𝓔𝓓𝓘𝓣𝓔𝓓
Shortly after the Sorting Ceremony had finished, Headmaster Dippet stood up from where he was sitting and made his way forward to the stand.
"What an excellent start to the new school year, congratulations to all our first years on being placed into their houses, congratulations to our new fifth year prefects, and finally congratulations to Emory Oliphant and Morgandy Crook, your new Head Boy and Head Girl." He paused to allow people to clap for Morgandy and Emory. "Now, before the feast begins, may I remind you of the events of last year, unfortunately we lost a third year, Ravenclaw student, Myrtle Warren, and as from now on the girl's lavatory on the first floor, in strictly out of bounds, and you must not enter under any circumstances. And on that note, let the feast begin."
After Headmaster Dippet finished his speech the four house tables soon filled up with food, the first years gasped at the sight of food appearing before their eyes and everyone began to help themselves to the food in front of them.
Ophelia helped herself to a couple pieces of bacon and sausages along with a handful of chips. It wasn't long before Tom spoke up. "Lockwood, something is very off with you tonight, you're not your usual self, where's bubbly Ophelia gone?"
"I'll have you know Tom, I'm feeling quite alright, however, I am tired and what's the point in attempting to talk to a bunch of miserable gits who I have nothing in common with?" Ophelia responded, a small laugh escaped Harlen's mouth as he tried not to make it obvious he was dying on the inside.
"It didn't stop you the first five years, what changed?" He pondered.
"Do you really want me to spark a random conversation?" Ophelia raised her eyebrows.
"Amuse me," Tom gave Ophelia one of his devilish smiles.
"Nott, what's with the brown hair, you used to be blonde?" Ophelia sparked the conversation.
"It naturally went like this," Odgar shrugged.
"Shame, next time why don't you dye it blue, to match your eyes," Ophelia winked at Odgar, and in response, he rolled his eyes.
"What about you, Lestrange? Ever considered going green? It'll match the green-eyed monster that's buried within you!" Ophelia asked, her voice was muffled due to the mouthful of chips she had stuffed in her mouth.
Some of the boys laughed as they waited for Arkin's response.
"You think you're funny, don't you Lockwood?" Arkin spoke through gritted teeth.
"Think? Oh no, that's where you're wrong Arkin Lestrange. I, Ophelia Lockwood, know I'm funny," Ophelia laughed to herself, "and by the laughs that are coming out of your friends' mouths', so do they!"
"How I wish you were more like your brother, at least he had the audacity to be respectful to people higher than him!" Arkin scoffed.
"If you think Adonis was nice and respectful to you or any other outrageously disgusting, privileged pure-blooded freak like you, you've got another thing coming, Arkin. Your ignorance doesn't flatter you any more than your surname or position in the wizarding society," Ophelia pointed her fork full of chips at Arkin, once she was done she stuffed them all in her mouth and flipped him off.
Tom smirked at Ophelia's response, she was strong, mentally and physically, she knew how to easily put someone in their place, and he loved it.
Once desserts had been eaten and the first years began complaining about their belly aches everyone was dismissed by Headmaster Dippet house by house and were ordered to their common rooms.
Slytherin house was the first to be dismissed, Tom and Aika Arakawa, as house prefects, led them to the Dungeons, as they exited the Great Hall the first years all talked amongst themselves about how excited they were for starting lessons.
Ophelia didn't hear much of the chatter as a soon as Tom wasn't looking back in her direction she slipped away towards the small statue outside the entrance to the Great Hall.
She watched as the next house to be dismissed was Ravenclaw, she watched Morgandy and Archer Carr leading the Ravenclaw students out of the hall and they quickly caught eyes, Morgandy just shook her head and laughed quietly to herself.
Within two minutes of Ravenclaw being dismissed Hufflepuff were out with Dove and Sullivan Fawley leading the way. Ophelia smiled as she came to the realisation that all the first years were the same height as Dove.
Finally, Gryffindor was dismissed and out came Emory with Parisa Wright leading the way, he looked over to where Ophelia was and signalled to follow behind. As the sixth years followed behind at the back of the group she rushed over to Nicole and Elowen and tried to blend herself in with the Gryffindor's.
"Ophelia Lockwood, don't you think you should have left with the rest of your filthy house 15 minutes ago?" Lyra Gabriel spat, Ophelia was too kind in that respect to class her as her 'arch enemy' but she did merely dislike the young French witch.
"Watch your mouth, Lyra, before I hex you into next week!" Nicole spoke up defending her friend. Lyra just simply scoffed, giving the two girls a dirty look before simply turning back to Avalon Chavez, the two girls laughed with each other as they continued to walk on.
Elowen pulled out her wand to Lyra and Avalon, and proceeded to cast out; "Muffliato." She paused for a minute until she finally spoke again. "I don't understand how anyone could be so pathetic."
"I actually hate the girl, I don't see why you put up with her or why you have not hexed her yet, Ophelia, she's a rat," Nicole replied to Elowen's comment on the French witch.
"That's true, but girls, I respect that you don't like someone just because I don't but, that does not mean you have to defend me or go off on my experiences with them to judge whether you like them or not, I often wonder why you're in Gryffindor, Nick, you do have some Slytherin traits." Ophelia laughed.
"So were my parents! My father's side of the family are a long line of Slytherins, all except my dad," Nicole confessed, "and you know what that means, they're misanthropes. They were disgusted by me, all because my best friend is a muggleborn."
"You are aware that a misanthrope is someone who hates all humans?" Elowen asked.
"I am, they basically hate everyone who is not a pure-blood or a Slytherin, my father always talks how he is not as close to his brothers as he used to be all because he himself is a Gryffindor."
Elowen brought down her wand and placed it back in her inner pocket in her robe. The girls continued to walk in silence until they reached the moving staircase. You could hear the first years gasp in awe as they began to descend up the stairs.
"Hurry now, you do not want to miss the stairs. They move on their own accord." Emory spoke to the first years.
Ophelia turned towards her two friends and waved goodbye as she went to a different set of stairs, the two girls waved back and Nicole smirked at her friend with wide eyes. Ophelia just shook her head and continued to walk up the stairs that began to move. When the stairs stopped at the next platform she watched Emory talk to the students about the door password as she waited for the next set of stairs to come.
Emory opened the door to the Gryffindor Common Room and allowed everyone to go through. Nicole and Elowen laughed when they walked past Emory into the common room and he also proceeded to shake his head.
When the door closed, Emory stepped onto the stairs quickly as it began to move. He was brought to the same platform Ophelia was once on and looked up to see Ophelia walking into the seventh-floor corridor. As he patiently waited for the stairs to move, he thought about what Headmaster Dippet and Professor Posen said to him when he met them in the Headmaster's office.
Once Emory was in the seventh-floor corridor he followed Ophelia's lit wand into the Room of Runes, his and Ophelia's usual place to meet up at night, also their classroom for the Study of Ancient Runes.
As Emory walked Ophelia turned and smiled at her boyfriend and they embraced each other into their arms.
"I have news, good and bad," Emory exclaimed.
"What is it?"
"Professor Posen is retiring at the end of the school year."
"What? That's terrible, he is one of my favourite teachers."
"Yes, it is bad news." Emory began a small smile forming on his face. "But, I have been offered his job, and I accepted. So, it looks like I will be a Hogwarts professor after all."
Ophelia looked up at her boyfriend. "Emory, that's excellent news! But is that what you've been hiding from me all summer?"
Emory looked away, "Lia, if I could have, you know I would have told you as soon as the letter came through the door, I didn't want to risk it."
Ophelia nodded her head as she understood, a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders.
"There's something else," Emory muttered
"What's wrong?"
"Student and teacher relationships are forbidden; I could lose my job within the first week. The Ministry would have my wand." Emory frowned, reaching out for his girlfriend's small hand. They were smooth and slightly cold, but soon warmed up when they adjusted to his warm hands.
Ophelia stayed quiet.
"Lia, say something." Emory pleaded.
She looked up to her boyfriend and smiled. "I knew there wasn't going to be a happy ending."
"Ophelia, it'll be alright we've got the rest of this year, and from then it's only a nine-month period, we'll be back together in no time," he comforted her, he wasn't too sure that what he was saying was even true.
"We'll be fine," she gave him a small but slightly reassuring smile.
"Yeah, we will be."
"It's getting late, better get back to our common rooms," Ophelia stated.
"Yeah," Emory agreed.
As they walked out into the corridor towards the fully lighten stairwell they leaned in and kissed each other goodbye.
"I will see you tomorrow, and the first Quidditch match of the term is on October 1st, against Slytherin," Emory spoke.
"You dare beat my own house and I will ignore you for a week." Ophelia laughed walking to her stair that had just settled at the top of the platform.
"You know I will. Slytherin Quidditch players suck." Emory laughed with her, waving goodbye.
Ophelia took one last glance at her boyfriend until he left to walk down his set of stairs towards Gryffindor Tower.
Ophelia took a slow walk back to the Dungeons as she knew as soon as she entered the common room, Tom would be waiting for her, filled with rage as she did not turn up.
As she walked the empty halls of Hogwarts Castle she admired the architecture of the Castle and how beautiful the four founders made it. Once she reached the steps to the Dungeons she hesitated for a minute, eventually proceeding down the small flight of stairs, she took a left towards a dead end, a looked around to see if anyone was there.
"Pure-blood," Ophelia spoke, cringing at her own common room password. Yes, Ophelia was indeed herself a pure-blood, but being a pure-blood in the Slytherin house would automatically make you a muggleborn hater. In Ophelia's case, the belief that muggleborns are a disgrace to the wizarding community was in fact, incorrect. Her best friend, Dove, was a muggleborn, and bloody-damn proud one in that respect. The wall started to rumble and the bricks pulled away, one by one until it left a hole in the wall revealing the small corridor into the Slytherin Common Room with a small green light at the end of the corridor.
As she stepped into the narrow corridor the wall behind began to seal back up and she continued to walk down the small, dimly lit corridor, and to her dismay, there he was, Tom Riddle sitting in the middle of one of the sofas staring straight at her. You could tell he was angry at her just by the way his usual bright green eyes, had now darkened and his harsh glare was enough to send even a Professor running. She kept her eye contact with him as she quietly started to hum as she walked down the steps further into the sitting area, she knew this made him irritate even further but, she liked it when he was mad with her, as he never yelled at her the way he did to his most loyal followers, he would only snap a tiny bit and make one or two snarky comments before he sighed and let her go to bed.
"Sneaking out with Emory again, are we?" Tom asked. His voice was stern, it was a lot softer than it usually was, it was like he had just found out for the first time.
"Well Tom, I do have a boyfriend, who to maintain our relationship, we need to see each other even if it means breaking school rules," Ophelia said.
"Sounds like you're trying to convince yourself and not me," Tom raised his eyebrows.
"And why would that be? Actually, don't answer that," Ophelia whined, "Is that all, Tom? I would really like to go to bed and get some sleep."
Tom hesitated for a second until he simply nodded his head and sighed. Ophelia gave him a small smile and left from where she was standing to the stairwell leading to the girl's dorms.
As Ophelia climbed up the stairs to her dormitory she heard Tom mutter to himself, she found it amusing how he always mutters to himself whenever she leaves him after he's given her half a lecture.
As she opened the door to the sixth year dormitory she looked at the last available bed, she smiled as the bed was near the small window looking out onto the Black Lake. Most times at night you would often see a few of the lake's creatures come to the surface and swim by.
Ophelia quickly crept across the cold room towards her bed and opened her trunk full of clothes and grabbed a white nightgown. As she took off her robe she felt the cold air of the dungeon chamber hit her skin instantly, as she continued to undress small goose bumps began to form on her skin with the small hairs on her arms beginning to stand up.
She quickly put on her nightgown, as it flowed down her body she felt the soft material against her. A small breeze swept through the chamber and that was enough to prompt Ophelia to climb in bed instantly.
The thick covers warmed her up within seconds, she lay there thinking about Tom's previous threat from earlier, he always said he'd hurt her, but never once did he lay a finger on her. Tom Riddle may act big and tough in front of his followers, but in reality, Tom Riddle is still that small, quiet boy that she met in Ollivander's in August 1938.