"Oh, I appreciate your kindness, Headmaster Dumbledore, but I think I can handle this matter."
Amosta turned his head and gave a slight nod to Dumbledore, who could not even rest peacefully while hanging on the wall.
"How do you intend to deal with me?"
Turning back, the woman seated across the desk let a smile curl at the corner of her lips to conceal the pain within her heart.
"Using the word 'deal with' makes me sound rather heartless—"
Amosta lifted his teacup, his expression immediately becoming inscrutable.
"You resurrected Voldemort. That is an undeniable crime, but the wizarding world will not forget that without your full support during the Battle of Hogwarts, the young wizards might not have escaped in time. So—"
Amosta's calm gaze settled over Vitia.
"What are your own thoughts? About your future?"
How gentle.
Vitia smiled, and the grief lingering in her heart unexpectedly faded considerably.
She raised a hand to brush aside the still somewhat withered strands of hair before her eyes, a look of reminiscence flashing through her emerald gaze.
"The happiest days of my life."
A stretch of silence.
"The orphanage was the most carefree period of my life."
Her melancholy sigh echoed through Amosta's office, yet failed to stir even the humble dust motes in the sunlight.
"That certainly won't do—"
Amosta pressed his lips together, his voice low and hoarse.
"I imagine you understand it yourself. Other than Avalon Prison, if you are not constantly under my watch, many wizards in the wizarding world will not be able to sleep peacefully."
"So I don't have to spend the rest of my life in prison?"
What rose in Vitia's heart was not curiosity, but delight.
What Amosta meant was that she would not have to be too far away from