March finally grazed the school with some decent weather. As snow fully disappeared and warm weather made everyone sit outside instead of huddling by the fires.
The school of Ilvermorny was located on a hill. If you walked down one of the paths, through the dense forest that surrounded the school, you would find a small lake. Often called Morny lake by the students. A hotspot for days like these.
Milles and Theo were in a chess game that they had brought outside.
June and Fila sat besides them trying not to judge their chess game too much.
"You two suck at chess." Fila finally said, she couldn't stop herself from judging them. seeing Theo lose one of his knights made her lose it.
Theo froze with his fingers still hovering over the board.
Milles slowly leaned back in his chair and looked at Fila with narrowed eyes.
"That was a very rude thing to say to two people enjoying a peaceful afternoon."
Fila didn't even look apologetic. She leaned forward slightly, elbows resting on her knees as she stared at the board like it personally offended her.
"You just sacrificed your knight for nothing."
Theo finally moved the piece anyway and sat back.
"It was a strategic loss."
She rolled her eyes. "A strategic fuck up"
Theo gasped. "Ophelia Grindelwald, those word are not appropriate." He tried mimicking a stern grandma giving a warning to her grandkids. "cant go around saying fuck up like that"
Fila stared at him for a second after he said it.
Then she blinked once, very slowly.
"You just said the word too."
Theo pointed dramatically at her.
"That's not the point."
Milles leaned back in his chair and watched the two of them like this was far more entertaining than the chess game.
"The point," Theo continued in his fake elderly voice, "is that young ladies from respectable wizarding families should maintain proper language."
Fila raised one eyebrow.
"Respectable."
"Yes."
"Your last duel involved you falling over your own foot."
"That was tactical."
June lowered her book and looked at Theo.
"You also tried to punch a training dummy last week."
Theo turned toward her.
"It insulted me."
"It's made of wood."
"That's not the point."
Milles moved one of his pieces forward calmly.
"Check."
Theo immediately leaned over the board again.
"What."
Fila sighed loudly.
"You are both hopeless."
Theo looked up again.
"You're not even playing."
"I don't need to be playing to see disaster happening."
June rolled onto her side in the grass, propping her head up on one hand.
"She's right though."
Theo pointed at her now.
"You are supposed to support me."
Fila looked out over the lake, nothing could beat this. relaxing with friends. Bartering about nothing, and just feeling the warm sun warm up the skin. school and other worrisome things just faded at these moments.
The water reflected the bright sky, small ripples spreading where someone farther down the shore was trying to skip stones. A group of younger students had taken off their shoes and were standing ankle deep in the water, laughing every time one of them slipped on the smooth rocks beneath.
The forest surrounding the lake moved gently in the breeze. Early spring leaves rustled quietly, sunlight filtering through branches that had only recently come back to life after the long winter.
Theo sighed loudly and pushed his chair back with a little theatrical groan. "I resign," he announced, though his face said he was not actually giving up. Milles pretended to be magnanimous and swept his hand across the board like a coach accepting a victory he had not entirely earned. June laughed, the sound bright and careless, and Fila found herself smiling without trying. It was small, ridiculous, ordinary. It was everything she needed that day.
They ended up sharing the picnic blanket someone had brought, passing around crusty bread and cheese and the last of Stella's honeyed tarts. Conversation drifted from the ridiculous to the gentle. Milles launched into an exaggerated account of a potions experiment gone wrong that involved a rather stubborn cauldron and an alarmingly fragrant cloud. June teased him mercilessly. Theo told a story about a broom that wouldn't obey, complete with flailing arms and a moral about overconfidence. Fila listened more than she spoke, answering when asked and teasing back in the small, sharp way she always did. It felt good to be known in the way friends know you, to be met with the particular brand of patience that came from years of shared mischief.
Since talking with Theo under the canopy of vines and leaves she had felt, different. Like something was lifted from her and she now felt more like herself. The feeling of knowing she had someone to talk to gave the safe feeling she had been searching for. Sure she had a long way to walk until she would even feel remotely like her full self again, but every walk begins with a simple step.
Fila looked around, "Where is Calla and Elliot?" they had said they would join later.
"now that you mention it, they said they would come after finishing homework." June added.
After some speculations they retreated back to the school.
The path from the lake wound gently upward toward the school.
Gravel crunched under their shoes as they walked, the late afternoon sun warming their backs. The forest around them smelled faintly of damp earth and new leaves. Somewhere deeper among the trees a bird called out, the sound echoing softly through the branches.
Theo walked beside Fila and Milles walk with June a bit ahead.
"Have you heard anything about the meeting you requested with magical congress or whatever they are called." he asked after a bit of walking.
She shook her heads. "No, I haven't heard anything. But headmaster said it could be during summer."
The two of them walked in silence after that. Not awkward but calm.
They walked in silence after that. Not awkward but calm.
The path curved slightly as the trees began thinning. Through the branches the castle appeared again, stone towers rising above the forest line. In the late afternoon sun the windows glowed faintly gold.
Ahead of them June and Milles were arguing about something that sounded suspiciously like whether a hippogriff could beat a dragon in a fight.
Theo eventually broke the quiet.
"You're not worried about it?"
Fila glanced at him.
"The meeting."
He shrugged lightly. "Magical congress sounds like a lot of important people asking annoying questions."
"They will," she said simply.
Theo kicked a small stone off the path. It rolled down the slope beside them and disappeared into the underbrush.
"And you're fine with that."
"I asked for it." she shrugged. "I need some answers."
Returning to the tower showed why neither Calla nor Elliot had come to the lake. They were both asleep on the couches in the common room.
June and Fila stood and looked at them.
"They are even snoring in rhythm." June said while looking blankly at the two of them.
Fila walked over and put a blanket over Calla, she was about to with Elliot as well, but no. he could do it himself she thought.
The room now basked in the afternoon sun felt warm. The tall windows had the perfect view of the sunset. And the most popular place to read. She sat down in the window seat, the book in her lap opened and words appeared.
'Not really sure why you even read me anymore, you find out more about your magic on your own anyway.' The book wrote. It had helped her a lot in the beginning, but since she found out how her magic worked it had gone without much teaching and more correcting.
"Because you seem so lonely." Fila answered back.
'I see your attitude has made a return after your coma… yay'
Fila scoffed at the book, as if it would be one to talk about attitude. "Maybe in the soon or far future I will need you to teach me stuff."
The book closed with a thud.
The with the power of literal magic it floated back to the nightstand beside her bed.
Fila leaned back slightly in the window seat and looked out through the tall glass panes instead. The sun had lowered enough now that the sky was beginning to change colors. Orange bled slowly into pink near the horizon while the deeper blue of evening crept down from above. The forest surrounding Ilvermorny looked softer in that light, almost peaceful in a way that made the castle feel far away from the rest of the world.
Since returning for her five months sleep she had decided to not be idle. Training with her ancient magic just like she had in her first year, everyday. Not only did this make her very good at it but it also deepened her understanding and understanding it also made her stronger with it.
She waved her hand and a orchid bloomed from the wall. And soon the whole window seat was full of the white orchids.
"Ooo, its been a while since you had orchids." June smelled one of them hard. "They smell so gooooddd" her favorite flower.
Fila smiled at the happy June.
The finals were closing in on the students. And pressure had already begun to increase as more and more students began filling the library and famous studying corners. Most notably the seventh years who had their finals. OWL's and NEWT's.
Nothing that fila and the others had to even worry about, but she did feel bad for her seniors.
The door swung open to the dorm and calla wabbled in, and proceeded to fall onto her bed. "Elliot is really dumb, he wont make it" she said muffled by her pillow.
"We know." Fila and June said in unison.
The days that followed were a blur of golden light and the scratch of quills against parchment. While the seventh years were practically vibrating with stress, muttering incantations in their sleep and accidentally singeing the edges of their practice papers, Fila found a different kind of rhythm.
She spent her early mornings in the clearing by the lake before the other students woke. The air would be crisp, the surface of Morny Lake as flat and dark as a sheet of obsidian.
The tree guardian walked around, swinging his giant hands that were the size of thick tree trunks. A big boulder hovered above the waterline. Fila was focused on holding it just above the water to learn to control her ancient magic more. During the summer when she first used the magic, it felt weak and unbalanced. Now with her almost evolving during her coma, it felt really good. As if she herself picked up the boulder and just held if effortlessly.
Fila's fingers twitched in the air, mimicking the weight of the stone. It wasn't just about strength anymore; it was about the thread, that thin, blue pull of ancient magic that connected her soul to the world around her. She could feel the rough texture of the granite, the cold moss clinging to its underside, and the way the air displaced around it.
With a sharp flick of her wrist, she sent the boulder spinning. It whirled like a top, mere inches above the lake's surface, creating a localized gale that whipped the water into a frothy circle.
"Steady," she whispered to herself.
The tree guardian stopped its wandering, its wooden joints creaking like an old ship. It tilted its massive head, watching the small girl control the mountain-flesh with nothing but a thought. It let out a low, resonant hum, a sound that felt like a vibration in Fila's very marrow.
The silence of the dawn was broken by the sound of snapping twigs. Fila didn't drop the boulder, but she did shift her stance, her eyes narrowing as she looked toward the forest path.
A figure emerged, draped in the deep blue and cranberry robes of a professor. It was Professor Fontaine. "That is a significant amount of weight to be tossing around before breakfast, Miss Grindelwald," he said, his voice carrying clearly across the grass.
She never let go of the boulder, she was still looking at the Headmaster. She turned and the boulder followed where her hand pointed. It hovered closer and closer to the bank of the lake. And soon with a thud she let it sink back into the spot where she had lifted it from.
"I see the book has taught you a great deal." He said as he looked out over the silent lake. "There is a great deal of things you probably want to know right now. About the students Amanda or Emma, and why the tried to do what they did to you." Fontaine got silent after that, he seemed to weigh the things he was about to say. "Sadly, I cant give you the answer you seek. And sadly the congress of magic, and ministry of magic has denied you request to a hearing."
The world seemed to go very still. The rustle of the spring leaves, the resonant hum of the tree guardian, even the gentle lapping of the water against the shore,it all faded into a dull, distant buzz in Fila's ears.
She didn't move. She didn't even blink. Her hand, which had just effortlessly manipulated tons of rock, now felt strangely heavy at her side.
"Denied?"
The word was small, but it cut through the morning air like a blade. Fila finally turned her gaze from the boulder to Professor Fontaine. Her eyes, usually sharp with wit or gleaming with the blue tint of her magic, were now dark and unreadable.
"I spent five months in a coma." Her voice loud, and filled with rage. "A student who walked the school freely in front of aurors of the MACUSA. A DEATH EATER." She stopped herself from saying more. Feeling her calm disappear more and more replaced with a hatred she hadn't felt before.
Fontaine sighed, a weary sound that made him look every bit his age. He stepped closer, but stayed outside the immediate circle of the tree guardian's reach. "It isn't that they aren't interested, Ophelia. It's that they are too interested. By denying a formal hearing, they keep you out of the public record. They want to handle this 'internally.' Which, in politician-speak, means they want to wait until they have a cage they think is strong enough to hold the answers they find."
Fila's hands curled into tight fisted balls. The mention of a cage didn't just insult her; it made the blue light behind her eyes flare with a dangerous, jagged intensity.
"A cage," she repeated, the words tasting like copper. "They want to 'handle it internally' because they're terrified that if I speak in a public hearing, I'll tell the world that their precious Aurors let a Death Eater walk right through the front gates of the most secure school in North America."
Professor Fontaine didn't flinch, but he did glance up at the tree guardian. The massive wooden creature had stopped its humming; it was now leaning forward, its branch-like fingers digging deep furrows into the earth as it mirrored Fila's rising tension.
"So I'm just supposed to sit here? In my 'respectable' tower, pretending I didn't lose five months of my life to a girl who wanted to harvest my soul like a garden crop?"
The air around her began to crackle. A nearby sapling suddenly groaned as its trunk twisted unnaturally, Black roses erupting from its bark in a violent, beautiful burst. The guardian who had stood still now began shifting slightly. The eyes that had been a deep blue before had slightly turned into a reddish color.
"Emma has been moved," Fontaine continued, ignoring the magical discharge. "she was taken from the MACUSA holding cells to a secure facility under the cover of night. Not even the school has been told where."
Fila let out a sharp, cold laugh. "They're protecting her. Not from the law, but from me."
"They are protecting the status quo, Fila," Fontaine corrected gently. "And right now, you are the biggest threat to that status quo. If you go after them, you prove the Congress right. You become the monster they already think is lurking behind your eyes."
He began to walk back toward the path, stopping only to look over his shoulder.
"The finals are coming. Focus on being a student, Ophelia. Let the old men in suits argue over their papers. For now, the safest place for you is exactly where you are."
"Safe here? where she gave me a hug and cursed me?!" she called out as the headmaster continued to walk. Her rage filled her body, turning it hot and explosive.
She looked back at the boulder again and picked it up. It flew up hastily.
The boulder didn't just hover this time, it shrieked through the air, propelled by a raw, jagged force. With a violent motion of her arm, Fila sent the massive stone hurtling toward the forest. It tore through the calm forest, toplining tall trees and plowing a path though the dense forest.
The sound was sickening, the screech of splintering wood and the heavy, rhythmic thud-thud-thud of the boulder obliterating everything in its path. It didn't stop until it was deep in the thicket, leaving a jagged scar of broken trunks and uprooted earth in its wake.
Fila stood on the bank, her chest heaving, her palm still facing the forest as if she were pushing back the entire world. The blue glow in her eyes hadn't faded, it had sharpened into something icy and electric.
"Feel better?"
Fontaine hadn't left. He was standing near the trailhead, his expression unreadable, though his eyes drifted toward the path of destruction. He didn't look angry, he looked vindicated, as if she had just confirmed his darkest theory.
"No," Fila snapped, her voice cracking with the strain of the magic. "I feel like I'm being told to be a victim while the people who broke me get to vanish into the shadows."
"The forest will heal," Fontaine said quietly, stepping onto the grass. "But that path you just carved? That's what they're waiting for. They want you to be the girl who tears down trees when she's angry. They want to point at that trail and tell the world, 'Look at the Grindelwald girl. Look at what she does when she's displeased.'"
Fila turned her head slowly to look at him. A single black rose petal drifted from the twisted sapling nearby, landing in the mud. "Then let them look. At least they'll know I'm awake."