Theodora was tired.
Not physically tired, but mentally exhausted. The events of the previous year had left me a shell of the young girl I once was. My childish innocence long gone, replaced with a hardened battle worn version of myself that I didn't recognize in the mirror. While my physique blossomed just like any other woman my age, my eyes were sad and haunted unlike the hopeful, sparkling eyes of my peers. The scars littering my skin reflecting the scars I now bore on my psyche.
I was no stranger to grief, my parents passed away when I was only 9. One simple spell that backfired ripped away the only family I had ever known in the blink of eye. From then on home was a string of orphanages, passed off from one to the next every time my anger caused me to act out.
The death of my mentor and friend Professor Fig at the end of the last school year was just one more ghost that haunted my dreams. I had become attached to Fig, even began to see him as a father like figure of sorts. Watching him disappear underneath the rubble during the battle with Ranrok snapped something within me, a final thread that was keeping my head above water. I was swallowed up by a darkness, a purgatory of anguish and rage.
Even now, as I sat in the great hall, listening to Headmaster Black make his speech to commence the beginning of the new school year, I was treading water in a metaphorical ocean of numbness. I had my eyes trained on the headmaster while he drawled out his rehearsed welcome, along with entirety of the school, but I was neither really seeing or hearing him. In my mind I was bobbing in that dark blue vast ocean of nothingness, desperately trying to keep my head above the waves that lapped at my shoulders, unintelligible whispers from beneath my feet beckoning me down into the abyss.
A voice from beside me snapped me out of my fog. I turned my head to see Imelda Reyes staring at me, clearly waiting for a response to something I hadn't heard.
"I.. I'm sorry, what was it you said?" I stammered out while trying to reset my facial expression to anything other than the unwelcoming blank stare I'm sure was on my face just a moment ago.
"I said Blacks speech was even more unbearable than last year, wouldn't you agree?" she asked while staring at me with concern on her face.
"Oh... yeah, the man clearly takes his job too seriously" I half heartedly laughed out, pretending like I hadn't been drowning for the entirety of his speech.
Sensing that I wasn't in the mood to chat, Imelda turned to the student on her other side and began conversing with them instead. Relieved, I began to take in my surroundings. I was seated at my house table, adorned in green banners and filled with Slytherins of every year. The feast has materialized before us and my plate sat empty in front of me. I wasn't hungry so I took a sip of pumpkin juice instead and began to look at the other faces sitting at the Slytherin table.
Sitting next to me was Imelda Reyes. Imelda and I's relationship started out rough, her standoffish nature was hard to get used to, but after some friendly competition on our brooms, we found common ground and a tentative friendship unfolded.
Sitting next to Imelda was Nerida Roberts, the two of them having an animated conversation about quidditch.
I let my eyes wander farther down the table, and from where I was sitting I could see the alabaster profile of Ominis Gaunt, his vacant eyes fixated on something off in the distance while he twirled his fork in his long elegant fingers. His light blonde hair was styled into place as usual, although it was slightly longer than when she had last seen him. His brows were slightly furrowed and he seemed to be engaged in conversation with whomever was sitting across from him.
I shifted my gaze to the man sitting across from Ominis and was met with a pair of hazel eyes that I knew all too well. My breath hitched in my throat as Sebastian Sallow held my gaze with an intensity that I had come to associate only with him. Sebastian's whole personality could be summed up with that one word, intense. The majority of my 5th year at Hogwarts was spent with Sebastian, going on endless adventures in search of a cure for his cursed twin, and answers for myself about my ancient magic. We had been connected at the hip up until three months ago. Three months ago everything changed between Sebastian and myself, and we hadn't spoken or seen each other since.
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Lace Trimmed Danger // A Sebastian Sallow fic
Fanfiction"On my right was Sebastian, the fiery hot head that I was unadvisedly head over heels for. Our relationship felt like a free fall, there was no stopping it and neither of us had any idea where it would land us. We where all passion and violence when...
