What if you decided not to turn him in? What if he has to stand trial anyway? And what if you get asked to be a witness?
Would you save him? Or wouldn't you?
For Sebastian Sallow, Eleanor - Ellie - has been through hell and back. She did it all for...
The song choice for this chapter is "champagne problems" by Taylor Swift.
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Even though I am hurt and angry, Anne doesn't get worse. It somehow annoys me, because it means that my feelings of hatred are still so full of love that it saves the twins anyhow. Fuck that, honestly.
I mean it's good, but also – would anyone like to be such an open book?
I concentrate on Quidditch and my schoolwork for the time being. It gets colder and colder, Christmas is around the corner, and the house elves decorate the castle as if it is the first and only Christmas to have ever taken place.
Since I spent a lot of time in my life contemplating whether I should just leave the wizarding world behind and integrate myself into the muggle world as a squib, I informed myself about the origins of Christmas. I have two theories about why Christmas is a thing for witches and wizards:
1) They don't care about religion and just like celebrating stuff. (My favourite theory.)
2) They believe Jesus was a wizard since he magically healed people. (The more believable theory.)
Anyhow, Christmas is lovely. And Hogwarts during this time is nothing short of a decor shop in December.
Alaric convinces me to spend my next Hogsmeade visit with him. I am wary of the fact of what will happen to Anne, but I ease my nerves with the knowledge that it is not necessarily about Alaric, but about my own feelings. And if I try to stay emotionally distant from him, it doesn't even matter what I physically do.
What a shame Imelda hasn't sacrificed herself for Sebastian. She'd be happy taking my place, I'm sure. I even heard her whisper his name in the night recently. I was close to throwing up. The only thing keeping me from it was the fact that I was in no mood to have her wake up and tell her about it.
'You seem lost in thought,' Alaric says when we walk through the snow to Hogsmeade. Our feet crackle on the fresh snow, and snowflakes get caught up in our hair, hats, and lashes.
'Oh, I'm sorry,' I reply and scold myself. He's been nothing but kind, so I shouldn't be this impolite. 'There has been a lot going on.'
'You wanna talk about it?' he asks and eyes me from the side.
'Uh – not really, honestly. It's more ... family stuff.'
He raises one of his perfect eyebrows at me. 'Does being the daughter of the minister not have its perks?'
'As much as it has its disadvantages,' I reply with a smile. 'She's ... powerful. And doesn't waste an opportunity to make sure I make honourable decisions, I would say.'
'That is a very nice description of "she tries to tell me how to live my life".' Alaric grins. 'You can be honest with me. I know what it's like to have overbearing parents. Mine aren't much different. They're head over heels involved in my privacy. I'd never write a journal just because I am sure they'd find some spell to read it to them while I write it.'
