Closure (Sebastian Sallow x MC)

Prologue

April came back home from Hogwarts at the end of the school year exhausted. Even after finding a balance between studies, her new friends and fighting dark wizards, she found herself feeling sad.

She won the House Cup for her house, Hufflepuff, and aced all of her exams at the end of the year, but she didn't find joy in it. She was devastated. The death of Professor Fig left her soulless.

He had meant a lot to her that first year at Hogwarts, mentoring her, ensuring she was capable of keeping up the pace of her classmates even after starting her magical studies at the fifth year of school. He was kind, attentive, and maybe a little like some kind of father figure she didn't have. After his death in the battle against Ranrok, she didn't find joy in most things. She could recognize that she had been a good student, and she granted to herself a lot of new achievements. She was a capable witch now, with a lot of friends and a great knowledge of ancient magic, something not a lot of people could have. And yet, she felt numb. She knew she should be happy, but her principal thought at that moment was everything that went down at the end of the year.

When she returned to her home in London, her mother, Laura, was expecting her in the living room, visibly excited. The brown, long curls of her mom bounced at her back when she practically jumped off the couch she was sitting in to hug her daughter.

April really loved her mom. She raised her all by herself after the early death of her father, when April was only four. After his death from an unfortunate flu, she had been a widow ever since, and they lived in a house near her brother, who financially supported them with pleasure. He understood that they had a loving marriage and April's mom didn't want to marry again, so he bought a house near his. And that's where they have spent all their lives since then, the old house where they lived with her father being too full of memories for her mother to go through that. And they were together every day. That until, of course, Hogwarts called for April.

"April, dear, how are you? You barely wrote to me this year" Laura looked at April with kindness, not mad at all.

April knew that her mother understood her for not writing home so much. After all, she was a witch herself. Laura was born in a muggle house, and when the letter to Hogwarts arrived, at the early age of 11, her life changed entirely. She spent wonderful years there, and then, when she came back to London, she met her father, a muggle. After that, Laura left the magic life behind, not even her husband knew about it. She wanted to tell him, of course, but it was too risky. The muggleborns tended to not understand the complexity of magic, and they usually associated it with the Devil. And even though Laura truly believed her husband would understand, the fear was too big for her.

When April was born, she became worried of what might happen when the magic showed up. Would he turn her to the authorities, claiming she was a witch who cursed his daughter? Would he actually like it, finding magic as what it truly was, a wonder? Of course, Laura didn't expect her to show her powers only when she turned fifteen. By then, she thought that she was a squib, and both were utterly surprised by the magic. April didn't even know that magic existed, and it changed how she viewed the world entirely.

The moment Laura saw the magic in her daughter, she felt graceful. She began to remember her years at Hogwarts and the joy that brought her. And she realised then that she would have wanted her husband by her side then, so she could explain everything to both. Her wonderful years at Hogwarts and as a witch, all the cherished memories she made there. All her friends, with whom she still kept in contact. Instead, before April parted to Hogwarts, she told her daughter all her stories from her years at the school, and wished that and more for her daughter.

When Professor Weasley showed up at their house, and talked to them about the school and the mentoring of Professor Fig, April was so excited. She for sure was nervous and felt a little fear but she now understood her mother, how she made such beautiful memories in the school.