Me and the Devil: Sebastian Sallow

Chapter EIGHTY FOUR - Frozen Dreams

Charles Rookwood in his stupid little hat walked alongside Professor Rackham, and two others I thought I might have remembered from another Hogwarts memory but couldn't be sure. Clouds dusted the night sky, rings of moonlight tasting the tips of each and emanating the world below in a cool blue blow.

"I must say I'm curious to hear of Isidora's travels." Rookwood hummed as the light of a home came in to view. 

My thoughts wandered to Feldcroft. 

To Anne.

"Do come in!" My mind was shoved back into the memory as a singsong voice burst open the front door excitedly.

The four witches and wizards strolled in with hands behind backs at the most leisurely pace I had ever seen. 

Perhaps they always moved so slow in that time.

The home seemed humble enough. A few small lanterns hung near the door and a couple candles burned near the edge of their wicks against a small circle table near the center of the room. The blue of the night was swallowed by the warmth of the flames and as the door clicked shut behind them, the air shifted too.

The walls were lined with shelves and shelves of little glass bottles and cans. The corners of the rooms were stacked high with books and trunks. Small pillows were tucked neatly against the couch cushions and a small knitted blanket hung just over the arm. It was a terribly comfortable looking space.

"Do have a seat." The woman who had opened the door, Isidora, motioned happily before grabbing an empty bottle from next to the candles on the table.

Professor Rackham was the first to sit and he smiled kindly. "Isidora, we are all most intrigued to hear-"

The young woman waved her wand to a little wooden door just aside the table and it creaked deeply before swinging inward.

"We're ready." Her voice low and reserved, a smile at the edge of her lips.

The keepers looked to each other with furrowed brows.

Isidora turned back to the table and I noticed her fingers shaking gently against the little glass bottle she held. "I've something to show you."

A deeply somber man clomped slowly out from the dark into the flickering candle light, eyeing to four around the table with a disturbingly blank expression.

"Father, these are my colleagues, from Hogwarts."

Chairs squeaked as they were dragged back and all four keepers stood once more with a polite dip of their heads to the man. His eyes did little more than track their movements, bones stiffening as he lowered himself into a chair just behind Isidora.

"Father hasn't spoken since my brother died." Her silent pause drew darkened emotions through the home. "On my travels, I confirmed that which I've always believed: that we have the power to take away pain."

My right hand felt warm and tight, pressure grasping against my skin.

I forced my mind back to the memory.

Professor Rackham's eyes deepened and his brows lowered.

Rolling her shoulders back and sitting in a seat opposite her father, Isidora smiled to the man before lifting her wand straight to his chest.

The wood seemed to shudder with white light before it pulsed twice.

"Isidora-"

White light

singed to blue

singed to red.

It twisted up around her wrist like bracelets before dancing back down and tying knots around itself just at the very edge of the wand.

The three others aside Professor Rackham gasped as the magic finally appeared for them.

I watched in horror as the man gasped, eyes widening and fingers shaking. With each strand pulled from his chest, he took another hurried breath, face scrunching up as his nostrils flared.

Over within a moment, the magic bubbled at the tip of her wand deep and black, red light dancing just under the surface.

"What have you done?" Rackham's brows were still creased as his eyes clung strictly to the magic.

Isidora grinned. "I took his pain."

Her father's head tilted around the room, eyes wandering as if seeing it for the first time. He reached a hand out to Isidora and squeezed it gently, eyes welling at the edges.

The keepers rose to their feet hurriedly, brows furrowed except for one man on the far left who held a hand to his chin and smiled in awe.

Isidora led the light gently into the jar in her hands corking it tight and hugging it to her chest.

"This is uncharted magic Isidora..." He turned to the other's. "You can only see what has been sealed in the jar - and we do not know what power that may hold. But the traces of that magic are different from what I've seen before."

"T-thank you." A jagged whisper. "Thank you my girl."

Isidora was hugging her father now, shoulders heaving as she tucked her chin against his back. Hand steady against the jar.

SWWWWOOOOOOOOOOP

I gasped for breath as the memory swirled away and inhaled a bit of the water from the pensieve, choking once as the sting bit down my nose.

She took his pain.

My breathing heavy and own hands shaking, I dared to peek up to Sebastian.

He was still dipped over the basin letting the water drip from his brows and nose, body eerily still.

"Well?" Ominis hummed from a few paces back.

I watched the light of the water swim across Sebastian's cheekbones and the corner of his lips tipped upward ever so gently.

My heart clenched around frozen dreams.

Swirls of liquid blue smothered under the warmth of the flames in the room as his face lifted slowly to me.

Our eyes locked and thousands of little conversations dripped across our hearts like the droplets on his cheeks.