WHAT WAS LEFT OF MARCH skedaddled away through time, and soon, it was April, bringing with it the excitement of the long-awaited Easter break, and Ophelia's sixteenth birthday.

Most unfortunately, whatever Ophelia looked most forward to was also naturally accompanied by forthcoming events that she did not look forward to.

Like her OWL examinations.

Despite the fact that she had already sat for her Transfiguration OWL, the Gryffindor was still constantly stressed about writing the exams for her other subjects.

She was confident about scoring an Outstanding in Astronomy, Potions, Charms, History of Magic and Herbology, and if she was lucky, an Exceeds Expectations in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Arithmancy and Ancient Runes were driving her insane. 

No amount of studying would ever help her understand why and how numbers were used to predict the future.

She was doing Arithmancy, not Divination, for Merlin's sake!

But after missing three days of sleep over her previous Arithmancy assignment, Ophelia finally spoke to Granger, asking her for help and advice about Arithmancy and Ancient Runes.

It took a lot of heated internal debates for the blonde to wrap up her ego, stash it away temporarily, and go to Hermione to seek help.

Especially because Hermione was the only Hogwarts student who managed to get an Outstanding in both subjects last year.

Studying with Hermione also gave Ophelia the advantage of avoiding Theo with a valid excuse. Ever since she'd spent a night in his bed, the blonde had been nonstop thinking about him, and as a result, she was always distracted.

Which was why she figured that if she avoided him, she'd be less distracted and focus on her schoolwork.

It was not going well.

Every single time Theo saw her, he'd wink at her in the corridors, or on the way to class, leaving the blonde feeling giddy and flustered for minutes after. 

And he'd always wait for her after her last class of the day, giving her something small every single day.

One day it was flowers, another day it was a tiny, stuffed teddy bear, the size of her palm, another day it was a scented candle... Two weeks into the month of April, after the blonde's bedside table was absolutely cluttered with tiny trinkets from Theo, Ophelia asked him why he was giving her so many gifts, all of a sudden.

"I'm preparing you for your birthday," the male replied with a tilt of his heads.

And the blonde couldn't help but wonder, giddy with excitement, that if he was giving her cute, little gifts every day, what would he give her on her birthday?

This only distracted her even more, and by the end of the week, Ophelia shook her head and groaned when Theo bestowed upon her a miniscule, golden stopwatch, counting down the exact time to April the twenty-fourth, midnight.

"What? What's wrong?" Theo asked worriedly. "You don't like it?"

"No, no, I do," the Malfoy heiress brought her eyes to meet his. "It's just... this... it's distracting..."

Theo raised a brow, waiting for her to explain what exactly about his gift was distracting. 

"You're distracting," Ophelia blurted, eyes narrowed at him in accusation. "You— you bring me little stuff every day, looking like that and sending me smiles every now and then, and— I can't focus, I can't even think straight and I have exams in a month—"

Once she got started, Theo knew she would not stop until she emptied her mind of thoughts. Patiently waiting for her to finish, his smile only grew wider with every word she spoke.

Oh, she was so adorable, so fucking pretty, especially when she was mad, with the way she spoke animatedly, with her arms all over the place, and that one stubborn tendril of platinum blonde hair that fell into her face every time she inclined her head very slightly.

But when he had been listening to her a full minute, Theo could not bear it any longer. His attraction towards her flustered state. His desire  He leaned forward, hooked his arms around her waist, and painted her lips with his own, dousing them in the remnants of the cigarette he had been smoking earlier, relishing the small, "Oh!" that left her parted lips when he kissed her.

She tasted like the strawberries she ate during breakfast. 

She tasted like his best friend's sister; forbidden. 

She tasted like his future wife.

Her breath mingled with his, he could feel her warm breath fanning his lips, as she breathed his goddamn name, the best sound he'd ever heard in his entire life. 

"Theo."

Lia.

My Lia. My princess, my darling, my heart, my life.

My everything.

No, Theo was too astounded by her to speak, to find words. If she thought he was a distraction to her, it was nothing in comparison to the way she distracted him.

Her lily perfume, and her silky hair beneath his fingertips...

"Lia," he murmured against her lips. "I swear to God—"

But before Theo could finish, Ophelia interrupted him with a squeal and pushed him away. The Nott heir opened his mouth to speak, to ask what happened, only to be answered by the distant footsteps just around the corner.

Someone was coming.

And without giving her a warning, Theo grabbed Ophelia's hand, and ran.

It was noisy.

It was messy.

It was totally undignified and improper, and should they have been caught, they would have served detention.

But it was perfect.

Just like Ophelia's moments with Theo were too good to be true, so were her moments with Colin.

She felt guilty about doing this to both boys, but the guilt simply just dissipated into thin air whenever Ophelia was with either one of the boys.

Colin didn't know she was secretly dating Theo.

Theo didn't know she was cheating on him behind his back.

No, Ophelia was selfish.

She had always grown up selfish, having every thing in the world, choosing her happiness all the time, that she did not realize that being too selfish was wrong.

By then, it was too late for her to change, because being selfish had never felt so good before.

And the writer shakes her head in disapproval as she comes to this part of the story, where Ophelia is being so, utterly selfish. 

"Ah, Ophelia, if only you knew," she murmurs, even though there is no one around to hear her. "Being selfish sometimes is okay. But by being too selfish... Well that's not okay. One day, you'll learn."

As her fingers rest on the typewriter, she shrugs slightly. "But by then, it'll be too late."

No, even the writer doesn't like Ophelia very much right now. And she very much wants to give Theo a hug.

She wishes she could change the story, just a little bit.

Maybe Ophelia suddenly falls in love with Theo and they live happily ever after... After the things they've both been through, they certainly deserve it.

But that's not how the story goes.

The stars wanted her to write the story of Theo and Ophelia, and so the writer decided to bestow them with their wish.

If the writer could change their story, she would. She would make Ophelia learn her lesson now. She would have Ophelia realize that one's blessings are taken away by being selfish.

But that's not how the story goes.

No one said the story was going to be happy and dandy, full of rainbows and butterflies. If it were sunshiny, no one would want to read it.

The stars begin to complain that the story is too slow. They begin questioning why Ophelia is still hung up on Colin. They agree that Theo doesn't deserve her.

They want it fixed.

But if everything was perfect, just the way the stars wanted it, the story just wouldn't be the same. 

For one, it would be much, much shorter. 

In fact, it would even be over by now.

Not to mention that the world isn't perfect.

Ophelia is, after all, merely human. 

Just like everyone else.

And humans make mistakes, and they learn from them.

Now that's how the story goes.

That's how all the best stories go. 

Besides, this story, is real. 

The writer is not just making this all up just for fun. 

The writer does not have time to make this up.

 And the writer most definitely does not, absolutely does not enjoy making things like this up.

Obviously, the stars are still a little suspicious, as they do not believe the writer.

But, nonetheless, they roll their eyes and cross their arms, silent for now, most definitely missing the writer's tiny, suppressed smile as she lays her fingers on the keys of the typewriter, and begins to write, to continue the story.

Ophelia somehow ended up spending a little bit of her time with Colin every single day. Once the common room had cleared out after curfew, the pair would play Uno or Exploding Snap, and it reminded Ophelia of those good, old, golden days in her third year, in a time where everything was much simpler, before everything changed.

When he was her best friend.

But now, he was more. He was still her best friend, but he was also the boy she loved. Her first love.

Most of the time, their games would always somehow end up with one on top of another, making out.

Sometimes, they would make out in empty classrooms. 

Specifically, the potions classroom. Right after their class, they would wait for Slughorn and the rest of the students to leave, before they would cuddle up together and just talk about the most random things on the planet.

Of course, they were very careful not to be seen.

But when one fancies themselves in love, and forbidden, love at that, the rush and excitement that passes through them when they secretly steal moments with their significant other makes it almost entirely impossible for the secret to be kept a secret much longer.

Even if they do try their absolute hardest to be careful.

And so, at the beginning of the Easter break, the very second after Slughorn's class at the end of the day, Colin and Ophelia stayed back in the classroom like they did every week, both pretending to pack their books.

Both deliberately packing their own bags extremely slowly.

When the classroom was emptied out completely, Colin looked at Ophelia and smiled, taking both of her hands in his own, and bestowing a gentle kiss to one of her wrists, before leaning in for more.

But the door suddenly flew open, without warning, and the pair of Gryffindor lovebirds jumped apart at the sound, split up before their lips could even meet.

And they both opened their mouths to speak, to tell Slughorn that they were just hanging out, sure he would let Ophelia, his prized pupil off with nothing more than a lighthearted warning.

But fate had other plans.

It wasn't Slughorn.

Ophelia's heart sunk to the very bottom and her eyes widened as she stared back at him.

It was Blaise.

The writer was tired. Yet her fingers still hovered over the typewriter, paused in midair, deciding whether to keep writing, or not and just leave the readers with this cliffhanger.

The writer tilted her head in thought. Should she proceed, there would be a lot to write. Naturally, there was quite a bit of commotion after Blaise found Ophelia and Colin together, alone in the potions room, almost about to kiss.

And to capture the exact events in their essence, the writer would have to have a clear mind and a back that did not ache from sitting in that uncomfortable posture, bent over the typewriter like an old lady.

Besides, cliffhangers were fun.

Instead, she slid out the story of Theo and Ophelia from her typewriter and replaced it with a blank sheet as she hummed a little melody, beginning to write a little Author's Note to go right after the cliffhanger, within the pages of her story.

The first Author's Note to her readers. She did not know how to go about this, she did not know how the stars would take it, an interruption to their reading.

Nonetheless, she began to write.

Once upon a time, the planets and the fates,
And all the stars aligned,
And the writer ended up at the right place,
At the right time.

And they chose her to write this story,
Because they knew she was a mastermind.

She would write it well.

{ first off, i would like to apologize for the slightly delayed update. second, thank you so, so much for 850k. last but not least, i LOVED writing this chapter. it was so, so much fun, despite the minor setback of a slight writer's block halfway through the chapter.
please vote, comment, follow and share, and absolutely spam me with comments after reading this chapter.
i love each and every one of you, and would like to thank you for sending me sweet messages, leaving very entertaining comments that i like to read in my free time, and being the best readers i could ever ask for.
i hope you had a great summer, feel free to drop a brief comment about how you spent your summer, i love reading your comments. even though i only respond to some, i read and go through each and every comment despite my flooded notifications every time i log in.
anyway, join me on discord if you'd like new friends, and on spotify if you understand all my music references that i've hidden (in plain sight) in all my books.
other than that, i hope you guys are all okay.
lots of love, xoxo,
jas. }

{ SEP 02. 2024 }