Once Rosier was certain that Ophelia did come with Sirius to the party, and once Nott calmed down and decided to concentrate on having his own share of fun, the Juicy Halloween truly begun. The lightning in the Great Hall was dim and the only bright rays were coming from magic lanterns that change their colours every few minutes or so. The usual long tables were now replaced by big octagonal ones that fit up to 7 people each. Ghosts were flying around but weren't particularly interested since it was more of an enjoyment for the young and restless. Dumbledore trusted the student council with preparing everything and Cissney was incredibly happy to delve into ornaments and music. However, McGonagall was very strict when she ordered her students not to drink alcohol; butterbeer at best and that was all. Now, that leads to what Sirius intended to do at midnight and to the mess he created with Ophelia.
"I thought you weren't going to come, no matter what." Lily started once the girls took a break. They danced for so long that their feet hurt. "I guess Black is charming enough to get you to ignore Rosier." She added with a knowing smirk.
Ophelia blushed and tried to shrug it off by drinking some pumpkin juice.
"Who asked whom? Did you or did he?"
Ophelia needed a moment to form an answer, especially because she was more or less forced to leave the common room.
"He did,"
The girls squealed loudly and Cissney hugged Ophelia until the poor brunette couldn't feel her neck anymore.
"I'm so happy for you, Pheli. We all are," somehow, Ophelia could hear the 'but' following, "He's a charming boy and I bet you could tame him. But it's not all about him."
"What do you mean?" Ophelia asked confused. Cissney pointed at the dancing ring and they all noticed Louise, Black's ex-girlfriend hanging around him. The worst part was having Sirius also flirt with her, which he was doing even if not as visible as before. "Oh,"
Lily glanced at her colleague and saw a very different gleam in Ophelia's eyes and all the life on her face just vanished. Obviously, she wasn't enjoy what she was seeing because her jaw clenched and her eyes narrowed in a way that made Lily think her pure friend was mentally cursing another student. She was swayed by jealousy, an emotion so well preserved in her soul that it wasn't even close to its true potential.
Against what everyone believed, Ophelia was under a very strong love potion and yet, at the same time, she was a very good legilimence. All her thoughts were fighting inside her mind. It was this false feeling of love against the logical argument that she was actually in love with another man, one that never tried to sell her for his own interests.
But pride was bigger than any other emotion. Ophelia was 100% Tom's daughter. There was such a strong sense of entitlement that the mere sight of another woman smiling and flirting with her date was a blasphemy, even if between Sirius and Ophelia there was nothing official. But for the green eyed girl, from the moment he took her hand and walked with her,danced with her and spent time with her separately from the others, Sirius became her property.
"Are you alright?" Lily asked seeing the green monster taking over Ophelia's demeanor.
"You shouldn't worry. Louise has been following Sirius around ever since they broke up. I don't think she agreed with the separation, it's not even fresh. He broke up with her at the beginning of October and it's the 31st already! She should gather herself and be mature about it." Commented Cissney as she also placed one hand on Ophelia's. "Let's not let her ruin this great party. Let's have fun and dance all night long." she added with a smile as she dragged her friends on the dance floor.
It was probably around a quarter to midnight when everyone sat down and they started to talk about their lack of fire whisky.
"Even if my transaction was perturbed, Goldstein is a man of his word and we will have something tasty very soon." Sirius whispered as if it was a huge secret.
Ophelia couldn't care less. She was stuck with her jealousy and she knew she won't be able to enjoy herself and the company until something was done. Louise was standing with her friends, almost near the door into the Great Hall. They were far apart but Ophelia had crazy good eyesight. Having her so smiley made Ophelia sick in her stomach so with a mirror of her father's blank expression, she waited until Louise got up. One of the ornaments near Louise caught fire and with a minimal movement, the fire reached Louise's long hair too. She screamed and tried to put it out, having lots of other students panic around her. It became the culmination of the night that students will talk about for weeks to come. But the fear on Louise's face was enough to calm Ophelia down.
James was next to Ophelia and he saw her fingers from the beginning of the trouble and up to the satisfying look in her eyes.
"You're the jealous type, aren't you, badge? I didn't expect it." he leaned in and whispered. Ophelia glanced at Potter and in that moment she showed a glimpse of the famous vile character in her family.
But it wasn't only James who noticed the way Ophelia changed. Truthfully, Sirius felt her authoritarian gaze him the whole night and he felt the subtle glares, the subtle coldness thrown at him from her part. Seeing how he had to go and grab his precious alcohol, he thought he might as well take Ophelia for a short stroll.
"Let's take some fresh air, Molley." He said and literally grabbed her hand and dragged her out before anyone else caught on fire.
"So, had fun tonight? Wasn't all about Rosier?" Sirius asked once he found himself all alone with her in the halls.
She seemed incredibly calm compared to much she avoided the Great Hall for the past weeks. Besides, the way she was standing straight and with her eyes set on her goal just a few minutes ago seemed like he was talking to two different people. She really had a lot of layers to her personality.
"What does he have on you, anyway? Why is he so interested?" He threw the questions hoping he'd get an answer. "He seems to be really involved in his one side vendetta."
"He is a Slytherin. Many Slytherins just move as the wind blows. Many more will follow his examples when they'll become Death Eaters." She replied glancing at him.
Silence followed, which felt incredibly uncomfortable on Sirius's side. He noticed her fidgeting nervously and saw another thing he was curious about.
"Ah right, your snake ring. Very unGryffindor, Molley," Sirius teased her, even nudged her softly, but she didn't seem to feel comfortable enough to open up about that. "If James sees it..."
"I will personally tell James the truth at some point. I'm sure he will understand." Ophelia replied softly as they walked up towards the Ravenclaw Tower.
"You do seem to care a lot about Potter. You go along with whatever he plans."
"I do so with you too." She said finally sounding like a girl under the spell of love. "Until you started to be more absent than present in our Gryffindor extracurricular activities."
"Were you watching me?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Perhaps," she started and stopped to look into his eyes, "Or perhaps the whole castle was. You're not the most subtle and secretive student in Hogwarts."
"I agree. But you're not the brightest star in the sky either, are you? We cannot be perfect, although I do come close," he said jokingly making her laugh.
Although he had five more minutes until his transaction, Sirius didn't hurry. He let her choose which way to go and eventually they stopped near a window. It was nice to see her act like a normal girl her age but Sirius was aware the real Ophelia wouldn't reply so well to his humor. She was doing it all because she supposedly liked him. He could say anything and she would probably answer with a flirtatious chuckle.
"I do have a question, though. How come you are such close friends with Lucius?"
She stopped smiling immediately and looked down at her legs. There was definitely something going on in her mind but Sirius didn't have enough time to think about it because she looked up.
"Lucius is precious to me, the same way you are precious to your brother. The Malfoy Manor is not as cold when he is there, taking care of me. I guess it looks odd from an outside point of view." She said with an uncomfortable laugh. "But I would save him if the situation arose. I'd sacrifice a hand or a leg for him."
"That's...not what I was expecting. I guess you do like him a lot."
"I do. He helped me free a house elf after all," she said, her eyes sparkling in the dim light. "I don't know how much he cares about me, though. At the end of the day, I don't know how much of his behaviour is an act and how much is real."
"Why would he even act? There's nothing to win,"
"Oh, Sirius...I wish that was true." She said leaning against the wall and letting herself slide down. "I really wish I was a muggle born sometimes. But then I feel so disgusted by my own thoughts. It's as if there are two sides of me and I fluctuate between one and the other. But I am scared. What if one day I will choose and it will be the wrong path? What if I become like my father?" She said looking incredibly scared and worried.
It was all so new to Sirius that he didn't really know how to react. He sat next to her and held her hand in his lap as a sign he was there for her.
"I'm sure your father is alright. He can't be worst than mother. Nobody can." He said convinced there could be nothing as bad as Mrs. Black.
Ophelia stared deeply into his dark brown eyes and took a deep breath in, ready for the shock that she was going to throw at him.
"Sirius, my father is the Dark Lord that your mother loves and admires so much."
Sirius blinked for the first few seconds. As his brain fully registered the information, his eyes widened at her with a genuinely shocked expression. That was above and beyond what he ever imagined.
"What?" He asked his throat getting sore suddenly. He let go of her hand but in her recent state it didn't matter much.
"I never call him that, of course. I refer to him as Tom or-"
"Father!?" Sirius hissed. He got up and walked around for a few minutes, hands in his hair and still not believing what he heard. "Are you sure? How can that be?"
"It's a long and complicated story. But that explains my ardent interest for the dark arts, I guess. Are you...disappointed?" She asked hesitantly.
Sirius stopped and took her full form in. Indeed, he felt many sensations now that he knew her little secret. Her serpent green eyes and the way she seemed to have inherited Slytherin traits now had an explanation. She also seemed incredibly tired and scared, probably thinking he was going to leave and never say a word to her again. That seemed to be terrifying her; the idea that Hogwarts was going to turn its back on her was her biggest fear.
"No, I'm not. It must have been difficult for you to hide something like that." He finally gave an answer.
"I don't want you to look at me differently." She said but Sirius was quite sure she wasn't going to react like that tomorrow, when the effects of the love potion will be gone.
"You kept it a secret for all these years. Why did you tell me now? Who else knows?" He asked trying to organize his thoughts.
"Severus knows, obviously."
"Obviously," He repeated annoyed.
"Lucius was the first to figure it out. He saw me speaking to a snake." She added finding everything much easier to say since the cat was already out of the bag.
"You are a parsletongue?!" He hissed once more.
"No. I mean, I understand it but I can't speak it. I prefer the company of house elves rather than snakes. I may be Tom's daughter but I am not him."
"You burned Louise's hair out of jealousy," Sirius stated making her shift from one foot to another in embarrassment.
"Only you and James know. I made it look like an accident and I didn't have my wand with me." Ophelia spoke with such ease.
"Exactly," he said his eyes wide at the realization, "You're quite good at silent spells aren't you?"
"I am good at any type of magic without a wand, in general. It's something I inherited from my mother."
"Of course you did," Sirius mumbled finding it all way too much for one night.
"We should get the fire whisky from the Ravenclaw common room." Ophelia suddenly got up on her feet and sighed.
"I just found out that my classmate and friend is the freaking daughter of the freaking Enemy No 1. Excuse me for needing a minute to collect myself." Sirius replied still on the ground.
"That doesn't mean my feelings for you aren't real. I mean, I really do like you."
Sirius felt like laughing, "Like? How much do you even like me, Ophelia?"
There was a short pause before she spoke again.
"I'll break up with Rabastan for you." She said seriously.
Sirius blinked several times, just as speechless as when she started this weird conversation. He jumped on his feet and grabbed her shoulders.
"Rabastan...is your boyfriend? Since when?" He asked still trying to correlate the information with what he knew already.
"This summer. Bellatrix was searching for me and I was in a very bad shape and I entered his room to escape that crazy witch and well...yeah..." she stopped and blushed.
Sirius had no words.
"But we haven't seen much of each other anyway because he is always away. And now I am here and he is not but you are and...I have this immense desire to give up everything for you." She added feeling confused by what she was saying and feeling.
Sirius watched her squirm in her own skin. She was probably in love with Rabastan, from how much she was stuttering when talking about him, and how her brain was fighting against the potion. But that wasn't a problem, Sirius couldn't care less if she was dating or not. No, the problem was different.
"That's why Lestrange and Malfoy are so lenient with you and why they keep an eye on you. Ophelia Riddle, isn't it?" He asked with a tinge of irony.
"My birth certificate says Gaunt. Ophelia Gaunt." She said quietly. "My parents were cousins." She muttered but Sirius heard it.
"What the fuck, Ophelia?!" He hissed, completely blown by all these personal details. He was so angry that he didn't imagine how an intoxicated Ophelia would react to his own reaction. She started to cry and shake,in fear that he was going to disregard and avoid her forever. "Hey, Molley. Come on, don't react like that," he said wrapping his hand around her in order to calm her down.
"Is this how everyone will react? Am I going to lose all my friends?" she asked with her eyes wide in terror.
In such times, which were extremely rare aka almost never happened, Sirius could see the genuine worries that she hid from the rest. It was the only time she was honest with herself and the others.
"Shh, shh. Don't cry. I am shocked, yes, but I won't abandon you. Nobody will, especially James. He loves you dearly, he really tried hard to get you to open up to him."
She cried even more. There were many worries and many more bad thoughts and bad scenarios made in her mind so she had to get it all out of her system. Because he stood there and comforted her, Sirius forgot all about the fire whisky.
But then, Ophelia calmed down and looked up at Sirius. Behind those teary eyes, he saw much more now. He saw the torment of having such a fucked up family, of never knowing if someone is genuine or not and the fear of being all alone. Unconsciously, they both leaned in and they kissed. They poured all their pain in that kiss, so much so that Sirius pinned Ophelia against the wall. But once the emotional storm passed, he stopped and looked at her with guilt.
"I'm sorry, Ophelia." He whispered before he grabbed his wand and pointed it at her nose, "Obliviate,"
One little detail was forgotten though. Ophelia was a great legilimence whose mind was so complex at this point that even her father was careful with it. One simple spell could work for let's say a few hours only. Morning was going to be very, very interesting for both culprits.
