Belladonna Finland PV Opeila Winters Finished

@Aly Salinger
Note: Most of Opeila's hair is white now.

While Opeila wasn't exactly a regular reader, she had picked up a non-educational book every now and then during her time at Hogwarts. The Slytherin had flipped through fantasy novels, thrillers and, more often than she cared to admit, romance books. It made perfect sense, if she thought about it, though she tried to avoid just that. Thinking about it all too much.

She had developed a taste in romance books over the years, love for certain tropes and hate for others. Her most hated one? Miscommunication. How often had she shut a book, wanting to scream at all characters involved?
Had she been a legilimens, she would have probably yelled at herself now.

Opeila hadn't planned to return to Finland this summer. No, she had intended to do the same thing she had done last year, which was find Vianne and run, spend the summer in France again with the outcast branch of her half-sister's paternal family. Opeila didn't share blood with any of them, but it hadn't bothered them at all.
They had taken her in like another member of the family, no questions asked.

Only this time, Lysander had been quicker. He had intervened, made some thinly veiled threats towards Vianne and taken her back to Finland. Opeila had refused to say a word to him, she hadn't said much in general until Hilja revealed that they had ended her betrothal. Since then they had given her space. For the first time since the young witch had been shipped off to Finland, she felt like she could breathe freely.

She had spent most of the holidays studying- and trembling until her OWL results finally arrived- and horse riding. Maybe this could have been the first peaceful holidays in Finland... if it wasn't for Aly Salinger's arrival. A miscalculation on her guardians' part, for sure. Aly's parents had gotten in touch with Hilja, and the moment she realized that the girl in question was a Hogwarts student, she had agreed, in the hope it would lighten Opeila's mood.

Aly didn't like her. Opeila wasn't entirely certain why- their only short interaction had been in second year, when they had almost accidentally drowned some flobberworms in the abandoned bathroom- but she also wasn't very keen on unpacking whatever it was about. Aly had avoided her as much as possible, which was a bit awkward, Opeila caught herself dreading running into her in any of the corridors, but whenever they did happen upon each other, the Slytherin made an effort to appear busy and distracted.

The Virtanen Summer Fest had been a welcome distraction. Several familiar faces had been there, giving Opeila every excuse to just ignore Aly's presence. Her guardians had also stopped watching her every step and her former betrothed hadn't been there at all, so she actually enjoyed herself a bit.

A couple of guests had stayed overnight, but also left around midday, leaving them in the same spot as before. A week. An entire week she had to endure Aly's presence at the manor now, not saying a word and hoping not to run into each other. She had even made it a habit to listen at the door of her room before stepping outside- Aly's guest room was in the same corridor.

This evening, Aly had left the dinner table early, claiming a stomach bug. Opeila hadn't looked up from her plate, until Lysander nudged her with his elbow. The moment, Aly had left the room and was too far away to hear, the entire disapproval of the family hit Opeila like a blow to the face. The Slytherin tried to avoid the reproachful looks that were thrown her way, until Jarno, who usually let his wife handle whatever little conflict was going on, spoke up.

"I'm done with this attitude of yours, Opeila." Silently she had looked at him, trying not to let any guilt show on her face. "Alyssa is our guest. It's not my business and frankly I also don't care what happened between you two, but I expect you to behave like a good host should, from now on. You are part of this family and I won't allow your actions to tarnish our reputation." For a second, she wanted to give a defiant response, tell him to send her back to France, that she hadn't wanted to come here anyway, but she stopped herself. They were trying to make compromises, she could see that, and she really was pushing it a little. She had all but ignored Aly since her arrival.

When they left the dinner table, Lysander caught up with her, on her way back to her room. He was also trying to rebuild the good relationship they used to have, she could tell. "Did something happen between you two?" Opeila shrugged. "I swear, I have no idea. We never really talk at Hogwarts, we're in the same classes and that's it."
"So... why don't you ask her?" Opeila remained silent. As much as she appreciated his attempts, she didn't really feel like unpacking insecurities. She knew why she didn't want to ask Aly. The same reason she avoided deeper discussions with Jack Burnett at this point.
"Talk to her." With a good-natured nudge, he left her alone to find Annika.

Discomfort gripped the Slytherin when she walked down the pantry later that night. In the general silence, she heard Aly's door open without pressing her ear against her own, and after a moment of hesitation, she followed her classmate. As did her cat, who generally seemed unwilling to let her go anywhere alone at night. She found Aly in the kitchen, looking for food. Not very surprising, considering she had skipped most of dinner.

Quietly, Opeila entered the kitchen as well, opened one of the cupboards, grabbed a couple of bowls and placed them on a counter. There were quite a few leftovers from the summer fest, sweets like cauldron cakes, as well as some food that she imagined, Aly wasn't that familiar with.

Opeila grabbed a piece of Korppu, and bit into it. If Aly hadn't noticed her before, the crunch of the sweet, crispy bread would likely attract her attention.
The sixth year cast a meaningful glance at the bowls. "Hungry?"

Aly's slender fingers had just wrapped around the plump scarlet apple in the fruit bowl, beginning to pull it skywards to join her bread and cheese, when all of a sudden a loud crunch nearby startled her out of the calm, peaceful silence to which she had grown so accustomed. Perhaps her eyes were keener than her ears, for when she whirled around - the apple falling with a dull thud to the cold floor beneath her bare feet - bowls on the counter and open cabinets proved to her immediately that she had not been alone this whole time. Whoever was here had been moving as silently as a ghost, and for a half-moment she considered that the Virtanen manor might be haunted by its family's ancestors - but no, ghosts couldn't move bowls or crunch foods, and this was confirmed when less than a second later her gaze landed upon a distinctly opaque shadow in the dark.

She squinted, less accustomed to feeling half-blind than certain peers. The shockingly pale hair, white as snow and - to Aly, at least - only half as pretty, clued her in to the shadow's identity, and before she could even say anything her lips were twisting into a pursed scowl. So much for being able to avoid her host all week.

As if to authenticate her own identity, Opeila ticked her shadowy eyes down to the bowls on the counter. "Hungry?" she asked, and as Aly's green gaze grew more used to the poorly-lit kitchen, she noted a few crumbs on the side of the Slytherin's mouth, probably to match those still caught within her teeth. The slice of bread in her hand, half-bitten, was clearly toasted and crumbly, and despite herself, Aly had to admit that it looked good - sugar-encrusted and golden-brown.

Betraying her, her stomach rumbled. Aly tried to subtly clutch at it with her now-free hand to avoid the noise getting out, but it was too late and too silent for such a thing to be circumvented. Her nostrils flared in annoyance. Fine. She blew a breath out of her pinched lips before glancing up to Opeila. "Whatever. Yes. A little," she bit out under her breath, crouching to pick up the apple that had fallen to the floor. Under normal circumstances she'd have picked out a new one, since this one was likely bruised from the plunge, but at this point it was time to gather her things and get out of here. "Don't worry - I'll get out of your hair. I've got better places to be anyway." The last bit was more muttered than the rest, but not so much so as to be completely unheard by Pei. The Ravenclaw's bitter parsimoniousness was not quite so easily hidden.

Moving fast so as to get the hell out of here, Aly stuck the apple in one pocket of her sweatshirt, the cheese in the other, and grabbed the bread in one hand. A quick glance at the bowls on the counter proved sweets, and even her favourite Cauldron Cakes, but Aly forced herself to look away and steel her gaze. She would not be taking help from the Slytherin come hippogriffs or high water. Still, she did know that eating bread without a drink would not be the best thing, and her dry mouth was already parched enough, so she moved to another cabinet and opened it. No drinks, just more bread. Another cabinet proved to be alcohols, which - again, would've been great if she had been alone, but the last thing she needed was the Virtanens reporting to her mother that their "honoured guest" had stolen their liquors, and drinking alone was no fun anyway. The next cabinet, vegetables. The fourth, flour, and Aly grew so frustrated at the sight that she slammed the door shut and turned to Opeila with a groan and a sharp, resentful tone.

"Fine. I give up. Drinks? Then I'll be gone, don't you worry."

@Aly Salinger
Note: Most of Opeila's hair is white now.

Aly's hostile reaction was almost boring at this point, given that it had been a constant during the Ravenclaw's stay.

"Don't worry - I'll get out of your hair. I've got better places to be anyway."

"Do you?" Opeila eyed her classmate, who quickly picked up her apple and seemed eager to leave, despite the grumbling of her stomach. Her refusal to take any of the other food almost made Opeila laugh. "I didn't poison any of this, you know?", she added, sarcastically.

Instead she watched Aly rummaging through all of the cupboards, seemingly not finding what she was looking for. Opeila wouldn't offer help- it would probably just annoy her more.
... Was it bad that a tiny part inside the Slytherin was tempted to help just to set her off?

"Fine. I give up. Drinks? Then I'll be gone, don't you worry."

"I'll go one better- drinks and you stay and tell me why you seem to hate me so much. Would you believe me if I told you I have no idea? You behave like it's obvious." Opeila finally stepped away from the table and grabbed two glasses from one of the shelves. "That cupboard." She pointed to one a little to Aly's right.

Opeila never really went down to the pantry at night and she doubted that Lord and Lady Virtanen would approve- even less if they knew that the two of them were helping themselves to alcohol. But maybe this was her chance to figure out what had caused this change in Aly's behavior?

Opeila's sarcasm rang as true as it did frustrating, and Aly bit back an equally snappy response; of course the girl hadn't poisoned any of it, but that didn't mean that she wasn't poison still. Accepting food from the hand that so graciously offers it only opens one up to being strangled by that same hand while they eat, after all; best to bite the hand that feeds you early on, establish a power dynamic, let them know that you weren't about to take anything lying down. Let her know that. Opeila Winters, Virtanen, whatever she wished to call herself had taken enough from Aly. There would be no further allowance of that in their shared future, however bitter.

She wouldn't have to poison anything; she already smelled strongly of almonds and brokenness.

And yet, despite the fact that Opeila broke everything she laid her grubby little seer hands on within Aly's quickly shattering life, she - she asked of why the hatred existed. "No idea", Aly's arse. An equally acidic laugh bubbled its way up her throat, spit from her lips like venom before she could so much as control it, and Aly whirled on Opeila with all the vitriol of a hurricane, curls flying windswept around her freckled face from the force of the turn.

"No idea? No idea?" Her barked-out cackle resembled, perhaps, more of a witch of olde than the kind, sweet child as which most knew her. "Now I know you're lying. It was the talk of the bedamned school for - for months, I'm quite sure, when I left. And I'm also quite sure everyone knew I was with Aa-" The word caught in her mouth, though whether it was for the dry throat or due to the fact that she hadn't spoken Aaron's name in ages, she couldn't quite tell. "With him at the time. But I come back to, to what? My supposed boyfriend, who couldn't even bother to write me while I was going through what's just about been one of the worst times of my life, with his arms and lips all over about three other girls? Whatever happened to being a good friend?"

The last sentence escaped her and with it, the rage; it was if she was a giant balloon, and all of the air whooshed out of her. A marionette with its strings cut. Aly slumped against the countertop, her face pointed downwards to the floor and brown curls curtaining over her face to hide the hot tears that were beginning to prick at her eyes with very little warning. What an impossible situation: Opeila wasn't technically to blame, not really, but Aly's feelings were still very there and very real.

"You know, I thought I was over this by now," she murmured, barely audibly; at this point, Aly didn't even know if she was talking aloud or not. "I'm definitely over him. It's been over two years." She raised her gaze through the curls to meet the seeress's eyes. "But that kind of heartbreak - that kind of betrayal - you don't get over it so easily. I know we weren't close, but I thought we were friends, Opeila. But did you?" She sniffled, raising a hand to wipe her nose on the sleeve of her sweatshirt. "Would you have ever done that if you'd considered us friends? Or thought we could've become them, in the future?"

@Aly Salinger
Mentioning: @Aaron Jones @Akari Kato
Note: Most of Opeila's hair is white now.

Whatever Opeila expected, it wasn't... this. Her question seemed to have broken a dam, causing all of Aly's pent-up rage to crash down on the Slytherin. All of this was about... Aaron?
No. Not really.

Opeila let Aly talk uninterrupted, looking down at the two glasses in her hand. Had she really been that blind or did Aly and her have wildly different understandings of friendship? Their last real interaction had been in second year, at an errand. The occasional short exchange in class. She had considered her classmate a positive acquaintance at most... but it appeared that Aly had considered her a friend until she had started seeing Aaron.

She didn't immediately answer when Aly finished. Instead, Opeila opened the cupboard she had pointed to, grabbed a random bottle and filled both glasses. Emptied hers and refilled it, trying to sort her thoughts. The liquid burned in her throat, almost making her cough. Ugh. Firewhisky, of all things. Still quiet, she pushed one glass towards Aly. This conversation was going to need more of this.

"I didn't know.", she finally said, knowing that Aly would likely not believe her. "I didn't know Aaron well until last year, I didn't pay attention." And I still don't know you... What made her empty the second glass in a single painful gulp was not what Aly thought of her. Aaron. This could not be her sweet, caring Aaron, right? He could never treat any partner that way. He just... couldn't.
The little doubtful voice in the back of her head sounded oddly much like that of Akari.

Opeila put down the glass, when she realized she was getting a bit dizzy. She had to stay focused.

"I thought we were friends, Opeila. But did you?"
"No", she admitted, only whispering too now. "Don't get me wrong, please" Opeila leaned against the counter next to Aly, looking down at the back of her head. "I never disliked you at all, I just... never thought we were that close either."

It still didn't sound right.

"Listen", she started again, "Had we been friends, I don't think we would have ever been in this situation. Because, as friends, we would have talked, right? I would have known that you were with Aaron. This would have never been possible." Better. "I think- I think I don't know you, Aly." Her voice began to break as well. "And you don't know me either. We just never got close like that, I guess we just always had different circles and lives."

Opeila looked at Aly again, who didn't seem able to talk just yet. Never had Opeila expected their conversation to go this way. She had tried to recall their most recent interactions which were brief, between classes and always friendly, wondering if she had said something wrong. But she had always considered Aly a distant acquaintance, a classmate she knew barely anything about. Ravenclaw. Quidditch player. And after that... her knowledge about Aly ended. How much better could Aly possibly know her to consider her a friend?

"I spent most of my life in muggle Cambridge. Do you know, why I am here now?", Opeila continued talking, partly to give Aly some more time to hide and sort her thoughts. And partly because Aly had opened up to her, given her a piece of her mind, which was clearly painful to her. The least Opeila could do was to give her something back. After all, she was being truthful- them not being friends was not because Opeila didn't want to be or disliked the Ravenclaw. It just never happened. It didn't seem like it still could now, but they still had two years at Hogwarts. Surely it had to be possible to achieve an outcome here, that allowed them to still face each other civilly in class?

"My mother was a pureblood. When my halfsister, Maybell, turned out to be a squib, they fled with my grandmother, escaping the pureblood world of her husband where Maybell wouldn't have a place. They hid in Cambridge, where she met my dad and they had me. When she told him about magic and her past, he sent Maybell into muggle foster care. They thought that her father was chasing them and they thought she would be safe away from magic. She is dead now. So is my mother and my grandmother."

The tears that had threatened to spill over, were gone now, Opeila's voice nearly monotonous. So much time had passed. This time, talking about it would not make her cry.
"My grandmother wrote instructions for my dad and some friends, in case I lost all magical protection, which... well, was the case. My dad drove me to a portkey and sent me away. So I landed here. Twelve years old, just lost my family, stranded in a country that I didn't know with a language I couldn't speak."

Opeila paused. The last time she had told this story was to Alec, years ago. Previously Jack, even longer ago. She was sure, Lady Virtanen would not approve of her telling Aly now. "They made it their mission to turn me into a proper pureblood child, the heiress of my mother's name. They arranged a betrothal with that Ilvermorny kid, Miles. There was a mistake with my mother's first husband, he was never looking for us, so... they invited him to meet me and expected me to be cool with it. Last year I ran away. I started planning that after Aaron and I got close. When I felt that... everything was slipping away from me, he was the person I needed in my life. I was terrified and he made me feel safe. What I am saying is- I didn't think of anyone when we got close. That... that was just for me."

Again Opeila fell silent, finally grabbed the glass and refilled it. "I won't apologize.", she hesitantly added after another moment of silence. "It was never for or against you." Slowly she swirled her glass. "I understand you though. I- I hope you can understand me too."

Immediately after speaking, as the tears pricked hotly in her green gaze, Aly reached for the glass her best frenemy had pushed towards her. Full of sweet cinnamon and spicy rage, the firewhisky burned hot but familiar in her throat - except this time, it wasn't her best mate in front of her, but Opeila instead. Aly had gotten so used to drinking the unsanctioned stuff with @Dealla Prince over anyone else that it almost felt odd to open her eyes after downing the shot to see white hair and green eyes instead of dark and teal, a Seer instead of the usually seen. She slammed her glass onto the counter, reaching for the bottle to refill it; for this second glass, she'd sip.

Opeila was equally into the whisky, having downed a glass or two herself already. Clearly, Aly and Dee weren't the only ones who were used to the illicit getting and drinking of alcohol at school. In fact, the Ravenclaw was so deep in thought about if Opeila and Dee had the same elder source from whom they acquired this stuff at Hogwarts that she almost didn't notice when Pei admitted that she hadn't paid attention to their mutual ex back when Aly was dating him... which meant that she hadn't paid attention to Aly, either.

The snake claimed she didn't know about what the badger had done to the eagle.

And then, worst of all, she claimed they weren't friends.

The "No" felt like it tore a hole through Aly's heart, for despite her dislike of the Seeress, Aly still held the idea that everyone wanted to be her friend quite dearly. She had always been told by her father that she could make friends with a brick wall, with anyone, anytime, stubbornness be damned... but that was a childish fantasy, something she clung to in order to remind her of her father. If she was friends with everyone, he had been right about her. But if she was ever disliked, or in Opeila's words just "not close" enough, Benjamin had gone to his grave without knowing who his daughter truly was. Maybe she was not the charmer she'd thought she was after all.

Gone were the days of chubby-cheeked freckled smiles helping her to charm her way into anything she wanted, anyone she could possibly befriend immediately falling victim to her joyful ways; she was an adult now, and it was time to act like it. Fuck sipping, she downed the second glass, too, even as Opeila tried to defend why she hadn't thought of Aly when she had met Aaron.

Aly's eyes began to water again.

"We didn't have to be friends for you to know he was a heartbreaker, or that we'd dated," she choked out through a strange strangling feeling in her throat. "It was everywhere, all through the year. I swear there were professors who knew." She wiped at her face, quickly and fiercely, ensuring that no tears would actually fall. "And I'm sorry if I thought we were friends. Clearly, that's not the case. I just thought - I just thought that since we knew each other..." Her temper bubbled up from the back of her throat, her stomach, in one fell snap: "I'd have done it for you, if the roles were reversed."

Opeila continued on into a sob story about how she'd ended up here, which only served to harden Aly's resolve further. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest. "Yeah, that sounds right terrible, and I'm sorry you and your family had to go through that, but you're not the only one with a tough past. My mum's done the same thing with trying to train me to be a proper pureblood, whatever that means - and I left Hogwarts, and Aaron, because of my dad's - yeah." Even now, over a year later, she still couldn't quite say it - not to people who weren't her friend, anyway. "And how is leaning on Hufflepuff's least reliable working out for you? He made us both happy, and he will take it away from you, just like he did with me. It's what he does, Opeila. It's just who he is."

A moment of silence. A quiet realization.

"But I suppose it's not really you I should be mad at, is it? It's him. And the first girls he was with, before I came back," she said, softly. "You got with him much later, but I wasn't quite done with being mad about it yet. I suppose I'm still not, but... if he keeps making you happy, I guess I'm glad he's grown or whatever. Though I'm glad you're making friends with some better people, too - I saw Cass at the festival. He's..." Memories of forests and tents flashed through her head, and despite trying to bite it back, for the first time all conversation, Aly actually smiled a genuine smile. "He's a good friend." She looked up at Pei, meeting her eyes, also for one of the first times; her tone softened, almost to a banter, but not quite. Still tinged with frustration, but it had lessened. "If you're good to him, maybe that means we could be good at some point, too."

@Aly Salinger
Mentioning: @Jack Burnett @Aaron Jones
Note: Most of Opeila's hair is white now.

Opeila didn't know what to feel. Or think. The conversation they were having didn't feel like one suitable for people their age, so close to adulthood. At the same time... Jack Burnett and the pain she had felt about his pushing her away what felt like a lifetime ago crossed her mind. Then Vlad, the seemingly friendly boy who had helped her with her books. They had taught her early not only to not see a friend in everyone, but also to not want a friend in everyone.
Nothing against a large pool of allies. But small circles of trusted people were safe. Paranoia could be protection as much as it could be haunting.

"We didn't have to be friends for you to know he was a heartbreaker, or that we'd dated. It was everywhere, all through the year. I swear there were professors who knew."

The seer looked at Aly in silence for a few moments. "I suppose", she finally said, lacking a better answer. "I'm sorry that I didn't pay better attention."
It was the most she could give her classmate. She found herself swallowing the defensive words that would surely turn this exchange into something aggressive. Even if Opeila didn't agree with Aly, she was a Slytherin, never without carefully calculated thoughts- there were some more days they had to spend under this roof together, two more years in shared classrooms. It wouldn't do either of them any good if they burned the remainder of this bridge entirely.

"And I'm sorry if I thought we were friends. Clearly, that's not the case. I just thought - I just thought that since we knew each other... I'd have done it for you, if the roles were reversed."

... Then you are either a better person than me, or a more naive one.
Thoughts that never left Opeila's mouth, for she knew she would never be able to reverse the damage they would do. Aly's words came from a place of kindness, a desire to be close to someone who should have been a stranger to her. In truth, were the roles reversed and Aaron had hurt Opeila to later date Aly, who didn't have any part in the event that led to their breakup- they would not be here. Opeila didn't categorize people into friends and enemies. Aly would have been somewhere in between. No friend, the connection of Aaron would surely be too painful but no enemy either.
Someone to be polite to, but not close.
Much as they had already been in the past few years.

And Opeila could not find the feelings that Aly seemed to be expecting. There was no remorse, much less anything that resembled the guilt of a friend who had betrayed another. Opeila hadn't betrayed anyone and she would not betray Aaron or herself now, by doing what Aly claimed she would have done if the roles were reversed; unconditionally believing the words of a stranger over the person she cared about most in the world.
Was it wrong of her not to fight back against every bad word Aly said about Aaron? No, she didn't think so either. This was something to talk about with Aaron later, something to make up her mind about when she had heard more.

Opeila was swallowing it all. Every defensive word, trying to make as much space for Aly's pain as she could. No, she didn't agree with the Ravenclaw, but she was no stranger to pain that was kept bottled up for months. This was Aly's outbreak and Opeila understood. Her own chest constricted at the thought of losing Aaron. Followed by a wave of resentment, when she imagined him finding another girlfriend. Aly had every right to resent her and Opeila could understand the need to let it out. To let her know.

Except unchecked and paired with expectations that would not be fulfilled, resentment could backfire and consume.
Aly wasn't wrong, maybe her relationship with Aaron as well as their breakup had been out in the open all along, for everyone to see. But Opeila wasn't lying either- she had been very occupied with herself; learning lessons that she couldn't shake the feeling Aly was in the process of learning now. Opeila had hated fiercely for years, directed her anger at what she considered its rightful targets, only to learn that they were very much indifferent to it. And eventually all that rage and pain with nowhere to go had turned inward.

Telling Aly her story was not only an extension of trust and giving her the time she needed to collect herself- Opeila tried to give her context. Tools to understand, just like trying to understand Lysander had helped ease her anger against him.
Except Aly's reaction was... something else entirely.

"Yeah, that sounds right terrible, and I'm sorry you and your family had to go through that, but you're not the only one with a tough past. My mum's done the same thing with trying to train me to be a proper pureblood, whatever that means - and I left Hogwarts, and Aaron, because of my dad's - yeah."

In every other situation, Opeila would have sympathized, not knowing about her own father's fate. Aly's and her situations sounded so very similar.
But instead of sympathy, anger surged through her, only amplified by the heat of the alcohol. The lack of sympathy didn't matter so much, right? That was clearly not why Aly had told her about it. Opeila pressed her lips together, trying not to burst out with something she would regret.
It didn't work. The sound, half sob, half disbelieving laughter left her before she could stop it and quickly she pressed the back of her hand against her lips, sealing them before more unwanted sounds could escape.

A few seconds Opeila just stared at the ground, breathing slowly. Eventually, her answer came out just as slow. "I never said I was the only one with a tough past, Aly." She set down her glass a little harder than intended, wincing slightly at the concerning loud sound of glass hitting wood. Maybe it was that sound, that finally made her lose the fragile self control she had tried to maintain. She had never been too good at it anyway.
"Do you realize that none of this is a fight or competition, Aly?", Opeila asked, almost stumbling over her own words now. "Dating Aaron, having a tough past, being friends, not being friends-" - why do you think that any of it was about you?!

Opeila bit her tongue before she could complete the sentence, suddenly recalling a similar sentence that Jack Burnett had thrown at her before. She remembered the shame she had felt then. How the hell had she found herself in a position where her own words repeatedly reminded her of Jack? No. She could do better than that, she wasn't intending to shame Aly. But hell, Opeila wouldn't let her just kick down her boundaries either. She drew a shaky breath. "Listen; I know what it feels like to feel alone or overwhelmed or just needing to share a burden with someone and I would never turn anyone away who needs a safe place for it. If you want to talk to me, talk to me, Aly but never-" She heard her voice break and she knew Aly probably could as well. "- never weaponize your pain to shut me up again."

Her tears finally spilled over, she couldn't even tell if they came from anger or sadness. Either way, she was not done yet. "I hear you, Aly, I really do, and I am sorry that you were hurt so much. If you want to talk, I am here to listen, but as you really seem to want to paint me as some villain, you will hear me now." Her nails dug into the edge of the counter she was leaning against. "I use the word friend very carefully. I am friendly with a lot of people at Hogwarts and that did include you so far, but my friends, the people I know and trust- they are very few. One of my first 'friends' betrayed me and I ended up with a blood curse for nearly three years, that I thought I would die from. He was very friendly to me prior to that."

The tears kept coming and Opeila angrily tried to sort her thoughts. "I told you, Aaron caught me when I was in a very bad place last year and he has been an amazing friend. And boyfriend. He has made me the happiest I have been in years. He made me want to say yes to dating him Aly, not you or anything you did or were. Maybe I subconsciously noticed that you were dating, I really can't remember but it had no impact on my life, or influence on any decisions I made!" Without even noticing, she had gotten louder, no longer concealing her anger.

Opeila paused to listen for any noises but it seemed that the rest of the family was still asleep. Feeling tired as well, Opeila slid down the counter and sat on the ground. Trying to calm herself, she brushed the cool tiles with her fingers. "This betrayal that you are so angry about is in your head, Aly." The seer's green eyes looked up again, red and puffy from crying, but the anger finally vanished from them. "It's yours to decide what to do with."
Opeila was out of energy. And out of patience too. She had hoped to find common ground, but now she felt like they were present in two different realities entirely and if Aly insisted on clinging to Opeila being the traitor, the bad guy in her story, the Slytherin would let her have it and live with it alone.

"Though I'm glad you're making friends with some better people, too - I saw Cass at the festival. He's... He's a good friend. If you're good to him, maybe that means we could be good at some point, too."
"... Cass? Yeah- yeah, he is a good friend." Hearing Cassius's name in this situation didn't help at all, only reminding her of a different issue she was not sure how to solve yet. Opeila wasn't sure herself why the mention of him made her tears flow again and for a moment, she buried her face in her hands. The whiskey had been a mistake, right? Surely she would have handled the whole situation much better without it, and now... there was no coming back from this, was there?

Opeila scooted forward, away from the counter and laid down on the ground completely, staring up at the ceiling. And finally, through the unstoppable tears, broke the first giggle. And another, until she clutched her stomach and clamped a hand over her mouth. "What are we dooooing, Aly?", she finally managed to get out between laughs, shaking her head.

Life taught people a lot of lessons, most of them unwanted. It was true that Aly was undergoing a sort of metamorphosis, maybe even one Opeila had once chartered herself, a lone sail upon roughest seas. However, anyone who has gone through pain knows that even the most selfless of persons can struggle to think of anyone but themselves during such a time, and such was the situation in which Aly found herself now. Often so wrought with fear and worry about others, the Ravenclaw suddenly had become more self-centered over these last few days at the Virtanen estate - no, scratch that, over the summer, or worse, the years since her father's passing. She had withdrawn into her cocoon, unwilling to stare through the transparent veil over her eyes and see the world around her for what it really was: a place where others lived and suffered, too.

The apology that dripped from Opeila's mouth like sour water, blunt and bland and altogether bitter, didn't help to rub Aly the right way. It felt like the Slytherin was just saying it because she felt like she had to, rather than genuinely having been sorry she hadn't paid attention. Perhaps the other girl hadn't gone through the sort of romantic trauma - perhaps she didn't, now, want to track down anyone who had ever left a relationship with someone in whom she now had a healthy interest, want to ask them a million questions of where and when and how and why. But Aly supposed that was just what happened when you have a nasty breakup: you become distrustful of any else who may hold your delicate, beating heart in their dangerous hands in the future. All it takes is a single squeeze that's just slightly too hard for the flesh to break beneath your fingers, for blood and trust and love to come seeping out like a raging river.

It was almost sweet that Opeila didn't have that same mistrust of others, that she hadn't tracked down all of Aaron's vengeful exes (because boy, did he have a lot of them) and had simply blindly trusted him to be a wonderful person. Aly had been that way once, too. She only hoped that Opeila would never have to be - and, you know what, she hoped that Aaron truly had changed. After all, he'd been with the Slytherin girl for what, nearly a year now? That was longer than she'd been with the Hufflepuff, and they were several years older now, too. Perhaps he'd matured. For someone else.

Aly no longer cared for Aaron in any sense, but there would always be a hole in her heart in the shape of his missing letters.

She grew in the moment she realised that, perhaps not any taller but certainly a bit wiser, and opened her mouth to say something of the sort - perhaps it would've even been an apology to the other girl, though unfortunately, they'd never find out.

Opeila said nothing about Aly's barbed words calling them less than friends, but she did spit out a strangled sound that seemed to be halfway between a sob and a very witchy cackle, though perhaps Aly's perception of it was just tinged by her admittedly fading dislike of the Slytherin girl. Her reply was slow, then vengeful, nevertheless. "I never said I was the only one with a tough past, Aly..." The thunk of her empty glass hitting the wooden counter startled the Ravenclaw slightly, a flinch backwards, and she could imagine that the other girl might've wanted to throw it at her head instead of putting it down. "Do you realize that none of this is a fight or competition, Aly? Dating Aaron, having a tough past, being friends, not being friends-" and then that was it. As if a marionette cut by her strings, Opeila stopped talking, stopped stumbling over her words like a third-year too many glasses of Butterbeer in, looking as if she had bit back a latter half of the sentence that may have hurt Aly more. It was too late, though; the damage was done, and the Ravenclaw teenager could do nothing but blink at her opponent for a few moments, tears hot in the corners of her eyes, wobbling at the edge, about to jump off.

Of course it wasn't a competition. Of course it wasn't a fight.

If it had been, Aly would've lost.

"That's not what I-" she started, perhaps to defend herself or perhaps to yank the knife from her back and stab it into the other girl's front, but the Slytherin wasn't done, and she steamrolled over Aly's shaky words with a breaking tone of her own. "If you want to talk to me, talk to me, Aly but never- never weaponize your pain to shut me up again."

The first tear jumped from Aly's eye as a similar one did from Opeila's, rolling down their equally pale cheeks, a race to the bottom. Even their tears were competing, whether the girls liked it or not. "I wasn't weaponising," she insisted, only again to be interrupted as Opeila, red-eyed and for once looking like anything but the picture of perfection and the girl who had everything, leaned forward over the counter, locked eyes with Aly as if a single glare could hold as much power as a Killing Curse, and began to speak in a snappy, heartbreakingly real tone. Aly's thoughts reeled as the girl flew off the handle at her, though she felt as though she couldn't get a word in edgewise whilst Opeila ranted - I'm not painting you as the villain, that's Aaron, I know it's him... I'm sorry you don't have a lot of friends, that must be a very lonely existence, really, but I try my best to trust people and to let them into my life... a blood curse?! What in bloody hell has this girl gotten herself into... ah, so that's where her distrust comes from... maybe we're not so different after all.

As if a fire making its way down into its last embers, the rage in Aly's chest began to fade. More tears spilled down her freckled face as Opeila carved holes through her as easily as if Aly were nothing but the block of soft cheese in her pocket: no impact on her life, no influence on her decisions, a betrayal that was all in Aly's head. It's all in your head, Alyssa. Her mother's voice echoed through her mind, a sentence that had been said plenty of times whenever Aly came up with some new theory or idea that was dismissed matrilineally as being outlandish, fallacious, or pedantic in some way. Most recently about how going to Finland, fitting in with fancy purebloods who hosted balls and cared for nothing other than money and status, was something she'd never be able to do, a place where Aly would never be accepted. In that case, at least, Hesper had attempted to be kind about it. But the barbs on the words had stung nonetheless, just as they stung now.

Aly had always considered herself to be a positive, if constant, presence in the lives of those around her. She knew she wasn't life's favourite, wasn't the heroine, wasn't the main character in the stories she checked out from the library and devoured in her free periods as if they would fill her starving mind up as equally as a Great Hall feast would do for her stomach. She could think of plenty of people, plenty of friends, to fill those roles. Eve with all her grace and beauty, her immense talent, her perfect way of going about things, was life's favourite; Dee the heroine, strong and brave and steadfast, always there to save others even when they had wronged her beyond rhyme or reason; Peri the main character, quiet and noble, injured in a devastating manner and having to fight his way back into normalcy even when all odds seemed to be turned against him. In a way, Aly had always been glad to be the side character in their stories - after all, it meant that danger never kissed her in a way that it had Peri, that she could play a support role to Dee on adventures and in towers and quiet common rooms when she needed it, that she who was not favoured could gaze upon the Eve who was and appreciate her for all that life had given her. Aly might have struggled, but she was always safe and always loved by those for whom she cared, and what had once been Ravenclaw's resident flower girl always bloomed to brighten those lives. A constant, joyful presence upon which the main characters could lean when they needed a respite from the terrors of being so desperately important.

To learn that not only did Opeila not consider her a friend, but considered her to have no impact at all on her story... well. That certainly hurt.

Before Aly could retaliate, before she could spit out flaming words that had been rocking around in her brain since the beginning of Opeila's rant, the marionette's strings were cut once again, her fire extinguished, and after a moment of words about Cass, the weeping Slytherin vanished on the other side of the counter. For a moment, the Ravenclaw thought she may have passed out - Lightweight. - but then, from below, a monstrous laugh, a giggle through the sobs, and Aly (despite her better judgment) tiptoed around the corner to find Opeila very much conscious and very much the source of the most boisterous guffawing. She stood there for a moment, more confused than anything else, until "What are we dooooing, Aly?" came from her would-be enemy's mouth, distorted from the crying and the laughing and the hand clutched to her lips, and honestly, the moment was just so ridiculous that a half-laugh escaped Aly herself, too. She reached for the firewhisky again, grasping its crystal neck in shaky fingers, but instead of pouring herself a third, smaller glass, found her knees buckling, her body sliding down the wall of the island to join Pei on the floor. Another chuckle. A sip of burning embers.

"Honestly, I don't know," she whispered after a moment, turning her head to look into the Slytherin's eyes once more, though if Opeila chose to return the gaze was up to her. "I think I've just been so mad at you for so long that the reason why kind of got lost in it all. And, to be honest, I don't like hearing that I'm not a friend. I get your reasoning, but it still hurts, you know? Feels like you've written me off before we could even start. Though I guess I did the same thing to you, now that I think about it."

She placed the crystal bottle on the floor between them and nudged it to the Slytherin, feeling a sort of déjà vu, though of course they were not on the Astronomy Tower and it was an entirely different girl sitting beside her, an entirely different feeling clinging to the air between them.

"I'm sorry to hear about your family," came out next, unstoppable, and mostly genuine. "It really does sound like a shite situation. But I wasn't trying to weaponise your pain - more like tell you I understood and that you weren't the only one going through somethin' like that. Maybe they're not identical, these lives we have to suffer through, but they're close, and you're right, it's not a competition. Not in that way, anyway." Despite herself, a small, wry smile cracked upon her face, her next words dry and witty, only half a joke. "Maybe when we all grow up, the next generation of kids won't be quite so tortured. Maybe they'll be normal, if such a thing exists."

Aly leaned her head back on the wall of the countertop island behind them, one last thing to say spilling from her lips like honey, though this time, it wasn't hemlock-tinged.

"I am glad he makes you happy, I suppose. It just sucks that he had to hurt people to get there. But if he's really grown, if you two are happy together, then..." She swallowed the pain down, a lump in her throat trying its best to fill the void in her chest. "Then I'm happy for you. I think we all deserve a happy ending."

@Aly Salinger
Note: Most of Opeila's hair is white now.

As the firewhiskey burned through her thoughts, Opeila found it harder and harder to grasp them, let alone put them in an order, before they slipped away again. The Slytherin didn't drink alcohol often, never if there were important conversations to be had, and she found herself regretting that she had done it this time.
All that was left was clinging to her anger like an anchor now, her anger gave her words some weight, some meaning.

Opeila hoped that they hit where she had aimed them. Since Aly had started talking, the Slytherin felt more and more like a fortress placed inconveniently in the middle of a battlefield she had nothing to do with.
She loved Aaron. That was her crime, at least Aly seemed to see it that way. Never had Opeila done anything to harm her classmate, never harbored even a mean thought against her, she had minded her own business entirely and Aly... Aly clearly had a problem with Opeila embracing the best thing she had in her life right now. Despite the turmoil of her thoughts, Opeila felt like she was slowly reaching the bottom of her anger.
Maybe that was the thing that kick started the uncontrolled burst of laughter: The realization that now Opeila couldn't help feeling somewhat betrayed. Maybe Aly was right and the two of them were not that different.

The young woman's rage, her anchor, got cracks, crumbled and was finally washed away by the stream of thoughts, emotions and whiskey. Opeila couldn't even tell anymore which was what. Only that all of this was ridiculous. She half expected Aly to leave, or to become angrier at the very least, but apparently madness was truly contagious.
Suddenly her classmate was on the floor next to her, also chuckling, the whiskeybottle in her hand. Lord and Lady Virtanen would be so mad... Maybe she could talk to Lysander in the morning. He had encouraged her to talk to Aly, maybe he would be a bit more lenient about her... tools.

"I don't like hearing that I'm not a friend. I get your reasoning, but it still hurts, you know? Feels like you've written me off before we could even start. Though I guess I did the same thing to you, now that I think about it."

Opeila shook her head, forcing her suddenly sluggish mind back to work. There was something wrong there, she just needed to find the words again. "I didn't do that though." She picked up the bottle that Aly had nudged her way and held it up. Higher, before her eyes. Another little giggle escaping her at the way glass and liquid distorted her classmate.
Focus. She lowered the bottle again, not taking another sip yet. "I don't consider people friends when I meet them. They may... um, become friends, but some effort has to happen between acquaintance and friendship. When I say that we're not friends, I don't mean that I don't want us to be, just... neither of us made the effort to get to know the other that well."

The Slytherin took another sip from the bottle, closed her eyes and leaned her head against the cabinet behind her. Admittedly, the spinning sensation was a somewhat enjoyable side effect... although it probably meant that she should stop now. Spinning could turn to nausea easily. Opeila pushed the bottle back towards Aly. "I think I shouldn't have anymore of that." She could already tell herself that her speech had become a little slurred.

She let Aly talk. Again about her family, how their situations were not that different. Maybe they really weren't. "Hm. We should be on the same team in this competition, if anything.", Opeila answered. Thinking about her family in this state was really not the best idea. The firewhiskey numbed her, but she could feel the pain waiting to catch up when the effect of it wore off.

"I am glad he makes you happy, I suppose. It just sucks that he had to hurt people to get there. But if he's really grown, if you two are happy together, then... Then I'm happy for you. I think we all deserve a happy ending."

Opeila looked at her classmate for a while, unsure what to say. In the end, she scooted over, took Aly's hand into hers and gave it a squeeze. "... I think we could be friends."