Standing there, with a slightly wet teenage girl that he had a crush on, Sirius suddenly realized how intimate it was. But Ophelia looked so nonchalant, so unbothered, that it took a bit from the excitement.
"So, where is your uncle?" She asked looking straight into his eyes as if she knew what he was thinking about.
"Dunno, really. He just said he's leaving for the summer. He might have run away and hid, considering how he hasn't become a Death Eater yet." Sirius commented taking a sip from his hot chocolate. "What about you?"
"Knowingall is probably hiding as well. Dylis too. It's a bit odd not having them in the cottage. But I have Dobby and Severus," she muttered the last part since she already knew Sirius would overreact, which he did.
"Excuse me? I think I didn't hear you right, I thought you said you were spending summer with Malfoy's house elf and Snape."
"Yep," she said hiding behind the mug.
Sirius jolted on his feet and tried to say something several times but stopped every time. He was aware of her weird friendship with Malfoy, he saw Dobby literally petrify Katie for Ophelia, he could understand, but Snape...
"Even after he called Lily a mud-blood and told her to die with the rest of us?" He asked trying to calm himself down. "Really, Ophelia, you just...you can't live in both worlds. It's either kill or be killed with them."
"Most of them are cowards, Sirius. Most of them need a purpose and Tom gives it to them. I do understand how appealing and enchanting his ideas are, but he doesn't rule them with respect and charisma. He does it with fear."
"That doesn't excuse them!"
"I know. But I know that no matter how hard I tried to convince him otherwise, Severus still did whatever he wanted. You can't control people, so what I can do is be careful and keep an eye out for him."
"He could kill you, Ophelia. He can do it, he can turn against you in the blink of an eye because his Dark Lord is worth more than you."
Ophelia looked down at her hands and bit her lip.
"He won't. He cannot." She mumbled confusing Sirius. "He vowed to me, so if he would do anything to harm me or abandon me in the favour of my father, he would die."
Sirius stared at her for a while and sighed.
"So then what happened on Halloween?"
"Dumbledore asked Severus to enter my mind and search for a memory. Back when I was a kid at the orphanage, we went on a trip to Aviemore. One of the boys got lost and I searched for him and found him, I thought that a Dementor attacked us. But there was no Dementor. My memory was altered by Spinnard."
"Why?"
"Because my father reached out to me that day. I guess he was planning to take me with him, groom me like he did with my mother, into becoming his loyal puppet. Spinnard interfered and convinced him to allow me to go to Hogwarts before calling for me. Father never wanted me to see the truth but now that my mind is well protected, he can't intervene." Ophelia explained rather calmly considering how Sirius was appalled by every word that came out of her mouth.
"So what will you do? We enter our last year at school soon. Where will you be this time next year?"
"Hopefully, not dead." She said sounding as if she had already thought of this problem before. Sirius scoffed and hit her arm, offended by the easiness she said it with. "Ouch. That hurt."
"How foolish are you to believe we'd ever leave something like that happen to you?"
Ophelia smiled, comforted by the warmth of friendship.
"That's nice to hear, but my future is very unclear, Sirius. It's covered in thick smoke as far as I can see."
"We will clear it up for you. I will not allow you to do something stupid. We will fight together."
"Aw, my knights in shining armour. Wanna vow on it?" She asked jokingly but Sirius was ready for the commitment. She laughed at the way he grabbed her arm, ready to bet his life on something that was bound to become real.
Spending time with Sirius was nice, but one thought kept returning to Ophelia's mind. She was afraid to apparate so how was she going to go back home?
"So, it's already pretty late," she said when she caught sight of the time. "Heck, it's almost midnight!" She exclaimed jumping on her feet.
"You can sleep over, it's not a big deal." Sirius said with a faint blush. It wasn't like they hadn't slept in the same house before but this time, it was just the two of them.
"But Dobby must be worried. Severus must-" her eyes widened as she remembered that no matter how busy he was, Severus always returned to the cottage by dinner time. Ophelia sighed and plopped on the couch, feeling incredibly disheartened and guilty.
"Why don't you enter their minds and tell them you're fine?"
"But I still have to go back. I don't know my address and I can't apparate yet. I can't just stay here for indefinite time." She explained growing more worried.
"I wouldn't mind," Sirius mumbled to the side but she didn't seem to hear him. "Why are you so afraid to apparate?"
"I...I don't know. I guess I'm afraid I will end up in the wrong place, with half a body splinched." She said genuinely concerned.
"We can do it together if it helps." Sirius said, reaching his hand towards her.
Ophelia looked up at his arm before her eyes went to his face. He was probably better at it than her but mistakes could still happen. At the same time, she wanted to go home, have a bath, and smell the old wood and hear Spinnard's soft sighs as he stood in his painting.
"All right. But if I lose a finger, I'll make sure that you lose one too." She said in a partially joking and partially threatening way. Sirius laughed but he was well aware that she would follow her words.
Once Sirius' hand touched hers, they disappeared with a pop. Ophelia's world dimmed, she felt nauseous but she still felt Sirius grasp her hand, which gave her more courage. And then they appeared in front of a house, just...not the right one.
"Merlin's beard, where are we? Is that your house?" Sirius asked staring at the tall intimidating building.
"No. We're on the front porch of my neighbour's house." Ophelia explained, patting every spot of her body just to make sure nothing was hurt or missing. When she was sure she was alright, she turned to her classmate. Her eyes widened when she saw that he had a cut alongside his right arm. "Sirius, you're bleeding."
"I know. I can feel it." He hissed when he saw how deep it was. "Where is your house?"
Ophelia turned and pointed at a far away little cottage that was surrounded by trees.
"That's it. That's Spinnard's cottage."
It really was a small building in the middle of nowhere. But then, it wasn't as close as it looked, since they were on a hill and it was pretty dark outside, and Sirius was bleeding. Ophelia glanced at her home before she turned to look at his arm and quickly ripped a bit of his shirt and wrapped it around the cut.
"What- why-" Sirius was speechless.
"I get cold easily," she mumbled before she started to walk down the hill. Black shook his head and chuckled before he followed her closely.
For the whole half an hour that it took for the two Gryffindors to get to the cottage, Ophelia could only think about how Snape would react when he saw Sirius. She was so obvious in her worries that Black couldn't help but feel both annoyed and amused. She held Snape in such high regard no matter what that snake did or said to her. Another problem that stressed Sirius was the area itself. Everywhere he looked, there was no humanity. There were only trees, albeit tall ones, animals wandering among them, and very quiet. Along the way, at one point, Sirius could have sworn he had seen other entities watching them from the darkness of the forest.
"It's getting very cold," Sirius muttered seeing the vapours of his breath.
"No. It's because of the Dementors,"
"...what?" Sirius asked pausing in place with large alert eyes.
"There are a few Dementors around. Tom brought them, along with some other creatures I don't know about because I haven't seen them, to follow me. Or who knows what they're doing, I'm not particularly interested." Ophelia explained with nonchalance.
Just before they walked on the land, she stopped and turned to Black with a serious expression. Sirius raised an eyebrow but he could quite sense what she wanted to say.
"I'm not going to cause a fight, if that's what you want to say." He started knowing what she was about to say. "And I'm not going to offend Snivelly in any way." He added seeing her open her mouth.
"And not using magic,"
"Yeah well...we already did," he mumbled. "I'm sure the Ministry has worse problems than two kids using magic in the middle of nowhere."
"No, I mean no using magic on Snape." She said after listening to him. "No little tricks."
"You think so little of me, hm?" He asked, opening the little gate and stepping on the land.
Ophelia watched him carefully as he walked halfway to the front door. The house didn't even need long to be sure that Sirius Black would never be a threat to Ophelia. She expected it but it was still a comforting feeling. However, as soon as the door opened, Snape's skinny figure came to light and he wasn't happy at all.
"I did it, Sev. I apparated! Not in the right place but close enough!" she explained hurrying past Sirius and trying to change the subject.
But Snape only briefly glanced at her before he looked at Black. Ophelia moved her head so she would hide the black-haired Gryffindor but Snape moved again. It went like that for a minute before Sirius walked in, right past Snape. Once he was out of sight, the Slytherin turned to his friend with a glare.
"You have some detailed explaining to do,"
Ophelia smiled nervously, feeling like she was scolded by a parent.
