TOO EXHILARATED TO CARE ABOUT detention, the blonde headed in the direction of the locker rooms, only to be attacked into an embrace by Astoria, who was vehemently talking about how well she played.

"You were on fire," Astoria gushed. "And everyone's talking about the way you smacked McLaggen. Great job on that, by the way. He totally deserved it. Though it was rather unfortunate McGonagall gave you detention for that—"

"Ria," Ophelia interrupted her friend. "I've got to go change—"

But before Ophelia could enter the locker rooms, she found her path blocked by a couple of older Hufflepuff boys she had only seen in passing. 

"Hey Malfoy," one of them greeted, smirking slightly. "Do you want to go out with me?"

"No," the blonde shrugged, turning back to talk to Astoria, who was now joined by Theo, Blaise, and Draco.

"You killed it!" Blaise ruffled her hair, causing her to scowl and swat his hands away.

"You played well," Draco remarked. "For a Gryffindor."

Warmth filled her belly. Draco had watched her play! Her brother had thought she played well. The smile that formed on her lips was unmistakably radiant. 

"Admit it, I'm a better player than you are," Ophelia grinned good-naturedly, looking around at all her friends. 

"Pfft— you wish."

Someone tapped her shoulder.

"Hey Malfoy, so I'm free next weekend, and I thought—"

"No," Ophelia shook her head adamantly, ignoring the rest of what the other Gryffindor fourth year had to say.

"That's the second one that's asked you out," Astoria nudged Ophelia with a subtle wink. "You aren't going to say yes to any of them?"

She clicked her tongue, shaking her head slightly. 

"Why not?" Astoria asked. "He was pretty cute."

Ophelia could feel Theo's gaze boring into her, and she was doing everything she could to avoid meeting his stare.

Draco's grip tightened on her shoulder, and Ophelia could tell he was upset about where the conversation was cleaning. 

"Shut up," he growled, raising his voice when he looked around at the line of boys that surrounded Ophelia. "All of you. Ophelia is strictly off limits, and I will kill anyone who even lays a finger on her."

The line of boys cleared out quickly, each one of them scurrying away hastily, muttering apologies under their breaths.

When Ophelia finally dared to look up and meet Theo's eyes, she noticed they were several shade darker, his jaw clenched, staring at her with an intensity she couldn't bear to face.

He's jealous.

I can see the jealousy in his eyes.

Slowly, her lips curved up into a small smile, her eyes locked on his. Begrudgingly, the frown faded off his face on seeing his girlfriend smile at him.

At that moment, Mariana walked into the group's discussion, hand-in-hand with Pansy.

"So, I've just been informed that there's a party in the Gryffindor common room," Mariana wrapped an arm around Ophelia's neck. "And you're the guest of honor...."

Ophelia snorted. "Nice try. I've never been invited to a Gryffindor party before..."

"Is there alcohol?" Draco interrupted. "You're not allowed to drink. And you shouldn't be attending parties with mudbloods." He cast a slight sneer in Mariana's direction.

"That's my girlfriend you're talking about, and I would watch your words before I shove a—"

"Aaaand let's get out of here," Blaise interrupted Pansy by clapping his hand against her mouth and dragging her away, while Astoria led Draco out of here, subtly sending a wink to Ophelia and Theo, who were both left alone.

No doubt, this was part of their plan.

Blaise and Astoria were the only two people who knew about their secret dating, and they had orchestrated a plan to get them alone together.

When the Draco, Mariana and Pansy seemed pretty distracted to look back and Ophelia and Theo, the blonde grabbed Theo's arm and pulled him behind the locker rooms, pinning him to the wall with a slight grin on her lips.

Her hands found the ends of her Gryffindor scarf, which was still draped around his shoulders.

"Is that my scarf, Nott?" she murmured softly, tugging him closer to her by pulling on the ends of the red and cold cashmere.

"Is that the game we're going to play, Malfoy?" he whispered, his dark blue eyes boring into hers while he gripped her shoulders and turned them around, effectively switching their places to have her back mounted against the wall. "Yes, it is your scarf. Does it look good on me?"

Theo had her cornered now.

Both his arms had successfully caged her between himself and the wall, leaving her with barely any space even to turn around. 

She couldn't breathe, not with the way his eyes were already taking her in, every inch of her. From her messy, windswept hair, to the slight beads of perspiration that caused her baby hairs to cling to her forehead, Theodore had never found Ophelia Malfoy so desirable.

The guilt of cheating on him was long gone, yet still nagging her at the back of her mind, tugging on her strings and puppeteering her to distance herself from him, her own punishment to her own infidelity.

But she didn't. She ignored that nagging in her belly.

"Red and gold suits you," she whispered breathlessly, her hands wrapping the scarf tighter around his neck.

Theodore pulled her hands away from her neck and grasped her waist tightly, knocking her forward into his chest and hugging her tightly. Taken aback by the surprise gesture, once Ophelia's shock wore off, she relaxed and wound her arms around his neck, tiptoeing to get into a more comfortable position.

His scent engulfed her, like a raging inferno threatening to burn everything in its path, drowning out the strong scent of her Quidditch match with his French cologne.

"I'm so proud of you, Principessa." She could hear the low, dulcet tone of his voice echoing in her ear, filling her with pride and encouragement. "And did I tell you how fucking hot you looked when beating McLaggen up?"

It was when Theo talked to Ophelia like this that she could feel butterflies all over her lower abdomen, fluttering intensely to the point where she would feel like the imaginary insects would knock her over.

"I wanted to kiss you right there and then, in front of everyone, show them how proud I am of my girlfriend—" Theo's lips were peppering kisses all over her jaw and collarbones, occasionally on her lips. "And I wanted to fucking kill those boys who asked you out—" he kissed Ophelia firmly, gently nibbling her lower lip. "Because you. Are. Mine."

Her knees felt weak, and if it weren't for Theo's strong arms holding her up, the blonde would have collapsed to the floor right there and then.

Theo let go of Ophelia a few minutes later, and she went up to her dormitory to change into a party outfit, a short, strapless white dress that reached her mid-thigh, paired with her pearl and diamond earrings and her hair in a high ponytail.

Adding a final layer of lip-gloss, the Malfoy heiress made her way down the staircase from the girls dormitories to the Gryffindor common room, where the party was in full swing.

"Hey Malfoy," Hermione approached Ophelia, rather tentatively. "Erm, Harry told me to tell you he thinks you played well... And he told me to thank you for smacking McLaggen."

Ophelia smiled politely and walked past Granger, straight to the drinks table. Mariana joined her a few seconds later, and the two immersed themselves into a very interesting debate on whether or not Madam Pince and Filch had the hots for each other.

"I don't know if you've ever noticed, Ophelia, but he always takes the longest to clean the library..." 

Ophelia snorted, and before she could respond, Mariana's eyes had widened, and she excused herself.

She opened her mouth to ask what made Mariana leave so abruptly, but her unspoken question was answered when she felt a light tap on her shoulder.

Turning around, Ophelia's smile was inevitable when her eyes fell on Colin.

"You played well," Colin observed, giving Ophelia a drink that looked suspiciously like firewhiskey.

"Is this...?"

"Yeah, the seventh years sneaked some in," Colin smiled. "I'm not sure if you've tried firewhiskey before—"

But Ophelia had already taken a large gulp of the drink, much to Colin's surprise.

"You've had firewhiskey bef—"

"Mhmm," she nodded into her cup, licking her lips for any droplets of the drink that clung to her lips. 

Colin merely stared at her with a gob-smacked expression. A short tendril of blonde hair fell from her ponytail and took its place in front of her eyes, but Ophelia was too busy finishing the rest of her firewhiskey.

The alcohol had filled her with a brazen, carefree attitude, and an unwavering smile on her lips when Colin asked her to dance.

Loud, muggle music filled the Gryffindor common room, and Colin asked the DJ, a fourth year, to change the song.

Ophelia's hips moved effortlessly to the beginning chords of Material Girl, a dizzying smile on her lips when Mariana joined her on the makeshift dance floor.

The pair were singing along to the music, and Colin would occasionally twirl her in his arms, cheers and whistles following her with every beat of the song.

The music stopped, and when Ophelia looked up, she saw Ginny was standing next to a very frightened looking DJ, glaring.

"Having fun, are we, Malfoy?"

Ophelia's brows furrowed, and she sipped on her fifth glass of firewhiskey.

"Alright everyone," Ginny announced, drawing the attention of all the occupants of the Gryffindor common room. "Let's not pretend we don't know what's going on."

"Ginny," Ophelia could hear Hermione's whisper, a warning to her best friend's sister.

"Until today all of you hated her," she pointed at Ophelia. "Now you're all following her like sheep just because she caught the snitch... Big deal, I can catch the snitch too..."

"If it weren't for Ophelia, Gryffindor would have lost," Mariana was quick to speak up, stepping into place next to Ophelia.

"And you," Ginny scoffed and shook her head in disappointment, staring at Mariana. "Don't even get me started on you. You're just as hypocritical as the rest of them."

All along, Ophelia hadn't said a word, casually sipping her firewhiskey and listening to Ginny rant on about how she was the daughter of a Death Eater and a murderer. 

It should have bothered her, but it didn't.

She should have said something, but she didn't.

Because Ophelia realized something right there and then. It would be so much better if she simply didn't care.

Ginny could say anything she wanted, and Ophelia wouldn't react to it.

Nobody would have anything to gossip about.

"And you even have the fucking audacity to steal my best friend and parade her in front of my eyes..."

Ginny's insults kept getting more and more hurtful, trying to find the perfect combination of hurtful words to rile Ophelia up and cause her to lose control in front of all these people.

"You know what, Weasley?" Ophelia asked quietly, her expression completely devoid of emotion. 

She could feel everyone's eyes on her, for these were the first words she had spoken since the beginning of Ginny's monologue.

"I simply don't care," she shrugged, eliciting a series of oohs and aahs from the watching crowd, who, no doubt, found Ophelia's choice of words cool.

Every time Ginny had previously insulted Ophelia, she had taken it to heart, and she had been the one who was messed up, she was missing out.

But now, she didn't care. She allowed those poisonous words fall on deaf ears, and she realized that this carefree attitude angered Ginny even more than if she would have retaliated.

The rest of the Gryffindors would have had something to say about Ophelia had she fallen bait to Ginny's trap.

But when Ophelia announced that she didn't care, Ginny was furious, and she turned around and stomped away in the direction of the girls dormitories.

She had changed drastically in the few weeks she had spent around her new Slytherin friends. They had taught her how to be strong, how to live, how to deal with the judgmental eyes of everyone else.

Because no matter how hard one would try, there was no pleasing some people, and the best thing to do, was to simply not care.

And it looked like Ophelia finally learnt and understood that, because for the first time, she didn't let Ginny's words ruin her mood. 

There she was, in the middle of the dance floor, with her favorite song playing in the background, dancing with her friend, and the love of her life, a glass of firewhiskey in her hand.

Sure, she was drunk to the point where she wouldn't stop giggling and squealing, but she didn't care, because she was happy.

And she had everything she had ever desired and needed at that moment.

{ hey guys !! so i finally updated... i know it's been long. i also know i've barely updated this month... promise i'll update more often when i'm done with uni.
just wanted to ask you guys to spam me with comments, vote and follow.
socials are in my bio ,,
feel free to join the discord server for blood like gasoline (link's in my bio)
take care y'all. love you all sm.
lots of love,
jasmine.
xoxo }