Y/n Black sat alone on the frost-flecked rock, knees tucked to their chest, the cold seeping through their robes. One week. That's what the whispers said. One week before everything would change. Or maybe it had already changed. No one at Hogwarts knew how to smile these days — not like before. Not like they used to.

A dark shape stirred on the water — something finned, shadow-soft, slipping beneath the surface and gone. The wind carried the smell of pine and ice and something else. Something heavy.