𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 | 𝐡. 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫

𝟖𝟔 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞

"𝘿𝙞𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙣𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩?" Asked Harry at lunch as he pushed hair out of her face, "You look really tired."

"I am, and I did—just for a couple of hours." Said Ophelia almost dismissively, she was trying very hard to ignore her tiredness as she reached for the the jug of apple juice to top up her goblet.

"Then she kept me up with her incessant scribbling." Said Hermione grumpily, stabbing at her food, "You were pouring over that notebook you suddenly keep with you at all times, there's something you're not telling me... and I hate it, I'm your best friend you should be telling me."

Harry looked at Hermione for a solid couple of seconds, as Ophelia glanced down at her notebook placed on the table, tucked inside of it was all of her trial notes on her potion, everything that worked until it didn't, new hypothesis-- Snape really gave her a run for her money when it came to potionmaking but she was determined to sever her need to go to her Professor, it was bad enough when he glared at her during potions so the thought of reluctantly admitting defeat gave her enough motivation to keep going.

Ophelia gave her a sympathetic yet ashamed glance as she inhaled deeply through her nose, to try and subdue the blood she could feel building there.

"I'll tell you as soon as I'm done with it... just, I feel like you'll be more mad with me once you find out and I want to prolong that." Said Ophelia, as Hermione scoffed.

"And that makes it better? You're deliberately avoiding talking about whatever it is that has the both of you whispering around us—and me and Ron have had enough, this is about what you mentioned something yesterday about your parents bullying someone—and if that's what this is all about then I'm really disappointed in you." Said Hermione tersely as Ron and Harry looked between Hermione and Ophelia, who were staring at one another with a severe tension that no force on earth cut divide.

"I didn't want to talk about it, I didn't even want to think about it Hermione but it's driving me up the wall." Said Ophelia, her voice was delicate in tone as to not rile Hermione up more. "I want to give you the whole truth first, and I won't know that until after we've spoken to them."

"So you're going forward with Fred and George's plan?" Asked Hermione, still pretty annoyed.

"Course we are." Said Harry, "Like she said, we need to speak to them to get to the bottom of it."

"Well—I hope it's worth it." Said Hermione shortly.

"Oh give it a rest okay?" said Ron shortly, who had been determined neither to give his advice nor his opinion, avoiding looking at either of them he said in a low tone, "They've made up their minds... just let it be."

"Fine." said Hermione sharply, as she grabbed her things storming out of the hall in a hurry, probably to the Library.

Ophelia let out a sigh.
"Fuck sake."

"You better have some grand way of making this up to her," said Ron, chewing on his food, "Or you'll be lucky if she says anything to you for the rest of the week, you've really hurt her feelings keeping her out of the loop."

"But not you?" Asked Ophelia lightly, wiping her nose with a tissue, being careful to stow it away quickly so no one saw the blood on it.

"Nah not really," said Ron shaking his head, "I figured you'd tell us in time— for a minute I thought you were pregnant-"

"Dear god no." Said Ophelia as Harry pulled a face. "I don't want a kid right now Harry, get your head out of the gutter."

"It's out," said Harry holding his hands up, "Too busy worried about you to even think about worrying for something else."