O P H E L I A  L O V E G O O D

Ophelia entered the library fighting down a grin. She was about to approach the table that she had grown attached to over the past three years when she realized something was off. She looked around until her eyes landed on a boy who appeared to be staring at it intently.

She huffed before walking over to him. She stopped when she realized it probably would have been weird for her to just approach him with no reason so she circled the room. She grabbed a book here and there before she finally entered the aisle the boy was watching the table from.

"Excuse me?" she spoke up but he seemed far too entranced by the table to respond. Maybe he was zoned out. She looked over at the table before looking back at the door. "Is anyone in there?"

"Hello?" the girl tried again as the boy remained standstill in front of the shelf. "Hey!" she shouted, grabbing his attention along with everyone else. He raised an eyebrow at her and she pointed to the books behind him, "I need that book."

"Oh," he replied looking behind himself and stepping out of the way. "Sorry."

She grabbed the book and eyed the boy curiously. She was about to walk away when she stepped forward so she was next to the boy and pinpointed where he had been looking. An empty table where absolutely no one sat.

She contemplated running in case the boy was crazy but decided against it, "What exactly is it that you're staring at?"

He jumped, clearly not realizing that she hadn't walked away. He glanced back at her for a moment, "Why does it matter?"

She shrugged, "I just thought it was odd that you were staring at an empty table." She glanced back at the table for a moment, "Then again, maybe I don't have much room to talk about being odd."

He turned to face the girl with a huff. He looked her up and down, "Who are you exactly?"

"Ophelia Lovegood," she replied. She shifted the books in her hand carefully so they were in one arm and stuck her free hand out, "And you?"

He took her hand and shook it, "James Potter." He stared down at their conjoined hands for some time. He seemed to snap out of it and released her, "I have to go. It was nice to meet you."

She nodded in agreement, waving as he walked from the library. He glanced back at the empty table and frowned before leaving the room. Ophelia waited a moment and then quickly ran over to the table. She looked down to see what message had been written there. 'When can we meet in person?'

Ophelia wanted to write 'We already have' but thought better of it, instead inscribing 'But that would ruin all the fun.' She pulled her wand out and erased the boys previous question before leaving the room.

There was no way she would ever tell him who she was. Especially now that she knew for sure that the person she had been talking to was James Potter of all people. She frowned as she remembered the look on his face as he talked to her for the brief moment. He would want nothing more to do with her if he knew that she was the one who had been talking to him so she would make sure he never found out.

J A M E S  P O T T E R

"It has been three years," James exclaimed as he sat down at the Gryffindor table with a huff. "Three years of talking to this girl and I have absolutely no idea who she is."

"How do you know it's a girl?" Peter asked as he placed a grape in his mouth. "Couldn't it be a boy?"

James opened his mouth to say that she was definitely a girl but the response died in his throat. Was she a girl? Or was she a he? How was he supposed to know if he never met her - or him? He groaned, slamming his head down on the table.

"I take it your stakeout didn't go as planned?" Remus asked the boy, a pointed expression on his face.

"No," he huffed, "Some Ravenclaw interrupted me."

"Which one?"

"She said her name was Ophelia Lovegood." Sirius snorted into his drink. He placed the cup down and the three boys turned to look at the mess he had created. "What the hell, Padfoot?"

He wiped his face with a napkin, "You said Lovegood? As in Xenophilius Lovegood?"

"I don't know," James replied, pushing his food around his plate. "I didn't ask for her whole life story. Does it matter?"

"Not technically, no," he answered. "But the Lovegood's are crazy. They call her Loony Lovegood for a reason."

"Because the Black's are so normal," Peter said pointedly and Sirius shot him a look.

"She seemed fine to me," James shrugged, pushing his plate forward, no longer hungry. "This is our last year here. I'm never going to hear from her again if I don't find out who she is."

"Or he," Peter countered and now it was James' turn to narrow his eyes at the boy.

"Would it really be the end of the world if you don't talk to her - or them -" Remus corrected. "- ever again?"

"Well, no," James frowned. "But they're nice to talk to." He shook his head slightly, "I feel like they know me more than I do."

"Yeah, okay," Sirius scoffed. He glanced up at Remus, "I think he's in love."

"I'm not in love," he protested.

"What about Lily?" Peter inquired and James faltered. He had, for a moment, forgotten about the girl he had been pining after since his first year at Hogwarts.

"Right, Lily," he agreed absently as he thought things over.

James got the letter that he was to be Head Boy and to say he was shocked was an understatement. His parents were proud of him, of course, but it didn't seem to be any less of a shock to them either. He had hoped that Lily would be Head Girl but he had found out upon arriving on the train that it wasn't her.

Whoever the Head Girl actually was had been doing something else for Dumbledore and he had yet to meet her. He had to instruct the Prefects, including Lily, on what to do and he was flabbergasted. He hoped whoever Head Girl was actually knew what to do because he was lost.

"I'm going to go see if she responded," he informed his friends as he stood up from the table. Sirius and Remus exchanged a look and Peter rolled his eyes. "Is there something you guys want to say?"

The three of them shook their heads and James narrowed his eyes. He was going to try and get them to talk but decided against it. He probably wouldn't like what they had to say anyway.

O P H E L I A  L O V E G O O D

"All I'm saying is that he has no idea who you are," Coralena reminded the girl. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"There is absolutely no way for me to get hurt," Ophelia pointed out as she slipped her jacket on. She pulled her blonde hair out from under it before resuming the book she had been reading. "Besides, he knows who I am. Technically speaking."

"You talked to him for the first time this morning," she narrowed her eyes. "You didn't even know it was him until today!" She shook her head, "I doubt he even remembers who you are."

"I knew it was him," she countered and Coralena narrowed her eyes. "Okay, I was pretty sure I knew it was him." Ophelia frowned, "I don't want him to know it was me who's been talking to him." She tapped her fingers over the wooden surface of the table, "The girl he knows and Loony Lovegood are two very different people."

"I don't like it when you call yourself that," Coralena reminded her before she looked behind the girl. "Potter, three o'clock."

Her head shot up and her eyes widened, "What?"

"I'm going to go," she informed her friend as she gathered her belongings. She dropped her voice to a whisper, "Tell him who you are."

"I can't," Ophelia shook her head before Coralena walked off with a frown.

The blonde shook her head in disbelief but didn't dare look behind her in case she had been telling the truth. She focused back on the book in front of her, hopeful that her friend had been wrong or that he wasn't here to look at the table. Why did she have to sit at this table of all places?

"Excuse me," he spoke up from behind her and she cringed internally before looking up at him. She could see the flicker of remembrance flash through his eyes before he smiled down at the girl. She was taken off guard as he gestured in front of her where her book laid, "Could you move that?"

"What?" she asked, feigning confusion.

"I just need to see something is all," he explained and she raised an eyebrow but questioned it no further. She lifted the book to reveal the note she had left earlier that day. He looked at it and his eyebrows pinched together.

Ophelia faltered, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he nodded, stuffing his hands into his front pockets. "Disappointed but fine."

She looked down at the handwriting carved in the desk, "Destruction of school property is very disappointing."

His lip quirked up at this, "Is it?"

She nodded before looking up at the boy, ignoring the fluttering in her stomach. You're not the same person, she reminded herself. You're Loony Lovegood, not the girl he's been talking to. "It's against the rules," she explained as she stuffed her book into her bag. "And it causes harm to the table." What the hell did that even mean?

"I don't think we ever intended any harm to the table," he countered, eyeing the girl in amusement.

"Doesn't make it any less of a rule."

"Rules were never really my thing," he explained as she stood up.

She turned to face him, slinging her bag over her shoulder, "I know."

"You know?" he asked in confusion.

"James Potter, notorious prankster alongside his friends," she informed him. "Correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe it's Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew."

"You made it seem like you had no idea who I was earlier," he pointed out, running his hand through his hair as he eyed the girl.

"That's because I did have no idea who you were," she replied.  "I knew of James Potter. Everyone does. I just hadn't realized you were him." She held up her pocket watch for a moment, "I have to go. I'm running late."

"What time is it?" he asked her.

"Quarter till seven," she answered as she closed the watch, "I have to go now, have fun with your defacing of school property."

J A M E S  P O T T E R

'I just want to know who it is that I'm talking to,' he wrote out quickly before making her previous line disappear. He stood up quickly, stuffing his wand into his pocket and making his way through the school.

He was already fifteen minutes late to the Head Boy and Girl meeting and he wasn't sure what that meant for him. Hopefully the Head Girl wouldn't hate him right on spot.

James entered the room a moment later, running his hand through his hair and slightly out of breath from practically sprinting through the halls. "Sorry I'm late," he apologized as he took a seat. "I got distracted."

"You're not late," Dumbledore pointed out. "Right on time, actually."

He frowned, "But it's seven o'clock."

"Ms. Lovegood is well known for being late to things," Professor McGonagall explained. James turned to look at Ophelia in surprise who sat next to him for a brief moment before looking back up at the teacher's. "And you're James Potter. We told you both the meeting was at six thirty instead of seven in hopes of you showing up on time. Clearly it worked."

James glanced back over at the girl who sat next to him but she seemed rather focused on a spot on the table. He looked back toward the teachers and shifted in his seat before the meeting began.