After her discussion with Spinnard, something seemed to have risen in Ophelia, a sense of responsibility and one of rebellion. The next few weeks passed in the blink of an eye and nothing particularly nice happened during Easter. Then came exams, for which nobody was truly prepared. Ophelia started to spend more time with Snape because he was literally teaching her potions all over again. 

One odd thing happened around that time. It was before the Potions exam, it was a nice sunny day and Ophelia was walking back to the common room when she witnessed something that amazed and scared her. Right there, in front of the Fat Lady, Severus was waiting impatiently. A second later and red hair came from behind the portrait.

"We have nothing to say to each other, Snape," came Lily's voice who was angry. Lily Evans was rarely angry. Maybe annoyed, but Ophelia has never heard her speak with such venom in her voice. 

"Look, I'm sorry, alright? I didn't mean to say what I said. It was anger and seeing you take Potter's side all the time, preferring to hang out with him rather than me, your oldest friend...of course, I got pissed,"

"That still doesn't explain your behavior and words. I'm truly worried for you, Severus. You surround yourself with dark magic and with Death Eaters, you disappear with no warning and come to speak to me only when it's good for you. This is not friendship. And I'm worried you are stringing Ophelia along, too. She doesn't need your darkness," Lily explained calmly although her body was tense. "I don't need this darkness. I want a normal life, I want to be happy and have a family not risk everything for the desire of some crazy lunatic." 

"You don't understand, I-"

"I don't want to understand. You called me a mudblood and I'm sure you meant it. You meant every bad word that followed and now you feel guilty. Well, that's not a healthy friendship. I can't trust you," 

"But you can trust Potter? You know he is incompetent! He treats everyone like they are nothing like they mean nothing. He is the darkness for me. And you saw him and the way he treats me! He embarrasses me on purpose, he bullies me and yet you trust him?! Really?" Snape exploded. He kept his emotions bottled up for a long time so he finally said what he wanted. 

Lily didn't say anything, instead, she sighed and moved to probably return to the common room but Snape needed to have the last word.

"Well then, you can stay with him and die with him if that's your wish." He said and walked away. 

That was it. The butterfly was dead and Voldemort was more than happy to take his spot. Ophelia looked down at her ring and tensed up at the thought of losing her best friend. 

But she didn't follow him. Snape needed time by himself, to mourn his friendship, to mourn the unconditional love he felt for the redhead, to be mad, and then calm down. Ophelia could understand him, it was a bittersweet emotion to have witnessed their separation because now she was the only thread that connected Snape to the light. 

Instead, Ophelia went to their usual meeting spot, which was a dusty classroom that was no longer in use, with her cauldron and Potions book as well as the notebook where she had all Snape's tutoring. 

She waited in there for a while, knowing that he would show up and forget for a short time about his lost friendship. And he did come, still grumpily muttering to himself about how Potter ruined his life. He sat next to her and stared at her cauldron.

But he didn't say a word to her. He just stood there, curses zooming through his mind. To smooth the atmosphere, Ophelia decided to tell him something equally hard.

"Remember how you said that my memories are altered? You were right," she started, "I was never attacked by a dementor, I was kidnapped by father." 

There was no reply but she saw him look at her.

"All along I believed that he found me when I was 10 and that he genuinely took me to Diagon Alley and bought me everything I needed for school out of love. But he just wanted to make sure I don't remember him, probably. If Spinnard wouldn't have been there, I'd still be locked up somewhere, having no friends and no purpose in life except being his puppet." 

Now that such words were coming out, Ophelia felt disappointed in her hope that maybe at some point, her father did care about her. 

"Spinnard has been watching me ever since my mother was murdered. Apparently, he made all the arrangements for my move to the orphanage, my adoption by the Molleys, and pretty much my livelihood outside Hogwarts," 

"So he didn't hate you," Snape finally said.

"No. He did see me as a responsibility, and he didn't know how to act so he acted as himself. He did hate being a professor, though. He hated having so many children around," she said with a chuckle. 

Snape smiled but tried to hide it by looking down at his hands. 

"Spinnard assured Tom that Hogwarts will make me stronger, a better fit to be his soul's host. If I am powerful, then he will be sure that the part of my soul he places in me will survive and he will never truly die." Ophelia added and sighed, "Everyone who has been helping me has vowed to Peverell to take of me. They put their lives on the table for a little kid and they almost lost it if not for Spinnard." She ended and rubbed her eyes, feeling the pressure on her shoulders. 

"I fought with Lily," Snape admitted. Ophelia almost grinned at how her plan to make him open up was a success. "It was really bad. I might have called her some ugly names. I went to apologize and..." 

He wasn't crying but it wasn't far from happening. His voice cracked and suddenly he rose and glared at the wall, taking Ophelia by surprise.

"And it's all because of Potter. After all the misery I had to experience because of him, after all the bullying and all the names he called me in the corridors, she dared to say that I hung out with the wrong people! At least these murderers respect me, they know my value and they make me feel like I belong. I'm sick of being the shy, meek, greasy-haired, and skinny Severus Snape! I will have the upper hand from now," 

Ophelia watched as he started to cry and kick the wall in anger and she leaned back, waiting for him to finish his fit. It was refreshing seeing the usually calm Snape have a breaking moment. It made him more human.

"And she said that I string you along! Me! Ha! If only your goody-two-shoes friends knew how deep you truly are in the dark arts..." he said and calmed down as his brain realized what he said. 

"They know up to some level. But even I don't how much worse I can become. But I won't let go of you, Sev. I'm going to cling to you for the rest of my life," she said with a smile that looked both innocent and threatening at the same time.

There was a long silence when none said a word until Ophelia had a brilliant idea. 

"Do you want to spend the summer with me, Sev?"