Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter character's or anything related to the works of J.K Rowling. I only own the plot and original characters you may notice as you read this chapter.
I do not have a beta to help with any errors in this chapter, or any of the other chapters you may read from this installment. Thank you for reading this, and let me know what you think.
September 25, 1943
Peter Elwood was not what anyone would have called religious He was also far from what anyone would consider spiritual, but he did have priorities. One of the most important things in his life was Quidditch. If Quidditch had its own religion, Peter would have been the most spiritual person Ophelia would have known.
Ophelia sat between Margo and Peter, half heartedly watching the game while her eyes grew heavier and heavier. The only thing that kept her awake at the moment was Peter's constant yells whenever something happened.
It went without saying: one of the three Hufflepuffs did not get a good night's rest.
"His voice will be a mess come dinner tonight," Margo whispered to her friend, with a slight edge of worry in her voice. "Maybe we should try to get some soup in him later for his throat, yeah?"
"You can try, Margo." Ophelia yawned and stretched her legs as she did her best to get comfortable. "He'll probably want pudding as soon as his stomach starts growling."
"Honestly," the pure blooded girl lectured at the half blooded girl, "he needs to start taking better care of himself now. You never know who he might end up arranged with-I mean what if he ends up with some pure blooded French girl who never cares for him?"
Ophelia shrugged and pretended to watch the game; her eyes got heavy again. However, Margo was not done talking about Peter's nonexistent French fiance.
"My Gran's best friend, well, more like her best friend's brother-"
"Please get to it, Margo." Ophelia pleaded softly with her friend.
"Right," Margo started, "anyways, the best friend's brother, had an arranged marriage to a French pure blood, and she cheated on him left and right. She did not care one bit about her actual husband." Margo casted a look to Peter and she sighed. The Blaine girl probably thought her longtime friend was that of a handsome, chiseled idiot.
Cheating spouses, Ophelia thought, and stillborn potions…..Ophelia's head raced with questions she wanted to ask Margo, though she was confident Margo would have no answers whatsoever.
Question 1: Did the potion only work if the cheating spouse was carrying a child she was not supposed to be carrying?
Question 2: Were the main users of this morbid potion predominantly pure bloods?
Question 3: Has the use of this potion been banned in the wizarding world?
Question 4 (the real one that boggled her mind): Why was Tom looking at such a disgusting potion and exactly who put the books out in the open for him to find?
A tight feeling echoed in her chest as her stomach began to feel queasy: Tom didn't even have a girlfriend either, so why was he reading a book that stressed on hurting a significant other?
Ophelia stood up abruptly, which scared Peter for a slight second to snap him out of the Quidditch game. Margo didn't think too much of Ophelia's sudden movement, she was more occupied with her friend's clothes.
Peter arched an eyebrow at his friend, "Pipa, everything alright?"
Margo groaned at Ophelia, "Pipa, you're in a skirt without your school robes on today! You can't move so fast, you might showcase your undergarments."
"I just remembered," Ophelia lied, "I have a paper due Monday and I haven't even started the research for it yet!" The feeling of sleepiness that ached through her body was replaced with sudden energy. "I'm sorry you two, I really need to get to finishing that paper."
Peter opened his mouth, "Maybe after the Quidditch-."
Ophelia shook her head and started the leave the row they were seated at, "No, but I'll try to see you both by dinner time!"
Margo sighed but smiled at her fellow Hufflepuff, "Good luck, Pipa."
Good luck will be needed, Ophelia thought as she made a beeline for the library.
In her head she tried to think of where to start for her answers….but she could not for the life of her remember the titles of the books her dull green eyes gazed upon yesterday.
"Dark potions and something about magic in the old days," the lone Hufflepuff whispered to herself. Absentmindedly, she twirled her ashy brown hair in between her fingers as she tried to sort out an aisle to start at. I suppose, Ophelia thought, the history section...Hopefully I can find my answers in there.
As Ophelia made it to her designated aisle of the library, an unaware Slytherin and Ravenclaw were hidden in the oddest corners of that very same area.
"Oh, Tom." A feminine voice giggled seductively as the Slytherin tugged playfully on her curly, red locks. "You tease me so, but I do know your tricks."
Tom did his best to mimic a boyish grin. "You do, Miss Sharpe?" He leaned in closer to the Ravenclaw's ear and whispered, "Please, tell me about my tricks."
Selene Grace Sharpe, she was everything Tom imagined a true pure blooded witch to be.
Beautiful: with fiery red hair with steel blue eyes, her skin was flawless and like smooth porcelain-her lips might have been a tad on the thin and shapeless side, but overall, she was a beauty.
Rich: her family might not have been the defining purebloods from the Sacred Twenty-Eight, but the Sharpe family came from generations of old money much like those from the Sacred Twenty-Eight.
More importantly, Selene Sharpe had something he wanted: connections. Granted, it wasn't anything major, but it would do in a pinch. See, the Ravenclaw had been trusted by the librarian with a certain amount of freedom within the Hogwart's library, and that included the restricted area.
"Your tricks, Mister Riddle," Selene started off with a coy smile, "leaves girls rather…satisfied, I heard." She pressed her body closer to Tom and delicately wrapped her arms around his neck. Her beautiful eyes slowly shut, she leaned in, and her thin, shapeless lips puckered.
A chill of disgust quickly came and went over the Slytherin's body as he recalled girls, all of which, he never came into actual physical contact with. Tom was still, sure as hell going to use whatever details of that rumour to his advantage.
It's only physical pleasures of the human anatomy, Tom thought as he leaned in to give the red headed Ravenclaw student a kiss, it can't be hard for anyone to manage or attempt.
Their lips collided, and as they continued to snog, Tom did not feel anything significant as Selene kissed him.
As the Ravenclaw and Slytherin continued their activities in the odd edges of the library; Ophelia was two books deep into research. So far, most of her questions had been answered.
Answer to question 1: Yes, the potion only worked if in fact the spouse cheated. Ophelia had dig into an old potions book that mentioned the potion and how it worked, but not how to make it.
Answer to question 2: Surprisingly, the potion was used by pure bloods mostly when an affair with half blood wizards/witches resulted in an illegitimate child. Thankfully, the book used to answer question number one also included this shiny piece of detail.
Answer to question 3: Yes, as soon as the dark ages lifted up and wizards were more careful about certain potions, the 'stillborn' potion was banned and was to stay that way, any practice of it would result in a painfully long case from the Ministry. Ophelia found this information in an old textbook that discussed laws in the wizarding world during different eras of history.
Now all she was left with was a question no book could feed her the answer....Tom and his access to the books. Ophelia fought off a pout as she wracked her brain to answer the fourth question.
She stretched her arms over head and let out a loud yawn; Ophelia made her exit of the library, she didn't bother to return her books, not knowing her obnoxious yawn alerted two other students that someone else was there.
Selene let out a little squeak as she pulled herself away from Tom and readjusted her clothes. "Oh please don't let it be a professor," Selene fussed as she recomposed herself.
Tom was a little relieved that the snogging came to an end; he'd get to leave. "Isn't the fun of sneaking around the anticipation of getting caught?" Tom still had to make sure he had Selene Sharpe fooled and still under his charm.
Selene leaned in and gave Tom a quick peck and the lips, "You are incorrigible...I like that."
With those words, Tom knew he'd now have an easier time getting the information he wanted and needed. He gently grabbed Selene's left hand, brought it up to his lips for a little peck. "I will see you soon, Miss Sharpe."
"You know where to find me," Selene sighed slyly as Tom began to leave their little corner of the library.
The Slytherin boy and Hufflepuff girl missed an encounter with each other that afternoon, just by a matter steps and turns. Tom retreated the Slytherin common room; Ophelia curled up on her bed in the Hufflepuff girl's dormitory.
Tom Riddle made a note in his head to meet up with Selene Sharpe later that day. Ophelia Darwin made no notes in her head as drifted off for a long nap.
Margo Blaine the mothering type: an overbearing, over analytical, hypercritical, mothering type. So when she walked into the girl's dorm room, after being ignore by Peter for what felt like hours, to see a brunette peacefully asleep and relaxed-Margo was not having any of it.
Margo lifted her right hand up in the air, and with all the power her body could muster, she smacked Ophelia square on the back. "It is the middle of the day, Ophelia Mae Darwin!" Margo scolded as she began to shake her friend awake.
"I was just taking a rest, Margo." Ophelia grumbled as she tried sink into her bed.
Margo was now jumping all over Ophelia's bed, "Did you even finish that paper you were so worried about?"
A nonintellegible groan escaped Hufflepuff girl who laid still on the bed.
"Tsk," Margo stopped jumping around the bed and sat down next to her friend's sleeping body. There was a moment of silence before Ophelia sat up from the bed; she blinked out any remains of sleep from her eyes.
"Come on," Margo commanded was she nudged Ophelia to get off the bed. "Let's get something to eat. Peter's probably already in the Great Hall waiting for us."
No, Ophelia thought as she got out of bed and heading down the halls with Margo. He probably scarfed a whole chocolate cake down his throat by now.
"You missed a good show of Quidditch, Pipa." Peter was in between bites of his meal as he spoke to the half blooded witch. "Ravenclaw lost, so that was quite good in my opinion."
Ophelia ignored Peter's rambling on about the game, and she even managed to ignore Margo lecturing Peter about watching what he said about other houses out in the open.
Since she lacked appetite at the moment, Ophelia's eye zoomed over to the Slytherin table.
Easily she noticed Nott at first (a small twinge of embarrassment filled her body at how he'd probably never even see her as an actual, attractive female). Lestrange was the second one she noticed, followed by Malfoy, Avery, Mulciber, and Dolohov. A few of Tom's usual 'friends' might have been missing but she didn't know who.
"Pipa, are you listening to anything I have said." Peter asked.
"Uh," Ophelia was caught off guard with Peter's question but she knew him well enough to know he said something Quidditch related while she was busy ignoring him. "You're excited for this year's Quidditch season?"
Peter smiled and snapped his head over to Margo, "See! Pipa cares about Quidditch."
Margo opened her mouth, and her and Peter started to banter back and forth between the two of them.
Slowly, Ophelia's dull green eyes wandered back over the Slytherin table. Her mouth dropped slightly, a small and tired gasped escaped her mouth, a strong twinge of an uncertain feeling rattled through her chest down to her ankles.
Tom Riddle walked into the Great Hall, cocky and arrogant as usual-throwing a small, polite smile to a select few Hogwart students he deemed worthy.
That was something normal, something Ophelia was accustomed to. What she was not accustomed to, was the beautiful witch who had her arm locked onto the most pompous Slytherin student ever to breathe.
A sickening need to eat as much as Peter overwhelmed her feelings next, but she tried to sort out the uneasy sensation she got as Tom kept the beautiful Ravenclaw close to him.
Maybe, the Hufflepuff thought as poured herself a glass of water, she's the reason Tom's looked at potion?...Maybe that is his….
Ophelia couldn't finish the thought, it made her uneasy. Oh, sod it. Ophelia thought as she took a big gulp of water.
She made a note in her head to just forget why a terrible potion existed, to forget Tom had been looking at books from the restricted area, and to look away from the Slytherin table for the rest of night.