selenophile || remus lupin

chapter eighteen

Ophelia awoke on the hard, marble floor.

She immediately wanted to go back to sleep. She was in so much pain, she didn't think she was able to move. But she knew she had to.

She tried to lift her head up, successfully, but earned her a dry sob. Her head pounded with how many blows it had taken, her hair was glued to the floor with a dark red adhesive, the dried blood on her face stung and stretched when another muscle moved.

Ophelia, now sitting up against a wall, took a moment to take in her surroundings. She was still in the parlor, but it was much quieter, and much darker.

How long had she been passed out for?

She looked at a large, dark grandfather clock standing tall in the corner of the room. A large pendulum swung back and forth, making her dizzy just by looking at it. She read the clock - it was four in the morning.

Sucking in a deep breath, Ophelia stood up, desperately trying to grab onto any piece of furniture near her to support her weight.

Swallowing harshly, a taste of blood in her mouth, she slowly began to walk. She had to constantly be supporting her weight on something, for fear of otherwise collapsing to the ground and not being able to get up again.

Quietly, she made her way through the large house, careful of the squeaky floorboards, and faulty steps that she had learned so well to stay clear of. After what felt like hours, she reached her bedroom.

With a shaking hand, she twisted the doorknob, exhaling a sigh of relief that she didn't know she was holding. She saw the bed, the bed that she would normally hate, the bed that reminded her of so much and so little at the same time, the bed that now, she was silently praising.

She stumbled over to it, not bothering to change out of her bloodied dress, collapsed onto the covers, and fell into a short and painful sleep.

✩☾✩☽✩

"Why can't Kreature do this?" Sirius asked sharply.

"Quiet boy," snapped Orion as he exited the room, leaving the three kids to scrub the black, wooden wall trim, which was slowly turning grey from the thick film of dust covering it.

The three Black siblings spent most of their time at Grimmauld Place doing chores. Working around the house nonstop, cooking, cleaning, and everything else that Walburga and Orion had neglected to do for the past few months.

Regulus, as it turns out, was quite a good cook, therefore commonly doing the cooking in the household. Unfortunately for Ophelia, really the only times she got to eat was when she was able to sneak a bit of food while she was in charge of making the supper.

Her parents kept the kitchen locked whenever one of the kids weren't cooking in it, and often forgot (or decided not) to feed them.

The three siblings were covered in large gashes, cuts, and bruises. Regulus wasn't as bad as Sirius, and Sirius was nowhere near as bad as Ophelia, but all three of them had been beaten and were in constant pain. Without any healing products, a terrible sleep schedule, little food or water, and new beatings coming everyday, the pain had barely decreased.

Ophelia had gotten the worst injuries by far. She had no clue how she would be able to return back to school and act normal. She had done it many times in the past, and she would do it again, but that didn't stop the pain she tried so hard to hide.

She commonly got at least one, if not more, beatings a day. The severing charm was one of Orion and Walburga's favorite punishments, but they didn't seem to have any problem with physical punches, slaps, or kicks. It seemed like they couldn't go more than a few days without taking out their anger on their poor, pathetic lives by using the Cruciatus Curse on their only daughter.

Ophelia, as well as her two brothers, were always on the other end of a long lecture or rant from their parents about misbehaving at school, or were somehow always doing something wrong.

One of her worst punishments over the holidays, however, was just a few days prior, when Ophelia had gotten a letter while reading in the sitting room, unbeknownst to her fathers presence in that room.

The moon was shining brightly through the muntins of the large windows. The moon was full, reminding Ophelia of Remus, with a bittersweet feeling. She was sitting in a large emerald green armchair, reading one of the books in Grimmauld Place. The library only had books about the dark arts, but Ophelia had nothing else to do, so she read in horror, the only thing illuminating the terrifying words being the roaring fire.

The room got a bit darker as a shadow covered up the moon shining down into the sitting room. There were three gentle pecks at the window and Ophelia placed a bookmark in her book and got up to investigate the noise.

A small owl, who Ophelia recognized as Lily's owl, was perched upon a tall windowsill on the outside of the large house.

She opened the window, took the tan envelope from the owl, which then turned around and flew into the night. She turned to go back to the armchair when she bumped into something large and hard. And angry.

"What the hell is this?" snapped Orion.

"A letter," Ophelia deadpanned.

"Obviously, you foolish little girl. Give it to me now," he demanded.

Ophelia took a step back, which was very much the wrong thing to do at the moment. Orion snatched the letter out of her hands and tore it open harshly.

He scanned over it quickly before muttering, "Lily Evans."

"Lily Evans," he repeated. "You!" he yelled.

"How dare you? I thought we told you to stop hanging around the stupid Gryffindors, but ontop of that a mudblood. Ophelia Callidora Black, you have disobeyed us once again, and you must face the punishments."

Orion spat in her face cruelly before tearing the letter into bits and throwing it into the fireplace. Ophelia watched them char and burn, curling into little black specks and disintegrating completely. She was snapped out of her trance when she felt a painful blow to her jaw. Orion had punched her mercilessly. And again, and again, and again.

Ophelia had bruises covering her face, from being punched so many times. Lecturing his daughter for being in communication with a "mudblood," he became more and more angry. Finally, he reached his breaking point. Without even placing any enchantments around them, Orion pulled out his wand, aimed it carelessly at Ophelia, and with venom dripping from his voice, he darkly said, "Crucio," for what felt like the hundredth time that holiday.