Happy new year! I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 2022 ;)

Also I had a very close call with COVID for the first time?? lmao what a week

P.S. a note on Cyndee's split personalities — I'm changing them a bit so that it's less confusing. There are now only two versions of "Cyndee": the traumatized one that takes all the damage and the protected one that's more mischievous. They often blend together. The vengeful one that holds most of the memories of Tristan and Morfinus is now called Irene.

Okok now enjoy the chapter!

Drew and her friends sat together in the middle of the Zabini library, the materials spread out all around them. The dark bookcases bursting with novels and vases loomed over them.

Drew was more anxious than the time the Death Eater threatened her, and she read the instructions over and over, moving her finger all over it so no information escaped. The wizarding world was in shambles, she and her sister had to Obliviate and relocate their family just in case, and she couldn't believe that she had this to worry about too.

Blaise had told his mother that they were practicing protection spells, and they had total privacy. She seemed surprised but pleased that Blaise had friends. She didn't stick around, just left some food and retreated.

Blaise was next to Drew now, reading the instructions with her and muttering disapprovingly.

Cyndee's hands shook as she flicked the syringes full of the antidote to the Draught of Mercy, ensuring the last of the air bubbles were out of the solution.

"You're lucky to have me," Isabella de Montmorency clucked, swishing her blonde hair self-importantly. Yeah, she was here too. Since they were on slightly good terms now and Drew did not want Wilby to die, she had asked Isabell to help them out. She was a potions expert after all, with a specialty in all things toxic.

Isabell gestured at the stoppered poison before her. "A swallow of this will take exactly sixty seconds to kill him once it touches his tongue. That doesn't change with amount, body weight, fat distribution, height, or even when he decides to swallow. That's because of its strong wandwork component."

"Okay," Drew said, too anxious to be annoyed at her speaking style. "And um, explain the needle again?"

"First of all, reversing poison isn't nearly as predictable. The body may be far too damaged." Isabell tapped one of the syringes. "This method produces the strongest effect immediately. I distilled it to make it extra potent. After all, you have but seven seconds to save him from death. Drinking antidotes work fast, but it would be cutting it too close."

She grabbed Wilby's arm and traced a line down it. "As I said, the vein here goes straight to his heart. Effects only take a second or two. And remember, these enchanted needles always hit a vein. It's impossible to mess up."

Drew nodded vaguely. She had gone over all the steps a hundred times already, but she wasn't feeling much better. Wilby was the least concerned out of all of them, and he calmly practiced the wand movement in the air.

Isabell saw her apprehension. "It will work. Plus, if his heart stops, it's not the end. With this much antidote in him, CPR would probably bring him back. Wizards never take basic first aid into account."

Drew didn't want to think about that. It reassured her and also didn't. "And you know CPR?"

Isabell interlaced her fingers and studied them closely. "Yes. Yes, of course. But it won't come to that. I also know spells that simulate AED."

"I know it too," Blaise said. "That's two qualified people."

Drew shook her head. "It doesn't always work."

"It won't come to that," Isabell insisted. "Just trust my skill, okay? Wilby's a hardworking learner and his calculations were damn near impeccable. With me here, they are."

"Ready?" Wilby asked suddenly. He smoothed out the map and looked at Drew expectantly.

Isabell gave her the syringe, and Drew sighed. "Ready as I'll ever be."

Blaise gently took the map and laid it in a large serving tray brimming with Wilby's blood. Wilby pressed it down, sinking his pale hand under the scarlet liquid.

"Wilby," Drew said.

He looked up, eyes never greener. "Yeah?"

There were a million things she wanted to say, but they all sounded like a goodbye. She wasn't about to tempt fate by voicing a fatal possibility.

She cleared her throat. "I don't want you to leave me. So just stay alive, Will."

Wilby gave her his first smile in months. "I will, Drew. This map will save lives."

His other hand flipped the cap off the poison and downed it. Blaise and Cyndee both clicked their timers, making sure everyone could see the numbers.

The 60-second countdown to death had begun.

Wilby set the bottle down and readied his wand. Stay calm, Drew thought, we know what we're doing.

50 seconds.

Isabell took notes of his symptoms for her research. A glance at them made Drew notice even more things than she would have otherwise, like Wilby's constricted pupils.

40 seconds.

Wilby's dead serious expression was scaring her. Maybe she should've checked the antidote again... they'd added the bezoar, right? Yes, of course they did. Literally how could they not have?

She couldn't tell if his laboured breathing was out of anxiety or his lungs beginning to fail. 

30 seconds.

His eyes were bloodshot now. She could see the pulse in his neck going haywire. He had the face of someone about to puke, and he coughed a few times but nothing came up. Nothing could.

20 seconds.

Drew inserted the needle into his vein at an angle, being sure to point it towards the heart. Don't press early don't press early. She was holding his arm, so she could feel his heartbeat flipping.

Blaise and Cyndee stood by with backup needles.

10 seconds.

He was so so pale. Colour leaked out of his unfocused eyes.

7 seconds.

Wilby traced a pattern into the blood with his wand, muttering an incantation. Light flashed from his heart down his arm to his hand to the blood. That — that meant it worked.

Drew pumped the needle. The liquid hissed as it entered him, and she sat back to watch his face.

In moments marked by her frantic heartbeat, the colour began returning to his cheeks. He swayed and nearly fell forward but stopped himself. "Lightheaded," he murmured.

Cyndee passed him a glass of water and Blaise stuck a pillow behind him. Wilby lay down, breathing and alive. Drew put a Band-aid over the puncture in Wilby's arm, and Cyndee pushed a platter of biscuits closer to him.

When it became clear that Wilby would be fine, they all sat back in relief.

"I cannot believe we did this," Blaise said, face in his hands.

Drew tried to calm her breathing. "I can't either. We are actually insane."

"Did it work?" Cyndee asked, eyes carefully averted from the blood.

Drew consulted the instructions, even though she didn't need to. They perfectly matched what she'd already imprinted in her mind. "The light show happened and the blood got darker. So yes. Once he does the next part, he can start tracking people."

"Never doing this again," Blaise said. "Got that? We'll protect this map with our life."

"Am I allowed to look?" Isabell asked, already leaning in.

Wilby nodded weakly. "Sure. You've earned it."

When he was able to sit up without going dizzy, he said a longer incantation.

They watched in silence as the blood drained on its own, soaking into the world map until it was brand new. A certain energy emanated from it — ancient and forbidden — that triggered her heart to beat faster. The page rippled with life, fully activated.

"Now to track me and my family..." Wilby wiped a bloody fingerprint on the paper. That too sunk in, but slower. He cleaned off his hand, and they waited.

Finally, four dots and names appeared on the map, clear as day.

Wilby Blue  ⦿  Berkshire, England

Cecilia Blue  ⦿  Manchester, England

Theodore Nott  ⦿  Edinburgh, Scotland

Tereus Nott  ⦿  North Sea

Cyndee gasped, and the rest of them stared wide-eyed at Wilby. His expression was unreadable, just a clenched jaw to betray some annoyance.

"Holy rings of hell," Drew blurted. No way. She thought back to Theodore's thick curly brown hair and weedy frame. Some resemblance was there, for sure. "Did Theodore know this whole time?"

"He didn't," Wilby scowled, sitting back. "I suspected this. But he swore it wasn't true."

"That dot in the North Sea is Azkaban," Cyndee said. "But... how is he there? I thought Nott Senior was exonerated many years ago."

Wilby dug through his bag and produced a copy of The Daily Prophet dated 19 June 1995. Half the issue was dedicated to the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. He pointed to a small section on page 3 — COWORKERS OF TEREUS NOTT LEFT BAFFLED: "HE DIDN'T SEEM LIKE A DEATH EATER, JUST A GOOD SALESMAN"

"They found him out," Wilby said. "Couldn't exactly deny he was a willing Death Eater after he tried to kill Harry Potter."

"What are you going to do?" Blaise asked. He seemed on edge, understandably. Drew had also expected Wilby to definitely be less calm about this.

"Nothing," Wilby said, eyes still intently on the map. "This is the best-case scenario. He's probably wasting away in that prison cell starving and wishing he was dead. I can't do any better than that."

"Is that it?" Cyndee asked, hopeful. "The end?"

"Yeah." The lines in his face seemed to lighten as he spoke, more relaxed than he'd been in months. He gleefully looked at a picture of Azkaban prison in the newspaper.

Blaise took the map, "I'm going to check if attaching another map works. Keep resting, Wilby."

Wilby nodded, folding up the newspaper carefully. It was a happy ending, pretty much. But one little thing wasn't adding up.

"How did you know..." Drew said slowly, "that Theodore wouldn't just lie to you? Why do you believe that he didn't know?"

He didn't look at her. "Huh? I just know. I could tell."

Wow, that was suspicious. His movements were getting stiff too, like he was overthinking his body language. She took the biscuit bowl away as he reached for it. "How? How could you tell?"

Wilby's eyes kept shifting just past hers. "What do you mean? I can read people."

"But you're very sure. Didn't even consider it."

He held his head. "Drew, I'm recovering."

"And I'm just asking a question?"

Cyndee touched her shoulder, "M-maybe we should let him rest first?"

Blaise cut in, "No, I want to hear this too. I know I was a little late to befriend you lot, but the man's hatred for Wilby always made no sense to me."

"It was pretty random," Drew agreed. "Okay, that's a lot of bullying, actually. But there's more to this. Isn't that right?"

Wilby sighed. "Okay. I guess I'll be honest. Did you guys ever wonder how the rumour about my father got started? How a rumour so close to the truth just appeared out of thin air?"

Drew thought about it closely. First year was a long time ago. Eliza was the one who first told her about it, and some other people had known too. "Well... I thought maybe it was a common lie that wizards make up about each other. The fact this one turned out to be true was a coincidence."

His tone got more and more defensive. "I just want to preface this by saying I know it was screwed up. I shouldn't have done it. I do feel bad about it."

They were all nervous now. Isabell had stopped writing in her notebook to listen.

"The truth is, back in first year, I tricked Theodore Nott into doing an Unbreakable Vow with me. If he ever found out who my father was, he had to tell me or he'd die. And, well, he told someone about me pretty quickly."

Damn. That explained it. Honestly, Drew was tired of learning everything about Wilby five years after she should've. He kept saying she should open up more, but he should take his own advice.

Blaise was sputtering. "I always regarded Drew as the wild card, but there you were at 11, nonchalant as you made a death vow. Am I wrong, or did you also throw him off the shifting stairs?"

"He provoked me," Wilby retorted, eyes flashing. "Taunted me about my mum. What did he think would happen?"

Cyndee crossed her arms. "You — you locked him into a deadly contract! Who even cast the spell for you?"

Wilby groaned. "I paid some fourth-year who knew how. Conor. The same guy that now predicts exam questions, but that's not important. I didn't do it again. I realized it was kind of messed up — that the typical wizard considers this overkill."

Blaise stared. "Yeah, no kidding?"

"There was no way he could accidentally die, because I made the terms easy. I was young and dumb. I just found out about magic and nothing seemed too dangerous. And I really wanted to know." He sighed at their expressions, "I know. I know it was wrong. I'll write an apology letter."

Drew snorted. "Okay, you don't need to go that far. He's still almost as bad as Malfoy."

Isabell spoke up, "I think every wizard's wanted to do an Unbreakable Vow with someone. Tons of kids try, not realizing how dangerous it is. It's not a huge deal, in my opinion. As long as the terms really were 'easy', as he says."

"I guess," Drew said, miffed. "Wilby, I'm more concerned with how you just... casually kept this from us. What's next? You hired Jack and Morfinus to rough up Malfoy? Told the Weasley twins to chuck Montague in that cabinet?"

"I did not do any of that," Wilby said tersely. "This is the last of the revelations, I promise. When he's not in sight, I forget I even did the Vow. It's not like it helped me at all."

"So you tied someone's life to you and forgot. That makes me feel better."

"I forgot because I want to forget. You think I like seeing myself as a bad person? Seeing my disgusting father in me?"

"No! And you don't need to snap at me."

"You used to snap at me all the time."

She got quiet.

"You know, I figured that as long as I was making you a better person, I was a good one. That was my whole thing — being nice. And now you all keep staring at me as if I skinned my dog."

Drew still didn't know what to say, so Cyndee leaned forward. "Well, you are a good person. Even now. Look at what you were willing to risk to make this map so no one else got hurt."

He wiped his face. "You mean that?"

"Yes, truly. You're always the nicest to me." She patted his head, smiling. "I've felt so much better in these years with you."

"I'm a good person," Wilby nodded. "How can I not be?"

Drew wanted to die inside. Wilby had changed so fast.

"What's done is done," Blaise said, interrupting. He waved the map. "Every feature of this works perfectly. Let's add our blood and call it a day, okay? Let's drop this."

"Yeah, please," Isabell said, cringing. "This was a lot of drama and emotions that I have no context for. I'm extremely lost."

Drew pierced her fingertip with a needle and watched the blood well up. She knew Wilby would return to normal at some point, as if he really had forgotten everything he'd done.

Wow, that was heavy. The next chapter is a wild one, and it's coming this Friday!

Prepare for the return of a certain prefect — and the loss of another ;)