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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"It's...not a repugnant idea, Bash...it's...I..." I stammer like a complete dolt as I catch my balance from the floo journey. Marriage is not a topic I had planned to discuss today.
Thanks a lot, Weasley.
Sebastian laughs in a wicked kind of way. He knows he's got me flustered and I know he loves that he can press my buttons. And even though I hate feeling flustered, I do love that he loves flustering me. It's a whole thing.
"Don't worry, April," he teases, elongating the words as he speaks. "Weasley can keep her paperwork...I'm not planning to propose to you," he says in a candid way as he looks straight ahead with a neutral expression. I have to admit my heart drops a bit when he says it, and I make a mental note to have a good think about that reaction of mine, later.
But almost instantly he leans his face to me, keeping his eyes straight ahead, as he adds with a coy half-smile, "...at least not anytime soon." At that, my heart leaps into my forehead as Sebastian continues navigating the horde of scurrying witches and wizards in the Ministry of Magic's atrium. But only seconds later he looks back at me and says, "...or am I?" with a wink.
My knees buckle and I trip over myself, stumbling forward and shoving my shoulder into a well-dressed, portly gentleman with a tepid comb-over who eyes me and shouts "OY!" before he disappears into the crowd. Sebastian's subsequent belly laugh threatens to buckle me again.
"Merlin's beard, Collins!" he exclaims, shaking his head and shooting his mischievous eyes to me, the bottom lids of his eyes lifting in their own kind of smile. "You make it so easy," he grins.
"Hey!" I cry, giving him a thwack to his side. Admittedly, it's not my most effective retort. But he smiles, regardless as we continue to navigate the people, elevators, and corridors to the Minister's office and as our shared humor simmers, I sense a subtle tremor in Sebastian's hand as he holds mine – his nerves coming back to his forefront.
"Soooo...did you have to come here every day for work?" he asks sweetly, after a long moment of quiet between us. It feels so strange to be so indelibly connected and committed to Sebastian, to feel I have known him for lifetimes, but to have to back-fill so much information about my life.
"Almost!" I explain. "When I first started, yes. It was a lot of desk-work. But then there was a big gap...almost eighteen months when Thiago and I were in South America. Then I was back here for a bit. Then some shorter-term assignments scattered in those years, all over hither-and-yon. Then the last three years have been touch and go with coming into the office. Really heavy inside the Forbidden Forest, living with the centaurs for a bit then visiting them frequently. Then the first quarter of this year is when Thiago and I went with the dragon keepers to Finland. So it's been a smattering, I suppose you could say. Still feels like second nature to be here, though."
Sebastian's eyes flash to mine as he asks, "you lived with the centaurs?" He seems genuinely intrigued, and not threatened by the information which is a relief.
