Family Drama open

@Clair Fernandez
September 6th, 4pm
(Feel free to reach out if you'd prefer this to be on a different date )

When Opeila had returned to Hogwarts, she had been looking forward to classes. She couldn't wait to attend Defense against the Dark Arts again, train for Duelling on the weekends and even had been looking forward to Potions and Flying classes a little. The new classes and Hogsmeade had of course been the absolute highlights of this year.

And then, on the second day she had met Victor Moore in the corridors, out of nowhere. A boy who was supposed to be dead, who she had seen die, dammit! Only last summer she had sat next to Jack Burnett and Victor's body that was bleeding out, trying to get her classmate to get out of the basement. They couldn't save him, she remembered him dying. His blood had been on her hands and he had been part of a returning nightmare over months during her second year.

Only the certainty that he was dead and gone, at peace even had been what brought the young girl to recover, to let the memory and the horrors of that summer rest, buried and sealed in a dark place of her mind. The door to that dark place had been broken open when he suddenly stood in the corridors, probably on his way to class. As if he had never been gone.
The young Slytherin was unsettled. As... unpleasant as dying students were, they were to remain dead. This upperclassman arising from a grave that she had been so certain of that it existed after a year was a bad sign.

The year had barely begun and the new third year already felt like they were all inevitably heading in the direction of something dark. Dark like the marks of the curse on her, that could not be cured still. February 2020. The spider attack had been so long ago... Would this really be the way things would be for the rest of her life? Her life depending on weekly doses of potion?

It was only the second week, a Monday and Opeila already felt the so familiar stress. The constant fear of tragedies happening. Somehow she also felt like she had those strong feelings more often since last summer, too often. Were her seer abilities growing stronger or was it just general paranoia that sometimes happened to turn out to be true?

After class, in the afternoon Opeila decided to go to the bathroom. Maybe a bit of cold water would wake her up, help her clear her mind a little. After that she would look how her cat was doing and maybe go on a walk with him. Loras had started to behave a lot better. He was not as aggressive as he used to be, although he behaved around people in a way that Opeila could only call weird. Well. Weird was better than aggressive.

She opened the door to the girls' lavatory and let her bag slide off her shoulder. Leaving it near the door she approached one of the sinks and splashed some cold water into her face. Some strands of her hair that got in the way got wet as well and Opeila pushed them back. Sighing she looked at the mirror into her own pale face, that was now a little reddened from the coolness of the water. Good. Opeila dried her face with her sleeve and turned to go when she heard a noise.

The third year froze. What she had believed to be water dripping when she had entered suddenly sounded a lot more human. Was that... sobbing?
The Slytherin made a few steps towards the toilet stalls. "Hello?"
She could only stop herself from asking are you alright. Whoever was crying there was obviously not alright.

Opeila walked to the door of the stall that the noises came from. "I am Opeila Winters, a third year Slytherin.", she said softly. The sobbing sounded like they came from someone young. Opeila could still remember how she felt when she had been new in the castle very well... Maybe they would like to talk. "Would you like to talk about it? You don't have to open the door if you don't want to, I don't need to know who you are if you'd prefer that. It is just an offer."

@Clair Fernandez

It seemed that the girl in the stall did feel comfortable enough to show herself to a stranger crying, but she barely managed to introduce herself to Opeila. Clair Fernandez, a Ravenclaw. First year, like the Slytherin had guessed already. Hearing that the girl was a Ravenclaw made Opeila's stomach twist uncomfortably. It wasn't that Opeila had something against Ravenclaws, but she had made mainly bad experiences with the younger students in that house, especially the ones with bad emotional control.
She pushed her prejudices into the background, after all she had difficulties holding things together herself sometimes. Opeila was willing to give the girl the benefit of the doubt.

Honestly, she had not expected Clair to hand her a letter. A personal letter at that. It made Opeila feel even more uncomfortable. Something like that had happened once before, when a girl from her house, Lilvi who now had to be a second year, read the letter she got from her father out loud. Opeila just really didn't feel like it was her business to know and the willingliness of some children to give away their privacy worried her too. "Erm, are you sure...?", she asked, awkwardly standing in front of the stall with the letter in her hand, looking after Clair who announced that she would wash her face.

Well, fine then...? Opeila looked at the letter that was more a note. A few very impersonal words that made the third year frown in indignance. This letter looked like it was coming from a parent but what was this? No 'how are you doing, what is school like, did you make any friends yet' as she would have expected it from an interested mother or father, as her father would have certainly written to Opeila, not even a signature.
Instead a mention of an engaged sister, 'Izzy' and 'Pocky' who had been killed by a dog. So Pocky was probably a pet. Ah, there was a 'I hope you are doing well at school', squeezed between the stories.

It was really not the young Slytherin's place to judge, but the lack of empathy from the parent, the writer, irritated her more than she cared to admit. This was not okay. Especially here at Hogwarts, children needed all the support from home they could get. With everything that happened in the castle...
"Is Pucky your pet?", Opeila asked, a bit unsure what to say. She didn't like to comment on people's private affairs.

@Clair Fernandez

Opeila nodded when Clair told her that Pocky was in fact the pet rabbit she got from her father that she wanted to bring to Hogwarts. The third year could feel with the younger girl, she remembered how much she had wanted to bring the family owl Hardin to school, but of course she couldn't. He had mainly been her grandmother's owl anyway and after her death last summer he had disappeared... Opeila couldn't really blame him for not going to Finland with her, maybe he was looking out for her poor father instead.

More than before Opeila wished for her father to be safe, when Clair told her that her father had died. "My condolences.", she responded. For the rabbit or the father? She wasn't sure herself, mainly because she forbid herself to feel with the girl this time. Her father was the only family Opeila had left, somewhere in the world, a mere muggle running from a murderous wizard. However unlikely it was, he simply had to be alive and Opeila couldn't allow herself to imagine otherwise. One day he would come and pick her up, take her away from Finland for the two of them to live on their own.

And then the Ravenclaw went on about a dog, a man who was called Victor- that name really seemed to be haunting her- and a mother who had no meaning to Opeila. So Victor, who was a freak had a dog who killed Clair's rabbit. And Victor was also her sister's fiancée. And Clair was apparently the only one who found that Victor was a freak. Opeila couldn't quite understand why the day of their engagement was a problem- if her sister Maybell had been alive still, Opeila wouldn't have cared if she got engaged on her mother's death date or Santa Claus', especially as her mother would have loved it most likely. She would have been happy to know that her daughters lived on. Wouldn't Clair's father feel the same?

"I'm sure your sister must be very happy...", Opeila said, still not quite sure what to tell the younger student. "Wouldn't your dad have been happy too if he knew that his daughter found a man she loves? Even if he isn't the guy that everyone else had in mind?", she asked, hoping not to be tactless. "I lost my mother, my grandmother and my sister last summer. And their death days are the ones I try to make the most of, just because I know they would have wanted it." Opeila really didn't know if it was comparable in any way.

@Clair Fernandez

Opeila had expected a shocked reaction from the younger student, pity even, although it was not what the Slytherin had intended. Rather than getting pity Opeila had wanted to show Clair a way of coping with the pain that came with loss. A likely more healthy way, that allowed at least her to be more at peace with what had happened to the three women closest to her.

"It gets easier with time. At least for me." With time. With other problems pushing everything else in the background. It was alright. "I live with other people now. They have a son, my step-brother and with him I get along very well.", Opeila answered Clair's question if she had living family still.

And then the Ravenclaw started to tell Opeila about her family, her two sisters Izzy and Belle- Opeila remembered that in the letter the mother had written that she sent Izzy a letter too, so Izzy was likely at school as well. "Is Izzy also here at Hogwarts?", she asked.

Clair also told Opeila about Belle teaching her how to fly on a broom. So she was a lot closer to Belle than Izzy it seemed. And then... that her mother was mad at Belle. Because Clair could have died but according to Clair her mother also wouldn't care if she died... However that was supposed to be logical. The Slytherin was surprised that the Ravenclaw didn't seem to notice herself how little sense that made.

"Well, if she was mad because you could have died, of course she cared. Why would she not care, she is your mother? That's like a natural instinct, some mothers are just bad at showing that they care."