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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Everyone made it back to their Common Rooms safely.
That, in itself, felt like a miracle.
By the time Emerson slipped through the Ravenclaw common room entrance behind Olivia, the castle was still in that awful way it learned to do over the past year. It was silent because silence was safer than sound.
No one spoke at first.
The Ravenclaws who attended the D.A. meeting drifted inside in pairs and clusters, all of them pale-faced and tight-mouthed, their bravery still clinging to them but beginning to tremble at the edges now that they were somewhere safe enough to feel afraid. Sarah sank into one of the blue armchairs without removing her shoes. Harmony sat beside her, staring blankly at the floor, both hands locked together so tightly her knuckles had gone white. A Second-Year girl Emerson barely knew kept rubbing at her sleeve as though she could still feel a hand grabbing it.
Padma stood near the window, her face hard.
Olivia noticed too. She moved instinctively closer to Emerson, her shoulder brushing hers in quiet reassurance, but her eyes stayed on Padma.
"Everyone got back?" Olivia asked quietly.
Padma nodded once. "As far as I know."
"As far as you know," Sarah repeated, her voice thin.
No one corrected her. Before this year, a student being out after curfew might have meant detention, points lost or a stern lecture from McGonagall if you were especially unlucky. Now, it meant the kind of consequences no one said aloud unless they had to. The sort that made younger students flinch at footsteps. The sort that left older students watching doors, staircases and each other's faces for signs that someone was broken a little more than they had been yesterday.
Then one of the younger Ravenclaws whispered. "Do you think they know?"
No one answered, but they were all thinking the same thing.
Did the Carrows know the D.A.students were meeting?
Did they know coins were being passed, messages were being charmed and spells were being practised in secret?
Did they know who was brave enough to resist?
Or were they simply becoming worse because cruelty, once permitted, always found a way to deepen?
Emerson barely slept that night. She lay in her bed in Ravenclaw Tower with the curtains drawn tight, Olivia breathing unevenly in the bed beside hers, and the enchanted ceiling above them reflecting a moonless sky. She rotated Mattheo's ring on her finger over and over, while her D.A. Galleon stayed hidden beneath her pillow.
Unfortunately, the next morning brought the Carrows.
Alecto stood at the front of the Great Hall during breakfast with her wand tucked lazily between her fingers and a smile that made Emerson's stomach twist. Amycus paced behind the staff table like a restless dog, watching the students instead of his food, his eyes lingering too long on anyone who looked too tired, frightened or defiant.
