The dormitory was quiet. The kind of quiet that sinks into your skin and makes it hard to breathe.

Life moved in color. But inside your head, everything had dulled to gray.

You didn’t want to be found.

And yet… you needed someone to try.

The door creaked open.

Mattheo stepped in, hesitating only for a second before his eyes locked onto you. He sat on the floor beside the window and he glanced at you, then away, giving you space but refusing to leave.

“You disappear like smoke,” he said eventually. “But I don’t care how long it takes. I’ll follow the ashes if I have to.”

You didn't respond. You couldn't. But he stayed. That was enough.

Soon, the others came.

Tom's presence filled the room without noise. “No matter how deep you fall,” he murmured, “we’ll build a ladder and come down after you.”

Draco arrived next. His eyes were sharp and his jaw tense. “You didn’t answer your messages,” he said, trying to sound annoyed and failing miserably. “You made us all worry. I—” He stopped, and took a breath.

Blaise strolled in, sat beside Mattheo and leaned back, gazing out the same window you stared through.

Theodore came in quietly. “Some thoughts get too heavy to carry alone,” he said to the room. “So we’ll carry them for you until you can breathe again.”

Then came Lorenzo — fast, a little out of breath, his eyes frantic until he saw you. He sank down beside you. “Don’t do that again. Don’t hide so deep we can’t hear you. If we have to tear the castle brick by brick to reach you — we will.”

He looked straight into your eyes. “You’re not a burden. You’re not too much. You’re ours.”

And then... Regulus.

He walked past everyone in the room, kneeling down in front of you with the care of someone handling glass.

“You don’t need to say a word,” he whispered. “Even when your mind is a storm, you’re not lost to us. I will walk into the darkness a thousand times to find you. We all will.”

And though your shadows still lingered, the light they brought was real.

Because no matter how far you fall, they will send an army to find you in the darkness. And that army will never stop showing up.