🥀 Roses and Novels | Hogwarts Legacy Fanfic | Sebastian, Ominis and Evander

🥀 - chapter 39 -🌹

(Helena's perspective)

Surrounded by men clad in long black leather coats and eerie animal masks, I turned slowly, trying to make sense of where I was. A wide, crumbling stone courtyard stretched around me, enclosed by what looked like the ruins of an old factory. There were no signs, no names, no landmarks—nothing familiar. The sky was cast in heavy gray, and dusk crept in, the pale moon just beginning to slip through a blanket of clouds.

The dark magic that had coursed through me for a year quiet, restrained, but always present, was suddenly gone.

I locked eyes with Evan, confusion filling my gaze. My body felt hollow, cold, and nauseous. What had just happened?

He stood there casually twirling his wand, that familiar smirk curling across his lips. But something felt... off.

I looked down at my hands, pale, almost blue. I could feel Ancient Magic stirring beneath my skin, thrumming like it had on the day Sebastian and I were trapped in the goblins' dungeons.

I felt used. Betrayed. Triggered. Full of emotions I couldn't name, let alone tame.

(Background music: Kelsey Woods – "Darling")

My legs moved before my thoughts caught up. I stood from the heap of sand I'd fallen on.

"Evan, please... this isn't you," I said, voice steady despite the storm inside me.

He ran a hand through his hair and exchanged amused glances with his masked companions.

I felt stripped bare, ashamed, broken. And then that old, familiar tingle started in my fingers. A soft blue glow danced around my hands. I glanced at it, then back at Evan.

He noticed too, his grin faltering for just a second.

"You'd better watch it, Mrs. Helena Ambrose," he said mockingly. "You wouldn't want to hurt dear old father, would you?"

I froze, spinning toward the masked figures. One by one, they began removing their masks.

None of them looked like the man from the photo. None looked like my father.

Then Evan lifted his wand. "Aparecium."

Behind him, a tall wooden post shimmered into view, chained to it was a man in brown trousers and a sweater. His head was covered by a torn brown sack.

"NO!" I screamed, trying to run to him.

"DEPULSO!"

The force of the spell knocked me flat, back where I'd started.

"WHY?! Why are you doing this? LET HIM GO!"

Their laughter echoed, cruel and uncontrolled.

Then... Evan began to change.

His skin tone lightened. His jaw filled out. His black hair turned dark brown with a reddish sheen. A beard formed. His lips thinned beneath a mustache. His height shifted, his frame thickened.

And his eyes... those bright blue eyes darkened into deep, chocolate brown.

A scar appeared above his lip, a burn bloomed beside his nose.

I wasn't staring at Evan anymore.

I was looking at Alaric Ambrose, my father.

I gasped and turned to the man bound to the pole. Then back to my father. Then back again.

Something inside me broke.

With a cry, I hurled a barrel at the man behind me, it sent him flying. Another barrel. Three glass bottles. A wooden stick.

Chaos.

I rolled across the courtyard and snatched a wand from the ground near one of the fallen men. In one swift motion, I stood, wand aimed directly at Alaric.

"Helena, my darling..." he said smoothly. "You wouldn't attack your father after all these years, would you? That would be very... disappointing."

"I was better off without you."

"BOMBARDA!"

"PROTEGO! STUPEFY!"

"PROTEGO! STUPEFY!"

He dodged. "CONFUNDUS!"

I hit the ground hard, fire flashing around me. My limbs trembled.

"You didn't think you could outmatch me, did you?"

He raised his wand again.

"Legilimens."

Agony.

He dragged me through my own memories, my birth, my mother's abandonment, the war, my imprisonment, every wound he had a hand in. Ominis. Sebastian. Evander. Everyone I loved. My art. My hope. My suffering.

He pulled out of my mind violently, thrown backward by the force of it.

I stood, panting, and leveled the wand at his head.

"Legilimens."

And I saw everything.

His happy life. My mother's betrayal. His fall from grace. The pain, the rage, the Azkaban sentence. The Polyjuice potion. How he tortured Evan. How he used me, twisted our bond, turned love into a weapon.

I tore out of his mind and turned to the bound man. "Accio!"

The bag flew from his head. I caught it in one hand.

"EVAN!"

I rushed to him, cradling his face, searching his skin for wounds.

"Helena..." he whispered.

"I'm here," I said, holding his cheeks, brushing away the blood and dirt.

Tears gathered in his eyes. "You're really here."

Behind us came a deep, guttural growl.

Alaric stood again, three more men joining him.

Evan gripped my wrist, hard. "RUN! GO! NOW!"

"EVAN!"

"NOW, Helena! It's not safe!"

"I'm not leaving you!"

"Helena, look at me!" His voice cracked with desperation. "I love you. With all my soul. But you have to go. You have to save yourself."

We pressed our foreheads together. The tears fell freely.

"I'll come back," I whispered, kissing his cheek.

"I know. Mi amor... it's alright."

I turned away, brushing tears from my face. Behind me, my father retrieved his wand, raised it high. Dark green light surged into the sky.

"GO, MI AMOR! GO!"

I pulled the stolen wand from my robes, took one last look at Evan, and he nodded, his face a mix of pain and pride.

The green light hit his chest.

I disapparated.

I landed hard, right in the fountain of Gaunt Manor.

Sebastian and Ominis turned to me, shocked.

"Helena?!"

I collapsed to my knees in the cold water, gasping, soaked in blood, sweat, and grief.

But I was alive.