Touched

Shadow of the Catacomb - Fifth Year

Sebastian POV

Y/N met Sebastian at exactly noon the next day. There was a slight breeze and it ruffled his hair as he waited for her. He rubbed his gloved hands together. It was winter, of course, and a light blanket of snow covered the ground.

"You're here," Sebastian said when she arrived. "Thank you for coming."

"Of course," Y/N told him, nodding. "I'm hoping we can find what you want to find, and then make our way out super fast."

"I'm sure we will," Sebastian said, genuinely having no idea how long they were going to take. The entered carefully, pulling their wands out and cautiously waiting for any noises they might hear on the way in. There was nothing. Silence.

"How long until we get attacked by spiders or something?" Y/N asked, shivering in the coldness of the catacomb. She wrapped her jacket more firmly around her and Sebastian almost leaned over to give her his, but he was stopped short but a sound of a twig snapping. Y/N and Sebastian crouched down and listened.

"What was that?" the girl whispered. Sebastian looked back at her. She looked determined. She looked beautiful, actually. But Sebastian tried to focus on the task at hand. There was something waiting for them, probably right around the corner.

"I don't know," he replied. "The book said something about fighting their way through this catacomb, but it didn't say fighting what. We've fought spiders before, so you'll be fine." He tried to ignore the fact that he told Y/N this would be easy.

As they progressed through the catacomb, Sebastian became increasingly worried that they wouldn't find anything. They should've got somewhere by now - he was sure of it. As soon as he had that thought, he heard a guttural groan from something down the path.

"Be careful," he warned, holding his wand further away from his face and shielding Y/N instinctively with his hand.

It was Inferi. Y/N had never seen one before, Sebastian could tell by the horrified look on her face when he turned around. he had to admit, not knowing what an Inferi was before you saw one would be incredibly frightening.

"It's Inferi," Sebastian shouted. "Incendio!" One of them died at his feet. Y/N was having trouble with them, casting every spell under the sun until Sebastian shouted, "You have to get them with Incendio first! They don't die unless you hit them with fire before the other spells!"

She was quick to listen and understand and killed them in under a minute. Sebastian killed the last one with effort, and then they both stood there in a cold sweat, eyes wide and hearts pounding. Merlin, all they needed now was another basilisk.

"Are we almost there?" Sebastian puffed, and he watched Y/N pick something up off the ground. "What is it?"

"It's a diary entry written by a Slytherin trying to find the relic," she breathed. Her eyes scanned the material. "It says - it says you have to use an unforgiveable."

Sebastian had to pretend he didn't already know that, reading it in the book hidden under his mattress in the dormitory. "Which one?" he asked, weakly. She seemed relieved, in a way. Probably because it wasn't the killing curse.

"Imperio."

"Oh." He couldn't say much more, so instead he said, "let's keep going."

After fighting the Inferi the two came to a large room made of stone and doors made out of bones. It was rather unsettling, but the door was closed and it didn't seem there was any way to open it.

"How do we get through?" Y/N asked. "Depulso!"

Nothing.

"There's handles up there," Sebastian observed, looking at the handles above them.