Capítulo 26: Sudden Joy
First Monday and their schedule was not at all what they expected. They had Potions and Herbology in the morning and DADA in the afternoon. For most students it was comfortable because Slughorn and Sprout were seen as nice professors. But there was Spinnard right after lunch and that itself disheartened the whole year.
Even worse, Potions was done with Slytherins and Ophelia felt Severus glare every time Potter tried to copy Lily's movements, hoping he'll impress her as well as succeed his potion.
"Better concentrate on our potion or I'll do it all." Ophelia whispered, worried that may be the case.
"Look at him," The boy snarled, "He's being so childish when she's obviously ignoring him." The dark haired Slytherin added, his eyes narrowing at Potter with every ounce of hatred he could muster.
"You should have asked her to be your partner then." Ophelia mumbled, her eyes re-reading the instructions to make the Swelling Potion, "How much do I have to cut this?" She asked herself since Severus definitely wasn't going to save her.
"I wanted to but that girl Littlewood, she started to glare at me before I took a step towards Lily. She emotionally blackmailed her into partnering up." Severus added grumpily before finally turning to look at his actual partner.
Ophelia raised her head, throwing a look of skepticism.
"I'm sure that was the reason." She mumbled, "You have enough time to spend with her. It's only the second year, Sev."
"I know. What about you?"
"What about me?" She asked, returning her attention on the Swelling Potion. It didn't look good.
"You know, Malfoy and Lestrange," He whispered those names as if they were the death curses, "Have you seen them in the Great Hall or other places?"
"Truthfully, I didn't look."
Severus rolled his eyes and stopped her from adding an unnecessary ingredient into the cauldron.
"How can you be so calm about it? Their families are renown for being dark wizards."
"Why are you anxious? You said yourself, if they come, they come after me not you."
She was being so nonchalant about it that it truly amazed Severus. There he was, caring about her because he dragged her into his own issues yet she was ignoring every alarm sent towards her.
"What are you doing?"Severus asked when he saw her swirl clockwise when they had to do it counter clockwise. It proved to be quite important because it started to grow until it spilled out.
"Oh my, what's happening there?" Slughorn asked, hurrying over in case something bad would happen.
"Sorry, professor," Ophelia apologized.
"Ah, Molley. I should have expected you to be behind this."
It sounded extremely offending in Severus' point of view but Ophelia didn't look bothered at all.
Unfortunately, they had Herbology with Ravenclaws which meant Ophelia had to partner up with someone. She barely entered the greenroom when someone pulled her to a group.
"Um, no thanks." She mumbled as she turned around with the intention to leave them.
"Come on, badge. We have to support each other in times of needs." Potter reasoned, making no sense.
"Whose times of needs? I don't need any help." She retorted, not yet annoyed with the glasses boy but getting there slowly.
"You know, this and that. Help me out here, mate," He whispered and nudged Black, who was watching them bemusedly.
"Potions is always fun knowing we have something to look forward to."
His answer only pushed her towards leaving rather than staying. Potter scoffed and quickly pulled her closer when he saw her turn towards a team of Ravenclaws.
"We can help you with Slytherins. Or anyone, just name it."The brown haired boy said quickly throwing a firm glance at his best friend.
"I don't need help with Slytherins."
Black's eyes widened at her ignorance.
"Have you seen Malfoy? He practically drew holes into the back of your head yesterday at dinner."
Ophelia tensed, having heard about the blond before yet not taking it seriously.
"Really,"
"Everyone could see it, except you of course. He wasn't hiding it either. I think Malfoy was pretty clear but it seems his message didn't reach you." Black leaned in slightly before continuing, "I don't know what you did, badge, but Malfoy's seriously pissed with you."
"Should I be worried?" She asked the boys, finally registering the danger lurking around her.
"Not if you help us," Black answered smugly, high fiving Potter behind their backs.
But nothing really happened. Herbology passed with Potter whining over something or another and Ravenclaws scoffing at him. Lunch was peaceful too but because of the news about Malfoy's anger, she became aware that someone was indeed watching her.
When she turned around, she didn't see any glimpse of the Slytherin table. Someone stopped right behind her and blocked everything with his imposing figure. Ophelia looked up and met the cold blue eyes of professor Spinnard.
"Come with me, Molley."
"But-"
He only raised an eyebrow –that was literally the only movement- but she got the point and got up, following him silently.
"Maybe we should have offered help with Spinnard not Malfoy." Potter whispered to his friend.
But it wasn't low enough and Spinnard heard the Gryffindor perfectly. It was interesting information and he was going to dig deeper into the issues Malfoy had at Hogwarts. He was the son of an influent family and with friends like Lestrange or Avery, it was definitely something about dark magic.
Being curious every so often, Spinnard glanced at the Slytherin table, seeing Malfoy speaking to someone calmly. A few seats up the table was Rabastan Lestrange and he barely had time to move his head before he'd get caught. Glancing at her over his shoulder, Spinnard realized that Ophelia didn't even notice.
"Is there something wrong, professor?" She asked as soon as they walked out the doors.
"Yes. Be silent."
Spinnard had a lot to think about and having Tom's offspring running around the castle was not helpful at all. Instead of becoming more like her father and have few friends, she seemed to grow friendlier and friendlier.
----------------------------------------------------
The way to his office had never felt so long before. When he opened the door and waited for her to enter, he felt like he could finally breathe out.
"Congratulation, Molley. You'll learn Occlumency earlier than your classmates." He announced, not an glint of happiness in his voice or on his face.
"Occlumency? Reading minds?" She suddenly became very excited. It was the best news ever since she arrived at Hogwarts.
"No. Occlumency is the art of guarding your mind." He explained while walking to his desk. He took a seat and swayed his wand towards the window, opening it enough for a brown owl to fly in, "This is your partner."
Ophelia stared questioningly at the owl, confused if that was Willy or another one. Granted to his quick perceptive abilities, Spinnard could sense what she was thinking without having to read her mind.
"This is not your owl. In case you haven't noticed, this one has two white stripes on each wing." Spinnard scoffed, making her feel stupid for not noticing. The owl spread his wings and showed exactly how different he was.
"From where I stand, he does look similar." Ophelia persisted, having her own point of view.
Spinnard rolled his eyes before he nodded at the owl. Something amazing happened afterwards. The owl stretched to the point he looked like he was going to split in two but instead, he took the form of a man. He didn't look old but it was obvious he was around Spinnard's age, maybe younger. Actually, his features seemed a bit familiar; she was sure she had seen this new man somewhere before.
"Nice to meet you, Ophelia," The owl man started with a soft smile.
"Is he a friend of yours?" She asked, moving her eyes on Spinnard. Both men shook their heads as if that was horrendous.
"I was actually a classmate of your mother's." The owl man explained.
Then Ophelia remembered why she had the feeling she had seen him before.
"The picture! You were slightly out of it but did appear in it! It was taken in the common room with Lillian and the redhead!" Ophelia exclaimed, not yet disclosing that she took that picture away.
His brown eyes widened and she swore he looked just like his owl form.
"My name is Cerberus Knowingall and I was in the same team as Peverell."
The new name didn't seem to trigger anything in her mind which confused Cerberus.
"You don't know Peverell." He stated, a bit disappointed, "Peverell was a close friend of your mother's. He was also a very close friend of Luce's."
""Now that your loyal puppy is here, I should be going.""
Thinking about that memory, she could only wonder if Peverell was the loyal puppy Tom was talking about.
"And you?" She asked turning her attention on the man with real answers.
"Well, Peverell was the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team back then. Wait, I've still got our group picture!" Cerberus laughed loudly before he took something from his back pocket. It looked like that picture has been through a lot but it didn't matter, "Here we are. We won the House Cup that year against Hufflepuffs. We were lucky Slytherins had a bad year altogether. Here: the redhead with dimples is Peverell. In the front row, standing on their knees are Quincy Jones and Margie Oliveson- Beater and Chaser; then there's Olaf Wood who played Chaser . Peverell played Chaser too. I was the Keeper, here in the back. Ronnie McDonald played Seeker, he was really good."
"Why is my mum in the picture too?" Ophelia asked once she realized who was Peverell squeezing in his arms.
"Our original Beater was poisoned during Herbology and we needed someone to fill in. Lillian was in an angry state so Quidditch helped her cope with it."
"So mum played Quidditch?"
"Only that year, yes. Afterwards we got some amazing new years and eventually got another Beater. Most of us were already in our 5th year and had O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts to prepare for so the team broke right before the exam period." Cerberus explained, looking at the picture with melancholy.
"Was mum good at flying?"
Cerberus put the picture away and chuckled.
"You'll have to find that out by entering my mind. Of course, we'll take it slowly at first and I will just help you push intruders out of your mind but later on, I'll teach you Legilimency and-"
"No. You won't." Spinnard interfered, getting up with a glare at his former colleague, "You only teach her what you are supposed to. Nothing more and nothing less."
Cerberus waited for Spinnard to grab his book and leave the room in order to prepare for his DADA lesson. Only when they were alone did the older man scoff at the cold hearted professor.
"I can't wait for you to see the Spinnard from my memories. You'll be surprised how much he liked to stay around the fun guys." He mumbled, his eyes glinting mischievously.
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