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...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The first day passed quietly. Too quietly.
Emerson tried to convince herself that Mattheo would walk through the doors of the Great Hall at dinner after classes. But as the evening dragged on and curfew crept closer, her hope began to dissolve into something restless.
To make herself feel better, she reasoned with herself. Maybe Voldemort only kept him longer than usual. Maybe he was being punished. Maybe he was pretending to cooperate again. But by that night, the reasoning stopped working. When she was back in the Ravenclaw dormitory, Emerson was sitting on the edge of her bed, knees drawn to her chest and staring blankly out the window. The moonlight spilled across the castle grounds, mocking in its serenity. Mattheo was only gone for hours and every possible explanation she came up with grew darker than the last.
She saw the way Mattheo looked before he left. The tension in his jaw. The flicker of fear he hid beneath Occlumency. The way his hand trembled when he gripped her arm. That wasn't the face of someone merely being called away. That was the face of someone walking into danger and knowing it.
Emerson barely slept. Every sound in the Ravenclaw dormitory made her flinch awake, her heart pounding in hope that maybe it was an owl with a message from him. But there never was. When she did sleep, her dreams were scattered and restless with fragments of Mattheo's face disappearing into darkness, his voice fading beneath his father's cold laugh.
By morning, Emerson's stomach was in knots. She tried to eat during breakfast, but every sound and every footstep echoing into the Great Hall made her look up too fast, expecting him. But it was never him.
Olivia noticed, of course. She always did.
"Em," Olivia murmured, nudging her plate closer. "He'll be back."
Emerson forced a small smile. "You don't know that."
"I don't," Olivia sighed. "But I believe it. And so should you."
Olivia tried to sound confident, but even she kept glancing toward the doors every few minutes. Emerson noticed the subtle signs of Olivia's worry when she toyed with the necklace Theo gave her for Christmas as if she, too, needed something to anchor her.
Emerson didn't say much that day. She barely spoke during classes. When she did, it was only to answer questions automatically. She'd grown used to Mattheo being distant before, but not absent. Even when they were enemies, she saw him every day. Now there was just... Nothing.
Enzo, of course, was handling it differently. He pretended not to care at first, filling the silence with sarcasm and jokes that felt forced.
"Riddle probably needed a vacation," He announced at lunch, trying to lighten the mood, but even his smirk didn't reach his eyes. He hadn't slept much either. Emerson could tell from the way he kept rubbing at his temples. It was obvious he was more worried than he wanted anyone to notice.
