Acceptance: Hogwarts Legacy Continued

Chapter 73: Diana- more questions than answers

Diana laid awake in her bed, trying not to disturb her friend asleep next to her. Poppy had asked, or more like pleaded, to sleep next to Diana that night. And honestly, she didn't really mind the idea and agreed to it rather quickly. She knew that her adventure and subsequent collapse must have been rough on her friend, so she wanted to do all that she could to ease her worries. It did make it a little uncomfortable to fall asleep, but she had a lot on her mind anyway.

Earlier in the undercroft she had tried to explain to her friends what had happened in Feldcroft, but it seemed to raise more questions than it answered. It was hard for them to wrap their heads around, even Sebastian who had seen some of Isadora's memories with her last year. The idea that she could reach into someone... soul, maybe, and could remove things was a lot to swallow.

The brunette had a lot of questions for her about what she had felt and what she had left behind. The blond boy on the other hand seemed to be keeping his questions to himself. She figured, like herself, that his questions likely related to their talks about helping Anne. She assumed that he would wait until they were alone to share them with her.

Overall though, their meeting was a positive one. Things were still a bit convoluted, but at least their feelings for each other seemed to be sorted out. Diana felt that there in that room she had met Sebastian, the true Sebastian, for the very first time. He seemed different than when they had met last year, and even more so than who he had become just a few months ago. She had a lot of speculations about what that darkness she removed was, and how much of it was affecting the person that he had become before. Ominis even shared his thoughts on it being the remnants of dark magic, a product of the evil that he said he had seen in others. Whatever it was though, it wasn't stopping him anymore.

She did fire quite a few questions at her new friend though- trying to gauge how he was really fairing after having something removed from inside of him. All of his answers made her feel like he really was okay- that he was whole and not an empty shell of himself. Although he did mention that things felt different, he didn't think of it as bad. It made her feel hopeful about her research for Anne though- it was technically the first successful "experiment" she had.

There was still so much to consider though; was whatever she pulled from the boy different enough from a curse that the results would be drastically indistinct? Did the way that the "entity" enter the body have a role in how it would be removed? If Sebastian supposedly invited his darkness in by using dark magic, would an unwanted curse be harder to remove?

It felt like there were hundreds of more things to examine, and it felt overwhelming. But she wasn't going to let this glimmer of hope die. She was able to save Sebastian, and that was a step in the right direction to understand this all, she knew it.

She did need to consider though, if she would tell the Keepers... it was a thought that had crossed her mind when she was still in the hospital. She had used her powers like Isadora had, something she had sworn to them she would not do. Thinking about their reactions made her shiver, she knew no matter how she tried to explain it they would only see Isadora's words mirrored in her own. Again, her heart went out to the witch- had she felt she would also be misunderstood and dismissed when she tried to explain herself to her mentors?

Poppy shifted next to her, and that drew her attention back to the present. There was so much that she had to do- but right now was not the time to do it. Even though she had spent the entirety of the past two days sleeping, she knew her body still needed rest. And sleep did eventually come, as she tried to relax her body, her mind drifted off to other things; a close embrace of friends, the warmth of her bath earlier, the smell of vanilla....