STRONG ARMS GRIPPING HER. THE scent of cologne and citrus. She was moving, she could tell, but wouldn't remember, as this was her subconscious.

"It's okay, Princess. I've got you now. You're okay."

"Daddy's here, darling."

"Wake up, Ophelia, sweetheart. Please, wake up."

"I need you, my daughter. I cannot live without you."

Once again, in the span of about two months, this was the third time Lucius was present at Hogwarts. He'd thought his daughter was okay, but it turns out, she was not. 

Did Lucius think she'd be affected by the article? Most definitely. He was going to come to school the following day and bite that foul Skeeter woman's head off. 

It had been around four in the morning that Lucius Malfoy had been awoken by the tapping of on owl's beak on his window pane at Malfoy Manor, only to receive a letter from Snape. Ophelia had been found unconscious in the Forbidden Forest at three in the morning by a centaur, who had notified Hagrid, who'd kept her warm in his hut until she was in a better state to be moved to the Hospital Wing.

Lucius had nearly collapsed when he first heard the news. He'd just worn his robes over his pajamas and flooed straight to Hogwarts, at five in the morning, after nearly having a heart attack. Why was his daughter in the hospital wing again? What had made her run to the forest?

Here she was, unconscious, drenched, with a high fever, cuts and bruises all over her skin, and ice cold. She wasn't waking up.

He hadn't left her side, and her fever was the worst it had ever been. She'd been out in the rain for more than twelve hours, and her body temperatures kept fluctuating, unable to stay constant. 

And so passed two days. Lucius was worrying more and more with every hour that passed that Ophelia's state remained the same. For God's sake, even Draco was actually worried for once. 

He would skip classes to come and check on her once a day, but that was it.

Those two days were the slowest of Lucius' life. He hadn't left her side once. He'd been wearing the same robes over his nightclothes for two days. He hadn't eaten, nor slept. Instead, he was silent, and refused to talk to anyone. He was brooding. There had been no visible change at all, in Ophelia's state, and Madam Pomfrey had healed all her bruises and cuts, but was running out of remedies. 

On the third day after Ophelia was found, a healer from Saint Mungo's Hospital for Magical Injuries and Maladies arrived to check on her, and used a combination of a spell and a potion to speeden up her recovery.

Twenty four hours later, she awoke. Weak, and frail, but still awake.

And Lucius Malfoy cried with happiness, for the first time in his life.

She opened her eyes, as the sunlight streamed into the glass windows of the Hospital Wing, tinted in different colors after being processed by the stained glass in some parts of the window, and squinted.

Her grey eyes adjusted to the light, and she blinked. Once, twice. Thrice.

She couldn't hear anything. Blurred voices and muffled speech. It felt like she was in heaven. Her head was so light, as if filled with feathers and nothing else, and her body felt weightless, painless, like she was a fluffy cloud, on a clear, sunny day.

The first face she saw belonged to her father. The next thing she remembered was his hazy embrace, and a choking sob, and when he pulled away, her cheek felt sort of wet, and she had no idea how it got that way. 

He was crying? HE WAS CRYING! 

Ophelia had come to her senses, as the last thing she experienced came crashing through her brain like a flood and flashed through her, as if she were a pedestrian standing in the rain, and was suddenly struck by lightning.

She groaned in realization. 

"My darling, my princess, you're safe now," Lucius was whispering into her hair, arms bound around her tightly. "I can't lose you. Please, not again.." He was mumbling incoherent words under his breath, and couldn't fathom anything but the rush of emotions that hit her like a fast moving train. 

She tried to slow down her breathing.

In. Out. In. Out.

Inhale, exhale.

"Daddy," she whispered, closing her eyes.

"Hush, you're okay. Don't say a word. Save your energy. You'll be fine. You'll be fine," Lucius kept chanting incomprehensibly. "You'll be fine."

Ophelia didn't know whether he was trying to tell her she'd be fine, or he was convincing himself that everything would be alright. 

She just hoped that his words would be true.

Gradually, Ophelia was healing, mentally, and physically. Lucius had told her nothing about the article was true, and had assured her multiple times that he loved her so very much. She had finished the books she'd bought from Mr. Harper, and she'd written him for more, to which he gladly complied, sending her a brand new copy of Heidi, and David Copperfield.

Those books taught her patience, and about hardship, and about believing in yourself, and never giving up, and slowly but surely, she was building herself back up.

Draco had visited her once, but it was just to deliver a message for her from her teachers, and she sighed in disappointment when she had hope that he would be there just to check up on her. 

Lucius had stopped spending the nights with her too. His visits weren't as frequent as before, but when he did visit, it was the highlight of Ophelia's day.

Whereas she was sitting in a bed all day, doing nothing, and having nobody at all to talk to, Lucius Malfoy would come to Hogwarts after work at the Ministry, for an hour, and talk to her, and read to her for a while.

On the last day of his visit, the day Ophelia would be discharged, she had a conversation with him that was to change her life, and she would never, ever forget. 

"My daughter," Lucius began gravely. 

Ophelia knew it was important. He rarely addressed her by this title. 

"I must speak with you something of great importance. You must listen very carefully, and keep this in mind at all times. I will not always be there to fight your battles for you. You need to be strong."

"I'm trying, daddy—"

"Do not interrupt," Lucius said coolly, and Ophelia knew that this was a very deep discussion. "You are a Malfoy, you better start acting like one. You cannot allow people to walk all over you. You need to be proud, hold your head up high, and show everyone who's in control. Failure to do so will result in your time here only being more miserable. Running away, crying, skipping meals and sleep? These are weaknesses. You must stop acting like a spoiled child."

"But daddy—"

"Ophelia, please," Lucius held up his hand. "If anything goes wrong, face the situation head on. Don't run to the forest, or unsafe places. If you need a quick getaway, there is a room that you can use to escape," he told her. "Right here in Hogwarts. The Room of Requirement. It's on the Seventh Floor, opposite the middle tapestry," he continued. "Walk across it three times, with your goal in mind. A door will appear. Nobody will find you there."

"Really? That's-"

"Yes, it is fascinating, and very useful," he cut her off. "I am rather in a rush right now, but please, listen to my words carefully. Use your name to  your advantage. Do not let what others say define you. You can be anyone you want, and you are your own person. What other's say, do not matter, as long as you, and I know the truth. It's time to show Hogwarts the real Ophelia Malfoy. Be yourself. Be proud of who you are, even if it means embracing you are a Gryffindor. The sorting hat did not sort you in the wrong house. Gryffindors are meant to be brave. So be brave. Don't be like me. Don't be a coward. Do what you have to do to get on top. Show no weakness. Are we clear?"

"Yes daddy," Ophelia whispered, her eyes already watering at the thought of him leaving.

"Good. I must go now. Goodbye, my daughter."

And then, he stood up, turned around and left, without so much as even a hug.

Ophelia was left with tears in her eyes; for never had Lucius Malfoy been so cold with her.

Little did she know, the faded mark on his arm was getting darker, and he had been waking up abruptly to feel his mark burning. Little did she know, he was keeping his distance from her to protect her, as he faced the inevitable fact.

The Dark Lord was arising once more; greater, and more powerful than before.

***

When Ophelia was finally discharged from the hospital wing, and was up and about, pondering, and taking her father's advice all in, the atmosphere had changed at Hogwarts. For one, more people had signed up for staying at Hogwarts for the holidays, and she had no idea why. Two, people seemed excited about staying for the Christmas break, and Ophelia was sure it wasn't just because of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students. So she decided to ask someone.

It was rather unfortunate that the only person she felt comfortable asking, was Draco, no matter how much she did not want to talk to him.

Draco was in the library, with Pansy Parkinson, and the two were sitting in a corner of the library, whispering, holding hands and laughing about something she couldn't make out when she approached him.

They had started making out when Ophelia made her appearance by clearing her throat. Draco and Pansy broke up suddenly, moving away from each other, their breathing uneven, cheeks tinged pink.

When Draco saw Ophelia, his expression turned into that of bitterness. 

"Oh, it's you," he drawled.

"Yes, it's me," she remarked, crossing her arms across her chest. "Sorry to disappoint you. May I have a word?"

Draco looked annoyed, and sent an apologetic glance to Pansy, before rolling his eyes and clearing his throat. "I suppose," he said coolly, standing up, and gesturing her to walk, so he could follow her to a more private area of the library so they could talk.

"You're out of the hospital wing," Draco observed, once they were in a more deserted part of the library. 

"I am," she remarked. "You didn't know?" she feigned innocence, batting her eyelashes.

"I was busy. What do you want? I have things to do," he remarked.

"Yeah, like shoving your tongue down Parkinson's throat is a very important task," she said sarcastically, nodding with faux enthusiasm. "In fact, I see how exchanging saliva with her can be so, so much more important than your little sister," she continued.

"Cut the crap," Draco snapped. "And watch how you speak to me. At least I'm getting off with a pureblood, instead of that stupid Creevey mudblood that's in love with you," scoffed Draco rudely. "And you broke his heart, the only person capable of loving you, as Skeeter wrote," he continued, words dripping with amusement.

The visible change in Ophelia's expression made Draco wish he could have taken those words back.

From her calm expression, her grey eyes suddenly lost all the warmth and life they possessed, and it was like he was looking into the eyes of a corpse. Tears dripped down her cheeks, and Draco's lips parted. It had been years since he'd see her cry. This wasn't good. The tips of his ears went red hot, as whatever color that remained on Ophelia's face disappeared.

What have I done? thought Draco. He hastily tried to take back his words. "Wait, Ophelia, I didn't mean—"

"Yes you did," she whimpered, tears dripping down her eyes. "I bet you too, like everyone else that believes Skeeter's lies, believe that I am after the Malfoy fortune? I don't want that. Any of it. All I ever wanted was for you to love me like I loved you. I just wanted a big brother. But if Parkinson is so much more important to you," she cried, sniffling and wiping her eyes. "Go to her. Because everyone else matters more than I do. Clearly. I'm so so sorry I ruined your life by being born," she sobbed. "And I'm even sorrier that I hadn't died in the forest last week. I know how much you were counting on my death," she blubbered, before wiping her eyes. 

And then, Ophelia did what she did best. 

She ran.

It was only once she was safe within the walls of the Room of Requirement, that her father had told her about, that she stopped running, and began sobbing her heart out.

It was Rita Skeeter, the Gryffindor girls, Theodore Nott and everyone else around her, that broke Ophelia Malfoy, but it was her own brother, Draco Malfoy who had completely shattered her.

{ hey guys, i'm so sorry for updating a little late, and i wanted to thank each and every one of you for reading. last chapter, i commented on how we had reached 1k reads. now we are almost at 2k reads, and it has only been three days since i last updated. so thanks a million ! and thanks for 600 followers !
second of all, i am sorry for doing this to y'all- poor, poor ophelia. i wanna give her a hug rn. but next chapter has drama, and i bet y'all will enjoy that. comment your thoughts, vote, and follow !!
anyway, here's today's question: what is the strangest combination of foods you've ever eaten?
mine is apple with hot sauce. (don't ask-)
take care, luvs. love, jasmine }

{04 MAR. 2023}