Crucio Me

Chapter 1 || Convincing the Gaunt

Soliana's POV

The halls are empty. I can hear the occasional squeak from the mice scurrying about.

Im following Sebastian as we make our way to Ominis. I still don't know why I let Sebastian convince me to talk to him. I don't think he's realized the guy doesn't like me all that much ever since I lied to him about the undercroft.

I still remember how pissed Ominis looked. The fury on his face was clear as day. He knew immediately that I had lied to him, but I wasn't about to betray Sebastian just after I promised I wouldn't say anything.

"Keep an eye out..never know who's watching." - Sebastian's voice cuts through my thoughts.

I glance at him. "Although that's never stopped us before.." - Sebastian adds. I'm reminded of the night we snuck into the restricted section of the library and I smile.

"Strictly speaking it has..we were caught."
I chirped.

It was exhilarating though. I am starting to love my little adventures with Sebastian. Our friendship has gotten stronger ever since that night. I never expected him to take the entire blame even when he said he would. He's a loyal friend that much I'm certain of now.

"Damned poltergeist. Such a nuisance." -Sebastian mutters, shaking his head.

We continue to walk through the corridors and eventually find Ominis waiting. "There he is. Goodluck Soli" -Sebastian says as he leans towards the wall behind him and waits.

I offer him a weak smile before I turn to walk towards Ominis. I fidget with the sleeves of my robe, not entirely confident about this situation. I really have no idea how I'm going to convince Ominis. The guy hates me! I sigh and bite my the inside of my cheek in frustration. Well, here goes nothing~

"What are you doing here?" -Ominis grunts. I still don't understand how he always knows it's me when i'm around him. Perhaps some day I can ask but for now- "Hello Ominis, do you have a moment?" - I started, a soft edge to my tone.

He's already irritated from Sebastian pestering him about the scriptorium so I'll have to be tactical in my approach.

"What is it- what have you and Sebastian been up to now!" - The ripe coldness in his voice doesn't surprise me at all. In fact, I expected it.

"I owe you an apology Ominis. I wasn't honest with you before about the undercroft.. Sebastian did show it to me. He wanted me to have a safe place to practice some spells to try and catch up to the other 5th years. He didn't think you'd mind!" I insist.

The only way I'm going to get through Ominis is by telling him the truth. And if I'm being honest, I don't think I have it in me to lie to him again. I tense up slightly as Ominis sighs, waiting for him to speak-

"I suppose that makes sense" he says with a much more softer tone than before. Relief slightly washes over me as he continues-

"it's just Sebastian's been pestering me lately about something and I'm frustrated with him" I start to feel horrible again. He doesn't know that Sebastian told me about the scriptorium.

"Don't tell me he's still going on about..what was it?" I pause and look away, knowing he's not going to like what I say next~ "uhh, scriptorium?" I finished anxiously. The air grows still the moment I utter that word.

"He told you about that?!" Ominis seethes. I look back at him and noticed his face tighter than before. The lick of betrayal sitting on him as he realized once again his best friend was telling me more secrets.

I rushed to continue before things get worse- "he did, we were talking about our house founder and he mentioned it, but wouldn't say much more than that"

"Yes, well he seems to think it contains the answer to saving Anne. I think it's likely full of dark magic that is best left untouched" he says. My brows furrow as I realize something-

"Wait, you've never been inside?" I ask while shaking my head.

"Of course not! I only know about it because of my favorite aunt, Noctua.. She thought like I do" I note the use of past tense as I listen to him-

"she didn't agree with the family on the use of dark magic..in fact she hoped to convince my family that there was more to Salazar Slytherin than worshiping pure blood status" he pauses before continuing~

"she heard of this, scriptorium, and thought it's contents might shed light on him. She even found the secret entrance in this very corridor."

I glance around as soon as he mentions this. I've walked these halls plenty of times before. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of secret places there are at Hogwarts.

"She wrote regularly to my father about her efforts to gain access...and then she simply vanished. No one else has ever tried to enter" Ominis finishes.

After listening to Ominis I smile slightly.. maybe he doesn't hate me after all considering he's opening up. I'm glad I used this chance to apologize to him.

"I'm sorry about your aunt.." I pause hesitantly, unsure of how he will feel about this next question~ "don't you want to find out what happened to her-" he cuts me off immediately growling

"Aunt Noctua went down this path with good intentions and lost her life!" he sighs shaking his head. He then softly says " I don't want the same to happen again"

"You don't know that history will repeat itself Ominis. Besides, you said your aunt thought like you! This could honor her memory, get you answers about Slytherin and Sebastian answers for Anne." I felt guilty using his love for his aunt in my favor but Sebastian is counting on me.

"Your aunt pursued this alone. We could do this together" I assure Ominis. I know deep down Ominis wants to find out what happened to his aunt and we are willing to go with him so he doesn't have to do this alone.

"Hmm" Ominis replies, thinking about what I said. "I see what you've done here and I confess, you've convinced me. I didn't think it possible." He shakes his head and I raise my eyebrows in disbelief. I didn't think I would be able to convince him after Sebastian failed.

"Very well" Ominis says. " I shall tell you what I know - fetch Sebastian, I'll wait"

I nod and stride over to where I had left Sebastian. As I'm walking away I hear Ominis mutter "I hope I- we don't regret this" I hope we don't either for both Sebastian's and Ominis sake.

Authors note
Hi !
Again I want to remind everyone I don't normally write fanfics so I hope this wasn't too bad. I'm going to start on chapter 2 after I post this.