Rumours and Facts PV Opeila Closed

@Dealla Prince

Opeila's fork made an unpleasant noise as it scratched over her plate to pick up a piece of potato. The young Slytherin had started to really enjoy dinner since she had first entered Hogwarts. Not only the food was nice, the Great Hall actually also turned out to be a great spot to observe people in the evening. Everyone just came together.

It was February, the schoolyear had not just started, but Opeila still felt like she had seen so many faces she had never noticed before. However, a familiar face managed to surprise her even more this morning. The Slytherin stopped her fork mid movement and, leaving it hanging between her plate and mouth, when Dee approached her.

It had been a while since the girls talked, almost three weeks. That was probably good, considering how their last conversation had ended. Frankly, Opeila hadn't thought about it much since. She preferred to push everything that was related to the events fron January 2021 as far away as she could, the argument with Dee included. It wasn't like Opeila was still angry at her classmate.

Dee's words, her open doubt of Opeila's words, of an event that had affected the young Slytherin for so long and still did, had caught her off guard and she had snapped. Once she had brought some distance between herself and the situation, she knew that Dee had a point, although she was still disappointed in the way the prefect had tried to make it.

When she now stood before Opeila and asked if they could talk, the Slytherin didn't respond first. Attentively, she looked at Dee's face, searched for something that would tell whether Dee was intenting to continue the argument. If so, Opeila would get up and leave, she didn't have the energy for that again.

The fact that the Ravenclaw was just standing there although there were free seats seemed to mean that Dee wasn't going to push herself in if Opeila said no and the Slytherin truly appreciated that.

For now, she just mustered a little smile and nodded towards the empty seat opposite her for Dee to sit down. "Sure." If one thing was certain, it was that she wouldn't get an apology from Dee. Opeila knew some people who would have been really bothered by that, but she didn't really care. Apologies didn't buy anyone anything except for the ones who apologized.

She finally ate the now cold potato on her fork and looked at Dee, waiting. "What did you want to talk about?", Opeila asked in a perfectly neutral, polite tone. She didn't feel particularly friendly towards the Ravenclaw, but for now there was no reason to be rude.

There was a pointed pause after Opeila looked up. Dee waited for a moment, trying to suppress the urge to make a quip that would likely go underappreciated, given the situation.

When the Slytherin finally nodded, Dee gave her a quick smile before settling into the indicated seat. Things were going as well as could be expected so far, although she didn't really know Opeila well enough to guess how mad she still was. She'd been preeeeeetty mad a few weeks ago, and Dee wasn't sure if she was the type to hold grudges or not.

"I think you can guess," she replied to Opeila's question, shrugging slightly. "It's not that far of a stretch. Although I was hoping we could have a, uh, calmer conversation this time. I thought about it a bit in the last few weeks, and I may have been unfair in what I said." That was as close to an apology as she was going to get. "Still, there's a lot of rumours and misinformation out there about S.C.A.R. Many people don't know about them at all, and I do think it's a mistake to blindly believe what the papers say about them. So..." Dee looked up, meeting Opeila's eyes. "You know I'm a reporter for the Headliner, right? I was thinking it would be a good idea to do a neutral article on S.C.A.R. Try to get to the bottom of things, gather facts, not rumours. And I wanted to ask if you're willing to talk to me about the train incident. What you saw, what you heard, anything that might be relevant."

She paused slightly, chewing on her lip. "I wrote a letter to Professor Mulrain, too, though, just so you know. It's only fair to give him a chance to tell his side, too. I started going through old newspapers, but they're all written with the same line of argument, so I'm not sure if they can be taken as objective." Dee shrugged slightly. She'd only begun digging, hopefully she would discover more sources she could use. Ones that were either neutral or verifiable, rather than portrayed with an angle.

Focusing back on Opeila, Dee raised her eyebrows. Her hands were inching towards her bag already, preparing to take out a notebook and a pencil to take notes of the story. "So? Could you tell me what happened?" She smiled brightly. "For the Headliner readers if not for me?"

@Opeila Winters

@Dealla Prince

Opeila was truly a bit anxious when Dee sat down, although she wouldn't dream of letting her opposite see that. For now she tried to remain open minded, perhaps Dee's intentions were really of a peaceful nature.

The Ravenclaw's first words made Opeila want to facepalm, because she had actually not thought of it at all. Of course. Dee was part of the headliner team as Opeila well knew and this was a most interesting topic, wasn't it? Evelynn had interviewed her about it once before, but with Dee having more information, perhaps things would add up a little more.

And then Dee said something... was it an apology? Sort of? Whatever it was, it was worth more than a 'sorry' to Opeila and the Slytherin sent her a more sincere smile now. "It's fine. I guess I also overreacted a bit.", she admitted. It was true and she had regretted it once she had cooled down after leaving the hall after the dispute.

When Dee began to explain what she wanted, Opeila set down the cutlery and listened. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. "Sure. It has been a while, but I will tell you what I remember." Then Dee mentioned having sent a letter to Professor Mulrain, a name she mentioned last time they spoke too. A stranger to Opeila, but the fact that he was involved with S.C.A.R. gave her a weird feeling. For the first time she wondered if Dee was being tricked into something. It was a possibility, right? Last time she had been too angry to even consider that possibility.

"Sounds reasonable.", Opeila only commented. "It was on the train back to Hogwarts last winter holidays. I was in a wagon mainly filled with Gryffindors, when Vladimir Athanatos suddenly ran through the train, telling people to get out. A few of my friends and I followed, but he wouldn't tell us what was going on. And then... we heard something outside the train, a voice calling 'yeehaw', like a cowboy. A few moments later, a group of men broke into the train, demanded that everyone handed over their wands and claimed they were from S.C.A.R." Opeila picked up her fork again, thoughtfully pushing a potato around her plate.

"I was the closest to the door, so um... they took me hostage, grabbed me by the hair. He smelled peculiar, I can still remember it clearly but don't know what exactly it was. And then everything went wrong. Gris tried to attack them but accidentally hit this other girl, Katrina I think. And then..." Opeila swallowed and then finally looked at Dee again. "Vladimir also intervened. They called him by his name so he had something to do with it, but I don't know what. I just know that he demanded that they let me go, lied to them by saying I was a pureblood. And then they attacked him, beat him down in front of me and I couldn't- I couldn't help him, I could only watch and beg them to stop."

Opeila took a sharp breath, lightly shaking her head as she felt that she got lost in telling the story. The feeling of helplessness, no, the memory of it made her throat tighten, the confusion and fear of that day was still present after year. "Right. So, um... people went... I guess crazy is the wrong word, it seems rather normal at this point. They set the train on fire. The man who held me smashed my head against Katrina's which knocked me out for a moment. After that my memory is blurry. I got out of the train and found Vladimir. He was unconscious so I put my coat on him and used my sweater to stop his bleeding but it didn't work so well...

Eventually we were picked up by... I think it was his father? Hugh Lowe took Vladimir and Gris helped me into the vehicle. I think I passed out there."
Opeila paused and put the cutlery down again. "I don't know your Professor Mulrain and I have no personal qualms against him. But whoever is connected to S.C.A.R.... This is what I connect them with. It makes sense that you asked him for his version of the story and you were right, perhaps someone is trying to frame S.C.A.R. here... But perhaps not. Please be careful."

Dee's face broke into a bright grin when Opeila agreed to tell her story, and she yanked her notebook out of her bag with a swift movement, leafing over pages of notes to a mostly empty one. "Great, thank you!" The enthusiasm was clear in her voice and posture, and when Opeila started talking, Dee started scribbling furiously. Sometimes she wished she had a voice recorder, or a phone, but you know, magic and technology, oil and water.

She didn't interrupt the story, although her eyebrows slightly twitched at the mention of the yeehaw-ing cowboys, and then drew together into a frown at what followed.

When the Slytherin was finished, Dealla took a few more seconds to wrap up her notes, then leaned back to look at them, the frown still on her face. It matched what she'd heard before, but it was just so odd. "I don't blame you," she said slowly. "Don't think I would like them very much either after going through something like this." She looked up at Opeila, her expression thoughtful.

"There's just so much that doesn't really make sense about this. Like, why would they announce themselves as S.C.A.R.? Or," her fingers trailed over the notes she had taken, reading them again, "why would Vladimir tell them you were a pure-blood? They're known to be anti-pure-blood, so shouldn't he have claimed the opposite or something? And why would they know Vladimir... I wish we could ask him." Dee paused, then winced at her thoughtlessness. Vladimir was dead now, and while that fact hadn't hit Dealla particularly hard, it seemed that Opeila had had a stronger connection to the boy.

Another frown, another skim of the notes. "The weird smell..." Such an odd thing to remark upon, unless there was more to it. "Could you describe it? Like... do you think it came from him or his clothes or something he was carrying? Did it seem natural or artificial? Good or bad? Strong? Pungent?" Maybe it could give them a clue about where to look for the attackers?

It also seemed odd to her that Vladimir's father would show up out of nowhere to rescue them, for reasons she couldn't quite put her finger on. She vaguely remembered reading about him in context with S.C.A.R. a while ago, although she couldn't recall what it had been about. She'd been planning to comb through old newspaper articles anyway, though, maybe that would bring answers.

She stared at her notebook for a bit longer, lost in thought, then sighed and looked up again with a wry smile. "Thank you for telling me all this. Wanna hear about my encounter with S.C.A.R.? It's not quite as dramatic, but seems only fair."

@Opeila Winters

@Dealla Prince

Starting to talk had been easier than finishing to talk. The Slytherin had taken care that she didn't talk too quickly for Dee to follow as she started writing and it was a lot less awkward than she thought. But when Opeila finished, she suddenly felt a little tense. The last time Dee and her had spoken about this topics, both of them had been emotional and the conversation driven by anger.

It was different now, both were more willing to see the situation through the eyes of the other, which was certainly productive, especially since Dee came up with the exact questions Opeila had asked herself ever since. "I wish I could have asked him a lot...", she answered. At least she had managed to set aside the worst of their differences before he died. It didn't help him but it did make her feel better.

Opeila thought a bit when Dee asked her to describe the smell. "I don't know... It was like a flower or an herb. It is slightly familiar but I don't know how. I don't think it was a perfume, but he was probably doing something with that herb. Perhaps it was used to brew a potion or something, but that's all I can guess." She shook her head. One day she would figure out where it came from, for sure.

Dee's offer to tell her about her encounter with S.C.A.R. came unexpected, but appreciated. "Please do.", the Slytherin answered immediately, "Perhaps we can solve some pieces of this together."

A flower or an herb? That wasn't incredibly specific. Perhaps used to brew a potion. Not a lot to go on, but Dealla scribbled it next to the notes she had made about Opeila's attacker, anyway. Just in case.

That seemed to wrap up the story, so Dee snapped her notebook shut and set it to the side, then looked at Opeila, eyes thoughtful. "Any input you have would be welcome," she agreed. "There are just so many incongruities about this, and I feel like I only have a tiny piece of the story. Even an idea on who else to ask would be awesome."

She took a deep breath, then finally started putting together a plate of food for herself, now that she had her hands free. Some pasta, some salad. A piece of blueberry pie.

Putting a fork full of pasta into her mouth, she finally began talking. While she hadn't told this story to many people, this number seemed to suddenly start increasing. There were even new nuances to it that she hadn't known before. "During the summer camp after our first year, you know, the one that took place at the London Quidditch stadium? I snuck out one day... I think it was during the Quidditch game but I'm honestly not sure anymore. Met three other girls who had the same thought, apparently. One of them was Marion Davenport, not that I recognised her."

Dee would keep half an eye on Opeila's reaction while she ate, wondering what the other girl knew about her fellow Slytherin. If she was aware of what Dee had learned only the day before; that Marion was most likely a hag in disguise.

"She took us to a hidden bookstore, one for magical folks. There were people inside writing picket signs for a protest. Some of them were obviously mixed race, a part-giant, a part-goblin, but not all of them." She hesitated for a moment. "I don't think, at least. Mary knew them, sat down with them and started writing a sign as well, so we sat down too and started talking to them. They were all Squibs, and they were planning to protest how they were being treated by wizard society. It's like... they come from wizard families, right? But they never get treated like they belong or included, they get pushed away, magic stores refuse to give them service. It's really... They're still people, you know? But they get treated as lesser because they didn't get magic."

Dee paused for another mouthful of pasta, then followed up with a sip of pumpkin juice. "Anyway, two of them were the people mentioned in that Prophet article. Mathias Mulrain and Claude Avery. They were nice, reasonable people. Professor Mulrain is a professor for literature at the University of Edinburgh. They're educated. They weren't violent at all." A slight edge had crept into her voice, a hint of how upset she had been after reading that article. Of how confused she still felt about it all.

"We were just talking, and then suddenly something smashed through the window of the bookstore. Things caught on fire, green flames. People out front were shouting, they sounded angry. I remember mostly smoke and the yelling." Dee's movements had slowed down as she remembered, eyes and thoughts distant. "Mr Avery went out front, I think to distract the angry people. We followed Professor Mulrain to the back entrance, there was no one outside there. Marion was crying. I don't really remember much else, not even how I got back to camp, I think I was really shocked. My throat hurt from the smoke."

Dee shrugged, shaking off the memories, then moving on to eating her piece of pie. "That's it. I didn't really tell anyone about it for the longest time, I didn't know much about S.C.A.R. back then or what was happening. But they weren't the attackers back then."

@Opeila Winters

@Dealla Prince

Opeila thought back to the day of the attack, tried to remember who else had been there, anything unusual she noticed... then shook her head. "The only person who seemed to know more was Vladimir, the others seemed just as confused as me.", she said. Then her head snapped up. "Wait." Yes, of course, why hadn't she thought of this earlier?

"There was another. An Athanatos, a man. He came to rescue us- quite conveniently timed if I may add." Was it stupid that she had never tried to reach out to this man? First she had tried to get in contact with Vladimir and after his death, she had been grieving too much to even think of it. Not to mention that this man had no reason to give an unfamiliar child like herself any answers.
But maybe, just maybe it was worth a try after all.

"Maybe I could owl him and ask him about the attack. Maybe he can tell us more- that means if he would even answer.", she suggested.
When Dee started telling Opeila about her experience with S.C.A.R., she listened up. "Yes- Yes, I remember that camp." The summer camp after her first year was a very clear memory in her head for several reasons, but she didn't know about students having sneaked out to meet S.C.A.R.

Marion Davenport was another familiar name. The older Slytherin had not really been on her radar, not as much as Vladimir and Victor at least. This was the first time she heard of Marion being connected with that organization.
"Squibs?", Opeila repeated quietly, her mind automatically wandering to her own dead squib half-sister. She wondered, if Maybell had any memory of magic at all before her death. Would she have been found in one of these demonstrations one day?

"Yeah. Yeah, I know. My older sister was a squib and my parents gave her away.", she responded to Dee's questions. Opeila knew now that it had been to keep her sister safe, but it pained her nonetheless. The few memories she had of Maybell were precious and despite not having seen her for over ten years, Opeila had never stopped missing her and wondering how her life at home would have been with Maybell still around.

The young Slytherin had set down her fork at this point, her appetite had passed. Opeila tried to follow what Dee was telling her. Squibs, seemingly entirely integrated in the muggle world, were preparing for a protest, only to be attacked? "Green flames?", Opeila repeated, "What was up with those, do you know?" She frowned. "Also- you said this was inside of a muggle bookstore, so how were they found? Were you followed?"

A piece was still missing, a connection. "The people in the bookstore... That couldn't have been all of S.C.A.R., could it? Maybe you got to meet a peaceful side and the attackers on the train were taking revenge on wizards for that incident?" Opeila shook her head. "This just seems so... random. I don't know, both incidents... they seem to have no connection."

Where her eyes had been focused on her plate before, the mention of that name had Dealla perking up. "Athanatos? Like Vladimir?" It held some familiarity beyond her previous house mate. "I'm pretty sure I've read about an Athanatos in some Prophet articles..." But she hadn't paid it much attention, although the relation to Vladimir maybe should have made her take more notice.

Dee frowned, tapping her fork on her plate, which produced an unpleasant noise, but she didn't seem to notice. "Why would he suddenly show up? How did he even know to be there? When you said earlier that a man picked you up, I thought that had been later, and that he'd been called to come, but that doesn't make sense."

Dropping her fork, she pulled her notebook back over and started scribbling some additional notes. "I'll have to look for those prophet articles," she muttered. "All of this seems too much of a coincidence to be true. People don't just show up and disappear on trains in the middle of nowhere."

When Opeila suggested owling him, Dee looked up and shrugged. She'd done the same with Professor Mulrain, she didn't see any harm in it. If Opeila didn't, she'd probably end up doing it herself. "Good idea," she agreed. "If he responds, let me know what he says?"

She moved on to her own story. There was little reaction to Marion's name, but an interesting remark to something else. Dee paused for just a moment in her account, regarding Opeila with a spark of curiosity at the mention of her Squib sister. Her parents had given her away? Merlin's beard, those where the sort of people that had Squibs gathering in book stores and organising protests. Dee couldn't fault them for it.

"Yeah, green flames," she nodded. "No clue, didn't stick around the burning store full of dry paper to find out. I didn't think about it much to be honest, there are spells that create green fire..." She tapped her fingers on the table, then finally stuck the last piece of pie into her mouth. Chewing, she shook her head. "Not a Muggle bookstore, a magical one. You know how magical establishments sometimes refuse Squibs service? I think that might have been one of those, the people working there didn't seem too happy."

A half-smile appeared on her face and she swallowed. "Imagine them writing protest signs about not being included in the magical world in a Muggle bookstore. That'd be interesting I bet."

Pushing away her plate, Dee nodded. "Yeah, there are for sure more people in S.C.A.R., I don't even think any of their leaders were there. I'm not even sure they were really all in S.C.A.R.. I suppose it's possible that there are two split groups... a violent one and a peaceful one. I don't know, but I'll try to find out more."

@Dealla Prince

Opeila nodded. "Yes. His father, I suppose." She looked at Dee, when she mentioned having read about another Athanatos in newspaper articles. "If you find time, could you try and find these articles? I'd be interested in reading more about him."
She glanced at Dee's fork but decided not to comment. "No. We were about to send one of the owls and tried to help the worst injured when this... plane thing showed up. Conveniently big enough to pick up a whole compartment of students. And Vladimir knew the men who attacked us. I believe that our... rescuer did as well."

"Sure, I will let you know." Opeila would never end up sending this letter. Between class and other more pressing matters as well as her own nervousness at the thought of reaching out to the man would bring her to just... drop the matter all together. Not her most prideful moment, but she would not speak of it again.

Opeila nodded when Dee kept explaining, first the green flames then the bookstore. "They refuse squibs service?" How could that work out effectively? If a squib entered, they would hardly wear a badge reading 'squib' and not every wizard or witch was casting magic 24/7, certainly not in a bookstore. But aside from that Opeila couldn't help feeling both disgusted and a little embarrassed at her own ignorance. How had she never even noticed this?

Opeila too smiled a little when Dee imagined protest signs being written in a muggle bookstore. "Well, it's certainly less dangerous apparently. And if I was a muggle, I'd just assume they were part of some cult or rather denied membership. Or... I don't know, possibly cosplayers."
The more she thought about it the better of an idea it seemed to be.

As Dee said she would try to find out more, Opeila got up from the bench. "Will you let me know if you find out more?" Regardless of Dee's answer, Opeila would send the Ravenclaw a smile. "Thank you for the talk. I'm glad we could... well, clear this up." This being the tension that had never quite gone away since their last exchange.

Opeila is leaving the thread.