Touched

Shadow of Anger and Betrayal - Fifth Year

Ominis POV

Ominis opened his eyes to darkness, as he did every day. Sounds were muffled, they made no sense. He couldn't make sense of anything around him. His hands barely moved. He was weak.

"Wh-" he started, but thousands of knives slit his throat as he spoke. Every memory started crashing down on him and he felt paralysed in his bed. Something - something was touching his hand, rubbing it in small circular motions. Ominis tried to focus on that, pushing the memories of torture and pain out of his mind. "I -" He tried to speak again but nothing came out and he all at once wished he was dead.

Imelda POV

He'd woken up, but only for a short period of time. Imelda guessed that not being able to see anything when he woke up this confused would only worsen it - and she was right. He was mumbling but not making sense, grimacing but not voicing a reason. She wondered if he was in pain. She hated Sebastian for doing this to him, hated herself for not being here for him earlier. Y/N had been sitting with him for a few hours.

They were in Professor Fig's office, where they'd first apparated after leaving the scriptorium almost eight hours ago. He lay on a plush couch that Fig had transfigured, his head resting on two pillows. His hand twitched every now and then like he was trying to move it, but his face showed nothing. The mandrake was slowly working. He wasn't hard as a rock anymore and Imelda could feel the warmth coming back to his skin.

Sebastian had been in once, but he only stayed for a couple of minutes before he left. He didn't speak to Imelda, only gave her a short nod. Imelda didn't want to talk to him anyway, she'd always had a weird feeling about their friendship. Usually because deep down she knew she was terribly jealous, that Ominis could have someone mutual that cared so much about him that it hurt him. Now, because that friend had betrayed him. She didn't even have to know what happened in the scriptorium - she knew Ominis hated dark magic that much for whatever reason that he would never meddle in it.

"I've got more mandrake," Professor fig entered his office with a potion. "I've made it into a juice. Somehow we'll have to coax it into him. I haven't got any more that I can put through my wand."

Imelda tapped Ominis gently, and his eyes fluttered.

"Ominis," she said softly. "You need to drink this."

She got a faint nod in return and the boy didn't refuse the potion brought to his lips and swallowed it. He grimaced.

"It tastes like goblin bogeys," professor fig said without hesitation, and Imelda smiled.

"Ominis?" She asked, but he was already fast asleep

———

He awoke in the middle of the night, and Imelda started in her chair. Her hand was still wrapped around his.

"Ominis?" She asked, and the boy coughed lightly before he spoke.

"Imelda?" He asked, his murky eyes looking up to the ceiling. "Where am i?"

"This is Fig's office, dove," she told him, brushing his hair back with her fingers. "How do you feel?"

"I feel -" he started, and the expression that came down onto his face made Imelda think he'd suddenly remembered everything. "I feel terrible. Sebastian - he - the scriptorium, I didn't know - what happened?" He didn't give Imelda time to reply before he wailed "oh Noctua. I can't believe she's gone."

Imelda knew Noctua was Ominis' aunt, but she had no idea that she was dead. "How did you find out?" She breathed, and the boy shook his head and tears began to fill his eyes.

"She was in the - in the scriptorium," he stuttered. "Along with a note. Sebastian has it.. I want it. I know I can't read it but it's the last part of her I'd have- Sebastian."

His face took on a dark quality and his lips pressed into a thin line. He tried to sit up but the mandrake hadn't fully unpetrified him yet. He groaned in pain and then kept talking, his work of breathing increasing. Imelda tried to sit him back down, encased his body in her arms to push him back. Instead, he collapsed against her body, head in her armpit - and burst into tears.

"Sebastian knew I couldn't bear for him to cast that spell," he sobbed, his body heaving against Imelda's arm. She gasped at the sight and put her hand in his blonde hair, trying to rub some comfort into him. "He knew my family had done that to me - they'd tortured me with that curse for weeks. My brother, my mother - oh Noctua. She was the only one I trusted, the only one I really loved. Y/N?!" He cried suddenly. "Imelda, is Y/N ok? She should be right? Sebastian can't have meant it - surely not as much as Marvolo meant it for me. Oh, Merlin. Is she ok?"

"She's alright," was all Imelda could manage. She was trying not to let her own eyes tear up. Ominis was wailing at this point - never had she seen or heard of him let his emotions let go like this. She had to wonder if being petrified had done it. But deep down, she knew this boy had deep - deep trauma. The cruciatis curse?

Eventually, he started to calm down as he became tired and he let Imelda lower him back down onto the pillow. His face was tear stained.

"I'm sorry," he tried to apologise, his eyes jerking shakily in their sockets trying to grab onto any light they could. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't apologise," Imelda said, choked up. She planted a soft kiss on his forehead and he closed his eyes, his hands running over the material of the couch. He'd become comfortable, and he fumbled for her hand, then rested until he fell asleep.

Sebastian POV

Sebastian had been worrying about his friend non stop since they got back. How could he have been so stupid!? For all he knew, Ominis would never wake up. He'd never heard of a basilisk being in England, being this close to Hogwarts. And it just so happens that it was in the scriptorium and it had almost killed them and Y/N. He had briefly seen Y/N before he'd gone to see Ominis, and she wasn't herself. Merlin knows what the curse had done to her and her mental state. Sebastian knew it wasn't one you forgot about. He'd spent enough nights with Ominis' nightmares to know that.

Reluctantly, he'd gone to see the boy. He didn't know Imelda of all people would be there, but he also wasn't surprised. He needed someone like her to give him the soft, trustworthy side of people, and she always had. It was only him that had trouble trusting someone so much. It had ruined their relationship the previous year, but at least he'd matured a little since then.

He was grateful that Y/N was there so that Fig didn't turn them in to the Headmaster. He could've gotten into a whole lot of trouble, as he should have, and Anne's cure would've gone in a hole. But - he had the book. That's what the end goal was there.

———

Y/N had gone to see Ominis after he'd woken up, and told Sebastian the story as though he was watching it. Ominis was furious with him, she told him - and Sebastian couldn't blame him.

Imelda had been there holding his hand, and the both of them had seemed quite upset. Tears even. Sebastian was glad he didn't go, he didn't think he could bear seeing them upset. Mostly, Y/N had gone so that Ominis knew she was okay. They were both worse for wear. Y/N said Ominis still couldn't move his left arm. Ominis hadn't said much, but the look on his face said it all - Sebastian could imagine.

Sebastian had sent Anne an owl asking how she was, but she hadn't responded yet. He hoped that Solomon hadn't got to it first, and that she was safe. That she felt safe.

His head was clouded with these worries when he finally fell asleep that night.