Aftermath ✧ Sebastian Sallow

chapter five

Last to Know by Balance & Composure

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Sebastian's Perceptive

It was another unsurprising bad night of sleep. The whole first week of classes had gone by and I had probably only slept one full night. The last time I had gotten any sleep I just continued to have nightmares of everything I'd done. I ended up waking up in the middle of the night and walking around the empty hallways until the sun came up. 

Each sleepless night was different. Most nights I spent walking around the hallways for a few hours. On occasion, I would go to the Undercroft and practice spells or look at the mysterious empty portrait. 

This night, I didn't feel like wondering. My body was tired. I decided to spend the endless night reading by the fireplace in the common room. 

I had just finished reading Amelia's recommendation of A Midsummer Night's Dream when the sun broke on Friday morning. It was interesting and very different from the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet. But she was right about enjoying the book. I had never thought about books written by muggles before, but I was rather enjoying stories. They helped the long nights go by faster. 

I've never borrowed a book from Amelia before. My favorite part about sharing her book was how she would unline phrases and passages that she enjoyed or write a little comment in the margins. 

"Delightful!" was written on the last page of this story like it was Amelia's professional review of the story.  I wondered how many times she might have gone through the book. 

I wasn't sure if she would end up reading the book again, but I thought it would be funny to leave her my own comment. On the last page of A Midsummer Night's Dream, I decided to add my own note after hers, adding "Not tragic enough..." 

It was just before sunrise when I heard footsteps rounding the corner into the empty common room. 

Imelda Reyes stood dressed completely in her Quidditch clothes and broom in hand when she entered the room, "You're awake early," She scoffed when she noticed me.

It wasn't so much that I was awake early as I had never fallen asleep at all. But it wasn't worth correcting. 

"I see you're wasting no time in practice for the Quidditch season," I teased at the full uniform.

"We already lost one year, no point in wasting any more," Imelda pointed out, "You're trying out again, correct?"

"Probably not," I informed her as reopened the book.

Reopening the book was meant to be an end to the conversation. I expected Imelda to do what she always did and roll her eyes at me before going back to her own task. But instead, she leaned her broom against the empty armchair and sat across from me.

"Why not?" She hissed impatiently. 

"Why do you care?" I attempt to brush it off.

"Because I need good players on my team," She scoffed with a backhanded compliment, "Is it because of Anne?"

In truth, I didn't really want to talk about Anne with Imelda. She hadn't known anything about the events of last year or that my sister had stopped speaking with me. 

When I attempted to ignore the topic, Imelda just sighed before adding, "Listen Sallow, you should still play. You and Anne made a great pair on the pitch. It was so fun to have you both on the team. Trust me if I could only have one of you on the team then I would have picked her."