Chapter Text
Ophelia Elise practically ran through the halls, much to the chagrin of the teachers and the small gaggle of first years she’d just ran through. She did not want to be late to the second lesson of her 6th year at Hogwarts. You see she’d just misread her timetable trapsing all the way up to defence against the dark arts, walked through the doors and with met with a class of third she’s never seen before in her life.
Now Ophelia knows she’s clumsy, as in; that’s the only reason people know her, so maybe running through the corridors wasn’t the smartest plan, but hey she never claimed to be the brightest bulb in the patch. Crashing into someone was practically inevitable at this point. She had nearly made it all the way to history of magic when she turned a corner and careened into the poor person standing on the other side as they went down in a tangle of limbs the hard floor rising to meet her back.
“Oof” she exclaimed as air was forced out of her lungs as someone much larger landed on her. Ophelia lay there for a moment with her eyes shut preparing for the embarrassment of confronting the person she’d just dragged to the floor with her.
Opening her eyes only confirmed the predicament as a rather disgruntled “ow” sounded out above her. Pale blue eyes met hers as she confirmed the owner of the voice.
Ominis Gaunt
This may be more of an issue than she’d originally thought.
Everyone knew who his was for good or for bad. The son of a prestigious pureblood family descended from Salazar Slytherin himself. He was known to be a bit of an emotionless bastard, now she was never one to judge, but his reputation of never speaking to anyone other than his small group of friends really didn’t help.
She sprang to her feet rather abruptly, pulling him up almost knocking Ominis over again in an attempt to fix the situation. “Oh merlin, I'm so sorry “Ophelia said, garnering the attention of any stray student in the hallway. “Are you alright?” she said attempting to brush off any dust on his shoulders.
A perplexed expression took over his face as he moved out the reach of her dusting. “Why were you running?” he asked. "You’re going to history of magic right? It’s just down the corridor, no need to run” a hint of irritation entering his tone as an annoyed expression overtook his face.
Great, she’s pissed him off, not entirely what she needed bearing in mind they sit on the same desk for the upcoming class. Stammering out another rather pathetic apology, she scurried away cursing her bad luck.
Upon entering the classroom, she waved to Poppy her oldest friend who shot her a rather inquisitive look as to why she showed up late with a rather disheveled looking Ominis trailing not too far behind. Although they may not have stereotypically the closest relationship due to Poppy rarely leaving the beasts area in her free time, Poppy’s stuck with her through thick and thin, always being there for her throughout the school years after Ophelia helped her care for a puffskein in first year.
She quickly hurried to her seat head down to avoid questioning from Professor Binns who looked ready to start his lecture.
Merlin's beard, how could any lesson be so boring, the monotonous drone of Binns voice nearly sendt her to sleep as he went on about the age-old history of Hogwarts. I mean for heaven's sake she lives in literally the most interesting school in the world. How can anyone make it so dull!
She could practically feel her eyelids being dragged down and would have fallen asleep if not for noticing out the corner of her eye a slight glare being sent her way from the direction of Ominis.
Huh, well at least there’s some use to crashing into someone, no chance of getting for falling asleep in class.
“Now, many rather unusual complaints over my lessons from many students” Binns stated suddenly, “I have decided to set a group project for you to complete in pairs that will be handed in just before the winter break and is based on a set event in history-” before trailing off as if lost in thought.
Murmurs rippled across the class joined by hushed whispers. Excitement churned in Ophelia’s stomach, thank Merlin, although very out of character for the professor was a welcome change to the normally identical lessons that put even the best students like Amit to sleep. Chairs started to scrape along the floor as people hurried to pair up with their friends.
Across the room Ophelia caught Poppy’s eye and started to make her way across the classroom, when suddenly Binns piped up again “-and I will pick the groups”. The reaction from the class was akin to being told they have a surprise test. Grumbling arose at the prospect of being put with people they didn’t know, Ophelia included.
She wasn’t the most social person although she made an effort to be friendly and help others when they needed it, leading to the odd conversation with people in the halls sometimes.
A scroll appeared in Binns’ hand as he started to list off the partners who would work together.
“Mr Thakkar and Miss Crickett”
“Miss Onai and Mr Clopton”
“Miss Sweeting and Mr Weasley”
Guess that’s Poppy off the list she sighed. Ophelia looked around at the remaining people, there's Leander Prewett, Grace Pinch-Smedely a few others she didn’t know the names of, not exactly the best choices and-
“Mr Gaunt and Miss Elise”
“Mr Sal-
Ophelia turned her head so fast she almost gave herself whiplash. Wait what. Of all the people in the class who it could have been, it had to be the guy she literally just body slammed into not 20 minutes before. Nerves crawled through her as Binns described the rest of the work they would have to complete. Students begrudgingly began to get into pairs, so she couldn’t help the pit that formed in her stomach as she made her way over across the desk to speak with Ominis.
He looked up in her general direction as she approached a weary look on his face. “Class dismissed” called Binns and students scuttled off discussing the upcoming project with their new partner. Tense silence fell between the two as Ominis stood up and the two left the class, walking side by side he made no move to say anything, leaving Ophelia with no choice to pipe up.
“Is- um, is after classes in the library good for you?” she said trailing off at the end of her sentence as silence continued to stretch out between them. I know he’s annoyed at me, but we have no choice to work together on this she thought a bit bitterly as the lack of response from the other. Finally, after a moment of deliberation Ominis spoke.
“Sounds good” he replied before walking off leaving Ophelia to slightly dread this evening.
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The rest of the day passed far too quickly for Ophelia’s liking with classes that were normally boring and nearly sent her to sleep like divination passing before she’d really registered, they’d started.
Packing her bag in the final lesson slightly felt like the toll of a death sentence.
Dear me, she thought after a moment, I'm being far too dramatic. The poor bloke was just a bit pissed over earlier I'm sure he’ll warm up to me a bit.
As she made her way into the library, she scanned the lower floor hoping to catch a glimpse of a head of blonde hair but to no avail. To be honest she was a bit relieved, she didn’t especially want the whole library getting a front row seat to their study session. She was a complete nobody at school and has no interest in changing that general perception of her.
As she wondered around the Ophelia caught the odd snatch of conversation on the way to the upper floor.
“Hey, see her” a second year Gryffindor pointed in her general direction, “did you see her earlier, completely ran into Gaunt” she whispered as her small group of friends giggled before moving onto the next piece of gossip they’d picked up over the day.
Should have known the odd person would know about it. She did fall over in front of Imelda, as friendly as the two of them are Imelda's practically the school gossip.
At last she finally caught a glimpse of Ominis, tucked into a corner on the upper deck surrounded by bookshelves near a window. Shelves surrounded him making it rather difficult to see unless you were looking. He was sat in an old armchair that looked close to falling apart soon in front of a desk covered in a few books.
“Ominis” she said when close enough as to not alert the entire library - there wasn’t a complete ban on noise, but you did have to keep it down, “there you are, thought you’d stood me up for a moment” a hint of humour bleeding into her voice.
“I do keep my word” he stated turning round to Ophelia, “there’s quite a few books on this event, I'm pretty sure it was the latest goblin rebellion” he said cutting straight to the chase drastically reducing the awkwardness.
Ophelia hummed, before settling down on the armchair opposite Ominis and grabbing her quill out her bag.
Ominis returned his attention to the book in front him, using his wand to read the text. Ophelia wondered how on earth that would work, suppose it's like Ollivander always says, ‘the wand chooses the wizard’. Maybe she could ask Ominis one day when he’s not so put out about her.
“I thought we could each take a book and make notes on the important details and then compare notes; before actually putting the project together” Ominis suggested as his quill continued to write notes.
“Sounds good to me” Ophelia said, a hint of relief flowing through her. At least they wouldn’t have to suffer through awkward conversation for the first few weeks.
After the initial exchange both buried themselves into making notes and reading through their respective books. Comfortable silence fell between them, a welcome change to earlier, and well, truth be told, Ophelia rather enjoyed it although she’d never admit that to anyone.
Time flew by rather surprisingly quickly, it was quite nice, especially as the evening dragged on and the rather raucous first and second years went off to dinner, leaving only the older years, who weren't as keen to break the quite peace they’d constructed. The sun gradually set over the highlands bathing the area her and Ominis were sat in with a golden orange colour that reflected off the blonde in Ominis' hair making him look ethereal, against her brains wishes she ended up staring at the angelic scene in front of her.
“Blimey, time’s gone fast” Ophelia said all of a sudden, reaching to go put her books away only just realising three hours had passed since she'd entered the library this evening.
“Blimey” Ominis repeated, confusion evident in his tone.
Realisation dawned on Ophelia, “ah- muggle word, it’s like a sort of declaration of surprise. One of the many muggle equivalents to Merlin’s beard."
Ominis nodded, understanding crossing his face as he stood up and stretched. “Well then, I’m going to head to dinner” he said through a yawn, starting to put his books way.
“Good plan” Ophelia replied, only just realising how hungry she’d got at the mention of food, as if in agreement her belly decided to let out a rather large growl, much to her embarrassment. She froze slowly tuning around, “please ignore that” she said looking over at Ominis.
Much to her surprise a small smile was pulling at the corners of his mouth. Well, well, pigs must be able to fly, she’d just managed to make Ominis Gaunt smile, even if it was at her own humiliation.
“Will do” he promised trying to suppress the smirk on his face. “Same time again tomorrow then?” he suggested as a means to change the subject.
Ophelia nodded, before realising he wouldn’t be able to see that. “Sounds good to me” she agreed, shocked that instead of the dread she’d felt only this morning at the prospect of working with Ominis, she instead felt a rather odd sense of anticipation well up inside of her.
This is going to be quite interesting.
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What an odd girl Ominis thought to himself as Ophelia skiped off to dinner nearly tripping over a stray bag, as he put the unused books away. He has to admit, but she isn’t as bad as he’d originally thought when he first met her. Although, it wasn’t exactly his fault she’d gone crashing into him earlier.
He doesn’t think he’d ever had much to do with with her before, despite the fact they sit on the same desk for history of magic and share multiple other classes together.
Ominis suppressed another yawn as he made his way over to the dining hall. Thankfully most of the younger years has trapesed up to bed by now. It had been quite an eventful day, he doesn’t think he could deal with shouting children on top of everything else.
He made his way over to his usual spot on the Slytherin table and sat down opposite Anne and Sebastian, the Sallow twins. A right pair the two of them made, practically telepathic with a shared love for getting themselves into trouble..
“Your late” Sebastian stated as Ominis sat down.
“Well done Sebastian” Ominis retorted, his voice taking on a sarcastic tone. “Glad your observation skills have finally improved.”
Sebastian let out an offended gasp causing him to start to choke on his food.
Anne hummed as a way of agreement, watching Sebastian start to down a glass of water. “By any chance does it have something to do with that Hufflepuff that’s currently staring at us” she said, pointing her fork in the general direction of the Hufflepuff table. “Actually, less at us, more at you”.
“Hufflepuff” Ominis muttered, “who...” he trailed off confusion making itself apparent on his face. Ah, actually, he may have an idea-
Sebastian finally recovered from choking, “oh, you know, the girl you were paired with for the history of magic project. The one who ran-”
“Yes, yes I'm aware of that” Ominis cut him off. “No need to shout it out to the whole world” he said, shushing Sebastian as he did so. Great, no getting out of telling Anne about his bruised ego now.
Anne raised an intrigued eyebrow, smirk evident on her face. “Did what now?”
Sebastian escaped Ominis’ hold, blurting out with no disregard for secrecy, “yeh- she completely floored Ominis earlier. Crashed right into him. What her name again... Ophelia right?”
"Yes Sebastian" confirmed Ominis upon realising there was no getting out of sharing the days events.
“And you didn’t even think to ask what her house is?” Anne queried, “thought you were raised to have good manners Ominis” she says tutting.
Ominis took in an exasperated breath at the two’s antics. “Well I couldn’t exactly see what she looked like. I’m blind. Remember” he grumbled.
“How could we forget” Sebastian said. “Hey, how about we describe her to you-”
Anne sat up in excitement then she quickly slapped a hand over her brother's mouth as he tried to speak, glaring at him as one might look at a toddler. “Last time you described someone you said they looked like a mooncalf-”
Ominis chuckled at the memory as the two started to bicker, remembering why he never asked Sebastian for help with sight anymore. “Go on then, I'll humour you” he said to Anne.
“Right well lets see, how do I do this without seeming too creepy?” she mused. “Um she has golden brown shoulder length hair, it's quite wavy and thick, relatively tanned skin like Sebastian and I, oh and lots of moles like you. She’s currently wearing the summer uniform, though I doubt for much longer with the way the weathers going and large, gold round glasses. She’s very pretty Ominis”
A picture formed in his mind, although the colour descriptions weren’t the most helpful and he couldn’t know exactly what she looked like without touching her face, that did actually help.
“I- thank you Anne” he said starting to tuck into his food as an unusual but not unwanted quiet settled over the group.
“Shes friends with Poppy Sweeting right?” Sebastian piped up breaking the calm atmosphere, “she’s not sitting with anyone currently."
“You know Sebastian” Anne replied, “there’s such thing as wanting a little peace and quiet sometimes.” referencing Ophelia and their own little group.
Sebastian took the hint and went back to eating his food.
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A week had passed since Ophelia and Ominis had started the project in the library, and life had settled back to normal, the two exchanging pleasantries before moving onto the work. Truth be told Ophelia thinks Ominis has warmed up to her just a bit. A small bit, but nonetheless, he wasn’t as cold hearted as he’d originally seemed to be.
For example, only yesterday had she tripped on the way out of the library. Instead of the hard stone floor meeting her face, an arm grabbed her before she could plummet to the ground, paired with a warning to be more careful along with a slightly exasperated smile.
She made her way out of the Hufflepuff common room moving past the old food storage barrels on the way to meet Ominis in the library, when the enticing smell of food drifted down the hall from the kitchens. It had been a while since she’d visited the kitchens, at least a week she reasoned with herself before walking over to the old portrait. Years of students tickling the pear for a midnight snack had led to the picture slowly being worn away, however the rest of the fruit was still visable-ish. Stepping through the portrait was akin to walking into heaven, the house elves cooking known around the highlands to be some of the best in the country.
“Miss Elise” a house elf called Deek approached her. Ophelia had befriended the house elves in her second year after accidently stumbling across the kitchens one night although she’d always had a soft spot for Deek after he’d always made sure to supply her with an extra snack when she got hungry.
“It has been a week since Deek has seen Miss, is Miss alright” he asked moving forward to greet her and hand her a croissant. Just warm and out the oven, the smooth pastry started to flake off in her hand. “For you miss.”
“Thank you Deek” Ophelia said, gratitude welling up inside her at the fact that someone was looking out for her. “I'm terribly sorry about not visiting, I've just been busy with schoolwork. Thank you again for this again Deek.”
“Miss is very kind to Deek. Deek is glad you are ok. Please feel free to visit Deek and the house elves whenever you feel hungry. Miss is always welcome here.”
Ophelia thanked Deek again before making her way up the library, not before trying a bite of the croissant, flavours exploded into her mouth with the crunch of sweet buttery pastry. Thank Merlin she decided to befriend the Deek, he always makes sure to check she’s fed.
After deciding to keep the rest of the pastry for later tucking it into her bag, Ophelia made her way into the library and over to her usual spot opposite Ominis. The smell of old books never failed to make her feel right at home, after growing up as the daughter of two librarians.
Unusually she’d managed to get to the library before Ominis, normally he’d be here waiting for her, wand out and already making notes on the goblin rebellion. Taking it in her stride she dug out the textbook from the bottom of her bag and got to work making notes.
Ten minutes later Ominis arrived, uncharacteristically looking a bit worse for wear. His robe was skewed to one side and his blonde hair had fallen out of its usual slicked back look, framing his face, she was momentarily shocked as he made his way over to her. Didn’t half look bad a traitorous side of her whispered. He plopped down onto his seat and groaned. Something was definitely wrong Ophelia thought, this was the most emotion she’d seen from him all week. As if reading her mind Ominis spoke up.
“Just had flying class” he said, a weary look overtaking his face. “My wand works perfectly fine on solid ground, but the second I’m more than three feet off the ground, I have as much awareness as a blind muggle. Cannot tell for the life of me what's going on. Just had Kogowa shout at me for a full hour."
“Nothing wrong with being a muggle” Ophelia stated, he is aware I'm muggleborn she wondered, apprehension rising up inside her. It was well known Ominis was from a rather traditional pure blood family, although she could emphasize with being on Kogowa's bad side. It was a rather embarrasing fact that she couldn't fly for most of her first year.
To her immense surprise he agreed instantly. “No, nothing wrong with being a muggle except the inconvenience that is result of having no magic.” He let out a rather strained chuckle, “sorry about that” he said moving to fix his appearance effectively ending the conversation.
They both started to work on their individual books without incidence, until about halfway through when Ophelia got a bit peckish. She once again made a vow to thank Deek, as she reached into her bag to grab the croissant that he’d packed for her. “Merlin’s beard” Ophelia murmured through a mouthful of pastry, “what does Deek put into this?” she said to herself. About halfway through the croissant she began to notice Ominis glancing over at her every now and again. She wasn’t spilling any crumbs, wait, was he- was he hungry?
“Do you want the rest of this?” she said, reaching across the table, careful not to hit his quill as it continued to write, comparatively her handwriting looked like chicken scrawl. Ominis looked up, a look of something unfamiliar flashing over his face, gone too quickly to analyse before settling into a look of muted shock. “I’m not hungry” he responded before going back to work.
Oh, Ophelia thought, all the more for me I suppose, when at that moment Ominis’ stomach betrayed him as hers going full circle back to the week before, when her's had done the same. Supressing a chuckle, she tried to school her face into one of sincerity, and once again held out the half-eaten croissant. A so-called olive branch. “Promise I don’t have any germs." To her surprise, Ominis reached the rest of the way and took the pastry.
A small smile crept up his face as he took a bite. “Thank you.”
Maybe this project wasn’t going to be too bad.