27 Jan 2022, 14:35
Is Everything Alright?
January 15th | @Santario Martin
One week. One last week before the second stage of duelling would start and honestly, it had kind of crashed down on Opeila just yesterday. With the mess of a winter break she had returned from a week ago, the young girl had been a little absent minded and already forgotten to finish one assignment that was due yesterday. The embarrassment of that realization had shaken her up a little and there she was now, using the last few days they had to train.
Weekends were just literally the best for that. There were no last minute assignments to finish, Opeila could- and probably would- devote the whole Saturday to training. Seemingly she wasn't the only duellist with that idea. There were several students in the duelling club, casting spells at dummies or chatting with others.
That was one thing about the duelling club Opeila liked- the atmosphere was quite nice between the students, despite knowing they possibly had to literally fight each other in a few days.
The third year put down the water bottle she had brought with her somewhere on the side, found herself a dummy and began to go through her at this point quite large repertoire of useful spells. Opeila could remember her first duel too well, she had barely been a second year back then, Flipendo being her strongest weapon. That had changed since then. The knockback jinx was still a nice tool to have, but there were some more powerful spells she could use now.
Eventually Opeila lowered her wand. She did train regularly now, so casting spells wasn't a problem anymore and fighting a dummy began to bore her. Perhaps there was someone around who was down for an actual duel?
Opeila looked around and examined the other students, but instead of an opponent, she found someone else. A classmate of hers had just walked to the side, looking as if she wanted to take a break.
It wasn't like Opeila hadn't noticed that Santario Martin had gone through some change in the last months, but it was only now that she looked properly, that she realized how much change that was. The two girls had never been best friends or... at all good with one another, but Opeila had always respected and acknowledged Santario's appearance. She had always seen the blackhaired Slytherin as someone who took care of her appearance, but now she looked like she hadn't only neglected herself for a week or two, but months.
Opeila had stayed away from her duelling co-captain as much as possible since their last unpleasant meeting at the blossom ball and the awkward one afterwards, at the Beckett Ball, but looking at Santario now, Opeila felt worried. Santario had accused her of getting in the way before, which likely was right, but perhaps getting in her way was not the worst thing right now, considering that her current way didn't seem to be a healthy one.
So Opeila decided to risk being snapped at again and walked towards her housemate, collecting her water bottle on the way. "Hi Mart- Sorry, Santario." Calling people by their last names was a habit Opeila had found very weird in her first year and hard to drop now. There were a few people preferring last names, Jack Burnett for example, but Santario was not a big fan of it, as she had let Opeila know in September. She would try to remember that. "Is everything alright?", Opeila asked carefully, only now noticing Santario's smell. Santario had never smelled like that in the past, had she?
