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...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The silence that trails behind Anne is thick and grates in my ears like sandpaper as she quietly begins to walk back towards the house, her steps as ordinary as if she were walking to the market.
April, Thiago, Sebastian and I stand in a stunned recess, each of us relishing the drastic contrast of stillness, and bracing ourselves for what is to come. For long seconds, in the quietude of the night that my logic attempts to remind me expands so far beyond the bubble of apprehension and tenderness of our little group, no one moves. Not even Thiago.
This is certainly not how I envisioned our strange little family's reunion would go, especially considering the fact that I spent the large majority of tonight's visit with Anne trying to explain to that, even in spite of my own staunch commitment to begrudging Sebastian's actions these many years past, I had to admit my assumptions were incorrect. That perhaps he really has changed. That perhaps she should give Sebastian a chance, the poor fellow. I can't remember witnessing such suffering since my childhood...and self-imposed suffering, at that.
I thought it quite a victory that she had conceded to reading through "some" letters, and "perhaps" viewing some of the memories April and I had been privy to in the repository over the last few days.
The reasoning behind her grudge is...well, it isn't reason, if anyone were to ask me. Which, of course, no one has. I could understand her desire for distance for the first year or two. But at a certain point, life must go on, musn't it?
And who, exactly, is that question directed towards, Ominis?
Thank goodness for Thiago and his ability to win everyone over. I credit him for the success of the evening, and the effortless giggles he was able to spin from Anne, weaving the wooly mass of her skepticism into a fine, agreeable yarn with his flattery that made her mood quite amenable.
But now that Sebastian is here in Feldcroft, with April, and I fear all bets are off. I don't know what to do.
::Make a choice, Ominis. Who are you? Who do you want to be?::
I am loyal. Let it never be said of me I haven't tended my duties.
I clear my throat and pull out my wand so I can catch up with Anne. After all, we have been companions of sorts for the past seven or so years. She must be my priority.
Who else does she have, anyway?
But before my legs move me, my mind rushes with a complex flurry of thought I'm able to process in a flash. I acknowledge the shy little indulgence that knocks quietly at the door of my impulses like a timid neighbor who has long been a bystander in my life, never quite sure if it was an invited guest to the light of my awareness. Indeed, I have kept the indulgence squarely outside of my reality as an impossibility for my lived experience. Just silliness, really.
But an invisible scale I have long since neglected has tipped within me, casting off years of accumulated rust that has now settled into my lungs. And every time I take a breath, I can't help but taste the coppery tang of injustice.
