Ch. 17: In the 13th Year...
Fandom: Harry Potter (Hogwarts years 1-7) Pairing: Draco x OFC
taglist: @ocappreciationtag @arrthurpendragon @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel @stareyedplanet @foxesandmagic
Story Masterlist // Romina’s Masterlist
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A huge stack of letters was threatening to fall from Romina's desk. Most were open and, since several of her friends had the idea to send Romina gifts for her 13th birthday last month, the floor was covered with different wizarding gifts (except for Harry's, Hermione's and Arden's, of course). Carolinha Paes had gifted Romina a wonderful box of creamy nougat chunks. Angel had sent in a leather-bound green journal with enchanted doodles on the edges. Pansy Parkinson sent in a fashionable scarf and Daphne Greengrass had sent in a beautiful heart-shaped charm bracelet. The Weasley twins sent one of their crazy fireworks that they swore would "start the party in the muggle world". Hermione thought that a Sherlock book was a good idea, and Arden and Harry had teamed up to give Romina a Supergirl comic she'd been eyeing just after they returned from Hogwarts. All in all, they were wonderful presents...if Romina had been herself.
The thirteen year old girl washed her face in her bathroom, scrubbing hard at the birthmark near her left earlobe and was deeply disappointed (and frustrated) that it wouldn't come off. She knew of course that it would never work, but it didn't mean she wouldn't try. She dropped the towel from her face and took a good look at herself, once more disappointed with what she saw. She was a bit taller now, and her black hair was seemingly, finally, turning into defined curls. Her dark brown eyes were still big and her eyebrows more defined.
"No," Romina spat at herself and turned away. "No, no, no, no!" she stormed out of the bathroom and went straight into her room.
A knock interrupted her moment and she quickly went to her bed, practically diving into it. Her hands pushed a wrinkled picture under her pillow, and for security measures, she put a Velvet heart-shaped pillow over it. Then she quickly went to open up.
"Auntie, I already told you I'm not hungry—"
"I'm not your aunt!" Arden King exclaimed, playfully offended.
Romina turned away from her best friend. "Arden, I don't want to go out. I told you that already."
"Yeah, I know," Arden walked in after Romina, "And that's what you told me yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that...and all last week…" And the week before that. It was a growing theme and Arden was getting tired of it.
Romina stopped by the vanity mirror and stared at herself with such contempt it looked like she despised herself. Arden didn't notice because of the mess in the room.
"Jeez, Romina, what's happening to you?" Arden walked by Romina's closet which looked like it had thrown up most of its contents. "You're almost as messy as Fabian!"
"I need different things," Romina said curtly. She grabbed strands of her hair and poked at them.
Arden left the closet and noticed the amount of letters on the desk. "What's all this?"
"Letters, obviously," Romina shrugged and went back to her bed. Her hands kept pulling at the tips of her hair. She needed to come up with an idea about what to do with it.
Arden shuffled through the letters and noticed some of them were still unopened. "Hey, this one's from Pansy," she crinkled her nose. "The hell does she write to you for?" She tossed the letter to the floor and continued going through the rest. "These are from Angel. Boy, he definitely writes to you a lot." There was a decent pile of just his letters. She raised another letter with neatly written cursive inside. "Hermione's in France? That's so cool."
"Arden, was there something you needed?" Romina scratched her head. She didn't want to be rude but she also didn't want to speak to anyone right now.
"Yeah," Arden whirled around with a new letter in hand, "We're supposed to go buy a present for Harry, remember? His birthday's tomorrow."
Romina sighed. "No offence but I don't really want to go out."
"That's funny, I don't remember asking," Arden cooly retorted and walked to the side of the bed where Romina sat. "I asked your aunt and uncle already and they thought it was a good idea for you to go out before you nest in here. Let's go!"
"Arden, I don't want to," Romina weakly said but Arden wouldn't listen. She practically dragged Romina out of the room, down the stairs, and shouted 'we're leaving!' to Lyonel and Sage.
~0~
When Arden's family had separated from the girls in the mall, Arden dragged Romina into the first store they saw which turned out to be a music store. As Romina got sidetracked by the miniature jukeboxes on a wooden shelf, Arden stared at a violin.
"Does Harry like anything music related? I can't remember."
"I don't know," Romina shrugged her shoulders. "He's never mentioned it."
"Probably cos that aunt and uncle don't even bother to let him explore his musical talents," Arden dramatically waved a hand.
"Harry likes reading, what are we doing here?" Romina turned away from the jukeboxes.
Arden cheekily pointed at the violin on display. "Check it out, I'm asking my parents for this for Christmas. Mine's getting old. This one is almost the same as the one your aunt and uncle gave you for your birthday. It's a shame you quit violin classes though. Why'd you do that, again?"
Romina gave a shrug of her shoulders. "I didn't have the energy anymore."
But that wasn't true, and Arden knew it. If there was one thing Romina Oswell loved, it was playing the violin. There was something odd going on with Romina that had both Arden and Harry a little concerned. All of a sudden, Romina had gone from her lively, sarcastic self to a quiet, barely seen girl. It was a miracle she was out right now and Arden suspected it was only because this was about Harry, her closest friend, otherwise Romina would be locked away in her bedroom like she had been all month.
It was early in the evening when Romina, Arden and her family returned to the neighborhood. Romina politely thanked Mr. and Mrs. King for taking her along and then swiftly moved to her own house.
"Rom, hold on!" Arden skipped over her mother's petunias to catch up. "Do you want me to wrap Harry's present? I don't mean to brag but I have some mean wrapping skills—"
"Yeah, that's fine," Romina quietly said, cutting off Arden's smile.
"Well...do you want me to come by tomorrow for—"
"I have to go, Arden," Romina gave a bleak smile and rushed into her house.
Arden shook her head and returned to her family.
Romina skipped dinner and went straight to her room. She nearly tripped over the letter Arden had left near the bed and bent over to pick it up. It was Hermione's latest letter that arrived in the morning. With a sigh, Romina climbed onto her bed and opened up the parchment.
'Dear Romina,
I'm on holiday in France at the moment and I didn't know how I was going to send this to you — what if they'd opened it at customs? — but then Hedwig turned up! Harry sent her to me yesterday and I think he wants me to ask you how you're doing? Both he and Arden have mentioned you've been in your bedroom for most of this month now. I think if Ron wasn't so enthralled with his visit to Egypt, he would have noticed your lack of letters by now. What's happening, Romina? Is there something you want to share with me? You know I would never tell a soul unless you wanted me to.
Or, if you'd rather talk it out in person, we could do it in London on the last week of the holidays. Ron (and hopefully Harry) will be there too. If not, I'll see you on the Hogwarts Express on September first!
Love from Hermione x
P.S. Did you hear that Percy's Head Boy this year? I'll bet Percy's really pleased. Ron doesn't seem too happy about it.
Romina closed the letter and put it beside her. She rubbed her face with exceptional frustration. What was she going to do? She couldn't look like them and not expect to be called out on it. She needed to figure out a solution before the school year started again.
~ 0 ~
The next day, Harry woke up a bit groggy from his tedious night practicing his new favorite spell "Lumos Maxima" all night. Despite it being his birthday, no one in the Dursley home paid any acknowledgement to it. Harry wasn't surprised and no longer dwelled on it. He had already received many things from his friends that night anyways. Those were the people he cared about. As he entered the kitchen, he saw his cousin Dudley was already eating and watching the television. His uncle Vernon was discussing the matters of Aunt Marge's visit with his aunt Petunia. Harry shivered within and grabbed a piece of toast from the table, not that Dudley saw. He was engrossed with a news reporter apparently.
"Now before I go get Marge from the train station, we need to get a few things straight," Vernon stopped in front of Harry. Harry dreaded the requirements he would be subjected into no matter what.
The old hag of Marge hated him and he hated her.
"First, you'll keep a civil tongue in your head when you're talking to Marge. Secondly, as Marge doesn't know anything about your abnormality, I don't want any — any funny stuff while she's here. You behave yourself, got me?"
"I will if she does," Harry muttered under his breath.
Vernon glowered at the boy but kept going. "And third, we've told Marge you attend St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys—"
"WHAT!?" Harry nearly lost it. He had no idea what the hell his uncle and aunt had been telling the rest of the neighborhood where Harry was attending school. He knew it wasn't like Romina's and Arden's family - the two families got together to say the girls went to a London preparatory boarding school.
Just as Vernon was getting ready to leave, someone knocked on the door. Muttering under his breath how it better not be the newspaper boy again, Vernon opened the door. Arden was on the other side, a cheery smile on her face.
"Whatever you're selling, we're not buying," Vernon went to shut the door despite needing to go out.
Luckily, Arden was quick enough to stick a foot between the door and its hinge. "I'm Arden, your neighbor. I'm here to see Harry."
"What?" Vernon glowered at the girl, probably trying to remember the identity of her.
Arden rolled her eyes and spoke again. "Can I just see Harry now? I won't be long."
"Make it quick, he's got work to do," Vernon warned and stepped out to head to his car.
"Harry?" Arden called from the threshold. She had plenty of experience dealing with the Dursleys and how awful they were. After all, they grew up together on the same block. Before Hogwarts, it was her, Harry and Romina.
Harry came into the foyer a minute later, surprised by her visit but nonetheless grateful. He was desparate for contact with nice people. "Hey Arden, what's going on?"
"Happy birthday, Harry," Arden held out a nicely wrapped blue present she'd been keeping behind her back. She knew that the Dursleys tended to keep anything good away from Harry so she got exceptional at hiding gifts from them. "It's from Romina and me. Hope you like it."
Harry smiled and gave her the proper thanks before he opened it up. It turned out to be a book by the name of The Shadow Rising. "Wow! Thanks!"
"I know it's not wizarding stuff but, you know…" Arden meekly shrugged, but Harry was happy with what he got. "Apparently, this was published last year in September and it's gotten pretty popular. There's rumors about a sequel coming. Something to catch up on."
"Right, okay," nodded Harry. Ever since they started Hogwarts, he, Romina and Arden tried to catch up with the Muggle world and their news when they were home for the summer. While Harry didn't really talk to many people down the block, Romina and Arden did and it sounded very weird to their muggle friends when they had no idea who the latest pop sensation was or the best series of the moment.
"The guy behind the counter swore that it was popular," Arden said, while Harry examined the cover.
"Thanks, Arden!" He gave her a hug then looked past Arden. "Hey, is Rom here?"
Arden shook her head, and Harry slowly stopped smiling. His eyes flickered to the right where he could see a glimpse of Romina's house. For the past weeks, Romina had ceased to come out of her house and much less to talk with him and just about anyone else. It came out of nowhere.
"I'm worried," Arden admitted. "She doesn't seem like herself. She isn't herself. You should see her room. It's covered with unopened letters and her closet looks like it puked all of her clothes out. And she keeps pulling her hair — is that like some anxiety thing she picked up on?"
"I have no idea," Harry said. "And there's not much we can do right now. We'll have to wait till we're in school to really talk to her." There was no way the Dursleys were letting him out of their sight while Mag was around. And besides, Romina wasn't letting them come in anyways.
"Yeah, then she'll have no choice but to talk to one of us," Arden smirked, making Harry chuckle. Arden had a thing with words - what she felt she said no matter how blunt they were.
It was something he liked about her from the start.
~ 0 ~
Back at Romina's house, her aunt and uncle had called her downstairs, with no exception. Romina came trudging down the staircase, hearing the living room television going on and on about some new escapee from prison. She found her aunt and uncle in the kitchen with a Hogwarts letter.
"Look what just arrived?" Lyonel waved it in his hand. Romina remained blank.
"We were thinking about Diagon Alley next week?" Sage asked. Neither of them had a clue of Ron's and Hermione's plan to meet up much later.
"Sure," Romina shrugged and turned to leave when her uncle called her back.
"We need to talk—"
"No, we don't," Romina wearily responded.
"Yes, we do," Lyonel assured, quite serious now. "This concerns our family and sooner or later you're going to hear about it in school."
"Why?" Romina's stomach churned. If it had to do with their family then it meant nothing good.
Lyonel sighed and got up, taking Romina back to the living room where the news was still broadcasting. "You see that man there?" Lyonel pointed at the television where a snippet of a criminal's picture was being displayed for the public. He looked positively mad, dirty and...mad.
"Yeah, he's been all over the television for the past week now," Romina once again shrugged her shoulders. "Sirius Black, wasn't it?"
"Well, there's something you should know…" Lyonel exchanged an unsure glance with his wife who was slowly approaching them. "Sirius Black is a wizard who escaped from Azkaban."
"What?" Romina gaped and quickly saw the television again in a new light. "But he's...but he's right there! He's a muggle! He's—"
"I'm sure the Minister of Magic has informed the muggle Prime Minister about it since Black is one of the worst criminals ever."
"What did he do?" Romina quietly asked, dreading the answer.
"Well…" Sage began, "...it was rumored that he was a double spy for you-know-who and that...well, in the end...he worked with your parents."
"My brother," Lyonel said grimly.
Romina closed her eyes and waved a hand for them to stop, begging them actually. "No, I don't want to listen anymore. I can't!"
"You need to know this before you go back to school. We don't want your first year to repeat itself," Lyonel reached for her but Romina stepped away.
"But that's just it, isn't it? It's never going to stop! I am their daughter and I can't do anything about it and it sucks! I hate it! I hate this family so much you don't even understand," Romina gritted her teeth. Both her aunt and uncle were startled with the ferocity in their niece's eyes, the tight fists clenched on either side of her. "I wish I could change my name, my last name at least. Have a fair chance, you know? Do we have any other family?" She looked at Sage and Lyonel desperately. "Anybody?"
The adults exchanged glances with each other and ultimately told Romina that it was just them.
Romina rubbed the tears from her face. "I fucking hate this family," she muttered and rushed towards the stairs.
When they heard the door of her bedroom slamming shut, Sage heaved a sigh. "I don't know, Lyonel, she's starting to ask...maybe we should tell her."
Lyonel shook his head. "No," he said sternly, "She's 13 now. She's been at Hogwarts for 2 years now and they never even tried to contact her."
"You told them not to," Sage said quietly, her eyes flickering up at the stairs. "Right in the beginning, you told them not to."
"What did you expect?" Lyonel shrugged. "My brother committed the worst atrocities and Elora was no better. I know my family and what they did, I wasn't going to risk Elora's family turning out to be the same."
"You and I both know that Elora's family is nothing like that. Last time I heard, they were doing just fine. Besides, history has reveled them as war heroes. I don't blame you for wanting to give Romina a clean slate, but it looks like right now she might need a different perspective on the world — on herself and her lineage. Maybe, it's time we told her the truth."
Lyonel insisted the opposite. "We've been fine this whole, and it'll be fine. Romina's 13, brand new teenager. This is just one of those mood swings we read about in the books."
Sage sincerely thought that it was something beyond that.
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