Chapter 7

I was sprawled across the worn-out sofa in the common room, the glow of my phone casting a soft light on my face. The chatter around me was a familiar symphony, punctuated by the occasional burst of laughter or the clink of mugs on the coffee table. It was one of those rare evenings where the weight of impending exams hadn't yet suffocated the air with tension. My fingers scrolled mindlessly through my feed, a stream of memes and magic theory debates, when a pair of names sliced through the noise,…