selenophile || remus lupin

chapter nineteen

^^dress inspo (but in green)

It's been almost two weeks at Grimmauld Place, and every second of it was living hell for Sirius, Regulus, and Ophelia.

Most children would be overjoyed at the thought of Christmas, which happened to be the next day, but the Black children were not most children. The three siblings, showing it or not, were all dreading the one event that happened annually on Christmas Eve.

Every year, the Sacred Twenty Eight have always had a Christmas Ball, a way to show off their wealth, start deciding marriage arrangements, and of course, gossiping more than teenage girls.

This year, however, was particularly bad for the Black children, as Orion and Walburga had offered Grimmauld Place as the venue.

The children were informed of this only a few days before, and were forced to do even more cleaning of the large house.

This, of course, did not make the Black children happy, and as a result of talking back or complaining, they got punished. But the three siblings couldn't go to the ball looking as if they had just gotten mugged, so Walburga and Orion had concocted a special potion, that if drunk a few hours prior, all visible damage would temporarily disappear for several hours.

Walburga had just left the room after coldly shoving the potion into her daughter's hands and walking out the door without saying a word.

After drinking the vile tasting potion, Ophelia could already start to see and feel her scars temporarily healing up. After an hour, they had completely disappeared.

She took a shower, her first one back at Grimmauld Place that wasn't painful, washed her hair, and dried herself off.

She put on a pair of silk pajamas, and curled her long brown hair, so that it framed her face and flowed down her back. She applied makeup, deep red lipstick and golden eyeshadow, finishing with an elegant winged eyeliner.

While she was in the shower, her mother had laid out a dress for Ophelia to wear. She reluctantly put it on, but finding that it fit perfectly, she sighed defeatedly and took a look at herself in the mirror.

It was an emerald green ball gown that hugged her tightly at the waist and spilled out around her legs, many different layers and ruffles of the same emerald green color and silver adornment. It was off the shoulder, but had long sheer sleeves that were loose around her arms, but gripped her wrists firmly.

Whenever she looked at herself in the mirror the past couple of weeks, she could only see the pain and torture she had been through, insecure and vulnerable. But now, she felt like herself. She felt truly beautiful, not to be too humble.

To finish the look, she put on a pair of dark green heels, adding several inches to her height.

Taking a deep breath, she walks out to the party. Ophelia stood at the top of the grand staircase that led to the main entrance of Grimmauld Place, looking down to where many of the guests were walking in and turning to their right into the large ballroom.

She placed a pale, smooth hand onto the black railing of the staircase and started her descent down to the main level. As she walked, many heads turned her direction, making her feel important. Almost as if she was wanted. Almost.

The heads turned in disgust as she walked straight over to her twin, who was in the ballroom holding a glass of champagne.

She stayed with Sirius the entire night, despising everyone and everything there the same amount as he did, if not more. They sat at a table and chairs in the back of the room, away from prying eyes and eavesdroppers, talking amongst themselves about their hatred for their family, the sacred twenty eight, and the Christmas Ball in general.

After four hours and several butterbeers, Ophelia excused herself to use the restroom. It was a short trip, and a good amount of it was due to her looking at herself in the mirror, still shocked at her appearance after being so used to the injured, barely recognizable Ophelia.

Entering back into the ballroom, Ophelia sees Sirius boredly watching couples spin around the ballroom floor, and smirks at him. She starts to make her way over to him when she sees none other than Evan Rosier heading in her direction.

Before she can get away from him, he puts a firm hand around her waist, and redirects her over to the ballroom floor. She throws Sirius an annoyed look before defeatedly being dragged into the middle of the floor.

Ophelia looked around the room, anywhere but at her new dance partner. This was a mistake, as she now saw that almost every pair of eyes in the room were on the two, watching them closely, waiting for one of them to make one wrong move.

Hastily, she starts to waltz with the Rosier boy, making direct eye contact. Neither one of them wanted to be the first to break it. Rosier wanted to test her. After a minute or two of the pair waltzing perfectly around the ballroom, all eyes still glued on the two, Rosier began to get a bit bolder. He started moving one hand down Ophelia's back, getting lower and lower, and dangerously close to her ass.

He knows he's reached an uncomfortable place by looking deeply into his dance partner's eyes.

"What the fuck are you doing," Ophelia said through her teeth.

"Relax sweetheart, just live in the moment," he smirked before grabbing her ass.

Ophelia just glared up at him, still not wanting to make a scene in front of all of the pureblood families in the entire wizarding world.

After not removing his hand for the entire song, it was finally over. But then, Rosier did something unexpected. He put his other hand around her waist, and started to lean in.

Realising what he was about to do, she pulled away from him before he was able to kiss her.

Outrage in her eyes, she glared at him before starting to walk away, but she didn't get very far before his hand grabbed her wrist and she got yanked back to where she was before.

"You do not get to leave when I am talking to you. You might walk around like a slut at Hogwarts, but not when your superiors are talking to you, fucking whore."

He took his hand off her wrist and cupped her face in his cold, rough hands, once again trying to kiss her. She put her hands on his chest and pushed him back from her.

Stumbling backwards a few steps, Rosier looked around the room, enraged that he had been humiliated in front of the sacred twenty eight, all of whom were watching very intently.

"Stay away from me Rosier," she said coldly, and left the ballroom, the doors slamming shut behind her with a crash.