THE FIRST WEEK OF FEBRUARY dragged itself along the month, trying to pass as slowly as possible, unlike its brother January had. Instead of getting warmer, the weather only got colder and more snowy, which made it practically impossible for Ophelia to spend much of her time in the beloved outdoors.

After Theo had shown her the special tree at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, it had become Ophelia's favorite spot, when before, she used to go to the Astronomy tower every time she felt sad or lonely, or even just needed time to think.

But due to the snowy storms outside, it was almost impossible to spend even five minutes outside without freezing to death, no matter how bundled up one was.

Thankfully, Ophelia didn't have much need for the Astronomy tower either, as she no longer needed comfort or solace from the universe, seeing as the past week was absolute heaven on earth.

She was happy. 

Nobody and nothing could ruin her mood, not even Weaselette and Cooper.

Now that she had gotten done with her transfiguration OWL, there was no need for her to attend any of the transfiguration classes with her year anymore, as now she was in NEWT level transfiguration, much to Professor McGonagall's pleasure. The professor allowed her to use the extra time to study her other subjects, whilst once a day, for half an hour, she would meet Professor McGonagall in her office and learn transfiguration at a NEWT level.

Of course, this also gave her free time to spend with Theo and Draco whilst the rest of her year would be attending transfiguration. 

Draco spent most of his time in the Room of Requirement, and he often had Crabbe and Goyle keeping a lookout for any passers-by, both disguised as tiny first year girls using Polyjuice potion that Theo had managed to steal from Professor Slughorn.

Though Draco could never fully trust Crabbe and Goyle, so he merely insisted that Ophelia and Theo could keep an eye on them when they had time to kill.

So her free lessons would often be spent like this; watching Crabbe and Goyle with Theo.

Of course, if anyone asked what she was doing, she merely gave them the excuse that she was a prefect, and she was merely doing her duties.

During the time spent with Theo, Ophelia got to know him better. He was arrogant, cocky, confident and annoying, but he was also caring, fiercely protective and sincere. 

She knew then that the Theo from her childhood did not die, or leave, but had grown up, and had been waiting for her to grow up too.

They still spoke of their childhood though.

And of Colin.

Ophelia's favorite subject to talk about was Colin. She would tell Theo about all the times Colin had taken photographs of her, and defended her... And Theo only listened and nodded, giving the blonde the most wonderful feeling of actually being listened to for once.

Theo also discovered that she was quite talkative.

"Merlin Lia, do you ever stop talking?" he interrupted her after the third time she had mentioned the fact that she was very excited for her date with Colin.

Of course, said blonde turned pink and muttered something under her breath, shaking her head and shrugged before remaining silent. She had gotten so carried away at finally being reunited with her childhood friend that she could never stop talking to him. 

Perhaps she should have let him do some of the talking too...

And an hour later, Theo realized that Ophelia had remained awfully quiet ever since he had asked her to stop talking, and felt extremely guilty that perhaps he had hurt her feelings which caused her to maintain silence.

Tentatively, he decided to open up the topic again, despite the fact that he utterly despised the fucking mudblood.

"So, are you his girlfriend now?" he asked quietly.

Lia opened her mouth to speak, then furrowed her brows and looked up at him. "I don't know..." she answered, realizing that Colin hadn't made it clear at all.

What were they?

"He said he's in love with me, and he asked me out to Hogsmeade, but... we haven't talked much since we kissed last week..."

Theodore spluttered and blocked out the rest of her words.

He had no idea they had even kissed!

She hadn't mentioned that.

This was the first he had heard of a kiss.

His fists clenched.

I swear to God I am going to fucking rip that asshole to pieces. 

His blood was rushing all over his body at an alarming pace, his blue eyes turning shades blacker with anger.

He kissed what is mine.

Mine!

MINE!

But then, she touched his shoulder and titled her head to look at him for an answer to her question, and at the gentle feel of her soft digits on his biceps through the layer of his jacket, he seemed to instantly simmer down just by looking into her eyes.

Those beautiful metallic irises, the perfect shade of liquid mercury, with tiny flecks of sea blue.

She seemed to be completely oblivious to the mental war waging inside his head.

"He kissed you?"

"Yes," she repeated, frustrated. "God, keep up, Theo!"

Theo raised a brow. "Well, excuse me for not being well versed in gossip like a fucking woman!" he drawled sarcastically.

"Blaise manages to keep up with me, and he isn't a woman," Ophelia taunted. "Well, if you'd rather I spoke to him—"

"Go on," Theodore cut her off with a fake smile. "I'll listen."

Because he would gladly listen to her sweet voice for hours, even though she spoke of nothing but that dratted mudblood.

"Yes, so he kissed me—"

"Does Draco know?" Theo raised a brow. "That you and the mudblood are..."

"No, and don't call him that!" the blonde shook her head. 

"So," Theo changed the subject. "Was he a good kisser?"

It was the blonde's turn to splutter. "Yes, No... I don't know!"

Theo's smirk only grew, arrogance and smugness radiating from him.

"Who's a better kisser, him or me?" 

He couldn't resist. The Creevey boy got to kiss her, he got to tease.

It wasn't fair, but it was the least he deserved.

The way the pink blush spread across her cheeks was absolutely worth it, and paired with the look of horror on her face just made him want to stay in the moment for eternity.

"That's— it... that's a very inappropriate question," the blonde finally stuttered. "And I refuse to answer it."

"If it was him, you would've told me..." Theo teased, leaning close to whisper into her ear, knowing she couldn't resist him when he wore the leather jacket she had given him.

She had given him the very tool that would cause her undoing.

Lia froze, her gray eyes opening to look up at him, shaking her head before she averted her gaze. "Well... I wanted him to kiss me."

Her words hit him harder than a Cruciatus did. Guilt filled him like a drop of poison infecting a goblet of wine, coursing through him with inexplicable heat, paralyzing him momentarily.

She obviously meant that he had kissed her without consent. 

Without her permission.

He was completely immobile.

He didn't know what to say.

And then, she looked up into his eyes once more, miniature storms flashing in her own gray eyes as she tried to read him.

She remembered that night like it was day.

Like it was the back of her hand.

"I can't do this anymore," he had said.

"Theo, why did you kiss me that night?" the blonde whispered softly, her significantly smaller hands slowly reaching down to hold one of his. 

She knew she was being bold.

She knew it was a longshot.

But she needed to hear it from him. 

Perhaps a part of her still held a shred of hope; that her Prince was still there.

"What did you mean when you said those words?"

I can't do this anymore.

Those words flashed into his mind every single time he thought of kissing her for the first time. With guilt.

He had broken the pact with his best friend.

He had let his cover fall.

"I meant that... I didn't have the energy to argue with you anymore," he chose his words carefully. "So I shut you up with the only way I could think of."

It was so damn hard to explain this to her without her getting offended.

"You were annoying as fuck."

The blonde scoffed. "Says the biggest asshole I know," she scoffed, before rolling her eyes and continuing where she had left off in their previous conversation before they had gotten carried away. "Actually, I was mad about you kissing me without permission. But I'm actually glad you did. Otherwise I never would have had the guts to kiss Colin," she remarked casually, as if she were talking about the weather, and Theo let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding.

One day, he would tell her the truth.

Meanwhile, during this particular week, Colin had been behaving strangely.

He had been asking Ophelia what she was doing with Theo, whenever the pair were together, and the Gryffindor had often caught the hazel eyed boy following her whenever she and Theo were keeping an eye on Crabbe and Goyle, which was very peculiar, since Colin had never behaved like this before.

He was also asking her a ton of odd questions, like where she spent most of her time, and whether she was close to her brother or not.

Lia thought he was jealous.

She had managed to slip that she and Theo were just friends into the conversation very casually, but still, Colin continued to follow her around and ask her questions that were completely out of his character.

Nine days before her date with him, Ophelia caught Colin following her and Theo as they paced the corridor whilst on the lookout for Crabbe and Goyle.

"Colin, what are you doing here?" Ophelia had asked. "Why are you following me? You've been acting strange all week..."

"I'm not," Colin stuttered. "I just... I've been trying to look for a good time where you can help me with transfiguration stuff..."

He's lying.

Why is he lying?

Ophelia's brow furrowed, before she had an idea.

Theo's intimidating gaze was deadlocked on Colin, his jaw ticking with anger; a timebomb that was seconds away from explosion.

"Oh," Ophelia smiled. "Sure, common room in an hour?" she asked calmly.

"Yeah," Colin grinned at her, and despite the seriousness of the situation, she felt fluttery all over.

"Bye," she whispered shyly.

"Could you make your infatuation any less obvious? He was lying, can't you see?"

"I know, I'm not dumb!" the blonde remarked. "I am actually going to follow him. He's been acting strange all week."

Sure enough, when the Malfoy heiress followed Colin to the Common Room an hour later, she noticed him talking to Potter.

They looked to be in some sort of slightly heated discussion.

"Well, just find out where Malfoy keeps going!" Ophelia heard Potter hiss quietly to Colin, and she groaned, facepalming.

Of course.

It was so obvious.

Harry was using Colin to spy on her and Draco.

Sprinting back to where she had left Theo on the Seventh floor, Ophelia was breathless by the time she reached her friend, clutching her sides as she tried to catch her breath.

"Potter's putting him up to this," she gasped. "He's obsessed with Draco!"

"Well then, we just have to let him know that the game is up," Theo suggested.

Ophelia then came up with an idea.

The next time she and Theodore were supposed to keep an eye on Crabbe and Goyle, Ophelia actually waited for Colin to follow her before meeting up with Theo.

She gave him a note from Draco, which he put in his pocket, and the two began to pace the corridor as per normal.

When parting ways, Ophelia gave Theo a hug, before she went back to the common room, and he made his way to his next class.

Unfortunately, the note had fallen out of his pocket and onto the floor, which was perfect, since Colin managed to find it, pick it up, and deliver it straight to Harry Potter himself.

Back in the common room, Ophelia sat on a comfortable armchair with Cleo in her lap, reading Pride and Prejudice when she saw Potter receive the note.

She also happened to take note of Potter's expression.

She also avoided Potter's sharp gaze when it fell on her.

Because Harry Potter held a piece of parchment that said the words he least expected;

Nice try, Potter. But if you want answers, I'd prefer if you come to me in person, instead of use my best friend to spy on me.

xoxo,
ophelia malfoy. 💋 

She signed it off with a lipstick mark. (Little did she know, Theo was jealous of the parchment her lips touched.)

"Best friend?" Theo had asked her when she was writing the note. "Not boyfriend?"

Ophelia shrugged. "I don't know what we are," she responded quietly. "So I'm just writing best friend."

"Thought I was your best friend," Theodore motioned a broken heart with his hands, causing Ophelia to giggle.

"Don't be silly," was all she said, before she sealed the parchment with wax and wrote Draco on it. "You're Draco's best friend."

But Theo wasn't being silly.

He genuinely wanted to know.

But somehow, her words were worse than friend zoning him.

No, this was a statement that meant that he could never be anything more to her that Draco's best friend.

Well, Draco had finally gotten what he wanted.

Perhaps it was for the best.

Do you see me as anything more than that?

Is that all I am to you? Is it all I'll ever be to you?

I want to be more than just a sweet nothing.

For now, he needed to find another Slytherin witch to take out his frustrations on, and maybe a couple of cigarettes to forget about her temporarily.

{ i genuinely cannot stop writing this book. i swear i am so hooked...
anyway, this was a kinda filler chapter, alternating between theo's pov, and lia's pov, but i swear, the next chapter will be a literal drama bomb. we have maybe two more chapters before the valentine's day date, and it's funny; a lot can happen in two chapter. 
anyway, please let me know your thoughts on this chapter, and your predictions for the next chapter.
spam me with comments, vote and follow, and please do check out my profile for my socials, and other works.
lots of love,
jasmine. }

{ MAR 17.2024 }