We're finally here, folks! The last chapter! I'm going to keep all the emotional stuff for the end notes, but I wanted to say my sister has almost finished drawing the gang the first time they went to Hogsmeade together, so I'll post it on my tumbl when she finishes.
Anyway, enjoy!
"He did it! Magnus Chase has won the Triwizard Tournament!"
Magnus could hardly believe what was happening. He felt like the air had been knocked out of him, which it had when Alex tackled him to the ground. His green-haired girlfriend had her arms wrapped around his neck as she kissed Magnus senseless. The crowd around them was cheering them on and whistling, but Alex didn't really seem deterred by it. When she finally let him breathe properly, she didn't get off him immediately.
"Good job, Maggie," she said softly. Magnus smiled up at her, the fear of being beaten by bludgers, mauled by the Giant Squid and eaten by the Acromantulas forgotten.
"Hey, Alex," Halfborn cut in, "you can snog Magnus later, we want to congratulate him too!"
Alex huffed but got off Magnus and offered him a hand to get up too. "I'll hold you to that," she told Halfborn with her characteristic shit's-gonna-go-down smirk. Halfborn seemed to reconsider his words.
The moment Magnus stood up he was embraced by Annabeth, who was hugging him so tightly Magnus felt the pressure in his ribs. He hugged his cousin back as well as he could with the Cup still hanging from his hand.
"Congratulations, cousin," she said when she finally pulled away from him. Percy was standing behind her wearing a Hogwarts t-shirt and his megaphone under his armpit, giving Magnus double thumbs up.
"Thanks," Magnus told Annabeth. He yelped in surprised when Halfborn put his arm around his shoulders and squeezed him close to his side. Mallory jumped in as well, hugging Magnus from the other side.
"Congratulations, blondie!" They said in unison. Magnus would have been upset about the nickname if he wasn't too busy smiling at his friends. Sam hugged him next, followed by Amir, who promised him a free extra large order of falafel next time he came by the shop. Guess almost being eaten by spiders has its benefits.
"Okay, people, like we practiced!" T.J yelled suddenly. The Hogwarts students gathered around Magnus surged forward quickly and Magnus found himself being hosted up on people's hands and shoulders.
"Wh-what- oh!" Magnus cried out. The mass of people underneath him moved forward towards the exit of the Quidditch field, cheering loudly like a carnival parade. Some students threw confetti in the air, others fireworks and some used their wands to create bright sparks and multicolored bubbles.
"Magnus! Magnus! Magnus!" They kept chanting his name as they moved through the school grounds, loud and joyous. The air was buzzing with laughter and cheers as the Hogwarts students took Magnus on a victory round around the Big Lake.
The Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students were close behind, each with their own Champion on their backs. They cheered just as piercingly, like they were competing about who could celebrate the hardest.
They didn't let Magnus get down until they had reached Hogwart's large main door, and even then they had to open the double doors dramatically open-sesame style and carry him through them before they allowed him to stand on his own two feet again.
"Did you seriously practice that?" Magnus asked T.J as he watched the younger students rush inside the Hall of the Slain to party.
"Yep!" T.J replied with a smile. "We used Alex as your substitute since you're about the same size."
"It's pretty comfortable way to move once you get used to it," Alex commented. "So, what are we doing now? We need to celebrate!"
"Oh, the teachers said seventh year students are allowed to go to Hogsmeade," Sam said. "Maybe we could go to Valhalla?"
"Sounds like a plan!" Mallory cheered. "Let's go!"
"Oh, wait, I need to do something first!" Magnus said and left, leaving the Triwizard Cup in Alex's arms.
Finding his way through the crowd was a nightmare with so many people packed in the Hogwarts entrance. Even worse, people wouldn't let him through without congratulating him for winning the Tournament, which, yes, was very kind of them, but it didn't really help when he was trying to find someone quickly.
Finally, he found Raphael close to the wall with Louis. They were talking with some adults Magnus hadn't seen before, but he could easily tell they were Raphael's and Louis's parents.
The couple on the right had the same beautiful dark skin as Raphael, the father standing with the same confidence as his son and the mother with the same kind eyes. A young girl – about twelve, probably –was gushing about something to Raphael and good Merlin, it was like looking at a miniature of Raphael.
The couple on the left was talking to Louis about something – Magnus couldn't hear what. Louis's father had his son's green eyes and his mother his blonde curls and chubby cheeks. As Magnus came closer he could hear them talking in rapid French and he noticed a plastic bag hanging by the arm of Louis's mother, the name of their bakery in an elegant font (which he couldn't read because the only French he knew was crepe, croissant and Eiffel).
Magnus stood to the side for a bit, not wanting to interrupt family time, but Raphael spotted him and called him over.
"Oh, Magnus, hi! Congratulations on winning the Cup!" Raphael turned to his parents and introduced Magnus. "Maman, Papa, this is Magnus Chase. These are my parents and the little peste is Alya."
"Salut!" Alya exclaimed. Her accent was thicker than Raphael's "Raphy said your amoureuse has green hair! That's so cool! I want colored hair too!"
Raphael's mother smiled at Alya. "Maybe when you're older." That didn't seem to satisfy the young girl because she crossed her arms and pouted. Magnus was barely able to cover up his smile; Raphael's little sister was adorable.
Raphael's father took both Magnus's hands in his own and the blonde looked at nervously. Raphael looked more embarrassed than worried. "Thank you very much for helping our son in the First Task," Raphael's father said. There was such genuine gratitude in his eyes Magnus felt like he was the one who should be saying thanks.
"N-no, it's alright," Magnus stammered out. He smiled at Raphael's parents before turning back to his two friends. "Um, anyway, me and the others are going to Valhalla and I wanted to see if you wanted to come along."
"Sure," Raphael said. "You owe me and Helga a Butterbeer, if I'm not mistaken."
Magnus chuckled and nodded. "I guess I do. The others must be close to the door, I'll go find Helga and meet you there."
Magnus left to find Helga and Louis with Raphael told their parents goodbye, Louis kissing his parents cheeks. Most students had left the entrance hall by now, so it was much easier to look for the Durmstrang Champion. He found Helga talking to Agatha and what must be Agatha's parents, a lanky man with Agatha's dirty blonde hair and another man with black hair in a small ponytail.
"Helga!" He called out. The four of them turned around to look at Magnus. He greeted Agatha's parents before turning back to the two girls. "We're going to Valhalla with the others and I wanted to see if you wanted to come along."
Helga smiled brightly and nodded. She seemed so happy to be invited that Magnus wondered if people generally asked her to go out with them before.
Magnus waited off to the side for Helga and Agatha to say goodbye before the three of them headed off to find the rest of the group. They weren't by the Hogwarts entrance so Magnus assumed they already went to Valhalla. The walk there would have been quiet if it wasn't for the huge amount of students and spectators that were milling around Hogsmeade, making the air buzz with hundreds of different voices.
"Oh, congratulations on winning, Magnus," Helga said at one point. "That was a clever trick you thought of at the end. Wish I had thought of that."
"Oh, thank you. What place did you get?" He felt a bit awkward for asking, like he was shoving it into Helga's face that she hadn't won, but he honestly wasn't able to hear who finished second and who third with all the commotion that was going on.
"I got third since I was the farthest from the Cup when you touched it," Helga answered; she didn't seem at all annoyed by Magnus's question. "It's kind of nice, to be honest. I took part in the Triwizard Tournament, I gave it my best and I had fun. I lost and no one is going to chew me out for it." Magnus didn't have to ask to know that 'no one' was her parents. "I'm allowed to lose."
Agatha squeezed Helga's hand and smiled at her warmly. Helga returned the smile with the softest expression Magnus had ever seen. Helga was looking at Agatha like there were a million things she wanted to thank her for and didn't know where to start. The whole exchange, as sort as it was, felt awfully intimate and Magnus looked away to give them privacy.
Magnus thought that the streets of Hogsmeade were noisy, but that was nothing compared to when they opened the door to Valhalla and stepped inside the shop. Everything was ten times louder, like putting on headphones and forgetting you had left the sound at full volume. There were people everywhere, from students to adults and even some reporters too busy drinking to actually report anything. The place was so crowded Magnus was afraid they would find a place to sit. They were thirteen people after all.
"Maggie! Over here!" How Magnus was able to hear Alex in all this commotion he didn't know, but finding her in the crowd wasn't hard. Mostly because her hair was green, she was dressed in green and pink and she was standing on top of a table with a Butterbeer at hand. Not exactly someone you can miss.
"Grab a seat!" Alex said once he got near to their table, patting the place next to her. Her cheeks were flushed red and Magnus would bet the Cup that wasn't just Butterbeer in her cup.
"How did you manage to get a table?" Helga asked. Magnus's friends were sitting at a large round table at the back of the shop. "This place is packed full!"
"I said I'm Magnus's cousin and that we were here to celebrate," Annabeth explained. "The owner was beyond happy to give a table to all three Champions."
"He gave us free chips too!" T.J added, holding up a half-empty plate of chips. Magnus would bet he hadn't had just Butterbeer either.
The waitress soon came by to give Magnus, Helga and Agatha a glass of Butterbeer and was gone in a flash, already running to the other side of the shop to serve a different table. Despite how full the place was, the cacophony soon became white noise to Magnus.
"Eh hem." Halfborn cleared his throat as he stood up, raising his cup in a toast. "We are here today because our dear loser Magnus managed to not only survive the Triwizard Tournament but also win first place!"
Everyone at the table clapped their hands and cheered. After the round of applause (and Alex's long wolf whistle) was over, Halfborn kept going.
"I honestly wouldn't have expected him to win." Magnus frowned mockingly at him, knowing full well he didn't mean what he was saying – his shit-eating grin gave him away. "Kidding, kidding. But," pause for dramatic effect, "we are also here to celebrate the three brave, if stupid, Champions who represented our schools in the Tournament and stayed courageous even when they had to face their worst fears. Literally, too. Thank you for suffering for our entertainment."
Halfborn thrust his glass out to the middle of the table and they all copied him. Thirteen glasses crashed against each other loudly, the liquid inside them sloshing around and even dripping down on the table. They brought the cups to their lips and took deep gulps of the sweet drink, the thick liquid trickling down their throats and leaving behind a nice warm feeling. Yep, definitely not just Butterbeer.
"Honestly though, the part at the Acromantulas' nest was horrifying," Annabeth said after she lowered her cup, visibly shuddering. Magnus remembered when they were young, maybe around five, and Annabeth would be mortified every time she so much as thought she had seen a spider. Magnus didn't know why she disliked them so much, but it seemed like the feeling was mutual. "I would hate to have to deal with a spider that large, let alone a whole nest of them."
Helga chuckled, the kind of chuckle that said I've been through hell and back and I'm gonna laugh about it because our existence is futile anyway. "Yeah, that was horrible. It was like being in the alien's den in a sci-fi anime, only you don't have the main character's plot armor."
"Magnus laughed, along with the rest of their table. "I didn't know you liked anime," he said.
Helga immediately flushed and Agatha giggled at her girlfriend's cute expression. "She does, but she doesn't tell anyone about it," the blonde girl explained with a smile. "You should see her when she starts ranting about a specific episode or something like that. She's non-stop!"
"Agatha!" Helga hissed, her face even redder than before.
"What? You're cute when you're ranting." If possible, that made Helga blush even harder and she whimpered as she hid her face on Agatha's shoulder. Magnus giggled because come on, they were cute.
"She's right about the spiders, though I kind of disliked the one at the lake more," Raphael said. "I'm not good with water, and those tentacles…" Raphael shuddered. "Ew."
They all laughed at Raphael's exaggerated sound of disgust, until a very loud, very over the top gasp drew their attention to Percy. "Wait, you don't like water?" He sounded offended, like you had just offended his family, and he sprang into a detailed explanation of everything good about water and the sea in general. Honestly, it sounded like he had practiced this.
The rest of the evening went on like that, friendly banter, jokes, teasing and lots, lots of Butterbeer. Turns out Mallory holds her liquor much better than Halfborn. The night hadn't ended yet and Magnus already knew a lot of new, random things about his friends.
Like how the first gift Amir bought for Sam with his own money back when they were younger was a teddy bear that she still had on her bed, despite its leg having fallen off at least three times. Or how T.J would always carry a water-gun around with him when he was five because he thought a character he saw in a movie was cool and he wanted to be a soldier and protect him mum from bad guys. Or that Halfborn used to have a pet rock named Shirley or that Mallory almost choked because she staffed 29 grapes in her mouth when she was seven on a dare and was since terrified of them. He learned that Percy would sing "Under the Sea" non-stop when he in elementary school and that Alex's favorite Disney movie was "The Emperor's new Groove" (which he should have expected, honestly.) That Agatha could play five different instruments and that she wanted to learn cello because it was like a giant violin, which she thought was cool when she was little and that Helga's favorite anime trope was friends to lovers and that, if you got her started, she wouldn't stop talking about Hunter x Hunter (2011) unless you forced her to stop. That Alya had become best friends with Louis when Raphael first brought him home and that, after he came out and started transitioning, she became his self-appointed bodyguard that would fight anyone who so much as thought about misgendering her future brother-in-law. He also learnt that Raphael pistachio ice-cream, but not actual pistachios and that he once got extra points on a test because he drew the teacher a funny meme on the bottom of the page.
Couple of rounds in and they were all at least tipsy, whether it was because of the Butterbeer or the amount of sugar in the various sweets they ate. Halfborn was telling some random story from university, about what Magnus was exactly sure, and he started wondering whether he got into the school he wanted or not. The reply letter should be arriving any day now, after all.
"Say," Raphael said to Helga and Agatha from where he was draped over Louis's shoulder, "what do you two want to study?"
"I wanna study music," Agatha said, with the kind of ease you had when you said something for the thousandth time.
"I don' know what I wanna do," Helga said. She had moved around in the booth so that she was sitting right next to Agatha with one arm around her waist. "I always assumed I would take on the family business, but that's not happening, so I dunno… Maybe I'll take a gap year. I can do whatever I want now."
"Damn right, you can!" Alex cheered, slapping the table for emphasis. "To hell with stupid parents!"
Helga laughed and raised her glass along with Alex. "To hell with stupid parents!"
"Mmm, I'll miss you, guys!" Mallory whimpered. "We won't see each other as much once the next school year starts!"
Halfborn patted his sad girlfriend's back, but T.J shook his head in disagreement. "Nah ah! We'll see each other as much as we want! You ain't getting rid of me that easy!"
Sam nodded from her seat next to Amir. "Yeah, things are ending because we're finishing Hogwarts! It's a new start!"
Any other time they would have teased her for sounding like a motivational speaker or a parent's pep talk, but they couldn't care less right now. "Yes!" Magnus agreed, raising his cup high (and dropping half its contents by accident in the process). "It's a new start!"
Glasses were lifted up for a toast and the sound of them clanking together resonated in their little corner of Valhalla as they laughed and enjoyed the night.
The closing ceremony the next day doubled as both the end of the school year and the end of the Triwizard Tournament. The ceremony would take place in the school grounds next to the Big Lake to take advantage of the summer weather and a large stage was set up in front of rows and rows of chairs.
The graduation ceremony took place first. Everybody, students and parents, were in their best clothes for the occasion. The three Headmasters took turns calling up their seventh year students and giving them their diploma (which was charmed to look like a diploma from a random highschool in case a muggle saw it). By the time the ceremony ended the stage was packed full of students and the audience was packed full of crying proud parents.
As the rest of the students left the stage, Magnus, Raphael and Helga waited on the stage like they had been told. They sat at the very back and waited silently until everybody was seated again. Once that finally happened, Headmaster Odin stepped to the front and cleared his throat before starting his speech.
Magnus would have loved to tell you what that speech was, but unfortunately he tuned it out after two minutes. What he could tell you was that it started with a pretty conceited and lightly history lesson about the origin of the Triwizard Tournament. He was sure that was an interesting story, but he didn't really care to listen to it now.
His eyes scanned the crowd until he found Alex and his friends. They were seated somewhere in the middle, between the parents in the back and the important ministry and reporter folk in the front. They took up nearly an entire row on their own and when Alex noticed that he was looking at them, he waved happily. Magnus smiled, making the corners of his eyes crease as he waved back at him.
"Without further ado, it is time to award the three Champions," Headmaster Odin said, finally getting to the point. "At third place, we have Helga Leifsson!"
Helga got up and walked to the front to get her medal, shoulders back and head held high, every bit as confident as when she arrived at Hogwarts and ten times happier. Headmistress Sonia put the bronze medal around her neck and Helga stood proudly as the reporters' cameras flashed. Magnus couldn't see her expression from the back, but Helga's eyes fell on Agatha, who was beaming at her and giving her double thumbs up, and she smiled softly to herself.
"At second place we have Raphael Beaumont!"
Raphael made his way to the front. He kept his chin up and his gait was so confident you'd think he was the undisputed winner. He bowed his head and Headmaster Gilbert put the silver medal around his neck. The crowd went wild for him and, near the back, Alya was clapping for him while standing up on her chair, wolf-whistling and yelling supportive things in French.
"And finally, at first place we have the winner of the Triwizard Tournament, Magnus Chase!"
The crowd didn't clap for him; no, they freaking roared. Applause and whistles and cheers filled the air, the cacophony they created louder than a thunderstorm. It was crazy to imagine so many people were clapping for him, that so many people were happy he won. He walked to the front of the stage in a daze, the applause seemingly getting louder with each step. His eyes drifted over the audience as Headmaster Odin gave him his medal. There were so many people – Hogwarts students, their families, reporters and guests, but they weren't the only ones cheering. Durmstrang and Beauxbatons were clapping just as loudly, even if a lot of people were miffed that their Champion hadn't won.
Raphael and Helga smiled at him as the Hogwarts Headmaster gave him the Cup and Magnus smiled back at them. He pulled them closer and hugged them as best as he could while holding the Cup with one arm. He had risked his life (and his mental health) alongside these people and he felt impossibly close to them, even if things didn't start well with one of them.
At last, as the three Champions held up the Cup together, Headmaster Odin made the final declaration of the Tournament.
"The Triwizard Tournament is over!"
As the crowd gets up for a standing ovation, its uproar becoming even more thunderous, big multicolored bubbles floated over the audience. They shined like gems under the summer sun, casting bright colors on the people beneath them. They soon started bursting, spreading a glittering, fine powder over spectators. They air glimmered with every color of the rainbow, the sound of laughter and cheering as loud as church bells.
News reporters and paparazzi had already formed a thick wall around the steps that lead off the stage, each one of them eager to get an exclusive interview with one of the Champions, preferably Magnus or Helga. The Triwizard Tournament was quite popular for a competition between schools, but with the kind of tasks the competitors went through it was expected. Magnus cast a nervous glance at his fellow Champions, the 'how in the name of Merlin's garter belt are we supposed to get through that?' clear in his eyes.
"Look confident," Helga whispered. "They can smell fear." Needless to say, that didn't really reassure him.
Still, he tried to mimic Helga's stance as they walked down the steps – shoulders squared, chest out, chin up and looking at every one like you're a lion and they're a tasty gazelle. Magnus probably looked more like a five year old after they first watched The Lion King, but he tried.
Reporters fired questions at them as soon as they set foot on the steps and Magnus would be lying if he said he was able to make out anything they said. It was simply indistinguishable yells, cameras and voice recorders being shoved into his face as the flashes blinded him. Raphael looked just as dazed by it all as him, but Helga managed to keep her cool and politely asked the reporters to let them leave. They didn't seem to have heard her or, if they did, they didn't care. Helga tried to pull Magnus and Raphael out by force, but they were clearly outnumbered.
"Hey, hey, get out of the way, come on!" Alex's green mop of hair cut through the crowd of reporters, the rest of their friends right behind him. She popped through the tight ring of reporters under some lady's armpit and stood in front of Magnus like a mama bear protecting her cubs. The rest of the gang formed a circle around the Champions, glaring openly at the reporters and being as frightening as they could, which – for most of them – wasn't hard at all. (Halfborn was the size of an ox for crying out loud and there was just something very scary about Annabeth's eyes when she glared at people.)
"They don't wanna speak right now, so scram," Alex said plain and simple. Unfortunately, that seemed to have the opposite effect.
"Are you Alexander Fierro by any chance?" A woman near the front asked, pushing the other reporters away and getting way too far into Alex's personal space. "Would you like to tell us something about-"
"I don't want to tell you anything," Alex cut in, voice sharper than the woman's eyeliner. "Now let us pass."
If the news reporters didn't back away on their own, Halfborn and the rest of the Champion Protection Squad™ (also known as CH.P.S) (yes, they needed a better abbreviation) did a good enough job of simply pushing them out of the way by force.
"Thanks for that, guys," Magnus said after they managed to get out of the reporters' vice grip. Goodness, he was having flashbacks to being surrounded by man-eating spiders because of that. It probably wasn't a flattering comparison for the reporters.
"No problem," Louis said. Then, to Raphael, "Did I look scary?"
Raphael leaned in and pecked him on the cheek. "Fierce."
Louis giggled, a light airy sound, and leaned in to kiss Raphael on the lips. Their kiss was sweet and slow and Magnus turned to Alex to give them privacy. "Je suis si fier de toi," he heard Louis whisper in French and he would hazard a guess that Louis had said "I'm so proud of you".
"So," Alex started as they moved towards the larger buffet table where T.J was once again shoving food into his face, "how does it feel to win the Triwizard Tournament and be accepted into Healing School?"
"Pretty good- wait. Did you say I was accepted into Healing School?"
Alex broke into a wide grin and, to Magnus's amazement, pulled out an envelope from the pocket of his jean (from Blitzen's Best, enchanted so they had Mary Poppins-esque pockets). "This came in yesterday, but I wanted to surprise you after the award ceremony," he said as he held the envelope out to Magnus.
Magnus took it carefully from Alex's hands, as if the paper would dissolve into thin air if he wasn't careful. The envelope was already open, but the letter was put back inside and Magnus pulled it out gingerly. He was met with the ornate insignia of the Wizarding University of London on the top of the page, beautiful golden vines wrapping around a piece parchment and a wand. His eyes skimmed over the letter, compliments about his N.E.W.T.s and his performance in the Tournament, until he found the words he was looking for.
You have been accepted into the Healing department of the Wizarding University of London.
Magnus's eyes widened at seeing the actual words and a smiled spread across his face. He got in!
"I got in! I got in!" He said excitedly, gripping onto the letter tightly. Alex's smile got even bigger as he watched Magnus freak out over being accepted into one of the best universities in the UK.
"I told you could do it," he said and kissed Magnus's cheek.
"Did you get in too?" Magnus asked.
"Yep! We'll get to go to the same university!"
Suddenly, before even Magnus himself thought about what he was doing, he was cupping Alex's face and kissing him on deeply on the lips. He only realized what he was doing when he felt Alex's lips move against his own, but Alex didn't pull away, only pull him closer and deepen the kiss.
"Sorry," Magnus said breathlessly when they pulled apart. Their foreheads were still touching but Magnus didn't feel like moving away and neither did Alex. "I just…" He never said 'I'm happy', but he didn't need to.
"It's okay," Alex said. "I'm happy, too."
They stayed close like that for a little longer, neither of them wanting to be the first to pull away. They did so eventually, especially when they noticed one of the photographers taking pictures of them. They wandered off together, their fingers intertwined between them. They were munching on Hogwarts-shaped chocolates by the Lake when Magnus spoke up again.
"So, um," he started, unsure of how to go on about this. He was absentmindedly tracing circles on the back of Alex's hand with his thumb and Alex let himself enjoy the small gesture. "Annabeth told me that her dad wanted to see me, and I was kinda thinking about going over during summer."
"Oh, nice," Alex said as he took a sip from his cup.
"Yeah, and I was wondering… I mean, if you want… do you wanna come too?"
Alex didn't spit his drink. No, that would be ridiculous. He choked on it.
"You want me to come with you to America?" He asked, coughing.
"Yeah, I mean…" Magnus sighed and rubbed at his neck with his free hand. "I asked Annabeth and she said it's okay and it'll be fun, so…?"
Alex beamed at him and kissed him on the lips. "Of course."
Magnus smiled back and kissed Alex again. "This is going to be the best summer."
"Hm, aren't you excited to introduce me to your family?" Alex teased.
"Oh, you'll probably burn a table or break a wall," Magnus said, kissing Alex's mocking pout. "You'll fit right in."
Alex chuckled, his breath warm against Magnus's lips, and squeezed the blonde's hand in his. It would be the best summer, he was sure, because it had been the best year.
Then, suddenly, the relative silence of conversation was interrupted by Raphael's loud yell of, "Here comes the cake!"
Magnus turned around and, sure enough, there was Raphael and Louis pushing a large cart with the biggest cake Magnus had ever seen on top of it. It was even bigger than those triple layered wedding cakes! It was covered in white fondant, multicolored garlands and balloons decorating its edges. They all looked so delicate, down to the last detail. On the sides of each tier were the Three Tasks, each and every one made out of fondant. Magnus didn't want to know how long it took to make, but it looked spectacular.
"Tada!" Louis said as he jumped out from behind the cart. "I made a cake to celebrate!"
"How… when did you even make this? How long did it even take?" Helga stammered out, staring at the cake's decoration like a painting in a museum.
"Ah, you know, a bit," Louis said, his cheeks coloring bashfully. "But I wanted to do something for the end of the Tournament, so I made my best cake. Dig in!"
House elves gave everybody forks and plates and the Headmasters cut the cake, giving the first three pieces to the Champions. Magnus's last year at Hogwarts ended by eating chocolate cake with his friends, all of them sitting around a table and laughing together.
All was well. And it would get even better.
(Yes, I had to do the 'all was well' thing, come one, you know me) (Also, I've been thinking that I really like the idea of trans!Louis since, like, the Yule Ball but I kept getting caught up in writing something else and forgot that I wanted to write it in until I had already posted the chapter, so sorry for only saying it in the last chapter)
And that's it! I can't tell you how proud I feel right now. I mean, I've been writing this since January and it's finally over. I wonder if that's what it feels likes when your child graduates... So yeah, I feel like a proud mama right now, but part of me knows I'm going to miss the constant stress and anxiety that comes with finding enough time to write and keep an update schedule (it's not bad during summer, but boy, was it something during the school year). I know that sounds bad, but I'm a masochistic shit and I kinda like it anyway.
I'm rambling. Anyway, what I wanted to say is THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you for staying with me for this ride, through writer's block and gratuitous references and /really/ slow slow burn. I can't tell you how much I've loved all your sweet comments, even when you were yelling at me for the slow burn being slower than a snail or how you hated Helga when she first showed up. Honestly, you've spoiled. How am I supposed to go without reading your comments? People have been telling me I seem more confident (my confidence is horrible, btw) or happier and I always think about how fun it was writing Bound X and this and you were all a big part of what made it so fun. So thank you :)