Aftermath ✧ Sebastian Sallow

chapter thirty-two

Reverse the Curse by Alexisonfire

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Sebastian's Perceptive

"Sebastian, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied, "Sorry, I was just a little distracted."

Natti just laughed to herself next to me. For Defense Against the Dark Arts, Hecat partnered us all up for the next project, pairing us together. We were supposed to be focusing on writing a whole scroll of parchment regarding spells and strategies for defeating Inferius. 

But I was distracted watching Amelia Blackwood and Leander Prewett from across the room.

"Prewett, can't be that funny right?" I asked Natti feeling the need to be reassured. 

Her brown eyes rolled quietly in her head as she glanced over to them across the room before she just smugly laughed under her breath and returned back to writing. Her quill scribbled loudly against the paper. 

I glazed down to the parchment to see what she had finished, "Bombarda." I added.

"Sorry, what was that?" Natti questioned.

"You forgot Bombarda, all fire spells are good. But that spell is the most effective spell against ones I've encountered," I informed her. 

She smiled with a surprised look that told me that Natti likely just assumed that I would have let her do all the work. I may have been distracted, but I wasn't useless. 

"'You've encountered?'" Natti quoted me with a light laugh, "Are there a lot of Inferius near Feldcroft?"

"Well, there used to be..." I answered awkwardly. Trying to shove the memory back down inside.

Thankfully the sound of laughter caught my attention before I could get too lost in my memories. Amelia smiled shyly from across the room as she and Leander laughed loudly. Part of me wanted to be happy to see her smiling, but the other half couldn't believe it was fucking Prewett making her laugh.

She attempted to bury her smile into her new house scarf as if it were a secret. Since I last spoke to her, I noticed that she was always wearing a scarf now in an attempt to hide her scar. In the same way that she had worn gloves at the ball to hide the busies on her arms. It made me sad to wonder what else she was hiding from everyone.

"Natti, do you know if they are friends by any chance?" I asked knowing my insecurities were likely showing.

Natti just dropped her quill before lowering her voice, "Sebastian, please don't tell me that you believe all of those stupid rumors too?"

Despite both Ominis and I keeping our distance from Amelia for almost a month, the rumors about her still seemed to be a popular talking point. At first, I thought they were a bit funny that people made such odd assumptions. Yet over time, I realized how damaging they were growing. 

The only part of the rumors that truly began to bother me, was the fact that I wasn't part of any of them. I spent my entire fifth year with Amelia and thought about her every day since I met her yet my name had still managed to stay out of all the rumors. Was I so much of a flirt in general that no one could tell when it was serious?

"No, I'm not an idiot. Of course, I don't believe in those rumors!" I hissed lowering my own voice to match, "So you don't think she's interested in him?" I asked again for the clarification that my brain desperately needed to hear.