Consuming Darkness: Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 49

-Sebastian-

I had finished my homework and was not just laying on the couch in the Room of Requirement waiting for Ronnie. She was over an hour late to meeting up with me and we had planed to go to the talk to the Keepers soon. It wasn't the most crazy thing for her to show up late, but the fact that she hadn't at least reached out to me to tell me she wasn't going to show was weird, especially since we were dating now. Our relationship hadn't been the most... conventional... There was so much that was still left unsaid between us, but there was so much chemistry. She would always rather kiss me that talk about the things that were bothering her, and I wasn't mad about kissing her, but I was at a loss on how to help her.

My eyes were fixed on the fireplace and the shadows that it caused to dance across the every surface of the room. I held up my hand, spread it out flat and closed my eyes taking a deep breath. When I breathed in I opened my eyes, focusing on the shadows and curled my fingers in. The shadows all pulled slightly toward me. I breathed out and relaxed my fingers causing the shadows to surge back into their places. I did this a few more times, each time the shadows responded more and more to the movement. I closed my fist quickly, having to exert both physical and mental strength to pull all the shadows towards my hand.

Suddenly the only darkness in the room was pooling around me, my entire left arm covered in whispering darkness. The faint whispers were becoming eerily familiar to me.

"Feed us Sebastian," many voices whispered echoing and building off each other. I could call the shadows to me, and shroud myself in their darkness but I had learned that if I really wanted them to do what I wanted, they needed to cause me or others pain. They fed off of the suffering of those around them, it fueled them. Salazar Slytherin had talked about his attempts at wielding the shadows and that he found it to be a cause he did not wish to pursue further because of his own well being. He had experimented on Muggles to feed the shadows but the shadows always caused pain to the one who sought to be their master.

I willed them to cover me entirely, assist in making me disappear and a burning pain lanced through my arm. I scowled as the shadows whispered their pleasure and covered me entirely. This was something I had done before, but I knew the cost if I ever wanted to truly wield the shadows in any effective way. Darkness would brand me, claiming me as its own. The pain would lessen and my abilities to command them would grow considerably. Part of me would belong to them in exchange for their servitude. I wanted to find another way, a way that wouldn't permanently mark me as a dark wizard.

Suddenly an image overtook all of my senses, the shadows shrieking as my concentration on them was lost. They dispersed back across the room as I was pulled into a vision of Ronnie wandering, wounded in the Forbidden Forest. The image vanished and stood immediately running from the room.

My mind was racing, trying to place anything that would give me a sign as to where in the Forbidden Forest she was, but I recognized nothing. I hadn't seen Finn with her, which meant he either wasn't with her or had been injured as well. I ran through the halls, not wanting to take the Floo Flame, in hopes that I would run into someone who might have a clue to where she was. Each person that I asked seemed to have no clue or had seen her leave with Finn going towards the Forbidden Forest. Was that what he had needed her for? What in the world did that goody good Hufflepuff need her for in the Forbidden Forest? This had to be his fault.

Once I was outside in the front of Hogwarts I spotted the person I wanted to talk to. Finnian was sitting with Poppy and Ominis. They were all looking at a small white Puffskin that Poppy was holding.

"What's wrong Sebastian?" Ominis asked causing everyone to look at me.

"Have you seen Ronnie?" I asked.