Ten years after I began at Hogwarts, Sebastian Sallow is back. And he's Professor Sallow now. He disappeared after the fall of Ranrok and Rookwood, after I lost Professor Fig, and after Ominis and I couldn't keep him from losing himself. But I never...
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It's barely mid-day but my legs are slow to drag me up the stairs back to the room of requirement. The amount of mental and emotional energy necessary for the deluge of changes, planning, and activities has taken a toll. Even still, I can't stop my mind from rehashing it all. And in spite of the exhaustion, I'm pleased some logistics have been sorted.
Headmistress Weasley wants me to get a jump start on the repository, so she's arranged for Kai to take my entire Magical Theory workload until the Ball, for which Ronan charmed a large cupboard to act as a portal directly between the forbidden forest and the Magical Theory classroom. And Thiago is taking my first through fourth year transfiguration classes for the foreseeable future which will basically be a party for them, given his penchant for insect- and animal-related methodologies (which are always the most anticipated, anyway).
Thiago and Kai are coordinating to brief us all at some point on their knowledge of the goings on with Headmaster Helvig, Drumstrang, and the magical creatures in that region, which is intriguing to me, given my last assignment in Finland with Thiago this past winter was adjacent to the region, but we were focused on dragon populations and I don't recall any poaching issues.
I have some ideas for how to begin to tackle the repository and I'm glad Ominis will be there. Plus, yesterday Sharp asked if he could visit it again – said he had some theories – which I agreed to after he warmly assured me we were not only a-okay but apparently better than ever. I imagine he'll try to help me develop a game plan. I wonder what he's interested in seeing again.
On the lighter end of things, the announcement of the All Hallow's Eve Ball has caused quite a stir amongst the students and it's been fun to observe the buzz. There's a sadistic streak in me that looks forward to watching the melodrama unfold over the upcoming weeks: the confessions of crushes and young love, the broken hearts, the nightmare that someone else might wear the same dress!
I push aside the idea that I may enjoy observing the simplicity of the student's lives because my own experience wasn't so easy, but as I round the corner and my doorway appears, I let my mind wander back to sweet Ominis and how valid he is to feel how he does. Before really seeing Sebastian and talking with him I was so, so angry, too. A part of me still is. But it's different to be around him and understand his context.
I enter the room's main atrium, and am surprised to notice some of the furniture pushed to the edges of the space when I see Sebastian rise from the staircase that leads down to the living area with a couple apples in hand. When he notices me he grins. His posture becomes more confident. His head lowers in a coy way.
"Look who it is!" he says, cocky, looking at me from under his brows as he approaches. He casually tosses the apples into a nearby chaise as he moves right into me in a single motion. Scooping me up, my feet off the floor, he pulls me into a comforting hug. He growls as his arms squeeze me tightly, saying 'bloody hell I hate to be apart from you," and a flutter of relief validates me with his words because I find myself feeling the exact same way – sometimes to an absurd extent. Even if it's only for a couple hours, like today. And yet, in many ways, it's always the feeling of nine years plus a couple hours.
