Aftermath ✧ Sebastian Sallow

chapter sixteen

Amelia's Perceptive

It had been two weeks with the monster book and a few short weeks until our group had planned to enter the Forbidden Forest. 

The girls' second-floor lavatory was the nicest bathroom in the castle, much more relaxing than the Ravenclaw common bathroom. It was late at night and empty when I decided that it was the perfect time to take a hot bath to wash away the stress. 

As the large tub filled with water and the room filled with the conforming steam, I looked at myself in the mirror. The outline was almost a ghostly white as it drew a line from my hairline, towards the edge of my brow, and fish hooked on top of my temple. The scar above my eyebrow had gotten lighter, but the hair still wasn't fully growing back.

The memory of Sebastian using the unforgivable curse flashed back in my mind. I haven't occurred to me that the curse might end up leaving a scar, not that it matters. I wasn't able to cast the curse myself at the time. 

Not against him.

That night after we left The Scriptorium was the first time that we had ever gotten into an argument. Sebastian followed me around the castle demanding to take me to the hospital wing for the cut, but I was too frustrated with myself to be around him. 

It was supposed to be me that was supposed to cast Curio on him. But I panicked when I realized that I just couldn't mean it against him.

After he cast the curse on me, I felt embarrassed that he could mean it against me. Even if he was my friend, or did care about me, he still was able to cast an unforgivable on me and mean it. 

It was over a year ago and I still was frustrated when I thought about it. 

In the past two weeks since our argument in the Undercroft, we hadn't spoken much or talked about what happened. We weren't avoiding each other as we had done before, but it was hard to be around him. I couldn't stand being around him and his flirtatious behavior when I knew he didn't mean it. 

I looked down from my scar in an attempt to forget Sebastian. Just one night without thinking about what happened. 

I never noticed the craving for the snake in the sink before. A twisting serpent carved directly into the porcelain. Perhaps it was just a reference to the Slytherin house, whose common room was just down the hall. I ignored in crawling slowly into the hot bath, admiring the steaminess of the room. 

My body sunk completely into the water like a stone being dropped into a pond. I remain under the heat until the last of the bubbles of air from my lungs hit the surface before coming back up to the surface. There was something comforting about being surrounded by water. 

Dark purple bruises had covered most of my legs and more of my body from the training sections I had with Poppy and Ominis. Poppy's skills had improved greatly with Ominis' help. I felt confident that she was well prepared to partner with me now. 

However, I missed talking to Poppy, we had only really seen each other on the night we trained together and it was beginning to feel like our friendship was fading away. Most of her time was spent with Garreth. 

I wasn't upset about Garreth. He had broken my heart, but who was I to stop them from being happy with each other? Besides, I didn't desire Garreth. 

I only desire the feeling of being happy, of being loved. 

While Poppy's skills were greatly improving, I still failed to cast the Patronus charm. Ominis and I had tried just about every memory. I just wasn't happy enough to master the spell. My body was tired from craving happiness.