MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD for Hogwarts Legacy.
You have been warned!
Thank you for taking the time to open this story! Your support means so much, and if is my second story that you are reading—thank you so much for coming back!
Speaking of that, if you haven't read the first fic in this series, I am not exaggerating when I say you will be so very confused. In the Shadow of Darkness will help a lot in putting this story into context.
As with ITSOD, Eleanor is a named MC for anyone who wishes to use mine, BUT I also want to empower you to exchange names, etc, with your own character where appropriate. I wrote it from first person so you won't see the MC's name used as often, which will hopefully let you immerse yourself into the story a bit better.
Here is her lore, if you are so inclined, or would like a reminder:
Her name is Eleanor Jerome, and she's an orphan/foundling, meaning she doesn't know who her parents are. This will never show up in the story itself, but she was found by a woman named Eleanor and her last name was inspired by the patron saint of orphans, St. Jerome. She's in Gryffindor and chose to keep the Ancient Magic secret...for now. Additionally, she was wooed by Sebastian's foray into the Dark Arts, eventually learning all three Unforgivable Curses and then choosing not to turn him in. The story will pick up the night before they are all due to leave the school for the summer.
The Prologue and Epilogue will be from Sebastian's POV, in third person. Starting with Chapter 1, we will move forward with MC's POV in first person. With the story taking place beginning in 1892, you will continue see mannerisms and references common to that era for realism. I will define any that aren't obvious. :-)
I truly hope you like Part 2 of this series! I have worked hard to maintain continuity and correct grammar so you can enjoy the story to its fullest, so I hope that there are no glaring mistakes. As before, I do not have a beta reader, so I'm sure there will be some errors. I hope you enjoy the story!
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Disclaimer: the world, story, and the characters from the game and the game itself all belong to WB. This work is merely based on it with a few of my own additions and some character development of my own. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on my personal work and original characters.
Sebastian sighed as he surveyed the remains of his uncle's cottage in Feldcroft. Lines of stones marked what had once been the exterior and interior walls. Grass and weeds had begun growing in the dirt where the floors had once been, fertilized by the ash left from the fire that had consumed the structure. With no roof, doors, or windows; the building looked like a ruin abandoned long ago. Boards and beams had been placed strategically throughout the structure to ensure a stout wind would not compromise what was left. Even so, several stones had already fallen. He'd enlisted the help of his fellow hamlet residents last spring to start cleaning everything up and restacking and securing the stone walls to prevent them from falling with the plan to address a way forward over the summer, but now that the summer was here, he still had no idea what to do. Since the house had been destroyed by Fiendfyre, repairing what was left with magic wasn't an option, so they'd have to rebuild with a combination of manual labor and conjuration. If we even want to keep it, Sebastian thought.
Anne was occupied for the moment planting flowers and tending their uncle's grave, which had been next to the house. His eyes shifted to her as she worked, his arms crossed over his chest. He still carried an immense amount of guilt over what had happened—what he had done—to Solomon. Influenced by a relic or not, he knew he'd have to live with that blood on his hands for the rest of his life. The man had never wanted to be a father, but he'd taken the responsibility rather than abandoning the only family he'd had left when Stefan and Charlotte Sallow had died so suddenly. At least Sebastian knew that his uncle wasn't a monster, despite their strained relationship as Sebastian had grown to become his father's son.
He briefly wondered what might have happened had his mum and dad lived, and they were only spending the school year with Uncle Solomon. Or what if Nan had survived until they were at least eleven? Would that have allowed them to live in better harmony? Some of his best memories came from when she had lived in this little cottage, not his uncle. Perhaps that was part of the reason he still had nightmares about that night in the catacomb and the weeks spent in the company of Dementors and thoughts of his own past, not that he'd trouble the girls with that knowledge.
Footsteps from behind made him turn. Eleanor stopped beside him, and as he returned his eyes to the remnants of the cottage, she followed his gaze. "Will you keep it?"
"Of course we will," Anne said, standing and wiping dirt from her hands. "It's been in our family for almost twenty years."
Sebastian scoffed, pushing away the tempting feelings of sentimentality. "Hardly a reason to hold onto it."
Anne's eyes narrowed as she walked up to them. "It's all we have left of Nan. Besides, I was thinking it would be a perfect home once Ominis and I marry."
"Doesn't he have the house near Hempstead?" Eleanor asked of the house Anne had stayed in for some weeks after the events in the Feldcroft catacomb until she'd been able to make the Sallow home livable again.
Anne pursed her lips. "Assuming his family will still let him have it."
The Gaunts had been hesitant when Ominis had proposed a bethrothal to Anne earlier that summer. The Sallows were well-respected, but they weren't part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight like the Gaunts, making Anne less desirable than a bride from families such as the Notts or the Blacks. What's more, Anne's introduction had gone less than stellar, with Ominis' mother, Ophelia, being less than welcoming and even hostile toward her. Further complicating the situation was the fact that Ominis' brother, Corvinus, had disappeared a few weeks earlier, and Ominis had been forced to return to his family for… Well, Sebastian wasn't exactly sure what reasoning or threat the Gaunts had utilized to get his best friend to agree, but it had worked. He suspected the real reason had more to do with limiting contact with Anne than anything else.
"Still no word from him?" Eleanor asked, her thoughts clearly running along the same lines as his. He snaked his arm around her waist.
Anne shook her head. Ominis had only sent one owl since leaving for the Gaunt Manor in Little Hangleton two weeks prior, addressed to Sebastian, but with a message to all of them that he would likely be unable to correspond much due to "some family business," whatever that meant. Ominis had never been one to take a large part in any of the Gaunts' affairs, so Sebastian couldn't imagine what sort of business they had him doing.
The look on his sister's face drove Sebastian to do what he did best: change the subject entirely. "Well, regardless of what we're going to do with this place, we should probably make it look less like a..." He trailed off, not really sure how to say the end of that sentence.
"Decrepit old ruin?" Eleanor suggested.
"You said it, not me," he chuckled.
"Right," Anne said, "how can I help?"
Another complication of the summer was the fact that Anne still had very little, if any, magic she could wield. Though they couldn't be sure why, Anne had admitted she'd lost the ability to use it entirely a few weeks prior to being admitted to St. Mungo's. Several Healers had concluded that the curse had done permanent damage to more than her body, and that while she might be able to offset the physical weaknesses with potions, her power might never come back. Though the initial news had sent Sebastian into a spiral of how he could fix it, his determination was no match for the united front presented by both his friends and a sister whose pluckiness he'd almost forgotten.
"We can weed the garden," Eleanor offered with a gentle smile. "I think it needs to be de-gnomed, too."
Anne returned her smile, eyes crinkling a bit at the edges. One thing that seemed to help her more than anything these days was getting to work the earth with her bare hands. She found a solace in it, and Eleanor gladly joined her when she had the chance. Watching the two of them warmed his heart, and the parallels he could draw between his own life and Eleanor's weren't lost on him. She deserved a family just as he had begun to realize he did, and sometimes that didn't mean the conventional kind. He and Anne were bound by blood, of course, but sometimes family didn't mean blood. Sometimes it simply meant love, which they all shared in different ways. He and Ominis were practically brothers. Ominis and Anne shared a bond that made his with Eleanor seem like a passing infatuation at times. Eleanor and Anne displayed a level of trust with one another bordering on sisterhood. It was Eleanor and Ominis' friendship that perplexed him, however. They had grown ever-closer over the past year, developing a connection deeper than friendship but still clearly platonic in nature. Perhaps it was akin to a sibling relationship he'd never had with his own blood.
Sebastian focused on the walls and roof of the little cottage, ensuring that the building could remain standing without help. He opted for a slate roof like the house in St. Albans this time since he worried thatch would invite future disaster. Soon enough, new wooden supports and roof were in place, and he'd even fitted the house with new diamond pane windows and a stout wooden door for the front, thereby making it water tight to the elements.
Anne had taken lead with weeding the gardens, with Eleanor helping both her and Sebastian where she could. As the sun faded in the southwest, they all stood back to survey their work.
"It looks lovely," Anne exclaimed approvingly. "Better than before. I think Uncle Solomon would have loved it, too," she added, squeezing Sebastian's arm.
He winced. Though Solomon hadn't had quite as contentious of a relationship with Anne as he had Sebastian, he knew seeing their fights had stressed her, especially as they'd become less and less able to live with one another after she'd been cursed. "Maybe," he said simply, not wanting to argue.
Sebastian put his arm around her, focusing on the familiar connection he'd always known meant Anne was safe, even when he hadn't known where she was. Her presence in that part of himself felt different now—no longer fading away as the curse destroyed her from the inside, but also nowhere near the strength she'd had before. Her physical body was also weaker than it had been, smaller and more delicate, and she tired more easily these days. At times, he felt an unbearable need to protect her, to make it better somehow, but it wasn't the constant feeling of peril he'd felt before.
"I think it would be a lovely place for you and Ominis," Eleanor's melodic voice cut through his thoughts. "Truly."
Sebastian smiled now, wrapping his free arm around his beloved's waist. She leaned into him, her head resting on his shoulder. The light caught her hair just so, making it shine a bright copper. Offset by her pale, angular features, it made her even more beautiful than she already was. He pressed his lips gently to her forehead, his thoughts straying to Nan's ring in his study's top desk drawer and when he should give it to Eleanor as a symbol of the same promise Ominis had made to Anne.
Anne sighed, a bittersweet tone to her a voice as she replied, "If we are allowed to marry."
He blew out a breath, arm tightening around his sister slightly. "Ominis would rather be disowned than give you up."
Eleanor chuckled. "I'm sure Ominis would prefer it, actually."
"Fair enough." Anne was watching the sky as the sun's fading light burned across it, turning the clouds shades of orange and red.
"It's settled, then," Sebastian said. "We'll keep the cottage. In fact…" he trailed off, a thought occurring to him. "If you'd like, you can move here during the school year so we can visit you more frequently."
She looked up at him, eyes warm. "Like Mum and Dad used to do."
He smiled. "Precisely." That had, in fact, been the reason Nan had purchased the cottage to begin with, and then when the twins were born, she—and briefly, Uncle Solomon—had been able to keep them close enough to their parents that the Sallows had been able to visit almost nightly from Hogwarts.
His twin swung around in front of him, pulling him, and by extension Eleanor, into a hug. "I'd love that so very much. Thank you both!"
Warmth filled his heart. A year ago, he'd never have guessed they'd be here like this. He wasn't in Azkaban. Anne and Eleanor had somehow found it in their hearts to forgive him for all he'd done. He was madly in love with a most beautiful and powerful witch whose love he didn't deserve, but somehow she had given him her heart with no reservation. Though Anne would not be able to return to Hogwarts, she was healthy and alive, and really, that was all that mattered. He and Eleanor were about to start their final year at Hogwarts, and as stressful as N.E.W.T. preparation would be, he knew they would conquer it together. After that, he didn't know what would happen, but he hoped at least part of it would involve Eleanor agreeing to spend the rest of her life with him.
They Apparated back to their home in Hertfordshire before the last rays of light faded, excitement for the coming months taking root in Sebastian's mind.