[2] after darkness → tom riddle

Chapter Twelve: Fist Punching

The sound of someone apparating into the sitting room caused Emory to look up to his friends. Their children were upstairs sleeping, whilst they as a group had talked about where Ophelia had gone.

Emory shook his head and ran to the room to see his wife standing there with someone he hadn't seen since the horrific day back in 1945. The group who had followed had all walked into the living room and saw the man they were once great friends with.

"Son of a bitch," Avery yelled as he pounced on the man standing next to Ophelia.

Orion was pinned under Harlen, someone he once considered his best friend, and was taking multiple hits to the face.

Ophelia and Helen rushed to pull Avery off Orion and to get him calm. Helen took Harlen to sit on the settee to calm him down, whereas Ophelia remained seated next to Orion on the floor.

"Emory go get Orion a glass of water," Ophelia raised her voice.

She looked over to Rune who didn't even need to be told and rushed over to check Orion's face. Rune quickly cleared up all the blood and closed the wounds with a swish of his wand.

Emory came back in with a glass of water and handed it to Orion.

"Wasn't the welcoming I was expecting, but I guess it is the one deserved," Orion spoke after taking a sip of water.

"You've got that right," Harlen yelled, "you come waltzing into Ophelia's and Emory's home expecting everyone to be all over you as if you were Jesus fucking Christ, you've got another thing coming if you even think for a second that you're wanted here."

"Harlen, calm down," Emory spoke softly.

"Calm down?" Harlen laughed, "Emory he was there when Tom killed your best mate, he was there watching, stood beside Tom when he cast the killing curse that killed Starr. So, don't you dare tell me to calm down, because I will never forgive him for it."

"You can't seriously still think that?" Dove asked, tears slipping down her face as she held onto Nicole's hand.

"Yes, yes he can, he has every right," Morgandy protested, "Harlen's right, we were all so worried about him being on the same side as Tom and he was standing right there next to her, I will never know what was going through Starr's mind when she was killed, but I know he could have stopped it, but he didn't, so I'm with Harlen, I can never forgive him."

"Morgandy," Ophelia raised her voice.

"Don't Ophelia, whatever you're going to say won't change my mind or opinion," Morgandy spat, a stream of tears running down her face.

"Morgandy Cordelia Shannon, don't you dare stand there and tell me that you will not have your opinion changed because I will not have it!" Ophelia growled, "Starr has been dead for sixteen years, and I know damn well how it killed you, it killed us all, including Orion, the first thing he said to me when he saw me was that he was sorry, so don't you bloody dare pin this on him," Ophelia yelled, her hand waving about with a pointed finger striking out, "if Starr was here right now she would have hit you, you know how close Starr and Orion were, you know how close we all were with Orion."

Ophelia briefly paused to catch her breath, she quickly glanced to her husband who had his eyes on her and a proud smile on his face, she caught her breath and maintained her previous argument, "Starr has been gone sixteen years, sixteen fucking years for all of us to reflect on that, and in those sixteen years we've shed many tears, but we moved on, and that's because Starr and Abner would have come back and haunted us otherwise. You have a husband now as well as two beautiful children with a third on its way, so you better buck up your ideas and treat Orion with a bit more respect and get over yourself."