"i know life well enough to know you can't count on things staying around or standing still, no matter how much you want them to. you can't stop people from dying. you can't stop them from going away. you can't stop yourself from going away either."...
'lost in the gray and i try to grab at the fray'- bye bye baby
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The first day of lessons breezed by- double Transfiguration with the Gryffindors first thing, where Ophelia successfully turned her quill into a dove, followed by a free period, meaning an extra long lunch with Luna, practicing the drawing they had done over the summer. Then she went to her first Care of Magical creatures lesson, looking at the Mermaids down by the lake. All that was left was Arithmancy.
She said goodbye to Ginny, who was heading to her first Muggle Studies lesson, before heading up the main staircase to the left-wing classrooms. Despite having been at Hogwarts for two years, there were still parts of the castle she hadn't seen yet, this being one of them.
There was still seven minutes before her class began, so Ophelia took her time walking through the corridors, smiling as she passed familiar faces in some hallways, listening to the echoes of her own footsteps in others. She even saw Neville Longbottom coming from the Dark Arts classrooms, although he didn't seem his usual self as he brushed past her, face white as fresh parchment.
The Arithmancy classroom in itself was rather plain. Four rows of desks that had been split into two, wooden beams framing the rectangular room and the blackboard sitting at the front. There were a few bookshelves around the room, and Ophelia noticed a small moving poster of what looked like the universe on the left wall.
She took a seat at one of the front desks, still watching as the poster rippled. As she squinted at it for longer, she noticed the picture was made of a collection of numbers swirling past each other. She watched as a 3 collided with a 17, suddenly turning white as another star was formed. It went on, everything changing each second. Every collision would change the universe in some way. Whether it was a small rift in the original path, or a giant wave of changes, it was a matter of cause and effect. It was strange how drastically different the poster looked already, compared to how it had when she first walked in. It was almost impossible not to get lost.
Ophelia's daydreaming was cut short as the chair beside her scraped against the floor. She tilted her head upwards to find whose hand was on the back of the chair.
His jaw clenched gently as he smiled, flicking some of his golden hair from his face, crinkles forming at the edge of his hazel eyes.
Patrick Bagby tightened his yellow and black tie, clearing his throat.
"Mind if I sit?"
Ophelia broke her stare, suddenly aware she hadn't blinked for a few seconds. Her cheeks warmed slightly as she finally returned his smile, nodding.
He slid into the chair, tucking his bag under the desk, laying various books across the table. Each book had a variety of symbols and numbers, Arithmancy: The Real World among them.
"Can never be too prepared," the left corner of Patrick's mouth quirked upward as he reached for his quill before surveying the rest of the classroom, "I take it none of your friends decided to take this subject either?"
