In seventh year, Vecna takes me once more—and this time, I don’t come back until a full year has passed. When I finally return to Hogwarts, I am alive but altered: silent, withdrawn, unable to eat or play Dungeons & Dragons, the game that once defined me. Though I walk the castle halls again, a part of me is still trapped where Vecna held me—marked in ways no one can see, waiting for the next chime of a clock no one else can hear.