"i know life well enough to know you can't count on things staying around or standing still, no matter how much you want them to. you can't stop people from dying. you can't stop them from going away. you can't stop yourself from going away either."...
'just one single glimpse of relief, to make some sense of what you've seen'- epiphany
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The gentle rhythm of the summer rain hitting the window was almost enough to lull Ophelia to sleep, but not quite. She lay still, staring into the dark, listening to the rain fall and Luna's soft breathing from the next bed. It was difficult to tell what time it was, whether she'd been lying there for minutes or hours, she wasn't sure.
They were leaving tomorrow, and her second year was almost over, and it definitely hadn't been the year she'd expected. She was a different person to who she had been back in September. Quite literally.
Remus had warned her not to tell anyone else who she was, not yet anyway. He didn't think it was safe being the only Stone witch left alive. So for now, she was still Ophelia Weasley. And she was happy with that.
The staring was becoming tedious. Ophelia sighed before leaning over the side of her bed, pulling out an old shoe-box from beneath it and heaving it up onto the mattress, careful not to make too much noise. Then again, Luna was a terribly heavy sleeper, the scream of a mandrake couldn't wake her.
She lifted the lid, setting it down beside her before taking out the small pile of photographs.
Remus had given her a few things before he left a few weeks after the incident, and had sent her more in his letters from home. Photographs, letters, memories. Things that made her who she was sat in this little shoe-box.
Ophelia had looked through the photographs time and time again, sharing the ones with Lily and James in with Harry but keeping a few to herself. She sifted through the moving pictures, taking out her favourite ones, the ones she hadn't stopped looking at since Remus first sent them.
She smiled as she found one particular favourite, taken by the Black Lake in June 1977. There were six students running around the shore, laughing as they threw water over each other. James Potter had Sirius Black jumping onto his back, a huge grin etched upon his face as James' knees then buckled, sending the pair plummeting into the water. Behind them, Lily Evans laughs, kicking a small wave of water at Juliet Stone, who does the same in return, giggling. Remus has his trousers pulled up to his knees, wading through the water before being ambushed by one Marlene McKinnon, sending him into the water along with the other boys.
Ophelia watched it over and over, beaming as they played around. It was before everything went wrong, and they were just being kids.
The next photograph had been taken four years later, their last June together. Juliet was beaming in the centre, her hand resting on her baby bump as she lay her head on Marlene's shoulder.
Ophelia's eyes glassed over a little as she held it, smiling to herself. In the letter Remus had sent with the photograph he talked a lot about Marlene, and how she and Juliet were best friends through school. She was meant to be Ophelia's godmother, but she and her family were killed a month before she was born.
