Prologue:

Rebecca Hughes found herself surrounded by inch deep water. Everywhere. She looked around, confused. It was dark, and she couldn't see anything. Though she wasn't sure if that was due to the lack of lighting or the lack of anything to see. It felt empty.

The slender Slytherin girl looked around, bright blue eyes searching desperately for, well, anything. But there was nothing.

"So good of you to join me," came a deep, intimidating voice, spoken in an accent Rebecca did not recognize, from directly behind the young witch. "Hero of Hogwarts."

The voice scared the life out of her, causing the young witch to jump, sending a splash echoing throughout the seeming void as she landed. Rebecca turned around, sending ripples moving through the water, to face this mysterious voice. A robed, hooded figure stood behind her. It was incredibly tall, and a glow of red could be seen within the hood, right where Rebecca would normally expect the left eye.

"Where am I?" Rebecca timidly asked. "And who are you?"

The mysterious figure approached her, though somehow its movements didn't disturb the water at all. "You walk as a goddess among mortals," the figure spoke. It was the same voice as before. Was this some sort of beast? Some kind of supernatural being? Or was this just some common man? "A goddess, and yet you choose to waste your time pretending."

"What?" Rebecca's fear was second only to her shock. Her? A goddess?

"You wield ancient magic. Powerful magic," the figure spoke. Whatever it was, it was at least male. "Magic that could subjugate all those around you to your will, if you only learned to wield it."

Rebecca did not like what he was saying. "I…I don't want to 'subjugate' anyone. I just want to live a normal life, with my friends."

"Then you are as pathetic as they are." The figure stretched out his hand, and a bolt of green energy shot straight at her. Rebecca quickly rolled out of the way, somehow staying dry despite the rippling water around her. Despite the spell being cast silently - and without a wand, which was even more terrifying - Rebecca knew exactly what spell he threw at her. It was one she had seen far more often than anyone ever should. Avada kedavra. The killing curse. Panic filled her. This was going to be a battle for her life.

Rebecca pulled out her wand and started slinging basic casts, hoping to slow the figure down. He just swatted each blast away with his hand, seemingly bored. That was more than alarming. Rebecca tried a few stronger spells, but each spell wound up just getting swatted aside, and Rebecca was starting to run out of breath.

The figure seemed to decide he was done playing defensively and sent another avada kedavra towards her, forcing the girl to roll out of the way again. But this time the girl's assailant gave her no chance to retaliate, and blasted another killing curse at her, forcing her to keep rolling and running.

Her clothes - currently a pair of trousers and a loose white blouse - started to cling to her. She noticed that she was drenched in sweat, and that the splashing water did nothing to wash the sweat off, nor anything to cool her down.

After narrowly dodging another killing curse, Rebecca saw a blast of fiery energy coming her way. Looked like confringo. Rebecca threw up a protego shield, and the impact of the blasting curse pushed her back, but her shield managed to withstand it. She was able to take the magic and reflect it back at the hooded figure, and send out a quick stupefy for good measure. The confingo exploded against the cloaked figure, and she didn't see the stunner get deflected.

Briefly, she felt a surge of triumph and hope. Had she managed to hurt him? But as the explosion cleared she saw the tall, dark, imposing figure stand there, completely unaffected.

Her heart sank. She couldn't keep this up. Her dark, raven hair was falling loose from the clasp that held it back in a ponytail, much of it clinging to her neck and face from the sweat. She needed to stop this thing. She needed something - anything - to survive.

The figure slowly approached her, and Rebecca felt terror grip her heart. She felt herself on the verge of desperation. She needed to stop him, to just do something to slow him down!

She felt something rise up around and within her - ancient magic. It had been a long time since she felt the ancient magic. After witnessing what Isidora had done she had grown afraid of it, afraid that it'd do the same thing to her that it did to Isidora, so she tried her best not to use it, and as she refused to use it its presence gradually slipped. But now it was back, and she had to admit she was glad to have it at her disposal again.

It whispered to her, telling her that she had the power to end this. The power to stop the cloaked figure, the power to kill him. Ordinarily the whispers would scare her - killing wasn't something she wanted to take part in - but right now she was desperate enough that she'd even resort to manslaughter.

As the young Slytherin witch channeled the ancient energy within her, the terrifying figure stopped moving. With the ancient magic fully built up, begging her to release it and wipe this monster off the face of the earth, she unleashed it. It manifested itself in the form of a bolt of energy crashing down from the sky. The light it emitted was blinding, and Rebecca closed her eyes.

She thought she heard a crash, and opened her eyes to see if it had been enough. The cloaked figure still stood there, seemingly unharmed, with an arm stretched out directly above him, holding the bolt of energy Rebecca had called down. She staggered back. "That's…that's not possible," she muttered.

"I'm afraid you have no idea what's possible," the figure said. He brought his hand down, launching the energy directly at Rebecca, who could only throw her arms up before the searing heat consumed her.

Author's Note: This is a sequel to my other Hogwarts Legacy story, A Hufflepuff in Slytherin. Not all of it is necessary to read in order to understand and appreciate this one, but I would recommend reading it over, as there will be references to some of the stories in it. The most important ones are Rebecca Witnesses a Murder, Rebecca Gets Angry, Rebecca Has an Idea, and Rebecca Saves the World. The rest definitely have some helpful information that will be referenced, but aren't as essential.

The very first story, Rebecca's First Date, has a character bio for Rebecca as well as a list of changes I've made to how Hogwarts functions, however they aren't essential, either. The only real significant change worth noting is that Hogwarts students start 5 years later than they do in canon, due to me not liking the idea of a bunch of 13 year old children running around Hogsmeade and drinking Butterbeer (which is slightly alcoholic in canon) without any adult supervision. I'm an old American living in 2024 and that isn't something my American brain likes very much, regardless of how culturally acceptable and safe it probably is. I have since made up a bunch of other (probably American) reasons as to why my age change makes perfect sense to me, but I won't bore you with them. Unless you ask nicely, then I'll gladly bore you with them.

I can't say whether the characters act more mature than they would if they were teenagers. I interact with a lot of people in their early 20s, so I'm largely mimicking their maturity level, but I can't say for sure that their maturity is any higher than a bunch of teenagers would be, nor can I promise that their maturity levels are any indication of how mature other early 20 somethings are.

As a final note, I do welcome feedback, including helpful tips on how to write a bit better, as well as suggestions for any pairings. Rebecca and Sebastian are already spoken for, but any other suggestions I welcome. I have essentially zero romantic abilities and experiences, but I'm not against trying. Though it almost certainly will be fairly innocent, fairly basic stuff.