A Dangerous Discovery PV Flash Holmwood Finished

Opeila’s note had reached Flash in time, though he would likely not bother in telling her the convoluted chain of events that led to its delivery. She couldn’t know that Flash no longer slept in his dorm room-- he had done everything in his power to make it unknown to as many people as possible. It seemed that the act, while having given him an immense amount of relief in the form of sleeping more comfortably, had no end to the complications it brought with it. In the end, he was still breaking the rules. It wouldn’t matter now anyway, since the school year was nearly over.

The thought brought dread into Flash’s heart every time he remembered it. It wasn’t as though he thought his family was going to mock him, or hurt him. Perhaps he should feel elated that he had a family to go back to at all, not to mention one that loved him. He really should, but the anxiety wouldn’t let go of him completely. The thought of seeing Opeila on a nice evening stroll, rather than, say, a secret ball on fire, or the hospital wing for two recent examples, was comforting in its own right.

Because of that, Flash wore a pleasant smile as he strolled down the path out of the Great Hall to where he saw her still figure waiting for him in the distance. They certainly had a lot to talk about. After everything they had gone through with the partners and the ball, the air still had yet to be cleared. Even Flash himself had been confronted several times about what ‘friendship’ meant to him, as well as a turbulent mixture of emotions relating to two particular Gryffindors that had fried his brain.

He didn’t want to talk about the meaning of friendship, nor the insanity at the ball. He just wanted to talk to Opeila, like they used to. Not only that, but he wanted to check in about her family. Things might have changed since their long talk by the lake, but had Opeila grown enough of a backbone to not be guilt-tripped by her father any longer?

”Opeila, a pleasure as always.” Flash approached her, his smile growing even bigger as he saw her face. ”Happy birthday, haha.”

Flash set the tone with a light joke, signalling that he was in a fairly good mood, regardless of the stress the time of the year had heaped onto his shoulders. This, at least, was something he was looking forward to. Flash started on the walk, a light jacket over his shoulders in the event the day got chilly enough to put his arms in. He ran warm anyway, so he didn’t need a heavy coat like Opeila was wearing. Perhaps she had wanted to show him she had appreciated his gifts for her birthday that year. He could tell the coat had earned a fair bit of wear already.

”Tell me how you’re doing.” Flash kept pace with her, walking by her side, once she started walking with him.

@Opeila Seilun

Opeila stood there for a few minutes, letting the slowly sinking sun shine on her face. If Flash came, they would have around one hour outside before the new curfew. It still felt weird.
She had heard of new times and new regulations in the muggle world due to the virus. Here at Hogwarts in the meanwhile, the problems layed elsewhere.

He was still meters away when Opeila turned around, on an impulse. It was weird how sometimes, in the weirdest moments, her seer senses were totally active. Or however one wanted to call it.
Like always, Opeila was immediately calm at the sight of her best friend. It cleared her mind a little, she didn't feel so cloudy with worries anymore. She sent him a warm smile. "Flash... How are you doing?" She chuckled at his birthday comment. With no one around, Opeila didn't feel so awkward anymore. Or... almost. She had already wanted to hug him at the after curfew party but had refrained from it because of Percival, her boyfriend had watched them.

Opeila was loyal to him, but she just didn't want him to feel awkward. Flash had not attempted to hug her either back then, the only thing that held her back a little now. Unsure, she made a step towards him.

He asked her how she was doing. "I am... I am kind of tired, honestly. I slowly get exhausted of danger and adventure." And still that was one of the reasons why she had ask Flash to meet her. To tell him more about those dangers. And to keep the worst part to herself for now. She just couldn't listen to anyone calling her naive again.

@Flash Holmwood

When asked about himself, Flash simply nodded. Accompanied by his tender smile and calm eyes, it seemed to bespeak an answer though none was given. She came close to him, in a way that seemed somewhat intentional. If Flash didn’t know better, he would think she was asking for a hug. It was perhaps a bit too reserved, or afraid, to be taken at face value. Flash had learned his lesson, after all, about how he should keep his hands to himself.

Starting their walk, they stuck mostly to the shade of a row of trees along the grounds that led along a worn path where thousands of students before them had seen the same appeal. It stretched across a brightly green lake of grass, stretched across a grand hill that ended with a nice view. There was only so much distance one could travel away from the castle without breaking some sort of rule, but there was almost nowhere you could go that didn’t have an impressive sense of isolation and the vastness of nature. This was just one of those places.

She was forthright as usual, admitting how tired the past months had made her. He couldn’t agree more, he had been tensed to the very limit of his strength, and then stretched a time or two more after that for good measure. It was only because of the support from his friends, as well as his new living situation, that he wasn’t a complete wreck.

”No kidding. I think I might like to lie dormant for a good 100 years before attempting a school year again.” Using the art of hyperbole, Flash expressed his own exhaustion. ”I worry that you might not find the return to home quite so rejuvenating. I imagine that it will only… give you more undue stress.”

Flash could always be relied on to get to his point without unnecessary delay. He had every reason to think her home life was unsupportive, and she had been through a lot. Flash would know, he was right beside her most of that time. Without her mother’s attention, without her sister, there was no one but herself to advocate for her happiness in the household. It wasn’t as though Flash would let her leave without knowing she would be alright. At least as alright as she could be.

@Opeila Seilun

He didn't come towards her. He didn't show her any sign of wanting to hug her too. So Opeila just put her hands in her pockets, gave him a litte, slightly embarassed smile and then walked next to him.
She chuckled, when he agreed with her saying that the schoolyear started to become exhausting.
"Hmmm. A break would be nice. But honestly, I think this is totally my world. More than every other place I have been before. Does it sound strange when I say, that I somehow prefer to worry about my life than to constantly worry about something possibly being wrong with me as a person?" She remembered that she once told Professor Jensen that she was no Gryffindor, that she would not risk her life in order to play the hero. She did not lie, she was not risking it in order to play the hero, but as an escape. A distraction. That was probably not healthy at all.

Flash explained his concern about her going home might add to the stress. Opeila nodded. "I think you might be right with that. But honestly, I can deal with it. I am fine. Here I will recover from home, at home I will recover from Hogwarts. It will always be like that and that is okay. Besides, we still have summer camp to come!", she reminded him.

Time to get to the less comfortable topic. "Well... Before the schoolyear ends now, I'm afraid I'll have to go back to the dangers again. I had a reason for asking you to meet me here. Did you hear what Professeor Browne said about the hags being responsible for the common room attacks? You know who else I have suspected for weeks now. Do you remember my prophecy? I told Professor Browne about it a few weeks before and he mentioned the hags making deals back then. I think some of the students- including Vladimir- are making deals with hags." She remembered her panicattack very clearly. How she asked the Professor if she had made herself a target. If she would die for what she had done.
She could tell Flash about what she had done. She should tell him. But she simply did not want to worry her best friend again.

@Flash Holmwood

Opeila tried to dash Flash’s concerns about her return home. It was good to hear that she felt good at Hogwarts, and that she was acting more confident. Still, when she asked him whether her comparison was strange, Flash had little to say.

”I think ‘strange’ may not be the right word.”

Sad. But she knew that, she was only trying to make him feel better, or worry less. He didn’t want to directly let on that he still had his doubts, Opeila was the type to hide things when she thought they would get her in trouble. She might even start lying to him, and he didn’t want that.

She seemed convinced by herself at least, seeming to think her home life and Hogwarts balanced out. Flash couldn’t see it for himself, but he assumed she was being honest about her feelings. What mattered would be whether it worked, not the particulars of how it was done. Perhaps in this case she knew herself better than he did. Not that it would stop him from performing a follow-up.

Then, with little time spared, she delved into what she had ‘really’ called him out to talk about. About… hags? Vladimir? Flash’s face wouldn’t show it, but he was rattled. That’s what you want me for? Opeila was so driven to catch Vladimir out that it was becoming an obsession. Well, perhaps part of such an assessment was a bit of an unfair bias that Flash held. You’d rather talk about Vladimir than talk about… us...

He shouldn’t be biased. He had more important things to focus on, it wasn’t about him, Opeila was trying to help keep Flash informed about what she was learning. He should be glad that she was still keeping him involved in her war games. He could still have a chance to stop her from making terrible mistakes.

”What did he say about the deals? Anything specific, any way of knowing a deal has been made for certain?”

@Opeila Seilun

Opeila shook her head at Flash's question. "He has not said anything. It is an assumption of mine. But...When Professor Browne told me that hags liked to make deals, he quickly covered it up, like it was something he shouldn't have told me. Together with what he said about them being involved in the common room attacks... I am quite certain by now that Vladimir had his hands in it somehow. It would make sense. In my prophecy there were different women, all talking about some sort of deal... What if there are students that made deals with the hags? It would not be unlikely really, would it?"

She went on to her next point. "Victor and Marion were both cold and light. That is not normal, maybe they have some deal as well. Or maybe they got dragged into it somehow, both of them were like extremely scared after the spider attacks." The thought of the spiders alone made her tense, now with a fresh memory of the pain. There was more than one reason that she wore wrong sleeves. The temperature was one of them, the other was the marks of her own fingernails on her skin.

The experiment with the blood had required more of it to be taken from her and it was almost worse than in the hospitalwing back in February. Then she had been half passed out, the pain strong, but it didn't get quite to her then. This time it had been different. Like someone slowly pushed a glowing hot blade into her leg.
Maybe a little to quickly she took put her right hand around the left, covering the bitemarks. They had stopped bleeding some time ago, but they were still clearly visible. Her hands and arms suffered a lot under Opeila's effort not to scream on that day. "I'm trying to find out more about the spidervenom with some others. I offered myself as a... test person.", she told Flash, avoiding his look. Self-destructive, said the little voice in her head, stupid, reckless...
She force the tears that she felt pricking in the corners of her eyes back down. She did the right thing. If she didn't do it, who else would?

@Flash Holmwood

Opeila mentioned talking to Professor Browne about hags, though the information was truly scarce. Something he was trying to keep tight-lipped about. Not that surprising given that they were all still very young, no doubt none of the professors really wanted any of the students to be investigating the matter themselves. It was far too late for that, Flash and Evelynn were doing everything in their power to gather as much information as possible. Opeila, on the other hand, was literally throwing herself into the fray in order to learn anything she could. No amount of telling her otherwise seemed to do much, since she felt personally responsible for the spider attacks. At least now she was showing her agency, and standing up for herself a time or two.

”So hags like making deals… I wonder what kind. A deal usually means an exchange, right? Do you think they are offering something to students in exchange for something? But… don’t hags eat children? Why would they make a deal instead?” Flash didn’t have any reason to think Opeila knew more about hags than he did, but perhaps even just voicing his questions out loud would help both of them focus on the gap in their understanding. ”Does that mean they can be reasoned with, or is that impossible?”

Flash had done some research on hags, but the information in the school library was rather scant. All the descriptions of them mostly spoke of how scary and bad they were, and not how they thought or what to expect when dealing with them. That was most likely only for high level Ministry agents who had any reason to believe they might have to deal with one. They were sentient, after all. Flash didn’t have much experience with trying to understand sentient non-human creatures. They had values, thoughts, goals… right? Just because they would want him dead if they saw him didn’t mean they were mindless beasts, Flash didn’t take their cruelty personally.

Flash would be distracted from talk about hags however once Opeila started to become tense and avoidant, fidgeting. Uh oh... He knew what that meant, Opeila had gotten herself into something again. Still he couldn’t have been prepared for what she said. She was letting herself be experimented on, to try and find a cure for the cursed blood. At first, Flash could only look at her with a shocked expression. He had to process the words, her sweet childish face not matching up with the desire to become a medical guinea pig. Still, as it often was with her, he also couldn’t outright tell her she was wrong for doing so. It was only a short while ago that Flash had regretfully told Bridget that nothing could be done so long as they had nothing to test his theories on. He had been tirelessly trying to research cure himself, but without anyone to test it on, they all stayed theories. Was there really another way? Did Opeila really have to be the one?

”A test person?” Flash reverbalized her words, as if checking to see they were really what she said. ”Who is testing on you? Do they even have reasonable theories, or are they just going at it haphazardly?”

Even if he didn’t want this to happen, it would be even worse if it was all in vain. Without knowing who it was, he was terrified of the possibilities. It could be a professor going against the school for the greater good of curing the students, or it could be some first year with a cheap science kit pulling out her blood for nothing. Horrid.

”Are you alright? Is it hurting you, is it making the curse worse?”

Flash would start hovering around her, looking for the telltale signs of the creeping black ichor in her veins. It had started at her leg, he hadn’t saved her that day. He had only just made sure she didn’t buckle over and hit her head on the floor. He hated that he couldn’t do anything to actually help. Was life going to always be full of things that were beyond his ability to comprehend? At least she was talking to him.

”I’m frustrated… but thanks for telling me.” He wanted to reinforce it, nothing was worse than Opeila going off and doing things without telling anyone. She had an incredible knack for getting into more trouble than Flash thought was humanly possible. It was a singular talent.

@Opeila Seilun

Opeila nodded when Flash said that a deal meant an exchange. "Exactly. Hogwarts is strongly protected, it can not be easy to get in. And getting a student to help them get in is a better way to get to more children than eating that one student. So here is my guess. Vladimir let the spiders in for them. Maybe that was their deal. So that is why the spidervenom makes me nervous. I don't think it is normal spidervenom. No- I know that it is not. I think it might be some... hag... spell. Curse. Whatever." She nodded again. "So... yes. I guess they can be reasoned with."

His shocked look when she told him what she did hurt. It was not surprising at all, but it hurt very much. Once more Opeila felt guilt sting inside her, reminding her that it was her, who made her friend worry so much. He first instinct was to cover up what it did to her, to tell thim that she was okay. But she couldn't. After he stood with her through the different trouble situations she got into, she just owed him the truth. "The night after the spider attack, in the hospital wing..." Opeila knew that he would feel guilty. He sat right next to her when it happened, fast asleep. "Selim Faust came up to me. Before I could get the potion. He took some of the cursed blood from me."

Again the blood drained from Opeila's face when she thought of the pain, the terrible pain... "He gave me a bloodclot. Burnett dragged me out of charms after I almost collapsed. I confronted Selim after the dormbattles and he told me that when he tried to send the blood home, it broke out of the vile and turned his owl into a shadowmonster. His father had to kill it." She skipped the part that Selim still carried it around in an envelope, that was just too creepy. "So it seems that the venom in my blood, if not... well, stopped by the potion, would turn me as well." She tried not to imagine what she said. The thought of being turned into some monster... That sounded like some weird apocalypse theory, just much more real. If she turned, would she be able to turn others as well? She didn't want to think about it, she didn't...

"So, I told Selim that he could test on me." He asked if she was alright. Opeila wanted to nod, make him worry less, but she forbid herself to lie to him. "Honestly, I am not alright. If I tried to describe the pain of a needle in my leg, I'd go with a burning hot blade. I bit my hand so I wouldn't scream. So... no. I am not okay." She folded her hands together, tried to hide the light shaking. The bitemarks would be visible to Flash now. No more lies. "But if I won't do it, who will?"

@Flash Holmwood

He had to admit Opeila’s theory was an astute one, a lot of the students showed incredible aggravation at the lack of safety at an ostensible bastion of protection. Years ago, the school had been the site of a large-scale attack by the Dark Lord, and they had been able to push him back time and time again. Getting access to Hogwarts or the students within it might be more of a valuable reward than Flash had considered.

He didn’t say anything, just nodded along, paying attention. Even though Opeila was perhaps too stubborn, too naive, or too reckless, she was doing all of this because of her vested interest in stopping the forces of darkness from hurting anyone else. Even when she did something as insane as offering herself as a test subject, he couldn’t help but admire her as well. A conflict born of not being too dissimilar himself.

The two of them were taking their time on the walk itself. They were far enough from everyone else to be heard, just two silhouettes strolling along a beaten path towards a tall lone tree. Only the distant sounds of rustling boughs in the wind could be heard alongside the frightening information.

And it was frightening. Selim had snuck into the hospital wing while he was asleep and gave Opeila a blood clot? Why was he hearing about this now, months after the fact? Because they knew he would be furious? Not at Selim for doing it, he likely thought it was the right thing to do. Not at Opeila and Burnett for not telling him, he could see why they wouldn’t. At himself, for letting it happen. For not paying enough attention, being powerless. Had anything he’d done all year been useful at all?

Flash couldn’t help but continue to show the uneasiness on his face, the guilt quietly building inside of him. Somehow, it got worse. The blood that he extracted turned an owl into… a shadow creature? She talked about it like the blood moved, escaped, attacked. That kind of thing… was inside her leg. Inside several of the students. A hag’s curse, was it? Some that moved, grew, changed its host. A parasite in their blood.

While mortified, Flash was also swept up into rapid thought. With every bit of detail, he started to understand the picture more clearly. These details were… incredibly important. He wanted to simultaneously shake her silly and hug her tightly. Instead he took both hands and rubbed his face and hair to release some of the building frustration and anxiety.

”Thank you for… telling me.” Once he stopped, he finally began speaking again. He would have to talk to Selim later.

With the fear still pricking at his skin with the description of the pain she was going through, Flash reached out for Opeila’s hand to hold. He didn’t want to be disconnected when she was opening up to him. He was never a distant person, and he didn’t want her to forget that. He was right there.

He wished it was him instead, but he hadn’t been bitten. He felt foolish that only a short while ago, Flash had been telling Bridget that progress couldn’t go anywhere unless they had someone to test on. Even though he hated it, perhaps she was right. Who else would do it?

”I… I have research. I don’t know if any of it is useful but…” He didn’t want to be encouraging this, Opeila was hurting. ”I’ve been trying to find a cure, getting books from outside the school. Looking into the Dark Arts and curses.”

Flash looked into Opeila’s eyes sadly, if she returned his gaze.

”Don’t just get hurt for nothing. Make sure it’s worth it.” A lesson he had long hoped Opeila would learn.

@Opeila Seilun