Passionate Professors || Sebastian Sallow

Part 1 | Ch. 36 - Truths & Regrets

Sebastian Sallow was nowhere to be found at breakfast on Monday morning. Instead, I made boring small talk with the other professors about the weather, how the weekend went by too fast. My eyes searched the Great Hall for any sign of his tousled brown hair or sauntering swagger but there were none. Anxiety built up in my stomach, burying any appetite that I had left.

Issac Reyes was staring at me again, his eyes glowing with desire. I fought everything in me to just walk over to the Slytherin table and smack the smirk right off his entitled face.

As Herita was telling me about her lesson plans for the day, Mudiwa Onai exchanged concerned glances with me across the table. I nodded in acknowledgement, her worry for me must have grown overnight, as had mine. Being the same age as her daughter, Natty, probably didn't help either. I'm sure part of her remembers the dangerous trouble we used to get into, how we narrowly escaped Harlow's cronies as fifth years. I smiled weakly, trying to reassure her that I was okay when deep down, I knew that I wasn't. Had Sebastian been at my side in that moment, I might have felt safer, more confident. His absence screamed from within me, unsettled by my fear of what was to come.

The morning dragged on as I began my second week of teaching, droning on in my lessons.

Sebastian was absent again at lunchtime.

By the time the sixth years straggled into my classroom in the afternoon, I began to panic. It had been 2 days since I had heard or seen Sebastian. What if Willow had done something horrible to him? Was he in danger because of my uncontrolled actions the other day?

Octavia Gaunt sat in her usual spot at the back of the classroom and in my best effort to not look as panicked as I felt, I approached her. "How was Potions today?" I asked curiously. If he had canceled classes today or worse, just not shown up, then I would sound the alarms.

"It was fine," she sighed, tossing her blonde hair from one side of her shoulder to the other, disinterest oozing from her pores. "Why?"

So Sebastian was here, which means he was avoiding me.

Thinking quickly, I said, "Professor Sallow and I were working on some joint lessons together for Wednesday and I wasn't sure if he had announced it today in class."

"He did say something about the Dueling Club and that the first meeting would be held in the Great Hall." Octavia said clearly waiting for me to leave her be.

"Thank you, Ms. Gaunt." Striding off to the podium, I let out a silent sigh.

After classes finished for the afternoon, I lingered in my office, organizing and reorganizing the same stack of parchment. In all honesty, I was waiting for Sebastian to stroll in and walk me to dinner, a routine we easily fell into last week. After thirty minutes, I gave up before trudging to the Great Hall alone, where he was nowhere to be found again. Frustrated by his lack of communication, I shoveled down a quick plate of food before going off to my bedroom.

I wondered if he had even come back to his room since the incident Saturday night. I ripped off a piece of paper from the pile in my arms and crumpled it, placing it near the foot of his door. If he had returned and gone inside after this moment, the ball would surely move with the breeze of the opening and shutting motion.

I stared at the two teardrop, memory-filled containers that now sat on my night table. When Sebastian ultimately came back, I would unleash the truth in a pensive for him. I couldn't live with the white strands of hurt any longer, especially knowing he could be in danger of the Flavia's too. It was very possible that they were behind the potion poisoning, Mudiwa said it herself, they hated anything other than pure-blood witches and wizards. It wouldn't surprise me that they were using commonly consumed potions to eradicate what they considered to be dirty blood.