𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 | 𝐡. 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫

𝟓𝟖 - 𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐲

𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚, 𝙊𝙥𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙖 𝙇𝙚 𝙁𝙖𝙮 𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙮 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙖𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜.

It made her feel uncomfortable, every bone in her body writhed as she thought about her father sat at the kitchen table wondering how he would afford to feed the pair of them for the week let alone the bills, he thought she couldn't see him stressed, but he was very poor at hiding it. He'd smile when she would enter the room, but his eyes would remain on the bills spread out on the table marked OVERDUE in big red letters. Yet here she was, years later with more money than she knew what to do with, her first instinct was to turn to her father and ask if there was any debt that needed paying off, discreetly of course.

He looked at her with horror, very gently he pulled her aside and let the Potters go a little way in front so they were out of earshot for this family conversation.

"Ophelia darling, that is your money... you earned it, all that effort you put in to gather the evidence, to present your case with such vigour... I couldn't take any of it. You deserve every single coin in that vault without question," said Remus, cupping her cheek as he frowned a little, "As your father, I am meant to provide for you without question, not the other way around-"

"Dad, it's more money than I need... and a majority of money in that vault was from people who wanted to see me fail. It feels wrong to even have it, just... let me pay the debt off, I don't want to see you stressing over something I can solve-please-"No, Ophelia"-please let me, dad, mum tell him he's being unreasonable." said Ophelia, looking to her mother for help, her brown eyes mirroring the innate sombre feeling.

"Darling," began Gwen delicately as she sat down on the steps of Gringotts, minding the people walking past. "The money remaining in the Le Fay vault would clear your father's debt alone and I agree with him, you... did this, all on your own. I'm already in debt to you, this gift of life once again is something I couldn't repay you even if I tried, and I'm eternally grateful, but that is why I could not take one knut from that vault. That is yours, for your future... for your children if you choose to have them-"

"That's not fair." said Ophelia, taking a step back, "I didn't want this money, I couldn't spend all that in my whole lifetime, I'm just wanting to... give something back, to pay the bills-"

"Which is something an adult does," said Remus, his voice sounding harsher than he meant it. "Which you are not, Ophelia, despite your achievement, you have no legal obligations yet. You don't know what it's like to be constantly trying to pull money out of thin air-"

Ophelia took another step back.

"Of course I know what that's like! You've struggled all these years dad, we've scrimped and scraped, I've even put my pocket money in your wallet when you weren't looking just so you could buy dinner-" she scoffed tearfully, angry tears slipping down her cheeks, "Don't, lecture me on what I do and do not know when you know I'm perfectly capable for my age."

"Ophelia-" started Gwen, reaching out as Ophelia pointed a teary shaking finger at her.

"Don't." Ophelia snapped.

"Ophelia!" Remus barked back, his arm wrapping around Gwen's shoulders as Ophelia ignored him, turning on her heel down the back street of Knockturn Alley for some air.

Harry, who had been watching the exchange by Flourish and Botts apologised to his parents as he dipped past them as he ran down a snicket towards Knockturn Alley, once again he ran into shady people trying to sell various items of the cursed variety, looking at him with a malicious glint in their eye. He pushed his hair down on top of his scar, though it was rather pointless, anyone who picked up the Daily Prophet knew his face, and also knew Ophelia's which was his point of contention, Ophelia was famous now whether she liked it or not and for a brief moment he thought how stupid it was of her to run in one of the more dangerous parts of Diagon Alley.