Storms ⌲ Sebastian Sallow

27. ✭i should have known from the first✭

☼Modern Soundtrack: O Children by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds☼

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The days blended together. I hadn't had any real conception of time either. The world continued to turn with or without me.

Last I heard, Sebastian had landed a spot in Azkaban. After learning that information, my mind constantly wandered, running, chasing something that was never there.

Alas, I soon abandoned my studies, my friends, and my livelihood. I was practically just waiting for the day I would be sent to Azkaban as well.

I sat and stared at the yellow walls that enclosed me in my dorm room. They were dimmed out, most likely due to the fact that there were no windows around, but nevertheless, I started to dissociate. It felt as if my body was dissolving and I was melting into the floor.

Thud was the sound my head made when it slammed on the wooden floor. All I saw were sparkling stars, falling deeper and deeper into a never-ending abyss.

"Celestial!"

I had woken up to a familiar voice, a gravelly one at that. My head was pulsating and my heart was skipping beats. I looked up to see Ominis standing over me.

"I know I am the last person you want to see, but Sebastian needs your help," he spoke in a low tone. He carried a blank expression, but I noticed deep down something was breaking inside of him. He was strangled by the thought of losing his best mate.

"He needs to find help elsewhere, as I will not subject myself as his slave again," I muttered. Ominis shook his head.

"You must, Cel. The only one who can truly help him is you, and if you don't he will be truly lost."

"Why should it bother me? I've been quite content on my own..."

"Reconsider, will you? I did just come to find you face down on the floor of your dorm room..." Ominis said and I scoffed. "The only reason I knew you were he is because of him."

I furrowed my eyebrows. How would that be possible?

"Oh, don't humor me, Ominis. If this is one of your sick jokes to get me to agree to this little venture, consider your request declined."

"But, it is true, indeed. Sebastian is tethered to you forever. It is much like our invisible string. He knew you were out cold on the floor, alone, exhausted, and sunken deep into the depths of despair..." he trailed off, sitting on my bed to catch his breath, as if what he were about to say next needed some mustering.

"How could it be?" I asked, my fingers beginning to twitch with trepidation.

"When he gave you that golden snitch all those years ago. It bonded you two together. And not just that... It had a drop of an immortality potion."

"Surely that did not work on me... surely it was not sufficient enough to take effect-"

"Indeed, it did not. But, when he was making it... he realized he was missing quite a crucial ingredient... The most rare but powerful of all, the tears of an ancient magic wielder." My eyes began to feel heavy as if I were about to pass out again.

"I need to sit down..." I spoke breathlessly, trying to get back to a normal rhythm. "So, you're insinuating that he needs my tears for something?"

"I'm afraid he already has it... As the golden snitch was just his first attempt at cultivating it. He succeeded when he saved you from the Dugbogs that one fateful night," he sighed, disappointed.

"What is his reason for this?" I asked, my breathing became erratic and my stomach began to churn.

"He wants to achieve immortality... and he wants you to do it as well. For you two to become immortal lovers bound forever by the chains of dark magic..." I shook my head in disbelief. "He wants to dominate the world, wreak havoc on those who've hurt him the most, those who have crossed Anne and led to her untimely death."

"And, what do you suppose I should do?"

"Immortality is quite terrifying. Your responsibility here is to stop him from drinking that potion. Don't let him go down that path..." he sighed as his voice began to crack. I hadn't ever seen Ominis emotional and he was getting quite close today. "I will transform us to Azkaban, but to our own discretion, we must act with haste."

____

As I opened my eyes and glanced around, I began to cough. The accumulation of dust around the cell was overwhelming.

Azkaban was utterly frightening. Full of dementors and black smoke writhing around. Ominis pushed himself up and stretched out his hand to help me up.

"Cel?" It was Sebastian. He was just a few cells down from where we landed. "How I am happy to see you!"

"Save it, Sebastian. I'm not here to rescue you. I'm here to stop you from making a terrible decision..." Sebastian looked menacingly toward Ominis. The two used to be the best of pairs, but now all they do is bicker and fight. The light between them had dulled - to the point of no return. It was saddening to watch.

"He turned you against me..." he muttered from the other side of the lonely cell. I thoroughly disliked being here. The other inmates had descended to insanity, I heard it through the noises they made.  Eerie, sinister, and blood-curdling.

"No one did that but you..."

"Then, why are you here? To ridicule me? To watch me as if I was some sort of circus act?" His voice turned into an angry tone, one I knew never led to anything positive.

"It's the elixir of life you've concocted. You must not take it, Sebastian... for your own sake!"

"And why not? I refuse to be a prisoner for the entirety of my life. This potion... It- it will...." He spoke with a suppressed fury as he pulled out the potion from his pocket. "It will provide me more time to escape this hell. I refuse to spend my life as a prisoner in my own body - I refuse to go down the way Anne suffered for years."

"Sebastian... I know you miss Anne dearly - I miss her too - but you have to move on, you are a bright, young wizard-" Ominis attempted to speak, but it was too late.

Sebastian had swigged the potion in one big gulp. Ominis and I stepped back in terror, and I began to lose my balance.

"I've got just enough left for you to take, my dear..." Sebastian coughed, trying to clear his itchy throat. I shook my head... fighting so hard to refuse it.

But, deep down inside, all I've ever wanted was to be with him. To love him, to have and to hold, to be his wife, and the mother of his children - to have the butterflies flutter in my stomach for the rest of eternity.

The love he has shown me these past few years was incredible. The way he'd make me feel as though I were walking on clouds, but then in an instant, he would drop me to the hard ground.

"So, what do you say? I told you I would love you for infinity... Are you going to reciprocate?" Sebastian asked me, his voice murky like the ocean water that surrounded us.

I studied the vial for a brief moment before plucking it out of his hands that were extended through the cell bars.

"Cel- please, don't," Ominis pleaded as I watched Sebastian scowl at the sound of his voice.

"I know what I must do..." I spoke slowly, but before I could make a decision, Professor Weasley had conjured herself out of thin air.

"What do you think you two are doing? You will come back with me to Hogwarts at once!" She yelled out as she whipped her wand and threw us back into the Quidditch field back at the castle.

I hid the vial deep in my Hufflepuff robe. Professor Weasley began to lecture us, but I only had one thing on my mind.

It was a decision of a lifetime... quite literally.