Vagary

Chapter 7 Convincing the Unconvinced Ophelia

The book hadn't left Harry's side for the rest of the week of Potions, only letting Ophelia comb through it when she needed it most. But with the book she was able to pass with flying colors once again. Slughorn seemed quite impressed with her and Harry, asking questions about her trip to the Ministry last June, how long Ophelia and Harry have been dating, and what it felt like to betray her father. To say Ophelia was getting annoyed by his questions would be an understatement. Much more beyond.

Detention the past week hadn't been all bad. It seems Ophelia's words at the beginning of classes had softened Snape a bit but still, he piled Ophelia with work, another thing to be annoyed with.

He wasn't the only one Ophelia was getting annoyed with. Harry kept going on and on about who could be the owner of the book, he had found the name, 'Half-Blood Princes' scribbled in the back.

"Or herself," Hermione said irritably, overhearing Harry pointing some of these out to Ophelia and Ron in the common room on Saturday evening. "It might have been a girl. I think the handwriting looks more like a girl's than a boy's."

"The Half-Blood Prince, he was called," Harry said. "How many girls have been princes?"

Hermione seemed to have no answer to this. She merely scowled and twitched her essay on "The Principles of Rematerialization" away from Ron, who was trying to read it upside down.

Harry looked at his watch and hurriedly put the old copy of Advanced Potion-Making back into his bag.

"It's five to eight, I'd better go, I'll be late for Dumbledore."

"Ooooh!" Ophelia gasped. "Good luck! We'll wait up, we want to hear what he teaches you!"

"Hope it goes okay," Ron said, and the three of them watched Harry leave through the portrait hole.

"Maybe we should have taken the book from him," Ophelia sighed once he was out of sight.

"Now you think so," Hermione glared.

"Oh stop it, you, not in the way you think," Ophelia said waving her off. "He doesn't shut up about it."

"You're right, like with your brother--" Ron paused suddenly realizing what he had just said.

Ophelia narrowed her eyes at him and said, "Does he still think my brother is a Death Eater?"

"He told you about that?" Ron said nervously as Hermione glared at him for bringing that up.

"Of course he did. What? Should he have not?"

"No, that's not what I mean... I only thought you'd be angry with him for thinking such a thing," Ron said quickly.

Ophelia sighed. "Yes, well, I wasn't, he thought the same of me and he was wrong," she said, feeling a headache coming on.

"So Draco hasn't been acting suspicious at all this summer?" Hermione said cautiously.

Ophelia shook her head. "Far from it. Do you guys think he's working with Voldemort?"

"No! We've been telling him he's looking too much into it," Ron exclaimed in a whisper. "Saying You-Know-Who would never recruit a sixteen-year-old!"

Ophelia could almost laughed at the thought because yes, the Dark Lord would recruit a sixteen-year-old. But all Ophelia did was nod, "Well, I can confirm to the fullest that Draco is not a Death Eater."

"Well, I sure didn't think otherwise," Ron scoffed. "I mean your brother is a Death Eater, that's more hilarious than you being a Death Eater."

Ophelia chuckled. "Thanks," she said sarcastically but her heart wasn't in. "Now, can we go back to bickering at each other, this is very uncomfortable."