Opeila wandered through the train, dodging a few kids that were running the opposite way, in search of friends or the candy woman. Back to Hogwarts for her sixth year. After this, there would only be one more return to school. There were a lot of finals coming after this year. A final trip to school after summer, a final summer camp... It didn't feel real just yet.

Pensively she ran her fingers along her collar, tracing the shape of the prefect badge she had taken off her cloak and attached to the deep red t-shirt she had picked for the journey. A couple of years ago, Opeila had barely worn any tops that weren't green, in honor of her Hogwarts house. She still felt proud of being a Slytherin now, but she had moved away from letting her house and whatever expectations she thought her house comrades might have in her dictate her choices.

As usual, the train was calm. Yes, the occasional kid couldn't resist already whipping out their wand on the train and cast magic again, but unless they were being exceptionally reckless with it, Opeila decided to turn a blind eye. Generally, she didn't feel too motivated to do her job properly this time, patrolling felt somewhat bittersweet. Being caught and taken back to Finland ended up going better than the sixth year had expected, yet she didn't go unpunished- Lady Virtanen had let her know that she would be writing to her Head of House, asking for Opeila to be let go as prefect. Someone who made choices as reckless as she had should not be in charge of overseeing other students.
Opeila hadn't even tried to talk her out of it.

Opeila had already found Aaron on the platform and left Lysander, who had once again been tasked to take her to London to get supplies and see her off, to hug him after the weeks of distance. She had written, but sparsely. Since she had to use the family owl, there were not that many opportunities.
Opeila had not looked back when boarding the train with her boyfriend and made sure to pick a compartment that was not facing the station.

For a couple of minutes they had been able to talk before Opeila had to leave to patrol the train for a bit. She had left both Loras and her backpack with him- Loras seemed to have started to actually accept his presence, his lying down on not only Opeila's but also Aaron's things at summer camp had more than shown that.

Deciding that she had patrolled for long enough, Opeila turned back to find her and Aaron's compartment again. Her 15 prefect comrades would certainly be fine without her now.
"Seems people can behave on the train this time.", she said as she entered the compartment and let herself fall on the seats across him.

1st September was always a whirlwind for Hogwarts students. Although he'd been doing this for years now, Aaron still felt like he was missing something as he walked onto the Hogwarts Express. His family usually had to send a textbook or an extra uniform that they would find in the week following his leave. He went through a mental checklist as he and Opeila walked the train corridors searching for a free compartment. Hopefully whatever he was missing wasn't important. After helping to load his and Opeila's trunks into the room they found, he had Chae-rin's cage on a seat and his enchanted satchel to look after.

The sixth-year couple was then able to catch up on some much-needed conversation (and maybe a little snogging). Being away from each other for a couple of weeks sucked, but it made their reunion something to look forward to. It felt far too soon when Opeila had to excuse herself to do patrols. Aaron could only make her a few minutes late by playfully snuggling her longer, but he knew she took her Prefect position seriously.

A few minutes after Opeila left, Aaron realized now would be the perfect time to sneak a letter into her backpack. From his own satchel he pulled out an envelope he'd prepared the night before. His hope was to bury it at the bottom of her backpack so she'd find it while unpacking tonight in her dorm. Before going through her backpack, he made a silly shushing gesture to Loras, as if telling the cat to keep his secret.

The Hufflepuff didn't anticipate the train lurching slightly as it went over a bump in the track, sending both him and Opeila's open backpack against the seat behind him. Ow. He recovered quickly, but some of the contents of her backpack had gone all over the seats. He carefully packed the items back inside, but he paused when he noticed a small glass orb. As he picked it up, he wondered if it was for Divination class. Did he need one of these for classes this year?

Turning it over in his hand, Aaron's brown eyes grew slightly when he realized there was an image playing in its depths. Curiosity got the better of him and he looked closer. Almost instantly, his heart leapt into his throat. And yet at the same time, he felt like his heart was pounding hard against his chest.

In the orb was a crystal clear image of Opeila making out with someone. Someone who was clearly not Aaron.

It took him a solid minute to think that maybe this could be a distantly past memory. But no, searching for details revealed her hair looked about the same length as now, and she even had those wisps of silver she'd been getting lately. That had to mean it was recent. Wait, was the guy she was kissing...? @Cassius Eden. What. The. Fuck. This wasn't a memory of the mistletoe spin from summer camp - this was a completely different scenario.

Aaron was left to his thoughts on this for far too long. He had time to go through several sets of emotions. Heartbreak. Fear. Anger. Confusion. He had half a mind to go track Opeila down and confront her in the halls, and the other half of him believing this to be a complete misunderstanding. By the time Opeila finally opened the compartment doors, Aaron couldn't look at her. His hardened eyes just kept watching the image in the orb.

"Opeila, what the hell is this?" he asked, holding the orb out in front of him.

@Opeila Winters

Opeila didn't notice that something was wrong right away. Didn't see that her bag was open. The item in his hand. The expression on his face. "Come on, move." She nudged her cat to the side a little to get more comfortable.
She finally looked up when Aaron addressed her, slightly alarmed by his tone.

"Opeila, what the hell is this?"

"What- Oh." Oh.
The colour drained from the sixth year's face when she realized what Aaron was holding. "Where did you find this?" Had he gone through her bag while she was out patrolling? Wrong question. She shook her head, immediately wishing she could take it back. "Listen- I know what this looks like, but I swear, nothing happened."

Silently she cursed herself, hearing how nervous her own voice sounded. Damn you. At summer camp, she had panicked. Stored the dream in that orb to clear her head and it had worked damn well. Knowing that something had happened and actually remembering it really made all the difference and for the first time, she wondered if actually remembering it wouldn't have driven her to make better choices.

With the memory in the orb, Opeila had been able to push the dream to some corner of her mind, lock it away like the memory orb and act like it didn't exist. But not anymore. Not now, that it was in Aaron's hand, right in front of her.
She knew exactly that the guilt on her face would make Aaron think all the wrong thoughts and suddenly she was terrified that this was something she couldn't fix anymore.

"Please hear me out- It was a dream." It sounded all wrong. "Some kind of vision, I think." The explanation that she had thought would save it, suddenly sounded even worse. "I don't know. When I woke up, I put the memory of it into this orb. I just... I didn't tell you because I didn't want this to be in your head as well. Because nothing happened."

Tears of frustration rose up in the Slytherin. Frustration at her explanation, that felt entirely to thin. At herself for making all the wrong choices.
And the sickening feeling that she had already lost him.