Welcome to the last chapter of 'The Secret of the Diary'. Early chapters will be edited, so you can keep checking back to look at those!

Wow...almost two years and it's finally over. It's kind of hard to believe...

I don't own Winx Club.


Several months later

"Finally! I was beginning to think that Alfea didn't have a vacation time!"

Lily looked out the window, staring the courtyard, where students were beginning to trickle out, preparing to return home. She wasn't necessarily talking to anyone. Her friends were busy packing, something that she finished several hours ago.

"We may be magical, but we have more in common with humans than you think," Angie sniffed. Her clothes were currently folding themselves and being placed in a suitcase. In fact...it looked like her only suitcase.

"No magic allowed outside of classrooms," Tessa said distractedly, typing rapidly on her computer.

"Aw, c'mon!" Angie complained. "It's break. I've been using magic way before I even came to Alfea. You can't expect me to stop now just 'cause I'm a student here!"

Tessa ignored her and continued typing.

Letting out an irritated huff, Angie redirected her attention back to Lily, who was still staring out the window.

"I wonder what my mom has to show me," Lily mused. "She said it was a big surprise."

"Did she say you'd like it?" Starr asked.

Lily frowned. "She never said anything like that. She kind of avoids answering direct questions. Which is why I didn't know about Alfea or my powers until a couple months ago..."

"I know how you feel," Melody mumbled, sprawled on a mattress.

"Hey, I just made that bed!" Lily protested. Melody ignored her and continued to stay on the mattress. Sighing, Lily looked back out the window. "Are the others done yet?"

"Ruby hasn't finished packing yet," Angie said. "Ruby's helping her. I hope they hurry up! My mom's supposed to be here any moment now!" She craned her neck to look out the window. "I can't wait to show my brother's what I learned at Alfea. Let's see them call me a little girl now...!"

Starr gave her a strange look. "I need to tell Pearl the news," she said quietly. "In all of the craziness, I had forgotten all about her. Someone...someone should tell her the news."

Lily nodded. "Yeah, you're right." Her voice took a sadder tone, and she returned her attention to the window.

A lot had changed in the past few months.

Ever since that fight in the woods, there was still fear that even though the shadow was extinguished, its words still haunted them. Darkness did not exist without light, and light did not exist without darkness. There was still a change it was alive.

Faragonda once again sealed away the diary in the hidden room, using stronger protective charms than what she had used over three hundred years ago. Hopefully, no one would be seeing that room again for a long, long time.

The girls had switched dorms, this one smaller than the original one, but it would do. Anything to keep them from the diary. No matter how unlikely it was that the shadow would come back, their paranoia was enough to keep them training to fight harder.

Gradually, as the months wore on, and everything was quiet, the girls allowed themselves to relax. Maybe it was foolish, but now that it was the end of the semester, it seemed to dawn on them that it wouldn't come back.

The door opened, and Ruby's head popped in. "Hey, we're finished," she said. "Ready to come on down?"

"I still don't see how you couldn't have used magic," Angie grumbled. "We're on break! They can't punish us for using a little magic, right? Besides, it's not like we haven't—"

She stopped. She had to. No one needed a reminder. Nightmares would still haunt them, though they were less frequent now.

"My mom is here," Lily announced.

"Lemme know when my mom gets here," Melody said lazily.

Lily let out a scoff. "I don't even know what your mom looks like. How can you expect me to—hey, who's that?"

"Who's who?" Ruby asked, who had entered the room with Rose.

"My mom. She's talking with someone," Lily said, furrowing her brow. "I didn't know she knew anyone here. I mean...my mom, with someone magical?"

Tessa looked up from her laptop. "She used to go to school here, didn't she? She had to have had some friends, right? It makse sense that a former student would send her daughter here, doesn't it? What's her name?"

"Oh, her name's—"

Starr inturrupted. "Come on, you guys! I just spotted my mom! You'll love her! You just have to meet her, and I know she'll like you guys enough to invite you over during break! Oh, this is going to be so much fun!"

Angie grimaced. "Yay. Let's just go down, huh?"

Lily grabbed her bags and hoisted them up, grunting slightly.

"Need help with that?" Melody asked her.

Lily shook her head. "Nah. I'll do this the old fashioned way instead of with magic."

Melody blinked. "Who said anything about magic?" she asked, grabbing one of Lily's bag and hoisting it on her shoulder. The girl gave a thankful smile and proceeded to march out the door, where the rest of her friends were waiting.

The way down was somewhat something that Lily would store in her memories. The girls were laughing and chatting happily, as though the events from a few months before had never happened. It was something of a beginning of a close friendship, and marking the end of their first adventure.

...

"Mom!" Lily cried, launching herself at the older woman.

Her mother laughed lightly, giving her daughter a tight hug. "How are you, Lily? How was Alfea? Did you like it?"

"I liked it just fine, Mom. It was great. I made some friends, and I'm sure you'll love them. They're great? This is—guys? Guys?"

The other girls were wandering over to the women her mother was talking to, each of them chattering excitedly, but the same thing that Lily kept hearing was the same word: "Mom!"

"Who are these people?" Lily asked.

Melody, who was the closest to her, turned to Lily, a smile on her face. "This is my mother. I didn't know your mom knew her, too! Mom, this is Lily, one of my roommates and new friend. Lily, this is my mom."

"Nice to meet you," Lily said politely. "Mrs...?"

"Call me Musa."

Musa...the name sounded familiar. Where had she heard it?

"Mom!" Melody hissed, her cheeks turning the lightest of pink. "You didn't have to say that?"

"My name?" Musa asked dryly. "Why not? Her mom probably already told her."

"How do you know my mom?" Lily questioned. "If you don't mind me asking, that is, er, Musa." She kicked the ground with her toe. Something seemed familiar...she just couldn't place it.

"Oh, that's easy," said another woman, appearing next to Musa. Angie stood next to her, smiling.

"Mom, this is—"

"Lily, I know," the woman finished. "Roxy told me all about you."

The other girls, who had just appeared, stared at Lily's mother.

"You're Roxy?" Rose exclaimed. "My mom told me all about you and her adventures on Earth! I can't believe I'm really meeting you."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked. "I only heard the story a couple months ago, but a group called..."

Her voice drifted off, and she studied the other women and brought a hand to her locket. These were the same women in her locket! Granted, they were older, but now that she saw it, it was impossible to deny.

"Lily, I want you to meet my old friends," Roxy said gently. "Bloom, Stella, Flora, Musa, Tecna, and Layla."

"The Winx Club," Lily mused. "You mean...?"

The girls looked at each other, completely baffled. Of course; it seemed so obvious...

"You mean you girls didn't know?" the woman named Tecna asked, clearly baffled. "We thought you would've figured it out by now."

Angie let out a snort. Starr giggled.

Soon enough, the seven young girls were laughing loudly, their joyful laughter echoing throughout the grounds of Alfea.


Two years later

"Finally! Graduation! Now I can use magic without fearing punishment!"

Starr rolled her eyes at Angie, who was jumping up and down on her bed, grinning like an idiot. "Calm down. It's not like Griselda won't stop keeping us in line."

"C'mon, we've got our Enchantix powers! Let's see the old bat try!" Angie exclaimed triumphetly.

"YOUNG LADY!"

Startled, Angie fell off the bed at the sound of Griselda's voice. "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!" she yelled in a rush. "I was only kidding! Funny ha ha, see?" She let out an obviously fake laugh. When she looked up to face the angry face of Griselda, she found the grinning face of Melody.

Starr collapsed on the floor in a fit of laughter, soon joined by Melody.

"Oh, come on! That wasn't funny!" Angie complained.

"Yes, it was!" Melody said, before laughing again. "The look on your face was priceless!"

The girl glowered at her two friends, before collapsing on the bed again. "If I were a witch from Cloud Tower, I would so put a hex on you. But since I'm not, and I'm nice, I won't. How do you like me now, huh?"

Melody wiped away a tear of laughter. "C'mon, Angie, relax. I was just having a little bit of fun. It's gonna be hard to do that when you're supposed to help protect the realm from evil and all of that."

Lily poked her head in, frowning slightly. "You guys, the ceremony is going to start in two hours," she said. "You know where we have to be."

The three girls grew somber, all traces of laughter and grumpiness gone. The left the room, glancing back at it as thought wishing they could go back in there.

Lily couldn't really blame them. The thought was still scary, but somehow...comforting. It had been two years.

The other girls were waiting outside.

"Are you ready?" Tessa asked, running a hand through her short hair. She didn't have her laptop with her, and her fingers tapped against her legs rapidly, as though typing something. She seemed nervous.

"Let's go, before anyone finds us," Rose said nervously.

"What's there to hide?" Melody asked casually, crossing her arms. "We're just going to take a walk in the woods. It's nothing too drastic. Just a nice...simple...walk." She put emphasis on each word as the group made their way to the gateway of Alfea.

"Ready, girls?" Ruby asked. She earned nods from the others.

"Enchantix!"

In a flash, the girls were transformed. Gone were the small wings and regular Magic Winx outfits, replaced with larger wings and more powerful magic. They looked older. As they should.

The girls took off into the air, flying over Alfea and over the forest, searching the ground.

"There it is," Ruby announced a few minutes later. She stopped and flew down, shortly followed by the others. They landed in a small clearing. It looked much more cheerful than it did several years ago.

"Ow," Starr complained. "I stepped on a rock. I mean, Enchantix transformation is cool and all, but why couldn't they come with shoes? It hurts to travel anywhere without shoes!"

"Shut up," Angie hissed to her. Starr closed her mouth automatically.

Lily stepped forward, approaching a small blackened spott in the otherwise green grass. She remembered the day so vividly, it was like it had only happened yesterday. It was hard to believe it had been two years since then. Near it was a block of stone, carved with only a few words:

Emmiline Smith. A true friend in the end.

She opened her palm and concentrated. With a swirl of gold, a red rose appeared in her hand, and she grasped it, firmly but gently. The wind seemed to pick up. Behind her, she sensed the other girls doing the same thing.

She pressed the rose near her heart. "Two years, huh? It's been a while since we visited this place. We've been busy with Alfea stuff and all of that. It seems almost impossible to believe that three hundred years of your suffering ended not so long ago. It seems like forever to us; we're moving on from Alfea, into the real world...of the Magix Dimension, anyway."

She paused for a while, staring at the stone. They made a promise to come back here on the last day of Alfea; she was determined to keep it. Her friends insisted that she would be the one to say the words.

"I hope the afterlife is peaceful. I hope you reunited with your family...with all the people you once knew. You belong with them."

The others stepped forward and placed the roses around the black patch. Lily placed hers right in the center of it, the roses of her friends surrounding her rose in the black patch.

The patch where she had finally died.

"You aren't blamed for your shadow's actions. You tried...you really tried. You were just confused. I know you didn't want what happened in the past...but that's just what it is. The past. After two years, I'll say this...rest in peace, Emmiline Smith. You deserve it."

She paused, as though pondering something. Finally, she added softly, "In the words of the Lily you knew, I'll say this for her: I'm sorry."

The girls stood silently, staring solemnly at the small patch of blackness, each murmuring their own thoughts. They didn't have to worry about anyone disturbing this place. No one ever came here, and no one would for a long, long time.

"Let's go," Rose said softly. "The ceremony will start soon."

The girls turned around and pushed off the ground, flapping their wings until they became a speck in the distance, heading for Alfea, school for fairies.

If they had stuck around just a little longer, they would've heard, over the whistling wind, over the sound of their thoughts, the quiet whisper that ran through the entire clearing.

"Thank you."