Enchanted by freckles - Garreth Weasley & Sebastian Sallow x female MC

44th chapter

Garreth went back into the kitchen. I caught an excellent smell as I left the bedroom. "What are you cooking there?" I asked curiously. "I'm making meat pies. It's New Year's Eve after all," Garreth replied, giving me a small kiss.

"Garreth, can you please teach me the healing spells you know?" asked Sebastian as he joined us with his freshly washed face. "Well, I'm no master at it, but my mum can teach you when she gets back. They'll be back before the holidays are over. I think it makes more sense if you have a professional healer teach you and not just some bungler like me," he said. "Great, thank you.", Sebastian answered, nodding.

I was looking through a window. It was already dark outside. I looked at the clock hanging over the mantel. It was already 8 p.m.

"What are we going to do now until the fireworks?" I asked curiously. "Fireworks?" Sebastian asked confused. "Yes, in the place where we came out of the fireplace, there are fireworks every year at the turn of the year. At least that was the case when Marlee was still there. You could see that quite well from here," I said.

"What else are you doing on New Year's Eve?" I asked. "My family only drinks until late at night. That's never really exciting," Garreth said. "Before Anne got sick, we always played and sang songs until late in the evening. That annoyed Solomon quite a bit.", Sebastian said and blushed a little.

"What are you playing?" Garreth asked curiously. Sebastian's head got even redder, "Bagpipes.", Sebastian said embarrassed. Garreth's green eyes lit up, "By Merlin's beard, I love bagpipe music but my mother forbade me to learn it because she finds it annoying. But how does one go about learning the bagpipes these days?"

"My father learned it as a child, and my grandfather traveled all over Europe as a musician.I taught myself, my father wasn't there anymore, but I thought to myself, if he can see it, he might be happy.", Sebastian said and looked into the darkness.

"I can only play the lute a bit, my grandpa taught me. Like so many other things. I'm glad we got to know each other. Jennie doesn't remember him. She was too young when he died," Garreth said, going over to his bag and placing a bottle of liquor on the coffee table.

He took three glasses from the kitchen cupboard and sent us onto the sofa. He poured us and took a big gulp himself. I was thinking about Marlee. I didn't know if Marlee was capable of anything special. She had no passion or any hobby to pursue when I was around. In fact, most of the time when she wasn't aware I was watching her, she just sat there and cried. She never stopped mourning her husband.

Now we all sat there and looked sadly into the void.

I sat on the armchair and decided to sit with the boys who were both sitting on the large sofa. I sat between them and placed a hand on each knee.

"Do you still have your bagpipes?", I asked and looked into Sebastian's face. His eyes continued to focus on the window, but he nodded. He stood up and went to the bedroom. From a small box he took out a small bagpipe. He put it in his hand and picked up his wand. "Engorgio," he whispered. The sac grew back to its normal size.

Now Sebastian sat down on the armchair and began to play. A bit bumpy at the beginning, but you could see and hear that he mastered this instrument but was out of practice.

Garreth smiled from ear to ear as Sebastian settled in. His mood lifted for a moment and he pulled his lute from his pocket. How long has she been in there? I asked myself. However, Garreth's bag was a mystery unto itself. He was constantly pulling things out of there that he said had been there for years, but which I've never seen or felt when I was looking for something.

He really rarely played. As soon as he noticed me, he stopped playing, but every once in a while, I could sometimes secretly watch and listen to him.

Garreth sat back down on the sofa, crossed his legs and joined Sebastian's melody.

It was a truly magical moment. Never before has Garreth played in front of anyone, let alone with anyone. Even Sebastian's facial expression wasn't as dark as before.

Like two trained bards, they sat together, playing in perfect unison without even exchanging a word. Every now and then Sebastian needed a little respite to sip some of Garreth's schnapps. Both of them didn't speak the whole time. But it was not an awkward silence. At that moment, words were simply not necessary. They looked at each other from time to time to indicate when they should start. Every now and then they looked at me too.

It was so reassuring to watch them. I sat cross-legged on the sofa, my glass in one hand while tapping my leg to the beat with the other. Rarely has a moment been so intense without being sexual. I had goosebumps all over my body from hearing the pain they both carried. Most of the time they both sounded very melancholic, until little by little, very slowly, the mood of the music relaxed.

Their eyes were closed most of the time and they just enjoyed their musical playing. I wished that this moment would never end.

I took Garreth's meat pies out of the oven and put them in the kitchen. Not even that bothered him, he was really lost in the music. Otherwise I wasn't allowed to touch his dishes until he'd opened them up on plates because he was afraid I'd drop something.

You could hear them slowly preparing for the end of the game, but it was a good ten minutes before both instruments fell silent.

"Thanks, Garreth," Sebastian said, raising his glass. "I have to thank you, my friend." Garreth said with a smile and raised his glass as well.

I got up and went to one of Marlee's closets. Since we had only recently been looking for information, I knew that there was a deck of cards in that closet that Marlee and I used to play together at the time.

"Would you like a game of cards?" I asked the two boys. "Sure." Sebastian replied. His voice was a little less dark again and when I turned around I saw that he was smiling lovingly at me.I took the cards out of the cupboard and put them on the table. I didn't know what the game was called, so I explained the rules to them and we started playing.

It was now 11:30pm and I decided to light a small fire outside so we wouldn't freeze to the fireworks. Sebastian accompanied me while Garreth prepared the meat pies.

Hand in hand we walked outside. I pulled out my wand and let Lumos light our way, took a small basket that was standing by the front door, set down a spider that had built its nest in the basket, a little to the side of the house. While Sebastian picked up all kinds of twigs and branches. We walked a few yards from the house and piled our collected branches into a small pile.

We went back inside, where Garreth stacked all the dishes on an old wooden board. Sebastian grabbed a blanket, I grabbed a bottle of champagne that Garreth handed me and our glasses, and so we went outside.

We sat outside, lit the little campfire, and ate Garreth's pies. Sebastian looked at his small pocket watch and stood in front of the fire and looked towards the village.

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and days of auld lang syne?" Sebastian began to sing in the finest Scottish English.
I recognized the song. Apparently a lot of Scots sang this during the turn of the year. Every year at Hogwarts, I saw some of the students start singing this song.