Opeila sat in the back of her father's car and stared out of the window, wishing to be anywhere but where she was. Lady Margary was driving.
It had been friday evening, when her grandmother had appeared at Hogwarts to tell the Slytherin, that her father demanded, that she visited her mother. He was disappointed in her, the looks he sent her every other minute told her more than a hundred words. It had reminded her of how absurd it was to suggest, that a classmate of her could visit in the holidays. Her father hated what she was, even more, after what happened to his wife. The only one, who welcomed her, lovingly as always, was Lady Margary. She had always understood the girl better than everyone else. She saw, that Opeila wasn't acting selfishly. She was scared.

Time seemed to jump, Opeila could barely remember the way to the magical hospital, and then they were walking through the corridors, towards Fioria Seilun's room.
Opeila's chest tightened with every step and she felt dizzy.
Lady Margary opened the door and her father gently pushed her inside. And then Opeila saw her mother. Pale, motionless, eyes closed. Her chest barely moved. The first year could hardly breath, when she stepped closer to her mother's bed and took her hand. Ice cold. "Mum?", Opeila wispered under her breath. If there wasn't the almost invisible movement of the woman's chest, she could as well be dead. Tears started to pool in Opeila's eyes, when she pressed her mother's hand a little. "Mum..." What had she expected? That her mother would magically wake up when she entered the room? Still she couldn't stop calling her mother, even when her grandmother put a hand on her shoulder. "Opeila-" Opeila turned around and faced her father, tears were streaming down her face. "This is my mother laying here.", she said calmly. "Have you got any idea, how that feels?" Her father's face was like stone, when he answered. "Would you just stop thinking about yourself, while you are standing next to your mother, who is poisoned?", he said in his strictest tone. "Nicolas, don't-", Lady Margary tried to calm him, but he silenced her with a quick move of his hand. "Would you think of me once? Why did you bring me here? This washer, her own choice! She knew the danger and she risked it! And you, you weren't helping! You hated her and you hated me, for everything that we are!", Opeila shouted. Her father was trembling with anger and bitterness. "Without the whole stupid magic, this would never have happened!", he yelled at his daughter. "I want you to drop out of this school. Enough is enough."
Opeila stared at her father, not understanding what had just happened. And then, suddenly she was calm. On the outside. On the inside she felt like she was falling apart. "This is what you tell yourself, right? So you don't have to blame yourself. You were the one who made her abandon Maybell. You were the one, forcing everyone to follow your stupid rules! You disgust me." With that, Opeila turned on her heel and walked out. Before the door closed, she could only hear her father hiss "Margary! How dare you?"
She ran through the corridor, now overwhelmed by the pain inside her. How much did her father have to hate her?
Only a minute she could run, before she had to hold herself at the wall, sobbing. She shouldn't have agreed with coming here. She should have refused to leave Hogwarts in the first place.
Opeila crouched on the floor, pressed her palms against her chest, and let all the pain she had held back, come over her and consume her, until she was trembling so badly that she couldn't even hold herself anymore.
She was glad, that the corridor was empty.