Ofelia with so much confusion in his eyes. Ames and she were left static as well. What in Salazar’s balls was that? 

“I thought she was into me” Monty breathed.  

“Why, she was” Bella assured him. 

“She didn’t seem that interested at all” Monty frowned.  

“Maybe she had set her expectations way too high, and you weren’t impressive enough tonight” Ames laughed. 

“What do you mean?” 

“You did sound a little bit off beat” Longbottom mocked him, and Potter just left them before he punched his best friends right in the face. 

“Off beat, off beat...” he muttered as he went away. “I’ll show you off beat.” 

“I thought he wasn’t interested in her” Bella pointed out. 

“Me too” Ames agreed, “but I think this was the first time that someone has said no to a dance with him.” 

Interesting.  

Letting the situation with Potter slide, she looked for her boyfriend in the crowd. He was taking care of the bar, pouring beer in two pints to serve the costumers. Ofelia couldn’t help by drooling over him. With his long hair (much longer than the first time that they had met) tied in a bun and a red beard of several days growing on his face. With the muscles behind his skin tensed when he poured the beer.

She was about to join him at the bar table with the excuse of helping him, though she was probably going to distract him. But she restrained herself of doing so when she noticed who was keeping him company.  

It wasn’t like Ofelia hated her boyfriend’s friends. There were people like Florean Fortescue, who was extremely kind and was a successful businessman. But the others like the snakes that loved to crawl around her boyfriend weren't that pleasant. She was used to dealing with snakes, she belonged to a house full of them, but she still didn’t want to confront them. Instead, she decided to stay back hiding in one of the corners near the bar, hiding in plain sight with lots of wizards around her.  

“I get it” the blonde one said to Aberforth. “She’s young and talented. I bet she fucks really good even. But why have a girl in your bed, when you can have a woman?” 

“Women” the other woman corrected her.  

“I don’t think I know what you mean, Thalia” Forth breathed, his jaw clenched.  

“You know very well what I mean.” 

Forth snorted heavily and returned his eyes back to her. “I will not let you speak of her in such manner. She is the woman I love. You either get with it or get lost.” 

The blonde girl glared at him keeping her eyes on his, and when she didn’t break, Forth did. 

“There’s the door.” 

A little bit humiliated but with her chin up, both girls left the Inn without saying goodbye to any of their friends. Forth was upset by it, but he didn’t comment on it when Ofelia approached him to give him a hug. These were his friends, long-time friends. So, although she couldn’t get why he would be friends with those harpies, he still had every right to feel upset about them.  

Monday started with Defence Against the Dark Arts as usual. The only subject that Slytherins and Gryffindors shared since first year. Ofelia would sometimes wonder why you would choose the two houses that were enemies to put in a closed classroom, where the point of it was to learn how to attack each other. The correct term the teachers would use was defend each other, but between Slytherins and Gryffindor it most definitely meant attack.  

Both green and red houses were excited to hear that the task of this class was duelling. Imagine how happy Potter was to show off his given talent that he had perfectioned in the Duelling club. That was the moment when Bella realized that almost every girl –Gryffindor or not- in that classroom was drooling over her friend. It wasn’t mathematically possible for almost every seventh-year girl to have a crush on him, and yet, this was the case. Funny enough, the only ones that didn’t watch him with those eyes were the only girls in that room that actually knew the boy... very well.  

“Next we have...” the professor chose from his list. “Minerva McGonagall and Belladonna Rizzo.” 

Great, she couldn’t believe her luck. She grinned at her cat-like friend, as they walked towards the centre of the room.  

“Position” the professor instructed.  

They both obeyed. “I’m sorry, Minnie. But for the next minute you are not my friend, you are my lovely nemesis.” 

“Start!” 

“Don’t call me Minnie” she hissed and threw a silencing spell to her mouth that Ofelia blocked just on time.  

A show of dancing spells started to waltz around the classroom, but both girls remained unharmed. Neither of them could get the other one, as if the battle was a performance and they both knew where to protect. As if they both knew what next spell the other was about to throw. A minute passed and the girls were only panting and sweating, but nothing more.  

“That’s all you got?” Minerva challenged her, and Ofelia loved a challenge.  

But she couldn’t be tempted. After years of sharing a Quidditch pitch with McGonagall, she recognized her tactics way too easily. She was provoking her, so that Ofelia would take a reckless risk and then she would strike. Ofelia wasn’t falling for that. She had to remain calm and find a way of deceiving her. Unfortunately for her, Minerva knew her tactics as well. 

Ideas popped into her head. Most of them too cruel for a simple class duel and the others way too risky with a crowd watching. Though she was sure that getting close enough to her so that their noses would touch, while staring at those big cat-like eyes, would have been enough for her to give in.  

Uh-oh, no, Belladonna. Bad, Belladonna! Stop lusting after your friend. You have a boyfriend, she has girlfriend. Life is miserable. You’ll die alone- 

Her own chiding got her distracted and carried away, which gave Minerva the perfect opportunity to get her to the ground and win the duel.  

“Fuck” Ofelia muttered from the ground.  

“Very well then!” their professor exclaimed. “This is why these two young ladies are our Head Girls this year.” 

Some boy in the back from her house mumbled something to his friend and laughed at them quietly enough so that the professor wouldn’t hear it. But she knew he was being nasty about their titles.  

The class was dismissed, and Ofelia walked angrily outside, without saying goodbye to her friends. She was going to rip that boy’s head off right from his head and then burn his ass, but someone grabbed her wrist stopping her on her track.  

She knew who that person was before she turned away. “I’m in the middle of somethi-” 

“Did you got mad because I won?” Minerva asked quite concerned. “It was just a game, Rizzo.” 

“What? No” she denied immediately noticing that her storming-off maybe had given her the wrong idea. “Not at all. I was about to hex that bloke for saying something hideous about us being Head Girls.” 

“What bloke?” 

She turned around to point at the boy, but he had already gotten away. 

“Shit, I lost him...” 

“You’re not mad, then?” 

“No, not at all” she repeated, and Minerva smiled at her.  

“Good. I was about to yell at you if this was the case.” 

Ofelia would love for her to yell at her face. She would do it any day. Fuck- 

“You lost focus though...” 

She was starting to feel cornered. Like she was a little mouse and this giant feline lion was preying her. 

“Eh... Yes, I got carried away.” 

“By what?” 

“Nothing in particular. I just zoned out.” 

Minerva squinted at her and blush rushed into Bella’s cheeks. “You are a terrible liar.” 

Bella only shrugged.  

“Does this have something to do with Aberforth?” 

“No, everything is fine with him. We are perfect.” 

“I get it. He’s hot and has a house. And I bet he’s good in bed even. But I just don’t see how you could possibly work.” 

“Well, I don’t see how you and Poppy work and you still do” Bella pointed out quite defensively.  

She didn’t know how to refute Minerva’s arguments that she had already given to her, multiple times. She would tell her to look on the other side, like if Druella had suddenly fallen for a man that was 30 years old, would she have approved of that? No, she wouldn’t have. She would have tried to make her come to her senses, just like Druella had tried to do back then. But she was so in love with Forth that none of those comments made any sense to her. So instead, she would just throw a witty comment and let the conversation slide.  

“Actually... Poppy and I broke up at the end of the summer.”