𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐖 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂 || 𝐒𝐄𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖

Chapter Twelve: Visions

Chapter Twelve 

Chapter warning: This chapter contains decently graphic descriptions of dead bodies and a semi-graphic depiction of a murder among other small warnings. Please do not read if you are easily triggered by this. 🖤

The leaves turned, the air chilled, and the winter coats came out. October was here and the leaves were piling up. Quite a bit had happened in this span of time. Matty's sleep schedule had thankfully improved, and the nightmares stopped being so frequent as time went on, although they were more specific, but she didn't pay much attention to that detail as she was just glad they were becoming less common.

Esme had contacted a friend outside of the school to learn of Professor Willoughby's past. From this friend, she learned that Professor Willoughby used to be a Ministry worker in his early twenties, but it wasn't specified what he did. All signs pointed to him working as an Unspeakable, but it was never specified so they just had to go off what information was given to them.

The Ministry eventually released information about Leona Oswald, and it dominated the papers for several days. With a hefty bounty on her head, her name was spread everywhere. People began to question just how much control the Ministry had over this situation, although the Ministry said everything was fine and that they had Aurors on the case. However, upon the release of this information about Leona to the public, this confirmed Matty's suspicions.

Grace's cousin was right and Matty wasn't sure how to feel about it. Was she excited because her suspicions were confirmed, or should she be terrified that something was slowly brewing? There was a criminal on the loose and that was never good.

But taking Esme's advice to not worry herself to death over it, Matty tried her best to focus on her classes and her academic work. Through several hard classes and several harsh lectures, Matty was finally able to find Professor Willoughby's classes tolerable. Not that she liked them, in fact, she dreaded going to them, but she found that she could actually get work done without just being plain frustrated. Although he still did make her very angry.

The members of her class, which was still small, often got together after to talk about it, trying to help each other out because of how difficult the class was. They lend each other their notes and other things that they had sneakily written when Professor Willoughby would turn his back or things that they had written down from the best of their recollection.

Victoria had made a full recovery from her injury in the Quidditch match and funny enough, she and Amelia were beginning to become really good friends over their unfortunate collision at their last Quidditch match. Soon enough, just as expected, Victoria was back out there on the field with a smile on her face, determined as ever to make up for the time that was lost.

The team had grown close and Matty began to love her position as the team captain—her anxieties over it were almost completely gone. That and the privilege of being the captain allowed her to relax in the prefect's bathroom after a long day of practice which she greatly appreciated.

It was now a Thursday and Matty remembered that her mother's birthday was coming up in a couple of days, on Saturday. She was in the Room of Requirement when she remembered this and grabbed out some parchment and an ink and quill to write her a happy birthday letter.

But as if it were clockwork, Eden swooped in through the doorway, dropping a letter to her. It was unaddressed but had the Hogwarts wax seal on it. Matty furrowed her brows and the letter she was going to write to her mother was soon forgotten as she slid her thumb under the seal and opened the letter.