Aftermath | Sebastian Sallow

2: Chapter 21

Black hair blows in the wind over the shoulders of armor, much like the armor the statue that had fought me at the Pensieve before. In the center of the the chest plate our family crest, the same one on the pendant of my mother's necklace.

The woman in which the hair and suit of armor belongs to has piercing silver eyes.

She stands on a cliff, overlooking the land belong. I walk closer to her and see that she's surveying a battle of sorts between what appears to be wizards. Some are using wands, others are using wandless magic. There are a few, though, that appear to be using what looks like ancient magic.

The sound of metal gliding and moving against itself brings my attention back to the woman. She throws both hands out to her sides, filling them with blue magic like mine as the color of her eyes do the very same thing.

After conjuring her magic, she runs toward the crowd below and begins fighting alongside them. Her movements and casting are effortless, as if she's trained in battling and dueling her whole life.

However, the magic she's using seems almost unstable. The amount she tries to use is overpowering her body, making her attacks sloppy. She goes on in almost a killing spree, and I try to look away from the sight.

The next memory from the Pensieve is of a man, most likely in his early thirties. He looks as though he's working as a blacksmith, with iron molds around him of various shapes.

He carefully picks up a large rod that is red in color from heating so much, and tilts it over to pour metal liquid into one of the molds.

I try to get a better look, seeing the shape the metal is forming into. The same shape as the very pendant around my neck.

There are others, too. Most of them being more of the same pendant or rings, all of them bearing the same family crest.

Another figure steps next to the man, and I see that it's the same woman from the battle before. Instead she's wearing a long, luxurious gown. She places her right hand on the shoulder of the blacksmith, and looks down at his work with a smile. The blacksmith moves to reveal what she is holding at her waist.

A pregnant belly.

Moving forward in time, this woman is training a young boy. Maybe mine and Sebastian's age, or slightly younger.

The boy is growing frustrated as he can't seem to focus his magic enough to control the power of it. The woman tells him to stop, and walks closer to him.

She reaches into her satchel and pulls out a small, ornate box. Inside she pulls out one of the rings from the blacksmith.

The boy smiles at her and slips the ring onto one of his fingers. Lifting his hand, he flexes his fingers while the ring activates a bright blue hue. He grins at the woman and she seems to encourage him to keep training with her. To his liking, the boy's movements and magic use are far more controlled.

The next memory is of a different woman now, in more present day times I'm assuming. The clothing she's wearing is much more fitting to our time period. Except she's wearing that same pendant, my pendant, around her neck.

She sits on a grass hill, and outstretches her arms as a little girl runs into them. A boy of slightly older age runs behind her and starts explaining something to the mother. The little girl turns to show her mother an injury, and the memory clicks into place for me.

The boy turns and I see a young Felix in his face. The memory is one I relived when I was in a coma. Our mother comforts me and brings us both in for a hug.

The final memory is darker, frantic.

My mother is casting spells at a man with snow white hair, alongside a man who I presume is our father.

The figure with white hair turns and reveals himself to be Xaiden Lestrange. My mother shouts something at my father I can't quite make out, and he screams back "No!" right as Xaiden casts the killing curse at my mother. As my mother's body starts falling to the ground, Xaiden apparates in front of her and snatches the pendant off of her neck.

My father cries and screams as my mother's lifeless body falls to the ground. His grip tightens on his wand and he aims it at Xaiden, but he isn't quick enough. Xaiden casts a curse at my father hitting him directly in the chest.

My father reaches his hand out to grab my mother's, and disapparates to the very cave we're in now. He stumbles his way to the Pensieve.

My body jolts upright as I remove it from the Pensieve. Hot tears immediately stream down my face as Sebastian also lifts out and comes to. He looks over at me, solemnly.

Without words, he wraps both arms around my body and pulls me in tight to his chest.

"Bastard!" I hear Felix scream in the distance and a loud clatter of whatever it is he's breaking, I'm not sure.

I release myself from Sebastian and look at Felix, not minding it at all when Sebastian is wiping my tears from my face.

"Felix.." My voice trembles.

Felix continues throwing his magic around the cave, causing cracks of rock and dust to fall about.

"Felix!" I turn my whole body to him and scream. Felix stops, breathing heavily.

"You're going to make the whole bloody thing crash down on us!" Sebastian yells at him.

Felix turns to us finally, his face full of rage for Sebastian's comment. Though when he sees me, his face falls into full sorrow. "Y/n.." His voice cracks.

I take off in a run to him and crash myself into his chest, to which his long and slender arms wrap around me.

"He had me. All those years, he was with me. All for this stupid fucking magic, he killed.. he killed our parents." His voice cracks.

"I know, I know. You're here with me now. He's gone, he got what he deserved." I push away from his chest and look up at his face. "We're here now, you're here with me. You'll never be with him again."

I hear Sebastian's voice in the distance, and turn my head. "Sebastian?" I call out.

"Down here!" I hear him again. Felix and I look at each other and start walking towards the Pensieve.

Around the corner of it is a very narrow set of stairs, spiraling to a room below. Felix and I both take the stairs down to see Sebastian with his wand casting Lumos.

From the light of his wand I see we're standing in a rather stuffy, tight room with even more times laying about.

"They were focus points." Sebastian says, pacing the small room with a book in hand. "The magic that runs throughout your family. It's the original of its kind as we suspected. Back then it ran so strong within their veins that they created these focus points-" He points to the pendant laying against my chest. "to channel and spread the magic evenly throughout your body."

"That explains it.." I whisper, reaching up to grab the necklace.

"Explains what?" Felix asks me.

"Ever since I've worn this, when using my magic or when I feel it start to raise, it's been.. helping me. I worked so hard to control it before, just barely grabbing hold of it. Wearing this, I don't even think about losing power over the magic. When I fought those statues it felt just as easy as it did last year, when I had much less magic before opening the Repository."

"Interesting.." Sebastian says out loud. He wasn't paying attention to my confession to Felix, instead his nose is still buried deep in the book. I love him for it, though.

"What's interesting?" I ask him. Sebastian closes the book, dust puffing out.

He smirks at me. "I think I know where we're traveling to first after next year, love."