Ayla Dumont and the Portrait of Ronan

Ayla Dumont - seventh year Slytherin and only daughter to one of the most powerful pureblood families in Europe - is preparing to graduate from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Focused on passing her exams with top marks, Ayla is on an elite track to becoming an Unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries. But when the school's Headmaster announces that a new, and even more prestigious, position at the Ministry (Junior Advisor to the Minister) will be awarded to a single graduating student, Ayla finds herself in direct competition with her long-time friend and rival, Lucius Malfoy. As Ayla and Lucius use their cunning and ambition to beat the competition - and each other - Ayla stumbles across a darker secret hidden away in the castle: the magical portraits hanging on the walls have started losing their voices and going still, before disappearing all together.

Intrigued, but focused on her N.E.W.T.s, Ayla doesn't think much of the missing art. Until a chance encounter leads her to the portrait of a young bard with kind eyes and a sad smile. Victim to the mysterious, magical disease the bard is unable to speak. Yet the young man finds a way to connect with Ayla through the notes he plays on his lute. As she spends more and more time with him in the empty halls of the castle, the more determined she finds herself to understand the meaning behind his melodies.

Conflicted, and running out of time before exams, Ayla must choose between solving the mystery of the disappearing art and the mute man in the portrait, or leaving him behind to pursue the future expected of her.

~~~~~

The world of Harry Potter is rich and robust. It is full of characters you've never met, and stories that have never been told. The Hogwarts Legacy Series seeks to tell some of these stories of the lives of witches and wizards that came before the Boy Who Lived.

Ayla Dumont's original story takes place in the year 1972, during the rise of the First Wizarding War.