Virtues and Vices

Forgotten Answer

"The note.. And rendition of the relic. It matches. This must be where the student left the relic."

Eleanor wouldn't lie about how much she hated his idea of going this far, but it wasn't like she could actually say no to him. His discovery of a student's report in Salazar's spellbook regarding a relic that the student found during an assignment to study sarcophagi, led them to the deepest part of the mentioned catacomb.

It had been hours since midnight when she decided to go after getting his owl, somewhat worried he might be freezing waiting for her outside of the catacomb. She was already exhausted long before they reached this relic, but he seemed too excited to feel drained any time now, and she knew her knees would finally give up soon enough.

Her thoughts were running wild. What Ominis, Elliot— or even worse, her father, would say if any of them knew what they were doing? What would be the consequences? She bit her lip, wishing she had stopped him before they entered the catacomb. The sound of water dripping slowly somewhat made her much more nervous than she already was.

"I can't believe it! After all this, it lines up. We've really found it!" She could hear how thrilled he was, making her wonder what could make him leave this suspicious relic behind. "What do you suppose meant by... The Dark sacrifice required to realise the relic's potential?" Her gaze moved to the relic on the table, she tried to ignore her guts. But, it got stronger instead.

She wouldn't dare to say going through a dark catacomb filled with spiders and countless bones was effortless, but, finding the relic this easy and you could possibly just snatch it then take it home? Even the note already gave them a warning.

"I have no idea, but we're here for the relic."

She understood how tempting it was to finally be able to help your sister as you have the power to reverse dark magic curses in your hand, but there must be something more than this, so before he could take it she stopped him as she held his arm.

"But Sebastian," she shook her head, "the note advises to leave the relic alone. I believe there's a reason why someone wrote this, let's just leave it here." She didn't want to sound as if she was a know-it-all but taking a relic with unknown and perhaps dangerous possibilities of what might happen after they take it wasn't worth the fight at all.

Sebastian's brows furrowed, he clearly didn't find it pleasant for her to say that after all that they'd been through. It took some minutes until he sighed, "I assure you, Ellie. We were meant to find this. For Anne's sake." He showed that face— that damned face. The face she couldn't say no to.

But her mind drifted for a bit, the talk they had about the reason why he had been sneaking into the restricted section so often while they were there months ago suddenly popped up in her brain.

"I'm looking for a cure to help my twin sister, Anne. So that she can return to Hogwarts."

"Why do you think you'll find a cure in the restricted section? Does the Hogwarts matron have anything that can help Anne?"

"No! We've tried everyone from Nurse Blainey to St. Mungo's."

Her eyes widened as she realised something.

St. Mungo's. That's the solution.

Sebastian caught that change in her expression; a surprised face that he had seen before, the same one she showed when he taught her the blasting spell. "Ellie– What is it?" Eleanor's fists were clenched so tight as she jumped around a little, ignoring his question.

"Oh, Merlin! I swear if I wasn't this stupid we wouldn't have to go all the way here!" But that made Sebastian even more puzzled. He could only watch her with a weird look on his face, but then he saw a blissful grin on her face as she walked closer to him. "What if I say I maybe have the cure for Anne, would you leave the relic here?"