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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"This is incredible!" Sebastian's youthful voice exclaims as an extraordinary vision comes to life before us. Ominis' hand tenses around mine.
That voice. Talk about ghosts.
Sebastian is laughing in total wonder, and his boyish giggle melts my heart. To call the scene that unfolds 'breathtaking' would be a massive understatement. He's walking behind a quiet, older man who's robes look quite different, though I recognize the style from some of Madam Kogawa's old Toyohashi Tengu posters. They're walking down a long, wide dirt path that's covered end-to-end with an arbor that creates an overflowing ceiling of some kind of magical, purple wisteria that is dancing gently of its own accord.
"What is it, April? I've never heard bells like that," Ominis asks me and I register the subtle tinkling sound the flowers are making. I explain the scene to him as best as I can.
"I wish my friends were here to see this," Sebastian says kindly to the man who simply looks back at him with a peaceful smile and nods. I'm not sure if he understands.
Sebastian reaches the end of the walkway and looks upwards with a gasp, and wide, curious eyes. His mouth hangs open a bit and I have to force myself to choose to look at the view and not at him. A gigantic mountaintop looms before them, and a bright, white castle is built atop it and within its cliffs.
"I think it's Mahoutokoro, Ominis," I explain, attempting to convey the magnitude and the practically blinding brightness of the smooth, milky white structure. "Can you hear it singing?" Ominis asks me, and I have to listen closely to understand what he's referring to. Indeed, when I lean towards the memory, the building seems to emit an evolving, living sound of a chorus of voices in complicated, morphing harmonies.
"Can you hear it singing?" Sebastian's voice repeats in the memory and it makes Ominis and I jump at the coincidence. The man in the memory turns around again. "Erm..sorry," Sebastian says quickly. "Old habit I guess. My best friend, he..." Sebastian's voice trails off before he summarizes, "he would really like this."
Ominis adjusts in place as says, almost as though he were a part of the memory, itself, "of course I can hear it, Sebastian, it's my eyes I can't use..." The natural manner of his years-delayed banter with Sebastian warms me.
I watch Sebastian walk confidently up, up, up the meandering pathway of the mountainside that is stunning both for its view of the ocean that surrounds the mountainous island in its entirety, and for the lush, beautifully curated garden that runs along the ascending path. It makes me smile to compare the fact that Sebastian's gait, now, is only slightly less cocky than it used to be.
Good lord he makes me feel things.
Sebastian pauses regularly to inspect the new and interesting foliage along the way. He looks up and scratches his head the sweet way he always used to as he guilelessly asks his guide, "excuse me, but do you have pensieves here?" His escort provides no answer and Sebastian sighs before twisting his mouth to the side, chewing at his bottom lip, and muttering to himself with a few "hmm" sounds.
