Disclaimer: I do not support Rowling's views. All Harry Potter characters and the Wizarding World, unfortunately, belong to she-who-must-not-be-named.
2 September 1994
"Lia, wake up! We're going to be late for breakfast."
Ophelia opened her eyes. An irritated Pansy stood above her, already dressed in her uniform. Ophelia burrowed her head into her pillow. "Ugh, you guys always wake up so early!"
At her vanity, Daphne turned her head to look at Ophelia. "It's 7:20?"
"Anything before 9 is horrendous," she groaned. Ophelia reluctantly got out of bed and headed to the bathroom and quickly got ready. She then cast a simple make-up charm and brushed her hair.
"12 minutes, a new record," said Tracey.
Still half-asleep, Ophelia gave her a sarcastic thumbs up.
"Ok, let's get some food in you," Daphne dragged Ophelia along until they reached the Great Hall.
The weather reflected Ophelia's mood, the ceiling in the Great Hall displayed heavy grey clouds. They sat at the Slytherin table, and Ophelia piled food to her plate. She spread some strawberry jam to her toast and took a bite, "Fuck, I forgot how good this is."
Blaise, Theo, and Draco took their seats with Ophelia and the others.
Blaise grinned at Ophelia's comment. "Lia you make it so easy to-"
She swallowed her food. "Zabini, it's too early in the morning for me to deal with whatever terrible innuendos you want to point out."
"'Back-to-school' Ophelia isn't fun, remember? She still needs to adjust from her summer sleep schedule," Theo whispered.
"Right," Blaise grimaced.
Draco slid a cup of tea over to Ophelia, the way she liked it, a splash of milk and a teaspoon of honey.
"Thank you," she smiled at him, then went back to her food.
It was an untold truth in Slytherin house that Ophelia and Draco were, something. Ever since Ophelia and Draco were young, there was speculation among the Pureblood community that the two of them were in an informal marriage arrangement, engaged to be engaged. Every potential suitor for Ophelia, or potential lady for Draco, knew to avoid them to not anger their influential families, despite both the Warrington's and Malfoy's denying any and all rumors regarding the joining of their two noble houses. However it may be, those in their social circle knew that Draco was undoubtedly devoted to Ophelia, and she was to him. And although Draco had recently come to terms with how the Warrington girl meant to him, Ophelia was as oblivious as ever.
While they ate, Snape handed out their new course schedules. "Care of Magical Creatures. . . damn, we're still with the Gryffindors," said Draco, "And we have Double Arithmancy with Gryffindor this afternoon, Lia."
"At least we have History of Magic first thing, I can take a nap," Ophelia responded, scanning her schedule.
"I still can't believe the two of you are still taking three electives. And Theo!" said Daphne.
"If I'm gonna be a Curse-breaker one day, I need Arithmancy and Ancient Runes! Care of Magical Creatures is a freebie class, to be honest. Besides my great-great-grandfather on my father's side was a dragonologist. Maybe caring for creatures is in my blood," Ophelia said happily. The others turned to Draco, waiting for his excuse.
"I like to challenge myself? I'm not going to take an easy class like Divination and call it a day," he scoffed.
"If anything I'm still surprised you're still taking Magical Creatures, Daph. Personally, after the fiasco with Draco and that hippogriff last year, I wouldn't dare miss that class. I mean, he should be grateful that I stopped him from getting hurt!" Ophelia glared at the boy.
Before Draco could defend himself, there was a rustling noise above them, the morning mail had arrived. Draco's eagle owl, Orion, had landed on his shoulder.
He handed Ophelia a box of macarons, then threw a bag of madeleines to Cassius.
"Thanks, Dra!" Cassius opened the bag and took out a madeleine. "Narcissa's the best."
"Aw, these are from that French pâtisserie on rue Bonaparte," said Ophelia, observing her box of macarons, "I'll send her a letter later!"
As the rest of his friends debated on the easiest elective offered at Hogwarts, Draco contently ate his breakfast. He always beamed with pride whenever he brought a little happiness to the Warrington siblings. Draco didn't want them to know that every month he asked his mother to send Ophelia and Cassius's favorite sweets along with his own. The Warrington's meant so much to Draco, more than he would ever let on.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione examined their new schedules at breakfast. "Today's not bad. . . outside all morning," said Ron, who was running his finger down the Monday column of his schedule. "Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. Care of Magical Creatures, Slytherins again."
"Double Divination this afternoon," Harry groaned, looking down.
"You should have given it up like me, shouldn't you?" said Hermione briskly, buttering herself some toast. "Then you'd be doing something sensible like Arithmancy."
"The only reason Harry would take Arithmancy is that Warrington is in the class," Ron grinned, nudging Harry in the rib.
The morning mail came in and instinctively, Harry looked up, but there was no sign of Hedwig. The owls circled the tables, looking for the people to whom their letters and packages were addressed. Harry watched the Slytherin table as Malfoy and Warrington interacted, he handed over a box to her. He knew that it was weird, creepy even, that he had noticed that Malfoy without fail would give her a package every month. As well as bonus packages on holidays like her birthday or Valentine's.
Trying to ignore the sinking feeling of disappointment in his stomach, Harry returned to his porridge. He should be more upset that Sirius possibly didn't receive his letter. Instead, Harry was fixated on how he had never mustered the courage to speak to the girl in the three years that he was been at Hogwarts.
Except for that one time second year. So much for being a Gryffindor.
The bell rang, signaling the end of the lesson. Ophelia jolted awake, Professor Binns was as boring as ever, and she dozed off to sleep not even ten minutes into class. The class separated; the Ravenclaws headed to Transfiguration, and the Slytherins left the castle to Hagrid's small wooden cabin. As they drew nearer, an odd rattling noise reached their ears, punctuated by what sounded like minor explosions.
"What abhorrent creature do you think he'll teach today?" Draco asked the others.
"As long as it doesn't smell, I couldn't care less," Daphne wrinkled her nose.
The Slytherins joined the Gryffindors and Hagrid. They were huddled around crates, a very powerful smell of rotting fish emanated from the boxes.
"Ugh, you've got to kidding me," Daphne squeaked, her voice nasally because of her pinched nose.
"Blast-Ended Skrewts! On'y jus' hatched," said Hagrid proudly, "so yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yerselves! Thought we'd make a bit of a project of it!"
"And why would we want to raise them?" said Draco in a cold voice. Hagrid looked stumped at the question.
"I mean, what do they do?" Draco asked. "What is the point of them?"
Hagrid opened his mouth, apparently thinking hard. "Tha's next lesson, Malfoy. Yer jus' feedin' 'em today. Now, yeh'll wan' ter try 'em on a few diff'rent things - I've never had 'em before, not sure what they'll go fer."
"Always making us deal with the worst creatures, I swear," Blaise complained.
"Come on, they can't be that bad!" Ophelia took off her black robes and rolled up the sleeves of her jumper. In a hushed voice, she continued, "Even though these are probably at least XXXX creatures and fourth years shouldn't be handling them."
The other Slytherins stepped back. If they were apprehensive before, they were definitely not in the mood to deal with whatever a Blast-Ended Skrewt was after Ophelia elaborated how dangerous they might be. Even she was hesitant to reach for the Skrewts.
Exasperated, Draco discarded his robes and rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt. He would never hear the end of it from Cassius if Ophelia was the only Slytherin to have the balls to deal with the creatures. Crabbe and Goyle reluctantly followed Draco's lead.
"Ouch!" yelled Dean Thomas after about ten minutes. Hagrid hurried over to him, looking anxious. "Its end exploded!" said Thomas angrily, showing Hagrid a burn on his hand.
"Ah, yeah, that can happen when they blast off," said Hagrid, nodding.
"Professor, is that a stinger?" Ophelia asked, pointing to some of the Skrewts in the box.
"Ah, some of 'em have got stings," said Hagrid enthusiastically, "I reckon they're the males. The females've got sorta sucker things on their bellies, I think they might be ter suck blood."
She paled, feeling in over her head at this point. But if there was only one good trait she would keep, it was her persistence to follow through with whatever she set her mind to. If she started something, she was going to finish it. To Ophelia's relief, she managed to pick up a female Skrewt and it was relatively calm in her hands.
Draco looked at the creature in Ophelia's hand with distaste. "Well, I can certainly see why we're trying to keep them alive. Who wouldn't want pets that can burn, sting, and bite all at once?" Ophelia gently nudged him with her elbow in amusement, which he returned with a cocked eyebrow and cheeky smirk.
"Just because they're not very pretty, it doesn't mean they're not useful," Hermione snapped. "Dragon blood's amazingly magical, but you wouldn't want a dragon for a pet, would you?"
"Seriously, Granger? You're comparing a dragon to this?" Ophelia gestured to the Skrewt in her hands. "As you said yourself, Dragon's blood is extremely useful. As well as their hide, heart, or claw. Even their dung is useful! But this? We don't even know what this is. And if you want an answer to your question, I would want a dragon. Draco, imagine a Welsh Green just chilling in front of the Warrington estate," Ophelia mused.
The Gryffindors stared at Ophelia, she never ceased to change their image of what a Slytherin was supposed to be, or she was just an insane exception.
Ophelia's friends thought it was the latter.
"Your father would kill me," said Draco.
Faintly, Blaise whispered to Theo, "She's still mental as always."
"A little bit of madness every once in a while doesn't hurt, Zabini," Ophelia proclaimed.
The remainder of the class period was mostly calm. Draco and Ophelia went back to the Slytherin dorms for their free period, while most of the other Slytherins went to Divination with Ravenclaw, their last class before lunch.
The two of them were relaxing in the girls' dorm, Draco was laying on Ophelia's bed, reading the Daily Prophet. Ophelia was standing on her bed, rearranging her collage wall and adding new polaroids from the summer.
"Hey, Lia, there's some news about the Weasley's in the paper."
Ophelia leaned down and read the paper over his shoulder. "Shit, how do you get into so much trouble in so little time?"
He shrugged and went back to reading while she went back to her wall. A comfortable silence fell over them, and every few minutes, Draco couldn't help but sneak a glance at Ophelia.
After lunch, Draco and Ophelia walked into Arithmancy alone, they were the only Slytherins of their year that decided to continue the class. Blaise and Daphne dropped the class at the end of last year, opting for the easier electives, Divination and Care of Magical Creatures. Likewise, very few Gryffindors took the class as well. Hermione Granger, Alice Tolipan, Sophie Roper, and Dean Thomas frowned at the new additions.
They ignored the Gryffindors and took a seat at a table in the front row.
Professor Vector entered the classroom, "What a wonderful surprise! Three of my most promising students all in one class!"
Ophelia internally laughed at the statement, it was well known that she, Draco, and Granger were among the top students in their year.
"Alright class, since it's the first day back, we'll be revising the materials we learned last year," Professor Vector handed each student three rolls of parchment.
Draco and Ophelia quietly conversed and worked on their number charts. Halfway through the period, they already finished their work.
"Done already, Mr. Malfoy, Miss Warrington?"
"Yes, professor," Ophelia replied with a smile.
Professor Vector revised Draco and Ophelia's work. "Well done! Five points to Slytherin for each of you."
"Thank you, ma'am," said Ophelia.
"Hopefully the new material we'll learn this year will challenge you," Professor Vector chuckled.
Ophelia and Draco politely laughed with her.
"Let's hope so, professor," Draco joked.
Professor Vector turned and went to check on the Gryffindors, who looked at Ophelia and Draco in shock that they had already completed the assignment. Granger in particular was slightly distressed that they finished before her.
"Let's hope so," Ophelia whispered in a mocking tone.
"Fuck off," Draco muttered, but his eyes always betrayed him when it came to Ophelia.
Contains content from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Chapter 13: Mad-eye Moody