i should have held your hand || cedric diggory

a visit

"he's been sighted! he's been sighted!"

"who?!"

"sirius black!"

ophelia's ear perked up at the sound of her cousin's name. it was still the middle of the day and people piled into the great hall to do some studying. she was just in the corner when she heard a third-year run-in with a newspaper towards the other three that directed her to the astronomy tower last month. she tried her best to listen in on the conversation as best she could.

"dufftown?! that's not far from here!" said a girl she remembered being named hermione. all of the students surrounded the newspaper and you could smell the anxiousness from miles away. they were petrified.

"you don't think he'd come to hogwarts? do you?"

"with dementors at every entrance?" ophelia continued to listen to the conversation back facing them, trying hard not to be caught listening.

"dementors? he's already snuck past them once, hasn't he? who's to say he won't do it again."

"that's right. black could be anywhere. it's like trying to catch smoke. like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands."

ophelia slammed her book shut and stormed out of the hall. it pained her to hear such awful talk about her family, even if he was a criminal. she was related to him. that in itself was awful enough. she didn't fancy hearing about her deranged cousin all hours of the day. sirius was all anyone talked about. they were scared. always on edge. ophelia hated that the blood running through her veins was the same that ran through the man who betrayed potter's parents. oh yes, she knew the story. her father told her about it. many times. he told her about lily and james potter. peter pettigrew. they had gone to school together. and he told her how sirius betrayed all of them. it made her sick to her stomach. everything within her would fight the urge to think about it. now, she has to look at the boy whose parents died at the hands of her own cousin.
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ophelia remained shaken up. she knew that at any point in time, she could look over her shoulder and her cousin could be staring right back at her. it made her skin crawl. it was a feeling she could never get rid of. luckily, she had many distractions.

"lia don't be ridiculous! you have to go to hogsmeade. it's the first visit of the year!" eleanor shouted at her as she was getting ready. ophelia had just learned was hogsmeade was, the small village close to the school. similar to diagon alley, the streets were lined with shops. as appealing as all of that sounded, it wasn't something on her radar at the moment.

"el i have already told you, i need to study and..." there was a knock at the door. a rather heavy one. ophelia groaned and got up from her bed to open the door. her eyes grew ten sizes at who was standing before her.

"well nice to see you too, ambrose." the cold voice of bruno gallagher rang through her head. ophelia was frozen. her fists were clenched and turning white.

"stay away from me bruno. you will listen if you want to remain a student here."

"no need for that ambrose. i just came over to apologize what i had done. it wasn't even me then. you see, one of the fourth years took some polyjuice potion and locked me up in one of the broom cupboards so that they could make it into the party. told dumbledore everything and he was expelled. alastair found me in the cupboard after he realized i had been missing for a while. i may be a git sometimes but i would never do that to a girl. don't believe me if you want but that's what happened and i'm sorry."

he turned on his heels to walk away but ophelia felt something inside her chest.

"bruno," she called out and he turned his head to look at her, "it's alright. thank you for telling me. see you at hogsmeade." he smiled and continued walking. the heavy door closed behind her and she looked at eleanor.

"so that means you are going?" eleanor asked with a smile.

"what do you mean? i was always going." ophelia answered back sarcastically, laughing along with el.
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hogsmeade was just as magical as anyone would have expected it to be. ophelia's favorite part, however, was sitting at hogshead and sipping on a warm butterbeer. the harsh cold was no match for this warming, comforting drink. its rich, caramel smell satisfied her nose. ophelia was sat with eleanor, bruno, and alastair. she saw no reason not to since bruno confessed. he was still rather mean to eleanor, however, she never backed down from fights.

"i think it's mental that they are still allowing us to be in hogsmeade when black is on the loose." eleanor started. ophelia looked down at the table and shifted in her seat.

"i think the only mental one 'round here is you, cram," bruno said, "besides, we are protected. dumbledore wouldn't let anything happen to us." he took a sip of his butterbeer and everyone nodded to agree. the other three at the table continued their conversation. ophelia couldn't have been bothered. the thought of her cousin was swarming her head. she looked around at the other hogshead patrons. they were all jolly with a butterbeer in hand. she continued scanning when all of a sudden she saw a canine-like face peek out from the women's restroom. it's face was black as the night with eyes to match. it's teeth looked razor sharp and filthy. it had anger on its face as it made eye contact with ophelia. suddenly, it moved back and disappeared into the bathroom. ophelia was curious now. she excused herself to the bathroom.

when she reached the bathroom, she locked the door. there she stood with a huge, black, wolf-like creature. her heart was racing as it stared back at her. all of a sudden, the dog began to grow upwards. to her surprise, it took the shape of a human.

"well hello ophelia, so great to see you again." sirius held out his arms for a hug, but ophelia refused. he was filthy from head to toe and smelled disgusting.

"sirius! what are you doing? you could get caught here. you could be seen. what are you doing here anyway?" she said as she swatted his arms away.

"i can't just stop by to see my cousin?" ophelia looked at him and cocked her eyebrow up. "no?" he said, "well alright let me explain..."

"no! i don't want to hear from the biggest betrayer of all time. you killed lily and james potter. you worked for the dark lord. you..."

"ophelia stop! you are wrong. that isn't how it happened. didn't your father tell you any of this? merlin, now i have to be the one to tell you the truth no thanks to tobias. well alright, here we go then..."
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(a/n) picked this back up again. have just been wanting to write some. so here you go!