Aftermath ✧ Sebastian Sallow

chapter six

Caught in the Middle by Paramore

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Sebastian's Perceptive

"Ah! I did it!" Adelaide excitedly let out finally landing a defense spell on the training dummy.

Poppy was right, Adelaide did need help a lot with the subject. Her spell was extremely weak and did not land on the dummies fully. It was a wonder how she passed without the confidence to land these spells. She lacked serious intent whenever she cast a spell. We had been practicing for three hours for her to finally land that hit on the dummy! 

It was almost curfew and the stars had taken over the sky.

My entire body was exhausted. It had been a long day of not sleeping, followed by Quidditch tryouts and what ended up being running around the courtyard picking the training dummy after every failed attempt at a spell.

"Thank you so much for all of your help Sebastian!" Adelaide was overjoyed knowing she finally cast the spell correctly and tossed her arms around my neck hugging me in excitement. I was so tired that I could barely support the unexcepted weight of her hug. Tumbling a little to the side she gave me a bear hug. 

"I'm glad you finally did it! I'm very proud of you!" I offered back, "It's almost curfew, you should head back to your common room before we get in trouble. I'll take care of the training dummy."

Despite the exhaustion I was feeling, I did enjoy spending time with Adelaide and there was a sense of accomplishment that I felt finally seeing her land a blow on the dummy. 

Adelaide was possibly the sweetest Hufflepuff I've met. She had even brought sandwiches and snacks to share together before we started our training, knowing that I was coming straight from tryouts. It was a nice gesture that I appreciated. 

She was much wittier than I expected her to be. Teasing me right back. I could see why she had been friends with Anne. They were both witty like they had been using their sharp tongue as a defense against people. 

"Thank you, Sebastian, I had such a wonderful time with you this evening," Adelaide said in a flirty tone before quickly planting a kiss on my cheek.

It shouldn't have taken me that long to realize what was going on.

"I did too, I'll talk to you soon," I quickly answered feeling my pulse start to rise.

"Goodnight!" Adelaide said cheerfully heading inside. Finally leaving me alone in the courtyard.

I'm so bloody stupid!

Of course, she was flirting with me! Looking back on my actions and her actions, she had been flirting with me the whole time. That's why Amelia wasn't helping her. Adelaide had asked me on a bloody date and I was too foolish to make the connection.

We had a picnic! The food was a picnic, not just a simple gesture. 

Did Poppy know the whole time? Did Ominis realize that when he encouraged me? Did Amelia know?

I felt so blindsided by my own stupidity. My mind was running miles in my head looking back on all the stupid realizations I missed. When I first met her outside the library, I gave her a plant. Then we had a picnic in the courtyard. And spend hours together. I couldn't believe how stupid I was for not realizing the situation I put myself in.