“Anastasia? Get out of here! Run!” I see Ace squirming around in the distance, trying to free himself to get to me. “Expelliarmus!” I gasp as my wand flies out of my hand and lands into a woman's hand. She looks beautiful. Too beautiful. Her long black dress flows around her as she walks towards me, with her blonde hair flowing at the same rate as her dress. “Well hello there. Have you met my son Ace, or do I have to do all the wasted introductions?” I nod my head at her question, not speaking. “I'm Cordelia, Cordelia Everheart.” With a mirror in hand, she looks at herself and sees a single wrinkle on her face. “Jamie, my potion.” Her second in command gives her a small box. She takes it and applies the cosmetic concoction to her face. In an instant, the wrinkle fades away, as if it were never there. What I would do for some of that. While she gazes at herself in the mirror, I notice a bright red ruby ring on her wedding finger. “Bring her closer to our apparition spot.” The two men point in the direction to Ace and I follow their orders, not being able to escape the situation. Cordelia walks in front of us, still looking in the mirror for any other imperfections. Ace is Cordelia's son? Why were her guys trying to kill us in the forest? Why were they after me in Hogsmeade? There are too many questions to even begin asking.

“Put her over there.” Cordelia waves her hand to a spot close to Ace, but too far to reach each other. I get pushed down to the ground by the men and I quickly turn to look at Ace. In the moment, I focus on only one question swirling in my mind. “What does she mean, her son?” This question captures Cordelia's attention and she shoves the mirror to her second in command. Ace looks at me, desperate to get something off of his chest. “I-I was going to tell you why I was here. Why I bumped into you on the train that day. I-I wanted to explain but-” Cordelia interrupts him. “Ugh, you are boring me to death Ace!” She rolls her eyes as she speaks, and turns to me. “I sent him to Hogwarts all because of you. I needed you to fall in love with him, and come on, he is a catch.” She needed me to fall in love with him? Why? Why didn't he tell me earlier if he wanted to explain? Was everything about him a lie? Cordelia turns back to Ace and a smirk plays across her face. “You really didn't tell her who you really are? I would have thought that by now she knows about your true intentions, since you tried to completely ruin the plan. All this time, you didn't tell her your little secret?” I don't dare look at Ace, heart-broken that he chose to lie to me. Cordelia senses the tension between us and to break the tension, she quickly turns to me and snatches the amulet off of my neck. “Hey! That's mine!” I try to grab it from her, but she's one step ahead of me. In an instant, Cordelia points her wand towards me and casts the Leg-Locker Curse. “Locomotor Mortis!” I fall to the ground, unable to move my legs. Cordelia keeps her eyes on me while she speaks to Ace. “Well, are you going to tell her or shall I?” I don't look at Ace and instead look at Cordelia, urging her to explain. I don't want an explanation from him, not after he lied to me.

A moment passes and Cordelia gives up waiting and rolls her eyes. “Ace, you really are pushing my patience.” She gives a breathy sigh. “I wanted your amulet. It possesses a certain kind of magic that allows you to know when strong magic is near. It took me ages to find one that possesses this magic. When I did, the store owner put up a price that was far beyond my range. I went to collect the amount that was due and when I came back to buy it, the owner had sold it to a student. I wanted this amulet for so long,” Cordelia holds it up in her hand. “To have someone else take it from me was not an option. I searched and searched to find the one who possessed it. You. When I found out that you have taken it, I worked out the perfect plan. Ace was the perfect plan. I persuaded him to find you and when he did, he made himself available to you. I needed you to fall in love with him, you see. Another part of the amulet's magic is what most don't know about. This part has the ability to take away another's magic to boost your own. To activate it, I needed you to fall in love with one who has very strong magic. Since Ace was a child, he developed a strong magical ability, so I was so sure he could be the one to help you activate it. It worked!” Cordelia laughs in celebration. So that's why he wanted to get closer to me. It was all to activate the amulet's power. I finally look at Ace and see him trying to pry the two men off of him. “Anastasia, I do love you! I didn't know that I actually-” Cordelia walks over to him and cuts him off, “Do you really think after you broke her heart, she would trust you ever again?”

Ace stares down Cordelia and she walks back over to me. “Now that I have what I wanted, what to do with you...” Ace suddenly stands and the two men hold his hands behind him to try to push him back down. “Mother, if you don't lay a hand on her, I'll do anything you want! You have what you came for. Just let her go and I'll be your right hand man, just like dad wanted me to be for you.” He's bargaining himself to protect me? Maybe he does actually care about me. Cordelia turns her head to face him and a moment passes, enough time for her to think. “Alright Ace, you have a deal. You know son, you make good bargains. You'll be a great use to me.” She holds out the amulet, faces it in front of me, and speaks an incantation that sounds like gibberish. The amulet glows a bright green and floats off of her hand, swaying in mid-air on its own. Suddenly, the amulet is trying to pull something out of me, like a gravitational pull. I lay down on my back, feeling tired. What is going on? “A-Ace,” I whisperyell out to him, hoping he can hear me. I hear Ace faintly in the distance, screaming to me, “Anastasia!” Somehow, I can feel my magic flowing out of me. Its like my magic is on a string and something is tugging on it, pulling my magical properties away from me. Something is wrong. A light goes on in my head, waking me up from a trance. Everything clicks. My magic! The amulet is taking my magic! I hear Cordelia chanting in a language that I've never heard of before and it echos in my head. Its so loud! Make it stop! As fast as the echoes came, it left. I feel my body completely drained, so I decide to lay here to rest.

“I told you not to hurt her! We had a deal!” I hear Ace screaming at Cordelia. I can still hear around me, though it's a faint sound. She laughs at him, “I did keep my end of the deal, Ace. I didn't lay a single finger on her. I kept my word.” I hear Ace screaming, “You twisted my words around! You always do! I'm not going anywhere with you, the deal's off!” Cordelia sighs, “Fine. I don't need you anymore darling Ace. I have what I came for. With this new boosted power, I won't need your help. Boys, let my son go. We've got other business to attend to, this time in Hogsmeade. I think I'll pay a visit to an old friend.” In the distance, I hear the two men let Ace go and then a boom! Silence tears through the forest. Is she gone? “Anastasia!” Ace runs towards me and nearly knocks himself into me, now on his knees. He props my head up and I sigh in exhaustion. “I'm so sorry Anastasia. This is not how I wanted to tell you. This wasn't supposed to happen.” Before I can't bring myself to speak again, I manage to whisper out to him, “M-my magic, it's gone.” I hear Traci running towards us, coming out of hiding. “Are you alright? Anastasia!” Ace and Traci both help me up on my feet. In that moment of brief energy, I open my eyes just enough to see Ace pick up a small piece of parchment off of the ground. “Here Anastasia,” He suddenly picks me up and carries me in his arms. “Lean into me. Stay with me.” I have no choice but to listen, exhaustion is creeping up on me. I go in and out of consciousness, but eventually, I black out.