Between The Shadows | Ominis Gaunt x Sebastian Sallow x Reader

Chapter 4: No Lies (I.)

Sebastian POV

I finally found a free desk in an abandoned corner of the library and I was about to start working on my assignment when I heard Ominis' voice downstairs asking for me.

The librarian showed him the way. Of course she knew exactly where I was, she kept an eye on me. Old habits. Her watch was pointless now, because as a student of advanced DADA I had permanent access to the restricted section. One of the books from that section was actually in my hands right now. The fact that I could just walk in there and take it made me feel strangely empowered.

Ominis got to my desk and I led him to the spare seat next to me.

"Did you come here to study or do you have something on your chest?" I asked.

"The latter, I'm afraid. Even though studying is not out of the picture either."

"Spit it out then" I was starting to suspect what it was about.

He was nervously playing with a piece of parchment in his hands. "It's about the invitation for the Veritaserum experiment." He finally started, then paused and wet his lips as if he didn't know what to say next.

"Are you trying to suggest that your invitation wasn't just for the pleasure of my company? I'm shocked!" I said in a sarcastic tone. "I'm not an idiot, Ominis. But you don't need to use the potion to ask me questions. We are sharing one bedroom, for the love of Merlin. I don't want this awkward tension between us all year. I know I lost your trust once and that can't be forgotten with one apology. I went through the same thing with Anne already." I paused to let the words sink in. "I'm willing to work for our friendship again, so ask me whatever you want."

"It's just really difficult to accept that you no longer believe in the same things as before ..."

While he was talking, I rolled up my sleeve and grabbed his hand."I think I know what you need."

Ominis stopped talking, immediately blushed and tried to get his hand back. "Um.. what are you doing, Sebastian?"

I squeezed his hand harder and didn't let go "I have something to show you." I teased.

"Merlin's beard!" I laughed when I saw his expression. Calm down Ominis, I'm not trying to do anything inappropriate. Here.." and I navigated his hand to my forearm."...can you feel this?"

Ominis, still very red, very gently brushed the surface of the skin on my arm. "Are those... scars? please, explain it, Sebastian."

"Yes, scars from an unbreakable vow."

He took his hand off me as quickly as if I was suddenly too hot to touch, straightening himself in the chair. He looked absolutely shocked.

"I swore to Anne I wouldn't use dark magic to cure her." I said and rolled my sleeve down again.

"Sebastian, I don't know what to say..."

"Then don't say anything but you don't need to feel bad for not trusting me. Anne wasn't able to trust me either. This was the only way she'd agree to come back home. See, she'd rather die than to be cured by the dark arts. Now I don't really have a choice in the matter." I said with a shrug. The bitterness in my voice was on display.

We were silent for a good minute, then Ominis placed his hand on my back "I'm sorry, Sebastian" he whispered. I cleared my throat. "Shall we study now?" Ominis nodded and started to unpack the books from his school bag.

"I'm for once glad you asked me to join you tonight." I said in a cheerful tone "It's probably not going to be my expertise but maybe I'll learn something new about you and y/n before you have a chance to take the antidote."

"It's not like that, we agreed not to ask any personal questions. It is training for becoming Aurors, we might need to build some resistance."

"That's what I was afraid of. You're gonna make it boring, won't you? I said and Ominis smiled. "I'm still coming though." I added.

As we were working on the assignments, I couldn't help but to look at Ominis from time to time. There was something mesmerizing in the way his long fingers were gently stroking the pages while he read. His cheeks were still red from the previous misunderstanding. I did that on purpose. I was wondering what his reaction would be and he didn't disappoint me. The feelings I knew he had for me but I was too busy to acknowledge in fifth year... maybe not everything was lost.

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A/N:

Thank you for reading this! I will always try to describe every part from all POVs (basically because it's really fun for me) but I realized that some of the chapters would be too long, so I decided to divide them. This will also allow me to release new parts more often.

I'd love to hear from you. Any feedback or comment is welcome. Who is your favorite character?

Important question that might help me to build one of the character arcs:

Do you prefer Sebastian as a villain or an antihero (or would you prefer to see him as a hero)?