selenophile || remus lupin

chapter fifty nine

January 5, 1997

11:17 am

Ophelia shut the bathroom door in a panic, knowing that she messed up, and badly. She would have to think of some excuse that at least a few of those oblivious boys would believe.

She looked in the mirror and didn't recognize herself. Her eyes were dark and sunken, she was thinner than she realized, and she was unnaturally pale. She looked at her dress in the mirror and sighed before carefully removing the wet fabric.

She looked at her abdomen, the new cuts that her mother gave her showing up, drenched in blood and bound to get infected if she didn't act soon.

She rinsed water on herself, washing away the excess blood, took a thin towel from a rack, and laid it on top of her abdomen. She put her white button up shirt on, smoothing out the towel underneath. She put her sweater on overtop and finally her robes for good measure, to make sure nothing would leak through for the rest of the train ride.

She took a few more minutes to calm herself down before leaving the bathroom. She went the opposite way of the marauders' compartment and instead left to find the maraudettes. She heard Marlene's loud laugh and smiled to herself a bit before walking in and joining them. It was a nice reunion, even though all of the girls looked a bit shocked at Ophelia's state at first. They knew not to question anything and instead shared a few worried looks that went unnoticed by Ophelia.

After a few minutes, James appeared at their compartment, clearly looking for Ophelia. He had changed shirts, so it was clean and normal looking. He allowed himself in and looked towards the girls.

"Phee," he started.

"Potter, what are you doing here?" snapped Lily, James spun around on the spot at her voice.

"Lily Flower! How was your Christmas?"

"Fine," she said stiffly.

"Mine was excellent, but it would have been better with you," he winked.

"Shove it, Potter," Marlene rolled her eyes.

James came back to his senses and remembered why he came to their compartment in the first place.

"Phee, what the hell was that?"

"It's fine, James."

"No, it's not fine! You-"

"Not here, James," she said, darkly.

"I'm not done talking about this. Come into the corridor if you must."

The two left the compartment with all five remaining girls giving each other confused looks.

"I already told you, James. I'm on my period. I must have leaked through my dress," Ophelia said.

"That excuse might be able to fool Peter, but it doesn't fool me, it won't fool Remus, and it most certainly won't fool Sirius. We're worried about you, Fia. Please just tell me what's going on, I only want to help you."

"Nothing's going on! I'm fine, completely fine. My parents aren't hurting me nearly as bad as they did Sirius, there's no need for you to help me."

"I thought I heard your voice out here," said Evan Rosier from behind the pair.

"Evan," Ophelia nodded towards him.

"Evan?" muttered James in confusion, receiving a light jab in the side from Ophelia's elbow.

"I need to talk to you," he told Ophelia. She glanced at James before continuing talking with Evan.

"Is this about?" she trailed off, not wanting James to hear any information that would lead to him asking questions.

"You know exactly what this is about, sweetheart."

"Sweetheart?" James, once again, muttered in confusion. Ophelia looked up at him.

"James, could you leave us alone for a few minutes?"

"Leave you alone with Rosier? I don't think so. Do you know who this dickhead is? I'm not going anywhere until he leaves."

"Please, James. It won't take long, I just need to have a private conversation real quick."

"Fine, but I'll be back in a few minutes. If you do anything to her, Rosier, I swear to Merlin I will-"

"Yeah yeah, Potter. Run along now."

"So I take it you heard about the betrothal?"

"Of course I have. I cannot wait until we leave school."

"And why is that?"

"Because that's when the wedding will be taking place."

"Don't expect me to act like your girlfriend for the next two years. I'm not dating you until it's absolutely necessary."

"Oh, I assumed you would say that. I'd rather not get too committed with anyone until it's necessary either. I enjoy the Slytherin girls just fine right now. They do just what I ask of them, they look pretty, and they feel good. That's all I really need."

"You're disgusting, Evan."

"And you can be a little bitch sometimes, but we both have flaws that we'll have to get over when the wedding arrives. I cannot wait, soon you'll be completely mine."

Evan left her alone and stalked off to his own compartment. Ophelia had a minute to think before James checked on her and she got completely lost in her thoughts.

She didn't see any way out of this marriage. If she marries him, she'll be unhappy for the rest of her life, but she'll live. If she refuses to marry him, she'll get disowned and killed. Evan would have complete control over her life, her choices, her children, her freedoms. Marrying him would be signing away her rights for good. She felt helpless. 

a/n: i LOVE all of your guys' comments, they're so funny 

also what do you guys want to see in future chapters??