This year, Celia had decided, was her year. Her grades were back where they should be, and she'd found her footing on the Quidditch pitch and in the Monthly newsroom. She was on an upward trajectory, one that she was sure would end with her as head girl. And it seemed that for once, the universe was on her side. By an incredible stroke of luck, Professor Styx had retired. First, Professor Pourroulis, then him — one by one, all the adults that had been in the room the night she got caught trying to run away were leaving. At this rate, Professor Alicastell would be gone by next year, and there would be no one left who remembered that fateful night. She would be truly free from the mistakes of her past.
Those hopes came crashing down when Alicastell introduced Slytherin's new head of house. Celia stared, dumbstruck with horror. Castillo? After running into him in the Forbidden Forest her first year, she had hoped never to see him again. She had even debated whether she really needed an OWL in Herbology; she did not want that man anywhere near her grades. And now he was in charge of her house. There was no way she would be getting a prefect's badge, not after she'd accused him of being a "spirit" and left him to dangle in a giant net in the forest. By the time the food appeared, Celia had lost her appetite. She poked miserably at a spinach leaf on her plate before setting her fork down. "I can't believe they chose Castillo." she grumbled. "Is he even a Slytherin?" She was pretty sure the answer was no; she'd seen him cheering on Ilvermorny at past Quidditch matches.