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 any original characters you might notice.

I have no beta-reader so if you noticed any errors, please let me know so I can fix them as soon as possible. I still am bouncing around and trying to adjust to my new routine and I still unpacking and getting things sorted, so again, I do not know when I can find a regular time to update on a fixed day or date.

Hopefully, you guys enjoy the chapter. I want to say thank you to those readers who leave reviews and favorite and follow this series. It shows me that people are interested in Ophelia's life and it lets me know I should continue her story. So thank you and please leave some reviews to let me know what you think!

December 12, 1943

Edmund was surprised to say the least, he was glad though that the meeting place was outside. The cold winter air was calming him, along with the joint he had in between his lips as he waited a couple feet away from the Whomping Willow.

The Ravenclaw student heard light and dainty footsteps come in closer and closer, until the cause of the footsteps stood directly by him.

Margaret Blaine let out a stiff and steady greeting to acknowledge the bane of her existence. "Hello, Campion."

"Blaine."

Silence between them settled. Edmund took a long drag from the rolled up joint as he stared out towards the horizon; Margo kicked her feet in the snow as she stood begrudgingly by him.

If anyone (Ophelia-especially) ever took the chance to compare the two pure-bloods, the physical similarities between them was glaringly obvious.

The Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were blondes. Granted, Edmund was a honey blonde while Margo was a platinum blonde-there was a reason why they were both blondes and it didn't come from their mothers.

Vanessa Gought-Blaine (Margo's mother) had hair which had strong and deep hues cherry red in it.

Adelina Campion (Edmund's mother) had hair that was a subtle and light chestnut brown.

Even though Margo had deep blue eyes and Edmund had gray eyes-they both had the same eye shape.

Both pure-blood teens had slender Grecian looking noses.

Both had downward turned lips and therefore Edmund and Margo shared the same smile.

Both even had the same long chin with a square jaw.

Both even had the same father: Edward Marion Blaine. Hell in a way the half-siblings were named after their father: Edward to Edmund and Marion to Margaret.

Edmund didn't like to think too much about it while Margo let it bother her too much.

"Put that out," Margo said as she referred to the joint her half-brother smoked. "You smell like Dad before he sets out for Gringotts."

"I wouldn't know." Edmund took a final drag before flicking the roach into the snow. He wasn't sure why but even though he was eight months older than Margo-he listened to her. Maybe because you want to get with your half-sister's best friend. It was both weird and pleasant to finally refer to Margo as his half-sibling...Weird mainly.

He blew the smoke out into the cold air. "So, Blaine, what made you want to meet with me today? Let me guess-more insults?"

Be the person Peter thinks you can be….Be the person Peter thinks you can be. Margo took in a deep breath. "I am willing to put our nasty behavior towards each other-."

"Our nasty behavior towards each other?" Edmund had to chuckle at that "Who did you get your sense of humor from? Dad or your mum?" The Ravenclaw never really hung out with the other human who helped to create him.

Edmund didn't know if that man had jokes to tell.

For whatever reason, when there were other people in the room Margo was spontaneously meaner to her half-brother. When Margo was alone with Edmund, she got along better with him. The platinum blonde rolled her eyes and let out an angry huff. "Fine. I am willing to get over my nasty behavior towards you."

"Hm." Edmund arched an eyebrow at looked at the platinum blonde. "Why?" There's a catch...I know it.

"Out of the goodness of my saintly heart, that's why." Margo said perfectly chipper as if it was the most obvious thing.

"Satan-ly heart?" Edmund teased, "You said 'satan-ly heart' right, because that is what I heard."

"Fine!" Margo huffed and kicked at the snow on the ground. "I want Pipa to not hate me anymore!"

Edmund blinked at his half-sister, He didn't follow as how or why that linked to Margo wanting to talk to him. "Okay?"

"Okay so you tell Pipa that I apologized to you and we can put all the mean things I've said behind us." Margo held her breath. "Please, Camp-I mean, Edmund."

There, there was the catch. Edmund scratched his chin, he picked up on something. "You know, technically, I didn't hear you apologize so why should I tell Ophelia that?"

Without any attitude or huffs, Margo threw a portion of her pride away. "She's my best friend-sometimes I feel like Pipa is my only real friend...Peter and William don't count because, well, pure-blood society and business ties and you know how that goes." A sense of shame crashed on Margo. "I was mean to you because I thought you'd-well not you per say-but I thought you'd steal my best friend the way Dad was able to stolen by...pretty, young, vibrant things to say it nicely."

Silence settled in again.

Edmund was thinking Margo's words over in his head; relief fluttered to his heart to know Margo hadn't insulted his mum. It was nice.

Margo mistook the silence as her half-brother's way of rejecting her efforts. "I also wanted the best for Pipa because I want her to so very badly be apart of the pure-blood community that way her and I could still be close after Hogwarts." She sighed, "But that is no excuse for me to have treated you like I did. I really am terribly, sorry."

Edmund smiled and gently pushed Margo's arm. "Apology accepted, brat."

"Now, that brings me to my next order of business." Margo's tone went from sincere to stern in a heartbeat. "Holiday break is coming." Margo's blue eyes bore into gray eyes, and anyone could tell she meant business. "You're coming to my engagement party."

Edmund Campion, a well adjusted young man, who did have his thoughts in order, felt a strong sense of dread wash over him. He almost wanted to cry-Edmund knew there was no way in hell that Vanessa Blaine would allow him on their manor.

"Dad has spoken to both our mothers, it's been settled as of this morning. You are coming to my engagement party. Adelina, your mum, she is even invited too."

Edmund really wanted cry. "Merlin, no."

Margo went on. "I think your mum is actually designing my dress and your suit for the party."

Edmund did almost cry. "Fuck my life."

Professor Slughorn was faced with a slight dilemma Slughorn felt silly, how could he forget that he had administer a test for a student who'd fallen terribly ill the past week. The worst part was Slughorn had also planned to meet with an old schoolmate from his own times in Hogwarts; both were respected professionals in potions it just so happened.

All dilemmas could be solved, but Slughorn only trusted one student with to solve this particular dilemma.

"Tom, my good lad." Slughorn opened the doors of the potions room and allowed himself and the prefect in. "I cannot thank you enough for doing this on such short notice."

"I am honored to help, Professor." While it wasn't lie, Tom would have rathered digging further into other possible descendants of the founders of Hogwarts. As far as Tom knew there was only one other direct descendant besides him but that was all he knew at the moment. I suppose I could use this as an advantage to look around and find the material to be covered on the last test before winter holiday.

Slughorn probably didn't lock up the drawer of his desk where the tests and answers were kept, not when the oh-so-trusted Slytherin prefect was around.

"There are two portions of this test," Slughorn explained. "One portion is to report on the specified ingredients, method, and uses when concerning the Draught of Living Death. Second portion of the test is to match the proper description to the correct potion."

Tom nodded along attentively. "Should I time the student?"

Slughorn shook his head, "No, Miss Darwin has no time limit. We want her to take her time, do her best, and pass."

"Of course, Professor Slughorn." Tom agreed as he fought the urge to roll his eyes at the kind man.

"Thank you again so much, Tom." Slughorn thanked once again as he headed out and away for Hogsmeade. "I knew I could trust on you!"

Tom smiled his most deceitful smile, "Of course, Professor! Have fun on your day out and about." The heir of Slytherin almost thought for a brief second he was a trustworthy student-Tom had to chuckle to himself. I almost had myself fooled as well.

It took nearly fifteen minutes before a female with mousy brown hair walked through the doors of the potions class. Ophelia froze in a second when she saw Tom sitting at Slughorn's desk.

"Um," Ophelia looked around the classroom, "I'm supposed to be taking a test." She then added, "Where is Professor Slughorn?"

" He is out." Tom answered curtly as he put two pieces of parchment paper on top of the nearest desk across from him. "I'll be monitoring you for the moment."

Ophelia ran her fingers through her hair and let out a grunt of frustration; she said nothing else as she made her way towards the desk. The Hufflepuff sat down, grabbed her inkwell and quill out of the pocket of her robe and positioned it neatly at the corner of the desk. She then picked up the two pieces parchment papers and examined the course material in front of her.

Tom saw a smile come to the girl's face; it meant she knew the material. No, it meant Campion knew the material on his stupid flashcards he let her borrow. It irked Tom. "Your test is timed by the way, you have fifty minutes exactly."

Ophelia's smile dropped and a frown was very prominent on her face. "Slughorn told me beforehand that I wouldn't be-."

"Forty-five minutes is all you have now." Tom snickered as he opened one of the spare drawers of Slughorn's desk. He found a copy of the final test. "If you keep talking, Ophelia, I'll knock down another five minutes from your time."

Ophelia kept her mouth shut and began on the test. At least I know the material.

Tom read over the prepared test questions for the potions final, he made a mental note of all the topics to cover.

Ophelia focused on her actual test, the quill in her hand etching away into the paper.

At least thirty minutes had gone by of the two teens ignoring each other in stiff, cold silence.

To the Slytherin heir ears the etching sounds grew louder and louder, until it was too hard for him to ignore. He drew out his want and pointed it at the unaware Hufflepuff. "Accio."

Immediately the tests flew out from under Ophelia's quill and straight to Tom.

"Hey!" The Hufflepuff shot up from her chair but did not move closer to the young man. "I wasn't done." Now it was her turn to grab her wand. "Accio!" The tests flew back to her, right back on top of her desk.

Tom pointed his wand in Ophelia's direction, a spell came to form in his mind but it didn't have the time to slip through his lips.

A cold sensation of fear overtook Ophelia. The Hufflepuff didn't know what spell would come out of the Slytherin's mouth but to be fair, she wasn't even aware of the spell that flew out of her mouth at the speed of light.

Ophelia casted a switching spell with her wand, but not like the one when she was a fourth year student. No, any witch and wizard would agree that Ophelia casted more intermediate switching spell.

In a blink, Tom's body was thrown over and towards the desk Ophelia had once been standing behind. Ophelia was now standing behind Slughorn's desk, with her eyes shut tight.

Both felt incredibly dizzy and unsteady, though the Slytherin prefect was the first one to regain his sense of balance.

"Test time is over for you , Ophelia-dear." Tom hissed as he snatched the test papers of the desk the Hufflepuff was once at. He felt half-way tempted to crumple the test Ophelia worked on. Instead he snatched the test up and read through it with a critical glare.

A mixture of surprise, confusion, and irritation hit Tom all at once. He took his glare off the paper and threw it to the Hufflepuff. "You've answered and completed everything that's been asked of you in the test."

"Well, yes," Ophelia started. "I wanted to go over it before I turned it in."

At first Tom was confused because he figured if someone was going to throw a fit over a test and throw a few spells over it-it usually meant that they weren't done...Ophelia was done. Secondly came surprised, only because Tom was shocked to see how well Ophelia had done...She got everything right. Lastly was irritation because hell, it is common sense to turn your bloody test in as soon as you are done!...Or maybe it was because Ophelia succeeded thanks to the help of another male.

Then a little spark of a cruel idea flicked in Tom's head...Sure, Edmund helped her pass this time but Tom figured if he could get Ophelia to associate passing with pleasure-Edmund would be merely used as a tool.

A learning tool. Carefully Tom walked towards Ophelia, he slammed her test hard on the surface of Slughorn's desk.

Ophelia watched Tom intensely, he had no glare or aggressive expressions on his face. He was just blank...but sometimes 'just blank' didn't automatically mean Tom wouldn't pull something at the last minute. Tom moved in closer to Ophelia, to where he was now right behind her.

"You did well." Tom swept away the strands of brown hair that covered Ophelia's neck. "You did very well." His lips placed a peck on her neck.

Ophelia tried to shrug the young man off of her. "Edmund was very helpful." She threw that back at his face out of the small hope that Tom would hear the Ravenclaw's name, get mad, and yell at her to leave his sight just light yesterday.

It didn't help.

Tom bit down on Ophelia's neck with the proper amount of force to make the bite pleasurable. "Sure, he is." Tom placed a series and kisses and bites on the exposed nape of her neck. "But he isn't the one rewarding you for passing, is he?"

Ophelia tried once more to shake Tom off her back; the time more forcefully. The back of her head was tucked under Tom's jaw, Ophelia kept throwing her head back against him. "I need to go back to my common room. I promised William I would help him with something." Which was true, William did need help with something. He just never told Ophelia what the 'something' was.

Tom knew Ophelia wasn't lying, but he ignored her. The Slytherin heir stopped kissing and biting along her neck and bit Ophelia. Tom bit her hard on the top of her left shoulder.

Tears flooded dull green eyes; pain and anger was all Ophelia could sensibly comprehend. There was anxiety and fear lurking in with those emotions as well but she didn't know why she started to associate Tom with that.

"Tom!" Ophelia yelled and even with his teeth still clamped firmly on her, she sucked a deep breath in before painfully yanking away from him.

He glared at the Hufflepuff, "If you had stayed still it wouldn't have hurt." No, it was a lie. Tom meant to hurt her that time.

Ophelia said nothing to the handsome Slytherin heir. She wanted to pick her hand up and raise it to the sky as far as he could, only to let it down and slap Tom square on his cheek. The Hufflepuff didn't do it though.

For the first time, Tom saw a dirty glare flash in his Ophelia's eyes. Her eyes were narrowed, a scowl was placed on her face, and he saw her hand gripped tightly around her wand like a cobra. Without even a huff, pout, or string of curses: the Hufflepuff turned away from the Slytherin and marched out of the potions room.

If looks could have killed and if Ophelia had the guts to, Tom was almost certain she would put up a good fight. Even he had to admit, that look of fire in the brunette's eyes was a good fit on her.

Tom stood alone in the potions room, everything felt bigger and emptier without Ophelia there for him to aggravate.

Hot tears were streaming down Ophelia's face as she walked away from the dungeons of Hogwarts.

She was angry, her shoulder was throbbing badly, she felt frigid, but most of all: she was unsure.

Ophelia was unsure if the heat and sting that came from her left shoulder meant blood or a terribly bad bruise. She was unsure what would happen if her friends, or worse, Edmund saw the teeth marks on her body because she was certain Tom left marks on her.

Oh, Edmund...Ophelia was unsure if Tom would go out of his way to make sure Edmund Campion knew how many times she and him laid together. More tears ran down Ophelia's face in horror at the thought of being publicly humiliated in such way. If that happened, she was then unsure if Margo, William, and Peter would even want to still be her friends and stand by her?

Though what made Ophelia was unsure the most, was if Tom would ever leave her be.

Sixth year had proven to be the hardest year when trying to appease and deal with Tom. Who knew how extreme seventh year would be with him? Oh no...Ophelia stopped for a brief minute as dread nearly paralyzed her. What if I am still stuck with him even after seventh year?

Maybe once there was a time where the thought of Tom Marvolo Riddle being in Ophelia Mae Darwin's life after Hogwarts made her happy. Her and Tom. Tom and her.

They'd be the dream duo making the world spin with their distinct dynamic! Tom would have a distinguished job within the Ministry with Ophelia working in a library or similar bookkeeping job working to make sure Tom got the information he needed...It was a silly dream that a silly girl had.

I need to stop being a silly girl. Ophelia tried to calm herself down to get the tears to stop. She kept running back to the handsome, cruel, young man because whether she consciously knew it or not: Ophelia kept a small amount of hope stocked on that silly dream.

By the time she made it back to the Hufflepuff common rooms, her eyes were a red mess and she looked mentally and emotionally drained.

"You're here!" William bounced towards the weary brunette, his arms open and taking his friend into a firm hug.

"Yeah," Ophelia weakly wrapped her arms around the tall and muscular Zolotov. "Well, I live here too you know."

Hugging William was much like hugging a dog (Ophelia always imagined a St. Bernard), and some of her dread went away.

They pulled away from the hug, William gestured to the boys' room. "If you would follow me please."

Ophelia paled slightly as she followed after the Russian descendant. "If there is a girl in your room you cannot get to go home! I am not helping you with this again!"

"Oh, ha-ha." William scoffed as he jumped onto his bed; there was a scattered array of photos, different clippings from the Daily Prophet, and different paper badges with the logo of the Hufflepuff emblem, and papers of different colors . A little gray album in the center of the artsy materials.

"Scrapbooking!" William announced happily. "My Babushka, this is her hobby. All nine grandchildren of their own scrapbook." He went on, "I am making this particular one for Margo and Peter. I wanted your help with coordination and whatnot."

"Scrapbook?" Ophelia sat on the corner of William's bed; she picked up the nearest photo. A happy sigh escaped Ophelia's mouth at the picture in her hand, this particular picture in her hand was a magical photograph.

The photograph brought back a happy moment. Margo, her, and Peter were first years and William was a second year, they were standing near the lake. The two girls were standing close to each other, one arm draped around the other's shoulder, kind smiles on both their faces. Off to the side, William and Peter were jumping up and down in the picture with crazed grins on their faces.

A small pang of guilt crashed on Ophelia, it had been awhile since her and Margo actually sat down and spoke heart to heart to each other.

"I'll help." The female said as she gathered a bunch of photos to look through. "I shall put these photographs in order from first year to now."

William nodded, "I'll cut up some colored paper."

Ophelia sorted the photos in proper order, a question bubbled up in her throat. "Hey, Will?"

"Hm?" The well built young man said, "Yes?"

"Do you think Margo hates me?"

"Huh?" William wasn't sure he heard right but he was sure that Margo could never hate Ophelia. "Why would you say that?" The sound of scissors cutting through paper faded in the background.

Ophelia only threw an annoyed look at her friend. "Guess, Zolotov."

William groaned, "I don't need to guess. I already know what you're on about and no, Margo doesn't hate you."

Then Ophelia thought about Tom and him opening his mouth to tell all of Hogwarts of their intimate rendezvous. Would they all hate me? She asked another question. "Hey, William?"

Hanging out with Ophelia, sometimes reminded William of hanging out with his youngest sibling: a toddler who asked millions of questions per second. It wasn't bad, it just was just how William often viewed Ophelia. "Pipa?"

"Would you or Peter or Margo hate me if-." Ophelia never finished her question.

"No, Pipa." William put his scissors down and looked his friend straight in her eyes. What is she on about? It worried William but he kept serious and calm with Ophelia. "I would never hate you. Peter would never hate you. Margo would never hate you."

There was a heavy pause as William's eyes scanned Ophelia's features. He recognized the melancholy look on Ophelia's face; his sister had that same look when their cousins picked on her. "You alright, mate?" William's voice held a defensive tone, "Is someone messing with you because you hang out with us?" No one better be picking on you because of that, William thought angrily. In his mind, that was all William could correlate between Ophelia's emotional questions to: being bullied.

Ophelia shook her head as she kept flipping and organizing the photographs. "No, not being pick on." That might have been a slight lie. "I just...I don't want you guys to hate me if anything happens, you know? Does that make any sense?"

"Not one damn lick of sense in that statement but I'll take it." William went back to snipping paper. "Though I am offended you think your friend's would abandon you in a heartbeat." His voice was terribly serious. "Pipa, you are our friend and nothing can change that."

Oh, how could I not smile at that? Ophelia grinned like child at her friend. "Awe, William!"

"Hush, hush now." William rolled his eyes but a small child like smile came to his face too. "Help me or I am saying this gift came from only me instead of the both of us."

The pure-blooded Zolotov and half-blooded Darwin worked comfortably together, they cracked jokes and talked about anything random under the sun.

For a brief moment things felt right in Ophelia's world, much so to a point she made an important mental note in her head.

You need to make things better with Margo, Ophelia thought to herself. You miss her too, anyways.

Ophelia Mae Darwin was going to keep at least her friendships in proper functioning order even if she couldn't keep anything proper with Tom Riddle involved.