Ten years after I began at Hogwarts, Sebastian Sallow is back. And he's Professor Sallow now. He disappeared after the fall of Ranrok and Rookwood, after I lost Professor Fig, and after Ominis and I couldn't keep him from losing himself. But I never...
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I walk unsteadily into the Undercroft. The last time I was here was to meet Sebastian to talk. It was one of the last times we actually spoke, and he wanted to thank me for my friendship.
It's also when I asked him to teach me the killing curse.
To this day I wish I didn't know it, but I don't regret asking him to teach it to me. He was so guilt-ridden, and so clearly torn. It was the only thing I could think to do to help distribute his distress in some way. I couldn't share in his pain around his actions or their consequences, but at least he wouldn't have to carry his burden of knowledge alone.
The light was dim, blue-green, and eerie. There was no sound but the echo of some kind of water dripping rhythmically in the distance.
Where were the fires?
I tip my wand towards an old brazier to my right and whisper 'incendio' and watch as it sets off a chain reaction, igniting numbers of similar braziers around the sides of the walls and hanging from the ceiling. The room floods with orange light and is suddenly excruciatingly hot.
I don't remember this room being empty.
From the back of the room I clock a shadow shifting that turns out to not be a shadow at all.
It's Sebastian.
My heart starts racing and for some reason, I feel the need to keep my wand at the ready as he looks directly into my eyes and walks urgently over to me.
He is taller than I remember. His hair still shaggy, boyish, and disheveled, and his face once again like a hologram, shifting between the familiar Sebastian I once knew and the imagination I've assumed of his adult form. I wish my eyes could simply focus.
Without a word, in a singular, stunning motion, his strong hands are sliding around my waist and his arms are lifting me up, the weight of his body pressing me against the wall. With an instant passion, I reactively wrap my legs around his torso and my arms around his neck and head, wand still clutched in a hand. He burrows his face into my neck and chest and inhales deeply, as if taking me in. He takes advantage of my shirt's few undone buttons and his tongue slips across the exposed top of my breast, just above the lace of my bra, sending a shiver down between my legs.
His face looks up to mine and Sebastian's eyes display the slightest glimmer of green light from within but I barely notice, and the implications certainly don't register as he kisses me.
He kisses, and kisses, and wildly kisses me for what feels like a glorious eternity. His arms squeeze and his body presses mine against the wall. His hungry, searching hands make their way beneath my linen shirt, grasping at my skin. As his nibble of my bottom lip turns into a soft bite, I let out a moan and my free hand clutches a fistful of his hair. I wrench his head back, exposing his vulnerable throat, and his eyes are filled with eager anticipation.
"Naughty boy," I whisper as I yank his collar aside, exposing more of his eager flesh, and my mouth digs into the side of his neck, sliding, biting, licking and sucking my way around his clavicle, shoulder, neck, and jaw. He groans with a deep, breathy exhale and my body aches to have him inside of me.
Sebastian seizes a brief moment of my relenting and gently hoists me to a standing position in front of him. He backs away slowly, just a few steps, his gaze taking me in from head to toe.
Like a well-choreographed dance move, and without breaking eye contact, his wand is out in a blink and he whispers "expelliarmus." My body is pushed back as though by a strong gust of wind and my wand jolts from my hand across the floor. How did he do that so softly?
God, he is sexy. And he's smiling. He wants me. I can see it. It's almost as if he wants to consume me. And every cell of my body is crawling with anticipation over whatever delicious move he'll make next.
In a swift, steady, and smooth lunge an arm is once again wrapped around the small of my back, his forehead but an inch from mine, deep brown eyes locked to mine, and...
...the point of his wand digs into my sternum. What the–
A green aura glows from within his eyes and my heart sinks...
–no no no no!
...as he whispers, "crucio."
The chills of his whisper on my skin are instantly gone as excruciating pain radiates from deep within the core of every single one of my nerves. The strain is so terrible that my throat clenches and I couldn't scream even if I wanted to. Sebastian's arm on the small of my back is the only thing preventing me from buckling to the floor, keeping my seizing body relatively upright.
My eyes can't focus or they're rolling back into my head or squeezing shut or widening open as agonizing shudders of pain reverborate from within me. Between the piercing shockwaves I catch glimpses of the room, of his wand hovering in front of me, and of his face. Smiling. Curious. Calm. The pain worsens.
What the fuck?
I awake with a frantic start.
By body is stinging, pulsing in a cold sweat.
My hands grab at my bedsheets around me to gain a sense of place. Indeed, it's my – now empty – room above 'Stitches and Droughts.' Outside my window I can see the sun is beginning to set.
I guess naptime is over.
I sit up for a moment and consider this latest plot in a string of the most bizarre and vivid dreams I've had this week. None of them have been quite as straightforward as the first one last week that took place in the restricted section of the library. But none of them had been like this, and I am almost too stunned to move.
