Who: Dirk and Ophelia When: After her talk with Evan Where: Ravenclaw boys' dorm What: Conversation and sweetness Rating/Warnings: None really Status: {closed, complete}
Ophelia’s head hurt more than she really wanted to admit after she left Evan, and she wandered out of the Slytherin Common Room. Dirk would calm her down and that would make things better, she was sure of it. Being with him was enough to provoke her out of even the most wicked of moods, though today was more sad than anything else. She headed toward the Ravenclaw Common Room, figuring she could lure him out if he was in there, or sneak into bed with him if he was not. A quick disillusionment charm was cast over herself to cover herself a bit from being fully noticed, and she used the knocker, pondering for a few moments before offering her answer and heading in.
She glanced around the common room and did not see Dirk, so she figured she could check his dorm. She carefully made her way across the room to the stairs, walking up and tapping on it before peeking into the room. “Hey…”
Lady meowed (or perhaps grunted) a greeting, alerting Dirk as much as Ophelia’s greeting did that someone was here for him. He had been poring over his homework, and his bed was littered with scrolls and books (and Lady who took up nearly half of the bed herself as she sprawled across his work). He still smiled widely at Ophelia though when he saw her, beckoning her over even as he greeted her, with a soft “Hello. I didn’t expect you tonight,” but his expression made clear that he was very pleased to see her. “Let me make space.” He hurriedly piled the scrolls up and pushed them to the side, at least the ones that weren’t underneath Lady, who showed no signs of getting up, even to make room for Ophelia. It wasn’t worth trying to shove her, since she could make herself heavier than her actual weight when it suited her.
Ophelia walked over and gently stroked Lady’s head before seating herself next to the cat, tucking her legs up under herself. She liked the cat, so it was not a big problem to be next to it when staying with him. She was a bit worn out, yes, but being with Dirk made things better. “How are you doing? Just revising? If I’m interrupting I can go if you need me to…” She did not want to, no, but she did not want to interrupt him and impose where she was not wanted.
“No, please stay.” Dirk was quick to reassure her, reaching over to touch her arm gently. “If I don’t know it by now, I’m not likely to learn it by the time of the exam. I just felt like I needed to be working on something, you know?” Ophelia didn’t usually come up unannounced, so he looked her over carefully, noting the somewhat drawn look to her. “Is everything okay? Here, let me get the curtains.” Dirk got up to drop the curtains to give them some privacy. If his roommates assumed he went to bed early, all the better.
“I’m just thinking too much. I suppose the whole coming of age thing is making me realize a lot of things that I don’t want to?” She bit her lip softly and sighed. “I...I need to talk to you about something you’re going to be coming into if you decide you want to stay with me…” While she was pretty sure the path laid out would leave them together, it still worried her a lot.
Dirk gently stroked her arm. “I’m sorry.” He murmured as he settled back on the bed next to her. His brows drew together only slightly at her need to talk to him. “What’s wrong? You can tell me whatever you want.” After all, if he was okay with Rosier courting her, he could be okay with anything, he thought.
“I am going to be responsible...eventually...for a child. And you need to know that I am planning to take it seriously, very seriously. It won’t be mine, but I want...I want him to feel as though he belongs to someone. I don’t want him to be without a family, and he will be...sort of a cousin, I guess?” Ophelia looked down at her hands, twisting them together for a moment before looking back up to him again.
Dirk heard her, heard the concern in her voice, and her seriousness. But caring for a child was a serious thing. “There are lots of ways to have family. I practically grew up with my cousins as siblings. But you don’t have to be blood to be family.” Dirk’s family was incredibly warm and welcoming, which Ophelia had experienced, and it was how Dirk was raised.
“I just don’t want you to feel as though I’m roping you into it without telling you. You deserve full disclosure of what is to come when I am able to give it. Sometimes I can’t, but this I can tell you. A conversation I had...brought it up and I wanted to talk to you about it. He...he can’t know what actually happens to his parents. How they die. It’s….bad.”
Dirk frowned at her words. Of course the child’s parents would die for Ophelia to adopt him, but it was sad to think about. And sad too that Ophelia obviously knew more of the details. However, “I can’t say we won’t ever tell him… It’s impossible to say what the circumstances will be years from now, what he’ll need or want to know.” Dirk murmured cautiously, “I mean I won’t hide the truth if he needs to know someday… but there’s no reason for a child to grow up having nightmares about his parent’s deaths either.”
“He won’t…” Her voice was fierce in this. She did not want the future child to know of the violence that led to Evan’s death, it was wrong to tell someone that. If he asked later in life, she would eventually have to be honest, but while he was a child? That would not happen. “All he will need to know is that he was loved by his parents and will always be loved by me…” Her eyes flickered to him, not wanting to assume that he would feel the same.
The situation didn’t warrant a smile, but Dirk couldn’t help but fall in love with her a little more for the protective way she spoke about an orphaned boy she would adopt who hadn’t even been orphaned yet. And anyone she loved, who loved her, he would love too. “You can be a parent even if you didn’t birth a child.” Dirk reassured her. He knew his Aunt and Uncle were almost as much his parents as his parents were since they had all grown up together.
Ophelia smiled slightly at his words and moved to hug him tightly, burying her face in his shoulder for a moment. She was so grateful for Dirk, for his understanding and his caring nature. It was not something she had ever expected to find in her life, but she was glad she did, obviously, and the feelings he gave her were most definitely feelings she would fight to keep.
Her smile was lovely, and he leaned in to kiss her softly, needing to express to her his feeling for her. He loved the way she cared for people, and wanted to support her, no matter what she saw for the future. And really, what she saw did reassure him too. He could support her through the pain she say in her future, and he knew they would still be together, and happy after it passed.