Safe & Sound//Sebastian Sallow

twenty-one.

My and Sebastian's engagement announcement was posted in the Daily Prophet two days after the Yule Ball and the letters and gifts started to roll in two days after that. I hadn't expected the amount of attention we'd gotten. I didn't keep in contact with many people I used to work with and I didn't have any family that I knew of left. Sebastian didn't have any family left, either, but he was a lot better at maintaining connections than I was.

I sat in my room with Sebastian, staring at a small pile of gifts. We were doing our best to keep track of who had sent what. There was one package, however, that didn't have a return address. Sebastian opened the box to reveal a smaller box. My heart jumped to my throat.

"Don't open that," I yelled, leaping up from my seat and snatching the box from his hands. My hands shook as I held the small box.

"What's wrong," he asked after seeing the look on my face and hearing the tone of my voice. I carefully set the box down on my desk.

"Dark, ancient magic is in that box. It's glowing red."

"Really? Ancient magic?" He looked as surprised as I felt.

"I haven't seen any traces in so long, but it's just like the dark magic Ranrok used to wield. We need to get rid of whatever this is."

"Do you think we should ask Ominis to take a look? See if he can figure out what it was meant to do? Someone wanted one of us to be affected and I'm curious to know what could've happened."

"That's not a bad idea. We need to do this now. I don't want whatever this is in the school. Thank Merlin most of the students are on break." I carefully put the glowing box back into the box it came in. Surely it would be safe to travel this way with it since it was shipped just fine.

Sebastian and I got our cloaks and headed to Ominis' flat by Floo Powder. It was mid-afternoon, so hopefully he was available. I put the mystery box into a small, charmed bag so we could travel easily. I also hoped it would help contain whatever darkness was held within, should it accidentally open.

We hurried through the streets of London toward Ominis' home. We didn't want to draw any attention to ourselves, so we made sure to walk at a reasonable speed. I'd be running the whole way had I not been paranoid we were being watched somehow.

"Ominis," Sebastian called as he knocked on the wooden door. "Ominis, are you home?" He kept knocking until we heard the locks clicking. Morgana answered the door.

"Sebastian! Althea! What brings you both here," she asked cheerfully. Her smile quickly faded when she saw our distress.

"We need to see Ominis. It's urgent," Sebastian told her.

"What's urgent?" Ominis appeared behind Morgana.

"Can we come in? We should talk privately," I told him.

"Of course," he said. "Come on in." He and Morgana moved out of the way and let us inside. "Now will you please fill me in? You both sound panicked," he told us after shutting and locking the door.

"Thea and I were sent this box. We suspect it holds a cursed item," Sebastian told him. I grabbed the box out of my bag, thankful that it was all still secure.

"What makes you think it's cursed," Morgana asked.

"Um," Sebastian began, unsure of how to respond.

"It's okay, she can know," I reassured him. "Whatever is in it holds traces of ancient magic. Dark magic."

"Ancient magic," Morgana asked. "How do you know it has ancient magic?"

"I can see traces. Generally, neutral or good magic has blue traces. The box, however, glows red. The only time I've ever seen red ancient magic was when I was dealing with Ranrock and Rookwood."