Family letters pv Flac Flintshire Closed

"Another first year student. Ravenclaw." Flac shrugged. Most likely, the two would meet eventually, so he was not too eager to introduce Opeila to the other girl, even though he thought they could get along well. He did not answer the unspoken question why he had Lark's handkerchief, thinking it was not worth talking about.

In the same spirit he looked to the mixture of straw and owl droppings that covered the floor. "It was just a dog. They eventually die... You don't have to feel sorry about it. And I should not be so attached to them anyway, so maybe it was good, that Cap died to remind me of that." The words sounded empty, as if he read them from a script someone wrote for him. He was glad for the flickering light of his bottled flame, that was to dim to really make out the look in ones eyes, because they darkened with grief.

Emotionally still at the death of his pet he shook his head. "It's fine, really. I have had worse scrapes. It just needs some time to heal, but I don't need a nurse or even a band aid." He looked at his knee for a moment. "Maybe new trousers, but I don't think that you have a spare pair with you."

"Another first year student. Ravenclaw."
"Oh." That was all Opeila answered. She had met two other Ravenclaws before but they had been dramaqueens. So her expectations regarding Ravenclaws were rather low. And obviously a handkerchief had been involved in their conversation so she guessed that it had been an emotional one. Well, she was one to talk, regarding what she was doing there.

"It was just a dog. They eventually die... You don't have to feel sorry about it. And I should not be so attached to them anyway, so maybe it was good, that Cap died to remind me of that."
"It was a dog. Don't make it less important than it is. And that is silly, if you don't want to be attached to a dog because they die eventually... If that is the reason, you can't be attached to your parents and grandparents either, and I don't believe that you aren't. Loss is natural and you will heal."
Where did all that come from? She had just lost her mother... kind of. But she didn't count that, she realized a little guilty. She was basically telling the boy something she didn't even believe in herself.

"It's fine, really. I have had worse scrapes. It just needs some time to heal, but I don't need a nurse or even a band aid. Maybe new trousers, but I don't think that you have a spare pair with you."
Opeila laughed a little. "Well, I do have a spare pair of trousers with me, but they are hardly your size! Are you sure? You think you can get back down those stairs with that?"

For a moment, Flac wanted to defend Lark, yet he knew, that Opeila did not mean to be rude. She would likely meet a more friendly Ravenclaw sooner or later and change her mind. And even if not, he was not to eager to be classified as 'typical Hufflepuff' again. And defending the whole house of Ravenclaw because of one friend was probably pretty much the 'Hufflepuffy'-thing to to.

He shrugged, fighting against the possibility that the pain, that lit up his eyes, was valid. He would crumble, if she took this mental shield from him. So he quickly tried to distract the young Slytherin: "I don't know, I never had any grandparents. Well, of course I had some, but they died, before I was born. I never knew them. Do you know your parents parents?" Quickly he blinked so his eyes were not as wet looking. Hopefully she had not seen that.

"Well, I guess, you are about my size, so your trousers would fit me, but I will manage to get back into my dormitory and get my own spare pair. And I will soon learn how to repair things, so I will not lose this pair. And I got the stairs up with that knee, so I think it will be fine. Don't worry about it."

Wow, Opeila really was stumbling from one bad topic into a worse one.
She indeed could see, what her comments were doing to the Hufflepuff, but she had decided to pretend that she couldn't. So she looked out of the window when Flac asked her about her grandparents and told her that he never had any. Opeila felt worse everey second. She was trying to escape bad thought and memorys, but kept talking about topics that were obviously painful for the Hufflepuff.
"I know my dad's parents. And my mother's mother. But she is the only one I am close with. My dad's parents are muggles. And like really oldfashioned muggles. They are all about good manners, never have breakfast before you have gotten dressed and all that stuff. I don't really like them." She wouldn't talk to him about Lady Margary, her mother's mother. There was just too much of a strong bond for her to talk about.

She doubted that she was his size. Her 1.40m were quite small, even for a girl. "Then I'd suggest that we leave now, before they actually start patrolling. If your knee is worse than you think, you won't have to worry about prefects then."
And Opeila was also getting tired. She finally wanted to sleep and worry about the message, that she got, tomorrow.

The young wizard seemed relived beyond imagination, as she did not investigated the death of his dog, but instead spoke about her grandparents. He felt no loss in this regard, as he never had any good experiences he could now miss. Instead, he let out a little laugh. "My parents are the same as your fathers parents, it seems. Especially my father is really old fashioned. But it is okay, if one gets used to it. I mean... It's just some manners, they can't be wrong."

He felt tempted to ask, how literally Opelia 'the only one' meant, when she said she was close to one grandmother. But he stopped himself. She seemed a bit lonely, he figured. Maybe Hogwarts would change that. He hoped it, at least, not only for Opeilas sake.

He knew, that he appeared taller than he was, and that he hardly reached the hight of the girl in front of him, but it was not important to him to be in the right. He shrugged. "Sure, we can go down. It is getting late and tomorrow we have classes again. You can keep the light till our paths split, if you want to. But if you do, you have to led the way." The young Hufflepuff smirked. "And if someone is coming we pull of the story of my hurting knee, right?"

@Opeila Seilun

"Are they really?", the Slytherin asked with a surprised smile on her face. "My grandparents have those really oldfashioned, stiff believes like 'no sleepovers, coming home before 6.00 pm, napping time from 1.00 pm until 2.00 pm, and not a minute less or more, no breakfast before you got dressed, and the whole middleage stuff like women have to learn how to cook and clean the house, being able to drive is only important for men, and all that sort of rubbish." She shook her head. "They're no fun at all, no matter what you do, it will always be wrong."

Opeila tightened her grip around the light again. "Alright." The girl returned the smirk. "That's fine with me." She walked down the stairs, patiently waiting for him with his knee, that probably was slowing him down a little.
It was nice not having to go back to the castle alone. The whole situation reminded her of the night on the Astronomy tower. After that, Jack and her had gone back, watching each others back after curfew. It was calming.
She also liked Flac's company. He was a nice. Not that she had expected anything different of a member of house Hufflepuff, but she still didn't take his patience with her mood for granted.
Before they had to go in different directions, she returned the bottled flame to Flac. "Thank you for letting me have it. And for listening. And for not throwing me off the tower for being rude.", she said smiling. "It was nice to meet you, Flac."
With that she turned around and went back to her common room.