A good girl gone bad kind of story.
Everyone told her to be careful around him. Even his best friend.
But in the end, Sebastian Sallow had been an ally, a teacher, and a friend when
she most needed it. And now, at his darkest hour, he was the one...
"Just another week" I muttered to myself as I stared at the calendar in my stepfather's study. Just another week of living in a world that I never felt a part of, and now seemed even more strange to me. I learned there was a word for this. A term to refer to non magical beings. Muggles. I was born in this world, attending muggle tea parties against my will, tagging along with my muggle parents , passing the days reading and learning the role of a "proper" lady. My father had passed away a long time ago, and my mother decided to remarry. She did it for us she said, as she wouldn't want us to face the world unsheltered. I was not very fond of my stepfather and his rules, but he made mother happy, and gave her all she needed.
She wanted me to follow in her footsteps, and put every effort in finding a husband for me. Even after everything I went through in my past year, being only 17 years of age, she felt I needed a man to protect me. A muggle husband. I was trapped under a roof that did not belong to me, in a life that didn't feel mine either. And my summer days were only filled with frustrated attempts to make me fit into the housewife role.
As I sat by the window in my room, I let my mind wander. I let it lead me back to the castle, that place where I finally felt seen and heard. Where I had a real role to play. I had faced all types of challenges, fought for a cause, and most importantly, I made friends who supported me all the way. All of them. Yet, when I had to be there for my best friend... all I could do was sit and wait.
I knew he was in pain.
I could see it clearly in his dark eyes the last time we met, shortly after finishing our exams. And I could feel it in the few letters I got back from him. He had insisted that he needed some time alone, and I could understand that. After all, he had so much to process. And so did I. My past year was more eventful than all of my life as a muggle. I had learned I was a witch- and could finally find an answer to all the peculiar events that I attributed to my imagination- I discovered I was capable of things I could have never dreamed of, fought deadly creatures, even stopped an imminent war. So why, of all things, would a boy be my biggest concern?
The last night before going back I stayed home with my mother and her husband, and shared what would be our last meal together in a very long time. I narrated yet another story of my magic adventures in Hogwarts to them, the kind of story that wouldn't alarm them and keep me locked forever in a room, and before we noticed it was almost midnight. My anxiety kept me up, as I would have expected, but that didn't prevent me from getting to King's Cross on time the next morning.
"Don't let those spiders bite you! And stay close to your friends!" - said my mother as she waved goodbye in the crowded platform. She came alone that day, and I was glad for it.
"I will!" - I replied before I lost sight of her. And for the first time, I joined the rest of the students in the Hogwarts Express. I made my way through the sea of unfamiliar faces that flooded the train corridors, looking for someone I knew wouldn't be there. After a while, I gave up and took a seat with a few students I had met in charms class.
The trip was long, and the lack of sleep was suddenly getting to me. I dozed off and dreamed of a chamber I had visited many times during the last year. It was quiet. The faces that showed up to greet me were no longer in their portraits. Instead, I saw a figure standing in the center of the room. My mentor was looking back at me, his eyes filled with concern.
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"What did you do?" he asked in agony. And I awakened.
It was already dark outside, and the students were now wearing their black robes.
When the time came to put on mine, it hit me. I was finally going back. To the castle, to my other life, to everything I was longing for. To someone I was longing for.
