Part 1:

The End Before the End

Chapter 1: He Tried to Kill Me

Finn and Credence

A detention. That was all that it was. But a detention with Credence Barebone might as well have been a death sentence in more ways than one.

"With him?" Finn asked Professor Hodges incredulously. Credence had appeared in the teacher's office at the same time that Finn had for his daily hour of shame. He had stubbornly remained silent and withdrawn, as usual. Finn's detention had only been going on for three days, since school had resumed after the Christmas break. He had resigned himself to the fact that this was going to be his life until the end of the year. A blow he had not seen coming was that just because Credence had year-long detention as well, the higher-ups had decided to put them together. That just seemed extra low.

Professor Hodges smiled in the least smiling-sort-of-way possible. "Jailbirds, say hello to your new cell-mates."

"This isn't fair! It breaks some sort of rule or something! Ask Professor Blygull."

"I am trying to think of the last time a student thought detention was fair. You might be surprised, Finn. You were the one who revealed the Obscurus at the party, and Credence attacked you with said Obscurus. I would say that makes you even in the eyes of brute justice. Both of you broke school law, and so Professor Blygull thought it would be good for the two of you to commiserate together."

Finn pursed his lips and glanced at the other boy. Just yesterday, in a moment of panic, he had gone and mentioned to Credence that he hadn't actually been the one to cast that Revelio Charm, but was taking the punishment for it anyway. Lucky for him, Credence had kept his mouth shut, but he did flick his eyes in Finn's direction. Finn moved on quickly, "It's not the detention. It's being stuck with him. He tried to kill me, you know."

Credence piped up for the first time, "I didn't try to kill you!"

Hodges gestured with a hand toward the Obscurial, "He didn't try to kill you."

"Well, of course he's not going to admit it." Finn almost couldn't believe his ears. Was Professor Hodges completely wrapped around this kid's thumb? "But I was there. It was attacking me." He looked to see if Credence would contradict this, but Bowtruckle-Boy had already retreated back into his tree trunk. Well, he wasn't denying it.

Professor Hodges got up from his seat, knees crackling. How old was this man? Sixty? Seventy? It was hard to tell with pure-bloods. He came around the desk and put a hand on Finn's shoulder, something the boy liked about as much as Professor Ro's pop quizzes. "Finn," he said, making it impossible to avoid eye-contact, "If Credence here had been trying to kill you, I guarantee you, you would be dead."

He released the uncomfortably tight grasp and ambled toward the exit, not looking over his shoulder, "Come with me, you two."

Finn dared to look over at Credence before following. The Obscurial stared back at him for a second with those creepy-deep eyes, then quickly looked down at his hand-me-down Oxfords and hurried after the professor. Finn shook his head. The both of them – hopeless.

A/N: Hello those who have made it this far in the series! ICWTI is back with the final instalment, I promise. If you would like to read the two other instalments you can easily find them by visiting my profile page or searching If Credence Went to Ilvermorny. They all begin with that title and all have the same cover picture. As you can see, I have done something different at the beginning of this chapter with putting the names of two key characters in italics. Since there are many storylines going on at once, sometimes with large time jumps between chapters in this book, I put that there at the beginning in order to help you keep your barings. As always, please review!