Snakes and Lions // Sebastian Sallow x Reader

Crucio

**Skipping ahead to the Crucio scene - spoiler warning for anyone still playing through the game. Made a few slight changes to the scene just to add in a little more tension/emotion to it. **Trigger warning ** as the story progresses I'm starting to dive into the dark curses and future stories may contain more detail about torture/killing and sensitive topics.**

Shannara "Shay"

"I received your owl. What happened with Ominis?" I asked Sebastian as he paced slightly back and forth. A habit he had whenever he seemed anxious or nervous.

"I told him none of us will be able to avoid dark magic forever. So the more we know about Salazar Slytherin, the Dark Arts, the better prepared we'll be." I nodded as what Sebastian said made sense.

"Unfortunately," He continued. "Only a Gaunt knows the location of the scriptorium entrance and Ominis won't tell me." His lips turned down in a frown and I could see the frustration written on his face.

"Hmm, perhaps I should have a chat with Ominis."

"You?" He seemed surprised but then shook his head. "Well I guess it's worth a try. Don't get your hopes up though. Ominis is annoyingly stubborn. Nothing new." He scowled up the stairs to the empty corridor. "I know where he is. I'll lead you to him and then leave you to it." He started up the stairs and looked over his shoulder. "Come on. He's this way."

Sebastian led me around the corridors. I had not made it down to this part of the castle yet so I was glad to have him leading me. I took note of the turns and tried to remember this route for future exploration.

"There he is."Sebastian stopped in his tracks to remain out of earshot of his friend. "I'll leave you to it." I nodded at Sebastian and hurried over to where Ominis stood.

As I approached I noted that Ominis seemed distressed. He was muttering to himself and pacing much how Sebastian was before. The dark hallways casted shadows around his eyes and he looked as if he hadn't gotten much sleep lately. A feeling I empathized with. I hadn't been sleeping much either.

As my footsteps neared he turned toward the sound. Somehow even though he was blind, he knew it was me. "What are you doing here?" He asked.

"Hello Ominis, do you have a moment?" His eyes narrowed at the empty space around him, and I saw his fist clench.

"What is it? What have you and Sebastian been up to now?" He asked accusingly.  Realizing that he was probably still upset over Sebastian telling me about the undercroft I decided I had better officially apologize.

"I owe you an apology Ominis. I wasn't honest with you before about the Undercroft. Sebastian did show it to me." I looked down at my hands. "He wanted me to have a safe place to practice some spells. To try and catch up to the other fifth years." I looked back up to Ominis to find him with his fist still clenched at his side. "He didn't think you'd mind."

I saw Ominis release a breath and relax his hands. "I suppose that makes sense." He shook his head slightly. "It's just Sebastian has been pestering me lately about something and I am just frustrated with him."

Seeing my opening to try and get more information I pressed him. "Is he still going on about... what was it? A scriptorium?" I asked. Feigning ignorance. A flash of guilt went through me at attempting to deceive Ominis again. Right after I had just apologized to him. I was glad he was blind so that he couldn't see me wince slightly. I'm not a very good liar. I thought.

Luckily Ominis was too shocked to evaluate my feigned ignorance. "He told you about that?"

"He did. We were talking about Salazar Slytherin and he mentioned it. Wouldn't say much more though."