selenophile || remus lupin

chapter ninety seven

3 October 1977

8:24pm

Ophelia walked up the grand staircase with Marlene, coming back from an exhausting quidditch practice. James' ultimate goal was to win the quidditch cup for his last year and he was making them practice as often as possible and for as long as possible, which, surprise surprise, was taking a toll on Ophelia and the rest of the team.

"You'd think after seven years, I'd be used to the steps," Marlene said, her chest heaving, out of breath.

Ophelia said the password to the fat lady and walked into the common room. It was packed with Gryffindor students of all years, sitting in front of the fireplace, working on schoolwork, or playing exploding snap. Ophelia and Marlene walked over to where their friends were working on schoolwork.

"Hey, Phee, Mar," Alice called them over. "Peter and I were about to go down to the kitchens and grab a snack. Want to come with us? You weren't at dinner, James' practice is getting out of hand."

"I'm sweatier than a blind lesbian in a fish market, so let me go change and we'll be down," Marlene yelled as she dragged Ophelia behind her, up the stairs to the girls' dormitory. She ignored all of the looks she got from the other students in the common room and Ophelia could hear Remus laughing loudly amongst the chatter of the room.

Once the two of them quickly showered and changed into more comfortable clothes, they walked down the stairs, Ophelia pushing Marlene down the last three steps. James and Sirius were back as well, sitting with the marauders and maraudettes. James' shirt was hanging loosely around his arm, his abs fully showing. He wore a smug grin as he watched Lily try to look everywhere but him and fail miserably, leading her to have a red tint on her freckled face.

Peter looked down at his hands but his head snapped up when he heard Ophelia and Marlene's footsteps, specifically the ones of Marlene trying to catch her balance. He snickered as he watched her flip Ophelia off and quickly jumped up from the couch.

"Come on, Alice!" he said, motioning for the girl to follow. Alice gave him an odd look but followed nonetheless, speaking nothing of his incitation. The four of them walked out of the room and down to the dungeons, sitting down at one of the tables in the kitchens.

Once they all had food in front of them, eagerly brought to them by even more eager house elves, Marlene spoke.

"I know it's been, like, just over a month, but I already miss Dorcas. I was so used to seeing her almost every day for the past few years, even this summer we spent a lot of time together, but now that she's graduated," she trailed off, the rest being clear.

"I know exactly what you mean," Alice said. "That's exactly how I feel about not being able to see Frank. I write him almost every day, but it's just not the same, you know?"

"I bet you're upset about not being able to see Mary, Pete. I know I sure am," Marlene said to the boy. His face attained a very slight red tint, almost unnoticeable, but Ophelia noticed that and the fact that his smile didn't quite reach his eyes when he said, "oh, yeah. I- I miss her, yeah."

"Phee, you're so lucky, you and Remus get to be together every day."

"I know, it's brilliant, isn't it?"

"Stop bragging," Marlene whined, throwing a piece of bread at her. In return, Ophelia threw a piece of lettuce at her, but she missed and it ended up flying toward Peter. To dodge the leafy green, Peter tried to duck, but instead, he accidentally fell off of his chair.

"This is why you're not a chaser," Marlene told Ophelia. The latter laughed and held her hand out for the boy.

"Pete, if you had a galleon for every time you fall, you'd be a bloody billionaire."

Peter laughed as he stood up with the help of Ophelia. The rest of the girls stood as well as he said, "come on, let's get out of here."

The group of four walked through the dimly lit dungeon corridors, a cool draft occasionally brushing past their shoulders. It wasn't an uncommon feeling when down beneath the school. What was an uncommon feeling, however, was the brush of cool air down the shell of her ear. She whipped around and was quickly met with a cool pressure around her wrist. Her eyes bored into the ones of Evan and she snapped back.

"Leave us alone," she rolled her eyes.

The rest of the group whirled around and took in the scene before them; Ophelia standing a foot away from Evan Rosier whose hand gripped her wrist to keep her in place.

"You heard her," Marlene said. "Beat it, snake."

"I need to talk to you," he said.

"Then talk, and make it fast. I don't have time for this."

"You don't have the time of day for me? Your fiance?"

"Don't call me that, we're not engaged. We're not even betrothed."

"Oh dear, maybe we need to have a longer conversation than I thought. Why don't we talk in private, sweetheart."

"Whatever you have to say, we can hear it too," Peter said, walking towards Evan.

"Ooh, tough guy, eh? Get out of my face, Pettigrew."

"Just spit it out, already," Ophelia snapped.

"Fine, if you don't mind if your friends hear. Let's just make it short and simple, I'd rather not be spending any more time than necessary with Gryffindor scum. I was going to discuss our plans after graduation, but this seems more important. I don't know where you got it in your head that we aren't betrothed anymore. You were there just as much as I was. We made the unbreakable vow, no getting out of that one, sweetheart."

"I ran away, Evan. I'm inevitably disowned. I can't be a 'true black' if I'm disowned."

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong, honey. You weren't disowned, whoever planted that pathetic thought in your head doesn't understand pureblood society. Probably that mudblood boyfriend of yours."

Alice whipped out her wand and pointed it at Evan's throat, "insult Remus again, I dare you."

"Come on, Alice. Drop it, let's just get away from him."

Alice begrudgingly lowered her wand and began walking away with the others.

"Wow, Ophelia. We're just going to leave it at that? So, you're a whore and a coward-"

A loud bang interrupted his sentence, however. Ophelia had her wand pointed at him, yet didn't utter a spell. She looked around in confusion to understand what had happened when she saw Peter putting his wand away and walking towards the boy scrambling to get up off of the dungeon floor.

"Disrespect her again, or any of our friends for that matter, and you'll regret ever coming to this school in the first place."

Marlene muttered, "damn," as the four of them left the dungeons. Ophelia grabbed his hand and he squeezed it.