Ignition // Anne Sallow X Ominis Gaunt

Chapter 26: Reborn

Anne - March 16, 1891

I was dead.

I stared at my freshly deceased body for what felt like years, unable to process the reality that death has finally greeted me.

Yet, I was still here.

Stuck, confined to this room. Leaving wasn't an option. I was glued to my spot.

Was I truly dead?

Time worked differently outside of my physical form. Days, months, or even years could have gone by already, and I wouldn't have known the difference. So I stood there, staring at my corpse like it would get up and walk away if I took my gaze from it. I waited for the flesh to disappear into bones. But as time moved forward, my body never decayed.

It was healing.

Invisible pieces were slowly putting it back together. My skin glowed its natural color again. The sunken in cheeks filled out once more, regaining their natural pink tint. My body that had vanished into skin and bones over the years, once again filled out to my fit physique I had during quidditch, right before I got sick.

I couldn't understand what was happening. Time was reversing the curse. But how? And why after I was already gone?

Ariel - August 14th, 1891

The ancient magic guided me like a siren calling a sailor to the rocks. Whenever it called, the question of my survival appeared in the forefront of my mind. Was I to expect to be tossed around like a rag doll by a troll? Or would I encounter more knights that charge at maximum speed to impale me?

Nobody knows for certain.

When I came back to reality after my mind raced to a hundred places, I found myself standing in front of the restricted section, the traces beckoning me to come inside.

I knew exactly where they were taking me.

My pulse quickened walking down those stairs. My breath became uneven as I crossed that ancient magic doorway once again. And I froze completely at the sight of the Anthenaeum door.

The trauma from fifth year came flooding back. The keepers, the trials, how I let professor... how I let my father down. His eyes full of shock and disappointment when I told him how I intended to take the magic. That I could use it for good, and gain control of it.

I'm sorry, Professor Fig, I let you down.

You must continue on, my young friend, Professor Fig's voice rang inside my head. Your past is behind you. Remember your lessons, learn from your mistakes.

Always, father.

I inhaled deeply, breathing in my new calling. I exhaled slowly, letting go of my fear.

I can do this.

I opened the Athenaeum doors expecting a bunch of knights to come charging at me, or a room full of impossible puzzles to appear, but instead, it opened to an entirely new room I had never seen before.

The room was massive, yet had no ceiling to it. I looked up, and saw the empty shell of the repository floating hundreds of feet above me.

The magic I had absorbed churned inside of me. Either it was desperate to return to its metal cocoon, or something in this room was upsetting it. I ignored the pressure building inside of me, pushing it down to sleep once again.

The room almost looked like a shrine. A statue that looked like the founders of the school stood in each corner of the room, a piece of their legacy rooted in the pit of Hogwarts. The statues had proud, bold faces that were true to the founders' natures. Each of the statues had a hollow piece to them, right near the center. They were not alive, but they were incomplete, broken even, without their missing piece.