Invisible String | TVD x WIZARDING WORLD

MY NAME IS TOM AND I'M REALLY GLAD TO MEET YOU

We were in the Salvatore living room.
All of us.
But the only voices were mine—pleading—and theirs—firm.
Everyone else? Silent.
Mouths shut. Eyes heavy.

I took a breath.

"I know I have you both—hell, all of you—if I ever need it. But I'll look out for myself. I swear I will."

Dad let out a slow exhale through his nose.
It wasn't frustration.
It was fear.

That kind of fear that doesn't shake or shout. The kind that sits heavy on the chest and clenches in silence.

Damon Salvatore wasn't the kind of man who begged.
But right then, in that moment, his eyes looked like they were trying to say everything his pride wouldn't let him.

"Diana," he said softly, and it made me flinch.

He only ever called me that when something was wrong.
When he was trying to remind me that I was his.
His little girl. His blood, his heart, his reason for every terrible thing he's ever done.

But I didn't back down.
Couldn't.

"I have to go," I said. "I can't just sit here while everything explodes over there. People are getting hurt. Muggle-borns are being targeted, Dad. I can't—"

"No one said you have to be a martyr," he snapped, the edge finally cracking into his voice. "You don't owe anyone that."

"I made a promise."

"To me," he said, louder this time. "You promised me, Diana."

Care didn't say anything. Not yet. She just stared at me, arms crossed, jaw tight. Her eyes flicked to Damon's, then back to me.

"Do you think I want to let you go?" he asked, softer now. "Do you think I sleep, knowing what's out there? You think I trust that school? After what I've seen?"

"No," I whispered. "I know you don't. But I need you to trust me."

The room went quiet again. You could practically hear the seconds tick past.

And then—

"I'm going with her."

I turned so fast I nearly gave myself whiplash.

"What?" Damon and I said in unison, and it would've been funny if the air wasn't this thick with doom.

Care's chin lifted, eyes locked on Damon like a dare. "I'll say I'm magical security. Or an Ilvermorny transfer. Or a visiting professor, I don't care. You and I both know we can make it happen. I'll walk her to class if I have to. I'm not letting her go alone."

"She's not a baby anymore," Regulus offered from the shadows, sipping tea like he'd stepped out of a Jane Austen novel. "Technically."

Damon turned slowly to him. "You wanna die again, Reg?"

Regulus raised a hand. "Just saying."

Caroline was serious, though. She wasn't posturing or being dramatic. She was in that terrifying Caroline Forbes mode—the one where she started making lists and plans and magic contracts that people couldn't escape even if they tried.

"No," Damon growled. "I'm trying to keep her out of it, and you're dragging yourself into—"

"We already have, Damon," she shot back. "We went once before, remember? When we compelled Dumbledore himself. When we erased memories and set magical boundaries that even he couldn't cross. That school owes us more than it knows."