Chapter 1
Something felt off today, as if things were to change for good and that doesn't always mean it's the positive kind of change.
Ophelia could already feel that sentiment hanging in the air the moment she put on her robes and straightened her blue and bronze tie. After fixing her black waves she headed to breakfast where Samantha was already waiting for her as per usual. She was lucky enough to almost immediately become friends with the other Ravenclaw girl as soon as she had arrived at Hogwarts. That was actually her biggest fear, she wasn't exactly known to be a social butterfly. It was almost as if the two were destined to meet because Samantha was her polar opposite and dragged her to almost every social gathering she could attend. And that's pretty much how she had met the rest of her friends during her years at Hogwarts. Obviously there were still people she had yet to meet and some people she never wished to meet at all...
'What are you having?' Samantha asked, intrigued by the fact that Ophelia tended to overthink almost every single decision she had to make, even when it came to something as trivial as breakfast.
'Honestly, I'm thinking yoghurt, but also cereal. Would it be strange to combine the two?'
Samantha rolled her eyes and chuckled: 'So what if it is? Would that stop you from having them?'
'Uhm, yeah, obviously.'
'Don't be like that.' Samantha proceeded to grab a bowl of cereal and some yoghurt and handed it to Ophelia. 'Here, now everyone will think I'm the weird one.'
'Thanks.'
Breakfast, as always, was over way too quickly and both girls headed to class. Potions class was a favourite of Ophelia's and she couldn't wait to get behind her cauldron and get ready to create a new brew. It wasn't until she noticed who her new neighbour was that her excitement faded. She cursed internally, of course it had to be Garreth Weasley, catastrophe de potions extraordinaire. No way he was going to ruin this class for her, she wouldn't let him. Garreth was one of the many people Ophelia couldn't stand: always pulling pranks, making stupid jokes, ruining perfect concotions... Not to mention that he had the reputation of an arrogant, obnoxious flirt, at least, in her eyes. The boy was practically begging to be hated by her at this point.
Her eyes frantically searched for Samantha or Amit, for that matter. She was less close to Amit, but he was still considered a friend, unlike the freckled redhead that was now standing at his own potions station across from hers. How did this even happen? Did Sharp mess up the seating charts? Was this some kind of sick joke pulled by the pranks master himself?
She didn't know why exactly, but the need to throw up almost consumed her. She had a horrible feeling about this.
Garreth, on the other hand, had no idea of the internal turmoil of the Ravenclaw girl standing in front of him. He didn't know her very well, she often came in to class, followed along, then immediately went to the next class right after. He admired how dedicated she was but mainly found her to be too uptight. She would've been cute if her face wasn't wrung into a permanent scowl.
He looked around and noticed he needed to sneak into Sharp's office again if he wanted to try and brew the potion he had in mind. It's very unfortunate that some of the ingredients he needed for it were either extremely rare or not sold to students. He smiled, he couldn't possibly imagine why.
Ophelia let out a breath of relief when Garreth suddenly left his potions station unattended. At least now she knew nothing could go wrong. As long as the Gryffindor stayed away from the cauldron, no one would get hurt. Unfortunately for her, it didn't take too long for him to come back with some very odd-looking ingredients. She wondered where he had found those, but it didn't take too long before her brain started to connect the dots. Another conflict arose in her head: was she going to tell on him? That would make her even less popular with the other students. After all, everyone loved the Garreth Weasley. On the other hand, if she didn't, the chances were that she would fall victim to whatever it was that he was playing at in that cauldron of his.
Right when she had made the decision to tell Sharp, a loud BANG disrupted the otherwise calm classroom. Garreth's potion had started bubbling up, spilled over the edge of the cauldron and seeped into the table until the potions station exploded into a thousand tiny pieces. A couple of those fell into her cauldron and ruined the otherwise perfect Maxima Potion she had been brewing. Anger flared up in her and she was ready to scold him for all that was ugly in the world, but professor Sharp was faster.
'Weasley, clean up your mess!'
'Will do, professor!' The boy answered rather quickly. Despite the smile on his face Ophelia also noticed something else, a hint of fear, perhaps?
'I'm talking to your aunt about this.' were Sharp's next words.
Garreth's face paled so much that the freckles that had been invisible before also appeared. So that's what he was scared of.
She quickly packed her stuff so she could head to her next class immediately when an unfamiliar voice tried to grab her attention.
'Sorry 'bout that.'
Ophelia looked up, in front of her was the tall, potion-ruining prick. She pressed her lips tightly together and refused to say anything. Garreth sensed the awkwardness and tried to brush it off by continuing the conversation.
'I'm Garreth, by the way. I'm a bit of a prodigy potioneer, if I do say so myself.' He stretched out his hand which Ophelia refused to take. She swallowed the insult she had laying on her tongue for him.
'You dare call yourself that... after you almost blew up the entire classroom!?'
He raised his hands in mock-defense. 'One minor explosion in Sharp's class isn't too bad, it hardly counts!'
'Minor?! Minor?! I was standing close enough to almost get my face burned off!'
Garreth couldn't help but smile at her overly dramatic reaction. 'But that didn't happen, did it?'
'You... I honestly can't imagine why you think that's funny!'
'Calm down and lighten up a little! You Ravenclaws are way too studious. Have some fun every once in a while!'
'To entertain troublemakers such as yourself? No thanks.' She briskly walks past him, leaving him stunned. What was her deal?
