Saudade

Chapter 30 The Final Meeting Ophelia

The journey home on the Hogwarts Express the next day was eventful in several ways. Firstly, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle, who had clearly been waiting all week for the opportunity to strike without teacher witnesses, attempted to ambush Harry halfway down the train as he made his way back from the toilet with Ophelia. The attack might have succeeded had it not been for the fact that they unwittingly chose to stage the attack right outside a compartment full of DA members, who saw what was happening through the glass and rose as one to rush to Harry's aid. By the time Ernie Macmillan, Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Anthony Goldstein, and Terry Boot, had finished using a wide variety of the hexes and jinxes Harry had taught them, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle resembled nothing so much as three gigantic slugs squeezed into Hogwarts uniform as Harry, Ernie and Justin hoisted them into the luggage rack and left them there to ooze.

"I must say, I'm looking forward to seeing Malfoy's mother's face when he gets off the train," Ernie said, with some satisfaction, as he watched Malfoy squirm above him. Ernie had never quite got over the indignity of Malfoy docking points from Hufflepuff during his brief spell as a member of the Inquisitorial Squad.

"I'm not," Ophelia grumbled, who had accompanied him. "I'm the one who she's going to yell at."

Harry patted her back.

"Well, I suppose Goyle's mom'll be really pleased, though," Ophelia said. "He's loads better-looking now... anyway, Harry, look the food trolley's just stopped..."

Harry thanked the others and accompanied Ophelia back to their compartment, where he bought a large pile of cauldron cakes and pumpkin pastries. Hermione was reading the Daily Prophet again, Ron was playing a singles match of chess, Ginny was doing a quiz in The Quibbler, Blaise was reading a book about ancient runes and Neville was stroking his Mimbulus mimbletonia, which had grown a great deal over the year and now made odd crooning noises when touched.

Harry and Ophelia whiled away most of the journey playing a wizard card game while Hermione read out snippets from the Prophet. It was now full of articles about how to repel dementors, attempts by the Ministry to track down Death Eaters, and hysterical letters claiming that the writer had seen Lord Voldemort walking past their house that very morning...

"It hasn't really started yet," Hermione sighed gloomily, folding up the newspaper again. "But it won't be long now..."

"What's going to happen when you get home," Hermione asked Ophelia.

Ophelia shrugged. "I'm not sure..." she said, focusing on the game. "It'll probably be a lot quieter and... I'm okay with that."

She looked up at Harry and grinned. And it was true. Sure, a part of her felt bad for her father but the other part knew he deserved it. After selling her to Voldemort, anything was fine with Ophelia.

"Enough about me, Ginny, I hear you and Michael Corner broke up," Ophelia said, turning to Ginny.

"What!" Ron exclaimed.

"Yup," Ginny said resolutely. "He didn't like Gryffindor beating Ravenclaw at Quidditch, and got really sulky, so I ditched him and he ran off to comfort Cho instead. Now they're dating." She scratched her nose absently with the end of her quill, turned The Quibbler upside-down, and began marking her answers. Ron looked highly delighted.

"Well, I always thought he was a bit of an idiot," he said, prodding his queen forward towards Harry's quivering castle. "Good for you. Just choose someone--better--next time."

"Well, I've chosen Dean Thomas, would you say he's better?" Ginny asked vaguely.

"WHAT?" Ron shouted, upending the chessboard. Crookshanks and Nutmeg went plunging after the pieces and Hedwig and Pigwidgeon twittered and hooted angrily from overhead.