In the Shadow of Secrets | Sebastian Sallow

Author's Note

Good day, dearest reader! If you are getting a sense of deja-vu with me posting this story, I want to set your mind at ease. Without getting too far into the weeds, this is a repost of In the Shadow of Secrets on this platform only, so if you find yourself feeling like you've read this before, you probably have! The good news is I was able to save the original story for you to enjoy, with the bonus that I am continuing to write it. If you know for a fact you have read through the chapter titled "Tea Time," I invite you to start at the next one, "A Portrait of Noctua Gaunt," which is being released with this publishing.

Spoiler and content warnings have remained as intact as I could keep them, but I must also remind anyone who is reading this story--now or for the first time--that the characters depicted in this story, though you may know them only from the game itself, have gone through fifth year (Hogwarts Legacy) before continuing in my writing onto sixth year (In the Shadow of Darkness) and completing seventh year (In the Shadow of Light). They are, despite being based on fifth year students at Hogwarts, now their own characters, whom I have developed myself from the baseline; and all of them are a minimum of 18 years old in this story. Though I can't believe I'm saying this, I feel like it must be said at this juncture that pureblood wizarding kind canonically marry their cousins and have children together, which I am not condoning but remains a truth which gets weirder (ick) the longer you think about it. The good news is, there are no direct depictions of incest between any characters in this series of stories, and the ones that are mentioned are generally frowned upon by the characters we all care about.

I hope this has cleared up any potential misunderstandings and I hope you enjoy this third (and probably last) installment to the series I have very much enjoyed writing and sharing with all of you over the last year and a bit.

- North.

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MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD for Hogwarts Legacy, In the Shadow of Darkness, and In the Shadow of Light. Consider yourself warned! I would strongly recommend reading the first two fics in my trilogy before this one or you will be so very lost.

I want to take a moment to thank all of my readers who have followed along, whether it has been from the beginning or they have binge-read to get here in days or weeks. I find it so touching that you have found my work so readable and enjoyable that you have chosen to come back for more despite the fact that the story has perhaps not taken the route anyone expected. Your comments and reviews have served to motivate me to continue to share this version of events with you, and I hope I do not disappoint with this last story in the trilogy.

As with the preceding stories, Eleanor is a named MC for anyone who wishes to use mine, BUT I also want to empower you to exchange names, etc, with your own character where appropriate. I wrote it from first person so you won't see the MC's name used as often, which will hopefully let you immerse yourself into the story a bit better. I also know plenty of you who enjoy reading OC stories, too!

Here is her lore, if you are so inclined, or would like a reminder:

Her name is Eleanor Jerome, and she's an orphan/foundling, meaning she doesn't know who her parents are. This will never show up in the story itself, but she was found by a woman named Eleanor and her last name was inspired by the patron saint of orphans, St. Jerome. She was sorted into Gryffindor and chose to keep the Ancient Magic secret. Additionally, she was wooed by Sebastian's foray into the Dark Arts, eventually learning all three Unforgivable Curses and then choosing not to turn him in. In Year 6, she and Sebastian grew closer, ultimately choosing to court, and they spent the summer between sixth and seventh year together with his sister Anne, who is cured of the curse and has reconciled with her brother. In Year 7, Eleanor learned she is a member of the Lestrange family, and was betrothed to her cousin, Benedict Lestrange, but not before being abducted by Ominis' brother (and her cousin), Corvinus, who tortured her in search of information on the repository, which is why she must find a way to protect it from anyone attempting to use it again.

The Prologue and Epilogue will be from Sebastian's POV, in third person. Starting with Chapter 1, we will move forward with MC's POV in first person. You'll see a slight difference with this story in that I have chosen to place dates at the beginning of chapters for ease of understanding the timeline. Events start off in 1893, only a few weeks after the events at the end of ITSOL. As with the other stories, you will continue see mannerisms and references common to that era for realism, while keeping the characters as true to canon as possible. I will define any references that aren't obvious, as needed.

I truly hope you like Part 3 of this series! I have worked hard to maintain continuity and correct grammar so you can enjoy the story to its fullest, so I hope that there are no glaring mistakes. As with my previous stories, I do not have a beta reader, so I'm sure there will be some errors. I hope you enjoy the story!

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Disclaimer: the world, story, and the characters from the game and the game itself all belong to WB. This work is merely based on it with a few of my own additions and some character development of my own. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on my personal work and original characters.