This AGAIN? Solo

May 25^th

Opeila enjoyed spending time in the owlery. She had not intended for it to become one of her favourite places when she first came here to clear her head. When she first returned to Hogwarts for her second year, she tended to have panic attacks every night. In the libraries when she was doing homework, during the little breaks between classes. The owlery, that she had never really had a connection with had become her retreat. She didn't own an owl, but her family did. Sometimes she stared out there, imagining that one of those silhouettes in the distance was Hardin, good old Hardin, waiting for her to come and take him back home.

Home.

Finland had never been home to Opeila and it wouldn't be for her grandmother's companion either. She had been thrown into that life by a portkey, to the feet of a woman who did not like her. Opeila was fairly sure that Elora Winter hated her, although she didn't really have a clue why. Maybe her bloodstatus. Maybe it was that Opeila was the result of a family scandal and the Winters could not pull out of this debt they were paying by taking her in.
Opeila had hated Lady Margary for it. She had been cursing her silently at night for leaving her. More than once she had been back to the dormitory before all the others and more than once she had been found on the floor crying, pressing an old necklace tightly against the chest. As if it could mend the hole that the events of last summer had burned into her heart.

Opeila sighed and looked at her hands. She was leaning against the barrier in front of one of the big windows of the owlery and stared into the distance. Only one more month. Where had the time gone? The young Slytherin felt like it had been only a few weeks ago that she stood with Zyk in front of one of the carriages and tried to convince him that there was an animal pulling it that he clearly couldn't see. The days had flown and at the same time so much had happened. Duelling. Her break up with Percival. The train crash. The masquerade. The blossom ball... So much, too much. Enough. Enough to allow Opeila to take her focus away from her new family. And now it was crashing back in. Soon they would be departing from Hogwarts and Opeila would go back to Finland with her new sister. Airlia. Back to pureblood education, finnish lessons, lessons in behavior...

The second year only realized that the owl that had just entered the owlery was apparently meant for her, when it carefully poked her. Confused Opeila looked at the bird. Who was writing to her? The Winters? The Dralts possibly? For a moment Opeila just allowed herself to hope that she would get to spend a nice summer with her recently discovered cousin. That would have been a nice turn of events. But the wax seal was a different one. The handwriting was neat and spelled out a name Opeila had never heard before. She soon realized that this letter was not from the Winters but from Finland nonetheless. Hilja Virtanen...?

Opeila broke the seal and pulled out the letter.

June 4^TH

Dear Miss Winters,

I have sent this letter to inform you, that you will return to Finland this summer but spend the weeks with my family. This happens on the wish of your grandmother, Lady Crane, who was a friend of my mother. It is out of question that the education Lady Winter has planned for you will be continued here.
During the vacations you are expected to accompany us to a ball, which you will be prepared for as soon as you arrive.
You will return to London by train where a houseelf named Abby will await you.

Kind regards and best wishes,

That was it. A polite and informative note at best. Opeila turned it around twice, not quite grasping the meaning of it yet. She was not... going back to the Winters...? It seemed so. Instead she would be sent off to another family, with some more people who would potentially not like her. Charming.

Lady Margary, what is it that you have planned for me?