Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
chapter seventy-six. (were you sent by someone who wanted me dead? )
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
WHEN ASCELLA RETURNED HOME from Hogwarts for the summer, nothing was the same anymore.
She knew that from the moment she had retrieved the Horcrux — or, what she had believed to be the Horcrux — with Harry and Dumbledore. She knew it from the moment Dumbledore was murdered at the hands of someone they were supposed to place their loyalty in. She also knew it when Fenrir Greyback sunk his poisoned fangs into her shoulder and changed the trajectory of her life forever.
What they once knew life to be was no more, and the fear that the next day could easily be her last was becoming more prominent by the second.
Harry was forced to return to the Dursley home for the summer, yet promised to come and visit the Laurent Manor in a few weeks, a desperate break from his infuriating relatives certainly needed. Although, Ascella didn't know if he was coming to see her or Sirius, as their friendship was straining in a way that was close to snapping. Despite their relationship falling apart, they had promised to remain close friends, as they had been for the last six years. But, much to Ascella's dismay, it was much more easier said than done. He barely uttered a word to her on the train back from Hogwarts, and when his Aunt and Uncle collected him from King's Cross, he muttered a small goodbye and dashed away before she could even reiterate.
Perhaps it was for the best. It wasn't wise loving someone in the middle of a war, but the thought that he couldn't stand to be close to her caused nausea to swim in her stomach.
Everyone was struggling. Ascella could see it in their eyes, the fear of the unexpected — the lack of knowing about what was to come, it left them all on edge. Seraphina, Sirius and Remus had been through it before, they'd become soldiers of a battle that wasn't their own, and had lost everyone that was dear to them.
