Surrogate Best Friend

[Ophelia Dippet]

Ophelia had been feeling a little lonesome recently. Her grandfather, as always, was no help; his company was as good as none at all. And there was simply nothing happening this month, which left her rather bored. She couldn't spend all her time bouncing from engagements with Nova and Zipporah, either; November had a husband and a baby and all sorts of new demands on her time, and Zipporah had an entire household full of people that she was more obliged to spend time with than Ophelia. Not for the first time, the girl wished she'd been able to finish Hogwarts. Maybe that would have helped her to secure a wider network of friends, for these sorts of lonely weeks between social events.

She didn't remember her sister Nicky ever being bored, but maybe that was just Nicky. That was before everyone had died, and Nicky was prettier than her, anyway. Of course she hadn't had a spare moment once she'd come out!

Thinking about her sister stirred up some painful nostalgia for Ophelia. Nicolina had always been her best and closest friend and confidant. The weather as she went about some dreary errands with her grandfather didn't help, either; the sky was a mottle of greys, and the air was heavy with impending rain. Although she hadn't had to break out the dainty umbrella she was carrying, it seemed highly likely before the afternoon was over.

Ophelia didn't even really know what they were doing. She'd dressed to go out with her grandfather because she never passed up an opportunity to leave the house, but he never went out for anything exciting. She'd Floo'd along to Hogsmeade with him, then followed in his footsteps, glumly watching the churning clouds above her and reminiscing about times long past.

It was a little surreal when they reached High Street and turned in front of the pet store. A small dark haired rodent pressed its long snout against the window at about the level of her hip, causing Ophelia to stop in her tracks. She recognized the animal immediately, because she'd had one as a child. A niffler! She didn't know that they were actually sold as pets--her father had worked with dangerous magical creatures from around the world, and many of the things that he'd brought home for his children weren't exactly "conventional." But the niffler he'd brought them had been one of the earliest that Ophelia could remember, when she was just a toddler. Before her idiot brother or ill-fated younger sisters had been born, and before her mother had gone insane. Back when it was just her parents and Nicky and her, and everyone was happy.

"Grandpapa!" she called--she was calling him grandpapa now because it sounded more poetic and old-fashioned than grandfather, in her opinion, and a little more affectionate, too, since she'd always called her own father Papa. Without even bothering to look and see whether he'd stopped or taken notice of her distraction, Ophelia moved to the door of the pet store and bustled inside. In another moment she had gotten to the open-topped area where the niffler was being kept. It was rummaging through some wood chips, but as soon as she approached it peered up at her and scurried over.

A genuine smile appearing on her face, Ophelia set the umbrella down and removed her gloves, not wanting to dirty them. Tucking them into the wand pocket on one side of her skirt, she reached a hand down towards the creature, who sniffed at it experimentally. "Why, aren't you darling?" she gushed.

FYI @'Armando Dippet'; open to Armando (if you want; if not I'll godmod) + anyone else