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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Alecto remembered nothing, which was a mercy for everyone. She returned to Muggle Studies the next day before the Sixth Years according to Ginny and Elena with the same sour expression, the same cruel mouth and the same ugly satisfaction whenever a student's hand trembled while taking notes.
But she did not look at Olivia or Enzo differently.
For two days, they all waited for the lie to crack. It did not. Even Mattheo seemed to hold himself with an extra layer of watchful tension, his gaze following Alecto whenever they passed her in corridors. He was waiting for recognition to flare in her eyes.
But Alecto still remained Alecto: cruel, malicious and horrible.
The next class after it happened, Olivia sat through Muggle Studies so stiffly that Emerson thought she might crack in half if Alecto so much as said her name. Theo sat beside her, his shoulder nearly touching hers and his face calm in a way that fooled absolutely no one who knew him. Enzo was strangely quiet for nearly twelve minutes, which frightened everyone more than Alecto's silence did, until he finally leaned across the desk and whispered that he was "considering a life of intense academic mediocrity as a survival strategy."
Emerson elbowed him beneath the table. He merely grinned.
By the end of the week, the fear loosened by a fraction. Fear never disappeared at Hogwarts anymore. It only changed its shape, retreating to the edges of their days until a slammed door or a raised wand dragged it back into the centre. But Alecto continued showing no recollection of the Muggle Studies incident, and with each passing lesson, the group learned to breathe a little easier around her.
Amycus was different after the Forbidden Forest. He was sluggish and more irritable in a confused way, as if the edges of the lie Mattheo placed inside him were scraped against his thoughts for days afterward. Alecto did none of that. She was sharper and vicious, if anything. She was completely herself.
That, strangely, frightened Emerson more.
Enzo, however, had a different interpretation.
"It's obvious," He announced one morning at the Ravenclaw table, spreading jam over toast with far more confidence than any person should possess after almost being exposed as a traitor by a Carrow. "Mattheo is improving."
Mattheo looked up slowly from his coffee. "At what?"
"At breaking people's b-,"
"Enzo!" Emerson hissed, her cheeks immediately burning red.
"Brains," Enzo finished hastily. "I was going to say brains."
Olivia and Theo snorted.
Mattheo closed his eyes briefly. "Enzo, I fucking swear."
"What? I mean it as a compliment," Enzo waved the butter knife in Mattheo's direction, which earned him a look from Olivia that made him immediately lower it. "Amycus came out of it like someone scrambled an egg behind his eyes. Alecto wakes up and simply continues being an unhinged hag with no visible side effects. That is progress."
