Sibling Reunion Solo Closed

December 23rd

Wrapped in a thick cream colour winter coat and a white woolly scarf, a young girl appeared seemingly out of nowhere at a full Kings Cross Station, a transport box with a restlessly moving cat pressed against her chest with one arm, the other pushing a luggage trolley forwards. The platforms 9 and 10 were filled with people traveling to their loved ones for Christmas and the moment Opeila appeared, she was immediately almost ran over by a man who was passing the wall rather closely. Murmuring a quiet apology, she looked around, searching for whoever was going to pick her up. Was it Abby the houseelf again? Opeila had seen the little creature running around in Virtanen Manor a few more times after summer, but it seemed that the Finnish elves were rather shy, she had not gotten another chance to chat with her.

A few weeks ago Opeila had received a letter that told her to take the train back to London, where she would be picked up and taken to Finland, a request that confused her a lot. She couldn't imagine the Virtanens being Christmas loving family people, but what other choice did she have? Maybe it was just to keep her in check and make sure she didn't lose all the valuable education she was given by them.
If that was the reason, Opeila already wanted to go back to Hogwarts. She didn't need more lessons, which basically just seemed to tell her to shut up whenever she had an opinion but at the same time not to take crap from people and be strong. What about the valuable lessons she had received from her father and Lady Margary? Were they all worthless after all?

Indecisive, the young Slytherin began to walk in a random direction, scanning the faces around her. Lord or Lady Virtanen would never leave their highly important work for a few hours to pick her up, but perhaps Lysander had been able to spare a bit of time. The two had not written letters to each other as promised, but Opeila didn't feel too bad about it. After all, it wasn't like he had written and not received a response or anything.
Eventually, Opeila gave up. Carefully she put the transport box on the ground and climbed on top of her trunk to be able to see more. Maybe she had already walked past whoever had come for her?

"Opeila!" Her head snapped in the direction of the call and a wide smile appeared on her face at the sight of her older step-brother. "San!" She waved at him and climbed off her trunk again while Lysander pushed past the crowd to get to her. "Hey, little one!" Happily, Opeila accepted his hug and was quite glad that he also voluntarily took the trolley. It had started to be quite heavy. Gasping with playful indignation she stood on the tip of her toes and straightened as much as she could. "Not that little... I have grown! And I am also not the smallest in my year at all!", she defended herself. "Reduced to the best!", she finished, making him laugh.

"You didn't write. Why?" Opeila shrugged. "You didn't write. And I didn't have anything to tell. Hogwarts was... well. The usual." That was only partly a lie, right? A dead man returning to life, a ball going down in chaos... That was all normal for Hogwarts. Kind of. "Halloween was fun, some prefects messed up the decoration and let the pumpkins escape. And I went to the ball with my friend Flash... And- Hey, what?" Opeila didn't miss the look she received from Lysander when she mentioned the ball. "He's just a friend, alright, don't look at me like that. You know my situation, friends are all I have now." "Now you're being unfair."

Opeila winced internally. She hadn't even realized how much what she had just said seemed to exclude him, which was, indeed, unfair. "Lysander... I didn't mean it like that." The Slytherin knew that if she spoke honest, no matter how she put it, it would hurt him. She knew Lysander for less than a year and it had been a good time. He had become her friend, but she knew that he had surprisingly quickly accepted her as his new sister.
Opeila was touched by it, but she couldn't return it just yet. The part of her that had never healed since the death of half of her family was hesitant to open up for a new one.

But the Durmstrang took it with a neutral face, as always. "I know."
Opeila forced a smile on her face. "Anyway, how was your year so far?" Lysander shrugged. "I spent most of the year studying. My finals are next summer and I have already managed to get a spot for auror training in the Finnish Ministry." "Wait, wait- you did? Since when?" Opeila was sure that he had still been trying to find something to do after Durmstrang in summer. "I got confirmation a few weeks ago and my friend Phil too." Opeila could see the small wrinkles returning in the corners of his eyes and was relieved that the tense moment was over. "That's amazing, San! I'm so happy for you!"

So both of them had experienced some success in the past weeks. "Something happened for me too.", she started, side eyeing him. "Mh?" "I... I was picked to be the new Broom Racing Captain for Slytherin." Lysander slid one arm around her shoulder and briefly pressed her against him. "Well done, captain! So you're flying now?" Quickly Opeila shook her head. "God, no. I still don't like flying, I'm just fine with duelling. As captain I just help with strategy and motivation.", she explained, but it seemed that Lysander had stopped listening.

"Ok, here." He took Opeila's ellbow and pulled her into a corner with him, then he took a white teacup out of his pocket. "Seriously? Porcelain? Didn't they have anything more fragile and impractical to transport to London and back to Finland?", Opeila asked sarcastically and immediately received another look from Lysander. "You will need to start watching your mouth again now, don't get in trouble with mother on day one, will you? Anyway, this portkey will go off any moment now, hold your cat box."
Quickly Opeila held Loras tighter and put one finger on the teacup, Lysander grabbed a handle of her trunk.

A moment later, nothing reminded of the two people who had just stood there but the empty trolley rolling away slowly.