ophelia black is scared. she won't admit it, but she's terrified. she's scared to hurt the people she loves, she's scared of her past, present, and future, and she's scared of herself. in her fifth year at hogwarts, she becomes closer to a boy who h...
As James, Sirius, and Ophelia walked down one of the many corridors of that huge castle, Ophelia remembered something she had been thinking about a lot. She knew that the ministry would expel her if she used magic outside of school, but she needed to make sure that Regulus was always safe. It was almost Christmas break, after all, and she would be back at Grimmauld Place, needing to protect her brother more than ever.
She had decided that she would learn a few muggle healing techniques, some ways to help heal her brother effectively, but without breaking the law. She knew that the library had a few books on muggle healing and decided that's where she would be spending the evening. She tuned back into the conversation that James and Sirius were having and laughed, knowing that they were about to be exposed for hypocrisy.
"That's exactly what I'm saying, Padfoot. The marauders always stick together, you'll never see one without another!"
"Hey, I'm going to the library," Ophelia slyly said to the two boys next to her.
"Except for now. I'm not going anywhere near that hell hole," Sirius added onto James' statement in regards to Ophelia's choice of evening "fun".
Ophelia walked into the library and headed straight to the healing section, knowing that there would surely be something without magic. She walked past rows and rows of bookshelves, Godric that library was big. She turned a corner into a dimly lit row of books and desks and found a boy sitting there, scribbling fast on his parchment.
He had curly hair, just shorter than Sirius'. His back was hunched as he looked over his paper in concentration. As she walked forward, his head turned towards her, eyes still glued to his parchment before looking at her. She knew him to be a Ravenclaw in her year, Benjy Fenwick.
"Hey, Fenwick right?" she asked, making sure she got the name correct.
"Yeah, Benjy. And you're Ophelia Black of course," he smiled at her.
"The one and only," she said. "What are you working on? It's a Friday evening and you seem to be very focused on studying."
"I'm working on something for Madame Pomfrey, I'd like to be a healer after I graduate so she's tutoring me and a few other students on healing spells and the like."
"Oh, that's really interesting!" she said as something clicked in her brain. "Hey, you're a muggleborn right?"
Fenwick furrowed his eyebrows, eying her up and down, looking for anything suspicious. At this point, Ophelia was used to behavior like this. Having the Black family name meant you were feared amongst many of the students. She tried her best to give herself the reputation that she was nothing like her parents, but the Black name is so influential that sometimes it didn't matter how she showed herself. She immediately recognized the fear in his eyes as he said, "yeah, what's it to you?"
"Oh good, I really need to learn a few muggle healing practices, it's really important that I know this."
"Why?" he asked, still a bit suspicious of the pureblood in front of him.
"Oh uh-" somehow, Ophelia hadn't expected to get asked why she needed to learn these things, so she made up a quick lie on the spot. "Just in case, at home, you know?" she almost cringed at referring to 12 Grimmauld Place as "home", it felt like exactly the opposite. "We obviously can't use magic outside of school, and I've got a younger brother who's rather clumsy."
Recognition flashed in Fenwick's eyes, "Regulus?" As soon as he asked this, Ophelia knew that she had messed up. Of course, everyone knew that Regulus was Ophelia's brother, and that boy was the most agile boy at Hogwarts. Fenwick, of course, knew that Regulus was not clumsy, but he realized how dire of a situation it could be if he asked more. Thank Merlin he was a Ravenclaw.
"I can uh- I can teach you some stuff if you'd like," he offered, watching Ophelia's eyes light up.
"Would you? Thank you so much, Fenwick! You don't understand how much this means to me."
"Of course, and please, call me Benjy."
"Okay, Benjy," she smiled.
"I have a little brother too, you know. His name is Robbie, he does a lot of muggle sports, especially football and rugby. He plays for his school," he explained.
"Oh, I didn't realize that muggles have school sports too. Do they have a muggle variation of quidditch?"
"Not that I'm aware of, but he goes to a rather small school in Hampstead, so I'm not sure if there is one and they just don't play or what."
Ophelia grabbed a couple of books off the shelf and started to read them, asking Benjy for some help or definitions of words every now and then. It was all rather confusing.
"So, if you're bleeding, the first rule of thumb is to get it to stop, obviously. So, you'll need to apply pressure- is it okay to touch you? Okay, so you'll need to apply pressure kind of like this. And it's always a good idea to rinse it out maybe, and always try to cover it with gauze or a cloth of some sort." Of course, Ophelia had no clue what gauze was, but she didn't ask, she was too focused on trying to learn all of this stuff for the sake of Regulus.
"What about burns?" she asked, remembering many of the spells that had hit her, burning her skin and leaving scars.
"For burns, always run it under cool water for several minutes, try not to use ice though. If it starts to blister, do not pop them! After you've rinsed it, you might want to bandage it like this," Benjy reached down into his backpack and pulled out a roll of white bandages. After seeing the confused look on Ophelia's face, he laughed a little bit and explained, while he was properly bandaging her, that he had come from tutoring in the hospital wing not too long ago, and stole a roll from the nurse to practice with.
"And what if something gets broken?" she asked, cautiously, conflicted between wanting to be prepared and not wanting to get asked too many questions. Benjy understood that she didn't want to talk about any of her reasoning, and although he was curious, he set it aside to help the girl.
"If you break a bone, you're going to want to go to St. Mungo's."
"What if I can't do that? How can I heal it on my own?"
"Well, in that case," Benjy flipped through a few pages, scanning his eyes to find any information that might help. "You are not going to want to move it, and try not to straighten it out either. Maybe use a splint- I'll tell you what that is in a second- put ice on it, and elevate it."
After learning quite a few various methods of muggle healing, Ophelia felt quite prepared to handle the damage that her parents could do. It felt like it had only been an hour, but as she looked out the window, the moon was up and the stars were out. She profusely thanked Benjy for his help, trying to get him to understand the importance of her knowing this.
"Anytime, Ophelia. If you want to learn anything more, I'd be open to teaching you anything. Just give me an owl," he smiled, genuinely, excited to share his knowledge with someone else.
a/n:
Benjy and Robbie are cannon, so that's a little fun fact for you guys. Robbie was the kid who bit Hermione's dad at the dentist, so I made them live in the same place.
I'm excited for you guys to read the next chapter, it's super cute! And as always, let me know what you guys want to read!
Benjy Fenwick fancast: Emjay Anthony
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