A Change of Heart // Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 20 - The Past

Florence's summer was relatively uneventful, she spent all her time in London and though she wrote to her friends, she didn't really get to see anyone. She received one owl from Sebastian at the start of the summer, but every other owl she sent went unanswered.

She knew she wouldn't see Sebastian until she got to school assuming he'd stayed in Feldcroft like he said and was actually returning to Hogwarts so she took the Hogwarts Express from Kings Cross alone. She bid a tearful farewell to her parents before running through the wall to Platform 9 ¾ for the first time ever.

She chose the very back carriage, hoping she'd be left in her own thoughts, but Poppy Sweeting had decided to join her. Florence loved her dearly, she had really taking a liking to her since Poppy asked her for her help last year. While she was content to sit in silence, she was glad Poppy had joined her and not someone like Garreth.

"How was your summer, Florence?" Poppy asked.

"Positively uneventful. Yours?" Florence said.

"Not that interesting, spent a lot of time with Gran. I can't wait to get back and see Highwing." Poppy smiled.

Florence listened to her chat away about all the exciting things she had planned for the year, unsurprisingly mostly beast related.

They arrived at Hogwarts, making their way straight to the Great Hall for the new years sorting ceremony, Poppy leaving to go to her Hufflepuff table. She quickly scanned the Slytherin table and thankfully saw Sebastian's familiar tousled hair and green Slytherin robes. He was sitting with Imelda, she kept touching his arm as they talked. Though she had no reason to, it make Florence turn hot in the face, her cheeks red and feeling twangs of jealousy. She was never the best of friends with Imelda and found her to be extremely snobby and rude but they had made progress. She shook it off and tried to focus on Professor Black but his speech contained absolutely nothing of substance or interest. She picked at the food set in front of them while all the new first years were sorted.

Once the meal was finished, she headed out to finally return to the Ravenclaw common room when a warm hand landed on her shoulder, pivoting her around.

"Hello, you." Sebastian greeted her.

"Ah, the enigma. He does exist." Florence said as her mouth spoke before her brain could stop her.

"What are you talking about?" Sebastian said, taking a step back.

"I wrote to you a dozen times over the summer, I had assumed you were either locked up or frankly, just didn't want to be my friend anymore." Florence informed him.

"I didn't know there was some sort of expectation of me to write you a certain amount of times, Florence." Sebastian said, getting crabby.

"It's fine Sebastian, run back to Imelda in your common room then." Florence said, turning on her heels and heading up to the Ravenclaw tower before he could have the final say.

The next day, Florence had Defence Against the Dark Arts for her first class. Eerily similar to last year. She was disappointed when she walked into class to see Sebastian there, she'd hoped he might have been on a different class schedule.

"Last years display in our first class for the year was quite something, so I'd love to see how much you've improved since last year. Mr. Sallow, Miss McCallister, on the platform please."

Florence's posture slumped as she muttered profanities under her breath, hoping the ground would simply swallow her whole. As if the start to her year couldn't get any worse. Sebastian nudged past her gently, throwing her a smirk. She rolled her eyes and jumped onto the platform, taking her stance.