𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 | 𝐡. 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫

𝟐𝟔 - 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐬

The morning following Ophelia and Harry's night on the sofa was a particularly strange one, neither was one-hundred-per cent sure that it wasn't a dream that they were living lucidly.

Harry laid awake in his bed, having been forced to get up by the house-elves who came to change the coals in the fire, staring at the ceiling and pondering how their day to day life would change now that they were together and now he couldn't stop thinking about her.

So far, this year hadn't proven to be too difficult, no one had yet made an attempt on his life.

A few more school days came and went, just as uneventful and as boring as it could be, but Harry would always look forward to the evening now, he would get antsy about it, casting his eyes over to whatever Ophelia was doing in that moment and was urging time to move faster.

He just wanted to kiss her, to hug her when he wanted to but she was incredibly private, she hated the idea of everyone knowing her business.
And given she was dating Harry Potter, "The Boy who Lived." she would have to face the music soon, she knew that and so did he.

But right now he wasn't bothered, he had her all to himself for now.

Everything was smooth sailing, he hadn't had a nightmare in a few days since Ophelia and he had that night, instead, they had been regularly convening in the common room every night, she made him hot chocolate and had hand-baked snacks at the ready for the past few days, but he couldn't bring himself to tell her that his nightmares had been dwindling since they had been dating, for now at least, he didn't want to jump the gun with anything, he was just excited to spend time with her alone where the two of them could just be, in peace.

Breakfast time came one morning, and he was sat beside the girl in particular, pressing a kiss to her temple he sat down, looking over his plate of full English he watched his completely clueless friend who was absentmindedly munching on her cereal, completely oblivious to how over his head Harry felt when he looked at her.

It was Owl delivery day and finally, a tawny owl presented itself on the table with 3 letters attached to it's legs, once she tied it off the majestic bird flew away once again. Harry watched as she flicked between the three letters, pulling down her glasses from the top of her head to be on her nose as her deep brown eyes settling on one that was from the Ministry of Magic marked CONFIDENTIAL, without another moment passing by she used her knife to slice open the top of the letter.

It looked particularly professional and worrying, maybe 3 pages?

Yet Ophelia gave nothing away as she read it's contents, Harry watched quietly taking a bite out of his toast while she flipped it over to a new page, then the last page. She squealed in delight and excitement and kissed the pages before placing the letter down in front of her, Harry looked slightly concerned, who from the Ministry had this kind of attention.

"Good news?" he asked her, gesturing to the letter with his toast, she nodded enthusiastically, her face spreading with excitement.

"Brilliant news Harry, absolutely brilliant."

"Oh yeah, do tell before you propose to it." Harry teased in jest, yet Ophelia wasn't bothered.

"Right here, is Snuffles' entire Ministry File, it's public record now, so this outlines his prosecution, what he was charged with, and his sentencing. Look at this, its practically bare, the evidence was "too overwhelming." for a formal trial so they just locked him up for 12 years, but yet, on the evidence all they list is his wand, and where the notes bit is where the last spell used is normally listed, it's blank! They didn't even bother to check the last spell he used! It's barbaric! But, I can use this in my case for him, all I need is to talk to Barty Crouch..."