The Keeper's Snake // Sebastian Sallow

Her Last Four Years

After Fiona returned to Derry from London, she immediately went to her room and cried. She cried throughout the night. Eventually she could cry no more, and made the decision that she would excel at being a muggle. She wouldn't let her lack of magic keep her depressed. And one day later she was making her way to her new muggle school, when an explosion went off nearby, the result of sectarian tensions. The blast from the explosion knocked her back into a wall, where she hit her head. The next thing she knew, she was in the hospital hearing the doctors explain to her parents that she had a concussion, that she could have memory loss.

She tried to think of the last thing she remembered. It must have been finding out she was a squib. But after that, nothing. She asked for the date and was surprised to learn it was already September. She spent the next two weeks in the hospital before finally being released. She finally started her new muggle school, making fast friends with a girl named Aisling. That school year she discovered she loved maths and the sciences. She became skilled at the piano, and she was a wonderful polo player.

She often felt the hint of a happy memory, as if some force in the universe was pushing her to somewhere, or someone, but those moments became less frequent as the expectations of muggle society were increasing. She needed to be put together and proper little lady if she were to succeed in the muggle world.

Eventually she travelled with her parents to London to pick up Sean and Michael from King's Cross. Before they left the London house, Fiona faked a stomach ache, as to stay home. She couldn't bear the thought of seeing all the lucky Hogwarts kids. She thought she was over being a squib, but it turns out she wasn't. So she did stay home, and eventually she returned to Derry with her brothers and parents.

That summer had been pretty uneventful until her parents gasped whilst reading the Daily Prophet. She asked what was wrong and her mother answered,

"My lass, it seems professors Sallow have died in an accident stemming from a lamp they had been experimenting with. A tragedy that is."

"They were just a couple years younger than us in Slytherin! Will the kids go to his brute of a brother?" Conor replied.

Fiona of course felt sad, but she knew death was often a fact of life. She was confronted with that fact just a month later when her best friend Aisling had died as a result of another explosion. Everything she thought she knew came crashing down, knowing her best friend was no longer on the earth. She fell into a month long depression, and many of her joyful memories faded as she dealt with her grief. She soon was able to get to a functioning state of mind, and she carried on with her plan to succeed as a muggle. Throughout the next three years, she had had many potential suitors, vying for her affections, but none of them stood out to her. She could no longer remember her encounter with the troublemaker at diagon alley, but she was left with the feeling that she once also felt a connection to someone so strong, that what her potential suitors offered paled in comparison.

It was the last day of August, 1889, and Fiona was practicing piano, when she heard a knock on the door of their house in Derry.

A man stood outside with a letter. He introduced himself as professor Fig from Hogwarts. He brought Fiona's Hogwarts letter with him. She couldn't believe it. She was going to Hogwarts? She was a witch? She was starting in her fifth year? This couldn't be true! She was just a squib!

After her initial shock wore off, excitement creeped in. She, her parents, and her brother Sean were overjoyed that she could finally experience Hogwarts. They apparated to their London house and had planned to see both Fiona and Sean off at King's Cross the next day.

The next morning, professor Fig once again knocked on their door to inform Fiona she would be riding with him and a ministry official to Hogwarts, so that he could help her get a head start on her delayed studies. Fiona couldn't argue with that.

What started off as an enchanted carriage ride turned into an adventure with danger, excitement, a dragon, goblins, and ancient magic. Fiona could see traces of ancient magic? Was this why her magic came so late?

She arrived late to the sorting ceremony, and suddenly all eyes were on her. She had a few scratches, but ultimately looked presentable. She saw her brother Sean already sat at the Gryffindor table, and she couldn't wait to join him. As she sat with the sorting hat on, she couldn't help but feel a pair of eyes burning a hole into her skull from the right side of the room, the slytherin table. There, a freckled face young man was intently focused on her, with a look of confusion in his eyes. Fiona ignored him, as she focused on being sorted. The sorting hat sensed her connection to Slytherin as well as Gryffindor, but decided her inquisitive mind and thirst for knowledge made her the perfect Ravenclaw.

Fiona was shocked to say the least, but joyfully made her way to the Ravenclaw table, glancing over to the freckled face Slytherin boy, feeling as if she knew him from somewhere. She was greeted by many new faces and stole a glance over at the Gryffindor table to smile at Sean. He gave her a nod and continued on his riveting conversation with another seventh year.

The dinner eventually came to an end, and Fiona was led to the Ravenclaw common room by deputy head mistress Matilda Weasley. She entered the common room completely blown over at how it looked. She often imagined one day entering the Slytherin or Gryffindor commons rooms based on the descriptions she heard from her family, but she never thought about Ravenclaw, with beautiful blues and bronzes, and a light airy feeling. She couldn't believe they had a rooftop terrace as well, with beautiful views of the highlands. She entered her dorm room and quickly met her dorm mates, Constance, Samantha, and Erin. After chatting with them, explaining how she thought she was a squib for the past four years, she fell asleep. She couldn't help but have a nightmare about her trip to Hogwarts. The nightmare turned positive when she felt the warmest feeling, accompanied with the image of the freckled face Slytherin.