𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 | 𝐡. 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫

𝟒𝟏 - 𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

𝙍𝙚𝙢𝙪𝙨 𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙚𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙊𝙥𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙖 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙙, she was almost identical to her mother when she had something on her mind, sitting rididly with her back straight, leg bouncing as she stared at the wall in front of her, but he couldn't blame her, instead, he reached forward and took his daughter's hand in his own, gently patting the back of it.

"He'll be alright," Remus reassured though he wasn't 100% certain himself, the boy had just witnessed a horrific ordeal, one that resulted in the death of a kind, thoughtful young wizard who had done absolutely nothing wrong. Similar to all the people murdered during the previous war.

Ophelia shook her head, "They're taking too long, something has gone wrong I can tell, I can feel it in my gut." pulling her sleeve over her free hand she brought it up to her mouth, peering over the top of her fist at the flurry of officials, parents and students bustling outside, the voices of the dead were quiet now, as though they were in shock or very vividly terrified of their reality. Of course, Ophelia didn't know what to think about the silence, it had been a few months since the second task... everyday she'd wake up with the constant ringing which she would block and it would turn into a dull ache in her head or a throbbing agony, but now... she didn't need to tune them out.

"Ophelia... when you said you spoke to your mother-"

"I don't know if it was her definitely, I didn't see her, I heard her, but... I'm fairly certain."

"How...? How did you hear her? You didn't practice any dark arts did you?"

Ophelia whipped her head around, "No, I didn't. The fairy dust that saved my life... it did more than save my life, it enhanced my inate magical ability... mutated me as Snape liked to put it, ever since I've been able to do moderately advanced magic without the need for encantaions, spells or my wand, it's not like it's wordless either... I don't hear my voice saying the spell in my mind... I just lift up my hand and it knows what I want to do. It's more than second nature now... it's honestly quite overwhelming sometimes. The dust, it lets me hear things on the other side that other people can't, but it hurts. Like hell, my head hurts when I don't want to be a medium and when I tune them out... it's like someone's constantly knocking on my skull for attention, hence the nosebleeds."

"The nosebleed from earlier, were you trying to shut them out?" asked Remus, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles.

Ophelia nodded, "I wanted to concentrate for Harry, they told me he was in danger... but I thought the danger was waiting for him when he came out of the maze and I was wrong... and Cedric... Harry..."

Ophelia dropped her head, hiding her eyes behind her hand, she cried, Remus pulling her into a hug.

"You can't blame yourself, you couldn't have known-"

"But I could've if I had just listened to the voices or practised talking to them... I could've found out sooner... god what is wrong with me."

"Ophelia, you didn't kill him-"

"But I practically did by omission, I'm just as bad as half of the people locked up in Azkaban-"

Remus pulled out of the hug, holding his daughter's teary expression in his hands as he forced her look him in the eye.

"Listen to me Ophelia, you are not as horrific as those people locked away, you did your best and that's all you can do... I felt the same way about your mother's death Ophelia, god I blamed myself every day for her life, a lot of what if's and questions unanswered but listen to me, you did not kill Cedric as I did not kill your mother." Remus tried to explain, though he felt that it was such a raw topic that it would take a few weeks, months, years before she finally grasped this concept, it took him that long to grasp it himself, but he was an adult... she's only fifteen.