Shadow of the Key | Sebastian Sallow

Prologue

End of Fifth Year

Third Person Perspective

The summer sun shines down on the castle like a beacon of light. You wouldn't think that just a week prior, the castle had turned into a battleground full of death and despair brought on by Ranrok and his own loyalists. She can still vividly remember taking the power of the repository for her own and Professor Fig intaking his last breath in those cold, desolate caverns. Her mentor. Her father figure that stepped in when her own father died. He was now dead too.

Amelia Abernathy knew that this was going to be a challenging year for her, especially being a new student starting in her fifth year with magic so rare that it was lost to time itself, but now to say it was challenging was an understatement. She once desired this life so intensely, only to attain it and discover it wasn't a life that she desired at all. Not a life as rare as this.

She had always wanted to be a witch like her sister, Valencia. Hell, she envied her. Not only was she absolutely brilliant but she got to start Hogwarts just like any other student has. While she got to go to a school full of magic and possibilities, she was stuck in regular Muggle school doing the same boring coursework with the same boring people. Nothing about her life was exciting. Valencia would come home in the summer spewing insane stories like students casting slug-vomiting charms on each other and mischievous poltergeists causing mayhem in those castle halls. She never understood how her twin sister developed her magical abilities so early on while she had to wait five years for her magic to present itself. Before that, she had accepted the fact that she was a squib around the age of twelve.

But when her magic finally made itself known, it did in the worst possible way. That moment has haunted her dreams since.

As she walked across that wooden bridge, she reflected on the past events of the year. Tomorrow, summer break would commence and she and Valencia would be out the nearest Floo Flame to step foot into America and stay with their Aunt Lilian. She had visited America before in the past, but now it was different. It would be for an entire summer, and it would be the first summer that she wouldn't be spending it in her childhood home. There was no more 'home' to go to. No parents to come home to.

Amelia was never that close to her aunt, partially due to the fact that she lived on another continent, but also because her aunt and mum had a falling out years prior. For what, she never learned.

But she knew that she wasn't the only one going through a hard time. When she reached towards the end of the bridge, she spotted a familiar brown-haired freckled Slytherin leaning onto the beam with his arms crossed as he looked out into the mountain terrain with a somber expression on his face.

Amelia walked up and did the same, standing to the right of him and leaning against that same beam, taking in the view and feeling the gentle wind softly brush against her pale face. Neither of them said a word or looked at each other, just stood in silence and soaked in the scenery.

After a while, it was Sebastian Sallow that spoke up, still facing ahead with the same somber eyes. "Excited for the summer?"

Amelia let out a light snort. "Can't say I'm too thrilled about spending my summer in America of all places."

Sebastian turned to her then. "That's quite far. Any reason you're going in particular?"

She shook her head once. "Valencia and I are staying with our aunt. It's the only place we can go to, really."

He hummed in thought. "I know that feeling."

"Where are you headed?" She inquired, finally facing him.