𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐖 𝐎𝐅 𝐇𝐄𝐑 || 𝐒𝐞𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰

Chapter Thirty-Two: The final piece

Chapter Thirty-Two

It had been a few days since Matty and Sebastian had made up with each other and things had pretty much gone completely back to normal, much to Matty's relief. Still no word from San Bakar but at this point, Matty didn't expect it to come anytime soon and just continued to keep an eye out for Ranrok's loyalists and their plans.

Winter had come and the grounds outside of Hogwarts were covered in snow, it was beautiful to look out of from her dorm. The highlands really were breathtaking.

Matty was walking outside with Hope around the grounds, just chatting and having a good time. "Are you going home for Christmas?" Matty asked Hope as they walked down the cobbled paths of Hogwarts, being careful not to slip.

"I'm not sure yet." Hope answered with a small shrug. "Mum is always telling me and Aaron to come back, so I might. What about you?"

Matty frowned a bit. "Sadly, I don't think I'll be able to go home. It's a little too dangerous right now and I'd hate for my parents to get caught up in all of this mess." She answered with a small sigh. "And who knows, I can't leave and have the Keepers finally blurt something out. I'm still upset with them."

The revelation that it was probably too dangerous for Matty to return made Hope frown. "I'll stay then. I'm not leaving you here alone for the Holidays." She said with a frown.

"No, no, don't do that." Matty said rolling her eyes. "Look, I have other friends who are staying. I won't be completely alone. Also, I'm sure your mum would hunt me down if she found out I was the reason why you were staying at school over Christmas." She said with a small chuckle.

Mrs. McGowan had always been protective of her children, especially Hope. She wanted them at home whenever she could, which included the holidays, regardless of whatever holiday it was.

"Are you completely sure you're fine with me going home?" Hope asked one more time.

Matty nodded her head. "I'd be a bad best friend if I didn't." She said, chuckling a bit. "The worst part is having to tell my parents I can't come. They don't know anything about this so I suppose I just have to make up a good excuse as to why I'm not coming home... Maybe I should lie and say I have too much schoolwork to do or something."

The idea of lying to her parents and not being able to return home for Christmas was the worst thing to think about. Matty had missed her parents dearly since leaving for school, it had already been four months since she had left, and hadn't seen them since.

"Don't worry. Your parents will understand." Hope said, putting a comforting hand on Maty's shoulder. "And we'll take care of them, don't worry."

"Thank you, Hope. I really appreciate it." Matty said with a sweet smile.

Snow began to fall and Matty held out her hand to catch some, it melting the moment it hit her hand. "You know what, the snow here reminds me of my first winter in London after I moved there." She said with a small chuckle. "It snows so much more in London than it ever did in Dublin."

"I do remember that. I don't think I've ever seen Aaron pelt so many snowballs at anyone before." Hope said with a small, sly giggle as she remembered Aaron and Matty getting into a pretty intense snowball fight.

"Yeah, I suspect he didn't like me as much as he does now back when we were younger." Matty laughed. "For a while, it felt like he almost couldn't stand me."

"Hm, that's probably true." Hope laughed. "It was like gaining another annoying sister since we were hanging out all of the time. You always did get him back though. He could never do anything to you without getting it back ten times worse."