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 feel like it was only minutes ago that I got back to my room and flopped down on my bed to process everything I'd seen this morning. Yet, somehow, like some cosmic joke, I can see the swirling of amber and blush in the sunlight that steadily creeps up my walls, cruelly giggling 'the day is almost over!'
While I can't recall doing much else today, I did jot down a quick note (success!) whichI finally scurry to pluck from my desk and take to Deek who is tending some unicorns in the pasture vivarium.
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Ominis –
So much has changed. It's been too long since I've seen you. I'm so sorry. Can we meet?
–April
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A touch of my wand converts my writing to raised dots of braille and I hand the slip of paper to Deek who agrees to send it to Ominis at Feldcroft by owl (I advise him to use a Hogwarts owl instead of Eustis, for speed). He wishes me well until we meet again tomorrow afternoon and is off with a happy SNAP!
A chime from my clock tells me it's dinner hour in the Great Hall. Which means I'll be meeting Sebastian soon. Butterflies fill my stomach.
I hop in a shower to try to rest my mind and reinvigorate myself. The warm water pours over me and I think through the memories Sharp showed me. Again. As I have been all day.
My heart breaks for Ominis. My heart breaks to think of Sebastian's clashing determination and hopelessness for Anne. It breaks to think of the way he became so unhinged after he had to curse me with Crucio. To think of how proudly he wore his best dress to honor his uncle's death...a death he caused. To think of how he felt he deserved to be at Azkaban, deserved the dementors. To know he didn't think Ominis or I wanted him around...that we hated him.
Oh, Sebastian.
Sharp's words ring in my mind. "...to this day it is unclear to me if it was his bond with you that fed his desire for power, or his bond with power that fed his desire for you."
I wish I could deny his point but I could clearly see it, too, in the memories. Desperation. Obsession. And I could see it because I recognize it in myself.
Things got pretty weird for Sebastian and me that year, running around the countryside, solving riddles and taking down roving gangs. He, with unforgivable curses. Me, with ancient magic. Both of us killing. Both of us feeling justified. I had the benefit of labeling my victims "thieves," or "poachers," instead of having to call them "friends or "family."
Adding teenage hormones into that equation could have been a slippery slope of entanglement. Whatever it was that held us back from crossing that line is a miracle to consider. Who knows what would have become of us if we compounded all of the existing chaos with passion and lust, justifying our addiction to one another like we justified everything else.
