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...
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Professor Sallow,
Appreciate your patience regarding your inquiry. International demands with the Magical Duma of the Russian Federation have required the full attention of my office, and theirs is not an efficient organization.
However, Professor Sharp communicated an urgency to make your request a priority. His argument for moving forward was compelling.
Come to my office with Professor Collins at your earliest convenience. Any afternoon this week but Thursday. (Reserved for lunch with the missus!)
– Minister Spavin
—--------
"He finally got back to me," Sebastian calls from the bathroom. "Note's on the table. Arrived before we woke up."
I skim the note lazily, hardly able to focus. Ever since The-Fateful-Night-of-Feldcroft, as I'm sure it shall heretofore be known in history, I seem to be stuck in a pattern of enjoying relatively invigorating, energizing mornings, but gradually descend into a low-key kind of existential insomnia by the wee hours of the early morning. I suppose this is why it's not generally recommended to have the blood of dozens of people on your hands in the first place, nor to scratch at the tender wound that holds the guilt of it all at bay.
Needless to say, the schedule has not been convenient, nor sustainable and the exhaustion is beginning to catch up to me.
Sebastian walks into the kitchen like a demigod descending from Mount Olympus. He has a towel tucked around his waist and he's drying off his hair and face and ears from having just gotten out of his shower and I think it's pretty fuckin' rude he would do that to my eyeballs while trying to discuss matters of real-life importance.
But what do I know?
"I think he's going to give you Unspeakables clearance," he says with excitement shimmering off the surface of his eyes. "We'll finally be able to work together. Honestly, with your Ancient Magic, I don't know why they haven't done it for you already. You're already a Ministry employee, for heaven's sake." He says, tossing the spare towel on his shoulder and I can't peel my eyes away.
"...what?" he says to me with a bit of a blank stare – just the slightest hint of panic beginning to set in. "Why haven't you said anything? Why are you looking at me like that?"
After a beat I let a smirk break across my lips and say as un-ironically as possible, "I just think it's really shitty of you to come in here – looking like that – and your subject matter of choice is this?" I say, holding up the note in my hand and brandishing it as though it were some kind of contraband.
Sebastian's face scrunches with a thousand warm, inviting creases at the corners of his eyes and outward to his ears from the sides of his mouth. My body crumples as a result into the nearest chair as I am overwhelmed with the desire to witness each of those happy wrinkles make a permanent residence in his skin and to create the life together that would warrant the degree of smiling and frequent laughter necessary to solidify them.
