Up and Down

Besotted and Bewitched

TW: mentions of sexual assault

It never gets easier.

Watching Ominis. Controlled and puppeted by the machinations of the vile girl who flaunts his hold over him at her and Sebastian at every opportunity.

Anna is often skipping meals now, with Sebastian bringing her food from the Great Hall or the kitchen as she studies in the Room of Requirement, where she doesn't have to watch Ominis' sickening adoration.

The rumour mill is circling the halls, of course. Some accuse Ominis of being a traitor, of spying on their Champion, some defend him by saying he's actually spying on behalf of Sebastian. It all hurts - each word a painful sting, a reminder he isn't by their side.

Ominis seems oblivious to both sides of the narrative, barely spending any time with the rest of the students, led as if on a leash among the throng of Durmstrangs, his hand entwined with that of their Champion.

It churns Anna's stomach to see it, to watch them talk softly, to whisper in each other's ears. To see him being led through the corridors by her hand. She can't stand to watch it for long and thankfully, perhaps, her eyes almost always cloud with tears and she doesn't have to.

But she still knows.

Sebastian has been handling it a bit better, but not by much. She often hears him growl under his breath at the sight, the jaw muscles tensing.

Oftentimes, she knows he is as sleepless as she is, though they do not talk about it, instead laying curled up together in bed, acutely, painfully aware of the missing sound of the third breath beside them.

It has been over a month since the first Trial. A month since Ominis was stolen from them.

Sebastian was right in guessing Olesya would do everything she could to keep them away from Ominis. He would ignore them during class or in the hall, and Anna often found herself on the brink of collapse from the cold shoulder... which she suspects was rather the point.

Sebastian and Anne's seventeenth birthday is muted by the cloud hanging over them all, by the absence of the one who should be with them but is not.

They sit in the Three Broomsticks, drinking butterbeer, mostly silent.

About two months ago, they were here too, at the very same table, quietly celebrating Ominis' coming of age. He didn't want anything special, just a calm evening with those he cared about.

The twin pair of watches Anna had commissioned for them months ago was ready by then, and Ominis accepted his with gratitude. It was in the same design as Mrs Sallow's, now Anna's - but silver instead of warm gold, with green enamel inlays on the back in the shape of a coiling snake.

The one she ordered for Sebastian had the snake in the loop, biting its own tail. But, of course, she didn't give it to him then.

It is laying on the table in front of him now, and he absentmindedly spins it on the worn wooden surface, watching it glint in the candlelight. Anna can take a guess at what he is thinking.

He is probably thinking of the watch's twin and of the one who holds it. Anna knows Ominis still wears it every day, can see the silver chain threaded through the buttonhole of his waistcoat.

Anne has instead received her and Sebastian's father's watch from Solomon, and a dainty silver bracelet from Anna, which she rotates on her wrist absentmindedly, no doubt also missing Ominis' presence.

"Well, your faces are rather dour."

Sebastian hisses through gritted teeth as Alexandre pulls up a chair, twirling it before sitting down on it the wrong way around, putting his arms on the backrest.