Storms ⌲ Sebastian Sallow

6. ✭your softness fades away✭

☼Modern Soundtrack: Somewhere Only We Know by Keane☼

~

"Come meet Anne in Feldcroft tomorrow, you must," Sebastian practically pleaded through his owl letter. "Although, my uncle will be there too. You mustn't listen to him and his delusions."

I smiled to myself as I read the note. Adelaide walked up to me at this moment and sat next to me on my newly made bed.

"Things are escalating, yes?" She asked as she peered over my shoulder to read the letter. But I closed it.

"They were never much to begin with... Things like this are ill-fated. They never last, and probably won't last to see the dead of morrow," I sighed. I mean, I was right. Anyone who has ever shown interest in me subsequently leaves like I never existed. All I've ever known was fleeting happiness, embedded in illicit affairs.

I thought about my parents. They were muggles. We had a fine relationship until I didn't find out until I was 15 that I inhibited a certain magic. They attempted with everything in order to conceal this from me; a tainted relationship destroyed beyond repair. Positively unsalvageable.

____

Down in Feldcroft, from a distance, I noticed Sebastian pacing back and forth - evidently distressed. He was dressed up in a gray woven coat.

"Sebastian!" I yelled out and his face brightened when he saw me.

"If it isn't my favorite witch," he spoke in a lighthearted tone. He then reached out to me and twirled me around in a hug. I smiled in the crook of his neck, which smelled like a faint fragrance of pine and musk.

"My uncle Solomon may give you a hard time," he soon exhibited a despondent frown.

"Not a worry, Sebastian," I said, cupping my cold hands on his freckled cheeks. They were cold to the touch. He laid his head on them and closed his eyes. It seemed as if I gave him a sense of stability and familiarity - although we've only known one another for just a week.

He then pulled me by my collar into a sudden kiss, one full of true affection and a gentle infatuation. He let out a moan mid-kiss, not a sexual one, but one signaling exhaustion and weariness.

I pulled back, "We mustn't keep them waiting," I spoke as his smile began to fade. He nodded sheepishly and brought me into a remarkably forbearing embrace.

He grabbed my hand - almost instantaneously warming it up. We walked hand-in-hand to his door - a humble house - cozy, nonetheless. Examining, it made me ponder the frequent conversations I heard about him in the Hufflepuff common room. One student even assumed Sebastian would come from a more wealthy family.

"Anne!" He yelled out for his sister as his uncle soon walked over. "I found something I believe may help."

"These blasted botanics you find from herbology class are not going to save your sister!" Solomon yelled out in a fit of anger.

"Uncle, please," Anne begged as she began to writhe in pain. It was evident this was a bad time.

Sebastian's face began flustered and he stormed outside into the garden. I looked around, lost, soon following him outside.

"Sebastian-"

"He will never understand! I'm merely trying to save her..."

"I know," I spoke in a gentle tone - hoping to not push him the wrong way. He stood there with clenched fists and he kneaded his eyebrows.

"Darling, if it weren't for you, I would have lost my mind - I promise," his voice cracked. He looked away. It was hard seeing him like this: so distraught.

"You really think that?"

"I know that."

____

Later that day in Potions class, I turned to Garreth.

"We never got to have the butter beers at the Three Broomsticks. How about we raincheck that today?" I asked. His eyes gleamed with hope.

"Of course, are you sure your new boyfriend will be ok with that?"

"We aren't together. I don't think so, anyway," We just kissed once. Or twice.

"I sure hope he thinks that. Wouldn't want to mess with Sallow. He's got a temper none can subdue."

____

At the Three Broomsticks, I walked in and Sirona greeted me with a warm welcome.

"Fancy seeing you here again... after that whole debacle, I find it quite difficult to see you as the hot commodity these boys seem to see you as," she spoke as she poured me a drink. "All I can see from you is the witch who turned the damned troll on his face."

I chuckled. "I'm glad I'm seen as that as supposed to something else."

"Now, the real question is, which boy did you choose?"

"Oh-" I said but, before I could finish, Garreth walked in.

"Good choice," Sirona whispered to me as she smiled at him.

"Cel!" Garreth ran at me and brought me into a big hug. "You don't know how happy I am to see you, there were these poachers outside trying to attack me!" I rolled my eyes. Sebastian would've fought them all.

Sebastian. What would he think? I'm out with the one person he despises the most. Right when things were about to be good.

We then made our way to sit down at the bar together. "Initially, I was quite worried meeting up with you here, since you're the talk of the town. I was afraid of the repercussions with the Slytherin crowd."

"What type of repercussions?" I asked, taking a sip.

"Ominis and them. He can't see, but I swear on Merlin that he'd rip me to shreds. He has never even given me the time of day."

"Oh, I'm not too sure about that."

"You're just naive, Cel... Just consider the way Sallow was at your feet as soon as you walked into the sorting ceremony."

"Why does everyone keep saying that?"

"Because it is true."

____

As I was walking through the castle, I had noticed Sebastian was nowhere to be found. I most usually always find him on my way to Astronomy on Tuesday nights. He hadn't been sending me his daily owls, nor had he been waiting for me outside the Hufflepuff common room.

So, I found myself in the Undercroft.