WENDY PACKED HER BAGS AND with a heavy sigh she grabbed her wand and headed out. Everyone was outside saying their final goodbyes to their new friends. It was time for the Beauxbatons Academy and the Durmstrang Institute to leave and head to their respective homes.
It was quite an eventful year and Wendy knew that was just the start of it all. She said her farewell to Fleur and Gabrielle, and promised them to write them letters. She never got too close with Viktor Krum but she still wished Krum good luck with his future, before he left to say goodbye to Hermione.
She looked up in the sky, where the Beauxbatons flew across in their majestic carriage, thankful for so much more than just having met new friends, but to have kept the ones she had.
"Is there ever going to be a quiet year here at Hogwarts?" Ron asked in a chuckle.
Wendy looked over at the boy and let a laugh out too. Harry and Hermione stood beside Ron and laughed with her. She didn't feel guilty anymore about disturbing the balance of the Golden Trio. She had changed so much already about the story, such a little detail didn't bother her anymore and apart from that, the three wouldn't just let her leave their group so easily after all the things they've been through.
"Nothing is going to be the same anymore, isn't it?" Hermione asked in a sigh.
Ron, Harry, and Wendy looked at each other in defeat and sighed with her. Harry, with a new found courage, stepped towards the girl and gave her a reassuring smile.
"No," he said honestly.
And he was right. Nothing was ever going to be the same. Hermione studied the boy, she searched for a sign he was lying, but she knew better. With a bitter smile she sighed once more and changed topic.
"Promise me you'll write," she looked at her friends, "all of you."
The two boys laughed soundly, "absolutely!" Ron said sarcastically.
Hermione looked at Harry, "every week!"
Shaking her head she looked at her last hope, Wendy, "Noir will be visiting you all the time!"
Hermione couldn't do anything but sigh in defeat.
"Wendy will have to write you!" Fred appeared out of nowhere.
"Because she won't have anyone else to write to," George continued.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.
"She'll be staying at the Burrow this Summer," Fred said with a grin, "so she only has you, Harry, and Cedric to write to."
"Excus—" Wendy began but was cut short by Ron.
"Is that true?!" He asked her, as if she had any idea either.
"I never ag—" she started explaining.
"But I did," Michael jumped in, "Mrs. Weasley insisted, after finding out we had no home to go to."
"And we're not letting you stay at the Manor another Summer!" Fred and George said firmly.
"Great!" Ginny butted in out of nowhere, "finally a girl I can spend time with!"
"But—" Wendy tried once more.
"No buts!" Fred declared.
Wendy sighed in defeat as Harry put an arm on her shoulders and snickered, "it won't be so bad," he promised her.
Her mind quickly went over the events of the coming year. Her eyes saddened at the pain this boy was about to endure, and she knew that her new mission was to not let that happen. She looked at the twins, their last year in Hogwarts, and her eyes drifted to her own brother. With one look, he already knew the schemes and plans the girl was just begging to plan.
Her eyes met with Cedric's, who was patiently waiting at the back. Wendy wasn't sure she could see him in the Hospital Wing and decided to wait for him to feel better enough to get out. She was scared she wouldn't have the chance to see him before the end but there he was.
"Hey," he awkwardly said.
"Hey," she answered quietly.
Cedric was leaning on a column, mostly because he was still injured and tired from the third task, but at least he was alive and breathing. He looked haggarded, his hair never been so messy and his arm hanging in cloth tied around his neck.
She usually was able to understand what he was thinking, but at that moment, he was unreadable. Like a wall sprung high around him.
"Have you known about this all along?" Cedric broke the silence.
Wendy was caught of guard, but answered with a nod. The change of emotions from her group of friends to the conversation she was having with Cedric was heavy, but she knew she had to talk to him before she they would part.
Wendy could swear there was a little flash of betrayal in Cedric's eyes before he turned his face to the floor.
"You never thought of stopping it?" He asked.
She frowned, not knowing where all this was coming from. Her breath beginning to get deeper and irregular, and when his eyes shot back at her, her breath stopped.
"Have you been plotting with Lucius Malfoy?"
"What?" She finally managed to ask.
"I saw him that night," he said, "he was there... Last summer you were at their house... And—and you knew about it..."
Wendy tried her best to follow him but her thoughts were already flying to explanations. However, the only thing she could say was, "—it's not that simple."
"Then explain it to me," he begged her. She could hear it in his voice, how much he wanted to be wrong. "Prove me wrong —why didn't you stop it?"
"Some things cannot be changed, Cedric," she brought a hand to her chest, "believe me, if I could, I would— there are so many things I want to do right now, but can't! The last time I did..."
Cedric waited for her to continue, then it came to him, "the Yule Ball?"
She only nodded.
He was scared to know, but he had to ask, "What happened then?"
"There are some things that will happen, and I thou—I thought I could have done it myself," she explained herself, "Saving everyone some time."
"But?"
She looked up at him and Cedric was surprised to see tears building up on her eyes.
"Something went wrong and I died, Cedric."
"You—what?!"
She smiled bitterly and breathed in, "nearly— someone spared me the atrocity."
"Who?"
Wendy sat on the bench near them, not being able to keep standing up longer. Cedric followed her and sat beside her, giving her support by placing one hand on hers.
"When I fainted that night," she started, "I actually—sort of—fell into a deep sleep in which I might or might have not woken up from. It was horrible—I was in pain the whole time until Rowena came—"
"Who?" He sounded just like Noir.
"Rowena Ravenclaw."
"You're joking, right?" He asked.
But the serious expression she had was enough to stop his doubts. It was not like it was unbelievable; Wendy came from the future anyways. Weirder things were happening these past few years. A long dead witch that helped in the making of the castle they were studying at, came to save a random witch was a normal Tuesday night for them.
"She helped me calm down the voices in my head," she continued, "I thought I was going crazy... but she helped me and told me how to keep them quiet."
"But you're okay now?" He clarified.
"Rowena told me that if I forced myself to wake up without having control over the voices, my head would have exploded and shut itself down. The power that I was handling should have never been held by anyone, that's why it was hidden in the first place. But unfortunately, it happened, and I must face the consequences. I must admit—it was a lot harder when I first woke up, but it got better with time. I hardly hear them anymore." She said with a proud smile.
"What do you mean by that?" Cedric asked, "you speak of it like it's not a big deal! Voices—Merlin's beard, Wendy—voices! Aren't you worried in the slightest?!"
Wendy thought about it for a moment before answering in whole honesty, "I used to. I spent whole nights worried that I might get crazy overtime, but something told me that I would be just fine."
"Was it the voices who told you that?" Cedric asked scoffing.
But Wendy just smiled in understanding, "probably— but, Cedric, there really is nothing to be worried about. The bad effects that could have an effect on me are gone now," she said bringing a hand to his cheek, "it's going to be alright."
Horcruxes were still a mystery for most people. But knowing what was known, Wendy was positive that after the object was cleansed, the people affected by its powers should go back to normal. Although, leaving a mark on the affected people's life and, possibly, mind and soul, was inevitable, the bigger part of the magic should be gone.
Wendy knew, with certainty, that Dumbledore sent Snape to destroy that Horcrux, and with that, the power it had over Wendy's mind. It all happened just before New Years, allowing the girl to have a smoother transition back to the land of the livings. Probably the reason why she woke up in the first place.
Nonetheless, she couldn't ignore the faint sounds she could hear from time to time, which, mostly, she brushed off as the ghosts of the castle talking around her. But there were times where it was clear as day, and she recognized them as one of the voices she heard from the clattering of the haunted Diadem.
They weren't scary and at most times they also helped her, but she knew that her life was never going to be normal again. Haunted by the consequences of the actions she took on her own, she had to live with a mark on her life that followed her, like Harry's mark on the forehead followed him.