The cobblestone path leading toward the castle was flooded with students. Trunks floating behind them. Owls hooting from cages. The usual chaos of return.

Then someone stopped walking.

A girl with dark hair. Grey eyes that didn't catch the torchlight the way they used to. Standing perfectly still as the crowd parted around her like water around stone.

Y/N Black didn't flinch. Didn't turn. Didn't acknowledge a single voice.

She simply picked up her suitcase and began walking toward the castle. Past first-years clutching their robes. Past older students who'd heard the rumors. Past everyone.

At the top of the stone steps, a group stood frozen.

Theodore Nott had been reading. The book hung open in his hands, forgotten.

Pansy Parkinson looked like she'd forgotten how to breathe.

Draco Malfoy's jaw tightened. He opened his mouth. Closed it. Said nothing.

Regulus Black stood at the very edge of the group. His twin sister was ten feet away. It might as well have been a thousand.

Grey eyes—his grey eyes, their mother's grey eyes—lifted to meet his.

There was nothing there.

No warmth. No recognition. No anger. Just emptiness. A void where his sister used to live.

She looked away first.

And then a voice cut through the suffocating silence. Low. Dry. Unbothered by the weight of the moment.

The entire group held their breath.

Mattheo's dark eyes studied her like he was searching for something. A crack. A flicker. A sign that the girl he remembered still existed beneath whatever shell she'd built.

He found nothing.

Y/N's expression didn't change. She looked at him like he was a stranger. Like he was air.

Then she turned, picked up her suitcase, and walked past every single one of them.

The silence she left behind was heavier than any scream.