A Curse's Penumbra PV Avery Closed

@Avery Leveret @Vladimir Athanatos

As soon as the fourth year was relatively certain that Vlad had disappeared- although she would still listen for every breaking branch, any unusual creaking of the wood of the Quidditch stands- Opeila would look at Avery. Or rather... search him. No injuries that were visible at first glance, but who said that there was no other curse on the boy?

She didn't miss his turning around, the moment of hesitance- he had looked at her when Vlad disappeared, alerted by her yelling his name. Had he missed the Ravenclaw's disappearance entirely? "Are you sure? You are not hurt?" Not cursed? His eyes seemed just normal, although she could not remember what his natural eye colour was, but she hoped it was a good sign.

Once again Opeila scanned the stands. It was probably best to leave here, wasn't it? Who knew if Vlad was still watching them? Her attention turned back to Avery. "Do you know who that man was? Did he say anything weird?" For sure they seemed like odd questions to ask if one was not aware of the past events of Hogwarts. Opeila herself had been unsure how to feel about Vlad in the end, but what she was sure of now was that he was meant to be dead. No matter if he had been a good, misled person before his death, his appearance couldn't mean anything good.

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• GLOOMSTALKING, OR GLOOMSTALKED •

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	Sat 20th May | The Quidditch Pitch, after curfew. Avery's Hex #136b5c ─▪──────────────▪─ ----- Damned. "What man?" He tried, hoping to see how she would respond to a minor amount of gaslighting. She had clearly seen him, so there was no fooling her of that, so he quickly decided against that path when he recalled something. She presented more questions, and he would surely pry in a moment or two, as he sized Opeila with his dark eyes. He didn’t know her, but he knew of her. She was amongst the remarkables of the school, not least because of her gifts. Surely that would be of use to have ‘on-side’, so long as she didn’t continue to pry; Avery didn’t yet know how close he wanted to hold his cards, especially knowing what he knew now and what that meant for his future. A reasonably big decision began to flit into the forefront of his mind, and he needed a moment to consider; he also needed to glean from her some information given her stronger than usual reaction. What could she tell him of the man he’d just met, or whatever he was. “For the record, I’m fine, but why would I be hurt?” He gave, putting some distance between himself and her questions, feigning some panic and sending his eyes darting around the bleachers to try and trace the man, all the while his mind raced to understand how it was he disappeared, weighing the heavy decision in his mind all the while. “It seemed like a magical illusion, I heard something in the bleachers and I investigated. When I was here, I saw the figure, and that’s when you showed up. - Whatever it was, it disappeared. It wasn’t disapparation though, I’ve seen that…” He gave uncomfortably, he figured that if Opeila’s back was up, he may have been in deeper waters than he had first thought. “You knew him, didn’t you?” A direct question was sure to unsettle her, but she clearly had answers. wc: 342
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Interacting with: @Opeila Winters, mentioning: @Vladimir Athanatos

@Avery Leveret

"What man?"
Opeila stared at the boy in disbelief. Either something was completely wrong here, or the kid had picked a really weird moment to mess around. "If you're screwing around, please stop. The one who stood here, just a second ago. Who you were talking to." There was no hostility in her voice, despite the direct, maybe a little harsh words. Her green eyes were still scanning the bleachers, trying to spot a shadow in the darkness.

“For the record, I’m fine, but why would I be hurt?”
Upon hearing what she assumed was fear in the first years voice, she forced herself to calm down. She was unsettling a child over hopefully nothing. "It's okay. I was just worried, he's... he's got a history at Hogwarts." No, she couldn't do it, she couldn't just pretend that it was all fine. If Vlad had picked another first year to be a part of his schemes like he had done with her years ago, she was not going to stand by and let it happen.

"Listen- " How to proceed? How to keep him safe? If he was only half as disobedient and secretive as she had been as a first year, he was probably his own biggest threat. "I think it would be best if no one patrols the ground alone anymore at night." Telling him not to do something seemed like a bad idea- and would have probably caused her to do exactly the opposite in his situation.
Curiosity was dangerous, but maybe not as much if they looked out for each other. They had to work together.

Avery started to explain what he'd seen and Opeila's eyes narrowed. She had heard voices. That was what had drawn her to the Quidditch Stadium in the first place. Despite her irritation, she decided not to say anything and instead tried to look at what had happened through the lens of an 11 year old talking to an older prefect. She herself had not trusted her prefects back in first year. Maybe she would have lied. So how to go on?

“You knew him, didn’t you?”
"Yes. I knew- know him."

Maybe being honest with him would get her some honesty in return.