Emerson Wilmore was an exemplary Ravenclaw student, known for her unwavering dedication to academics and an unyielding moral compass. However, things took a twisted and deviated turn in her life after her boyfriend, Cedric Diggory, was murdered by L...
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He was standing barefoot on the creaking floorboards of the small countryside cottage, the world washed in a sickly blue-grey twilight. The room flickered as if made of smoke, not quite real, but painfully sharp in its details: the worn floral wallpaper, the single crooked picture frame and the glimmer of a kettle left on the stove. He saw himself, not as he is now, but as a child. A toddler wrapped in a patchy, woolen blanket.
His mother was laughing.
Her chestnut hair was falling down her back in soft curls, the same as Mattheo's curls but longer and lighter. She was younger than he remembered. She was vibrant and smiling, radiant with a kind of hope that burned too bright for the world that they lived in. She was crouched beside a small case, folding infant-sized jumpers and miniature books into a worn leather bag, humming a lullaby under her breath.
On the table, there was a shrunk-down luggage beside a map smeared with inked routes and notes. The name Elira Monroe was scribbled across a fake MACUSA identity card. It was her escape plan. A new life. One she would never get to live.
"We'll be gone before he even notices," His mother whispered, lifting him into her arms. Her wand was tucked into the back of her skirt, and she kept glancing toward the window, looking over her shoulder for the monster that hadn't arrived yet. Her hands trembled as she adjusted the shawl around his shoulders, pressing a soft kiss to his temple.
Then there was laughter. His laughter and her laughter. Soft and rare and breaking through the gloom like sunlight through cracks. "Shh," His mother hushed, even as she smiled. "We have to be quiet, darling. Just until morning."
Mattheo couldn't speak. He was watching, somehow both within himself and outside of it. He was one again.
The moment didn't last long enough. The door suddenly blew open.
The hinges shrieked, the wind howled, and the soft yellow lamplight extinguished instantly. The air turned metallic and bitter.
A silhouette stood in the doorway. It was unmistakeably tall and snakelike.
