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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"Ah ha! It is my friend, the remarkable Sebastian Sallow! What a treat!" Thiago's buoyant voice bounces around the Defense Against the Dark Arts Tower as we almost crash into one another in one of the corridors.
::Sleepy arse, pay attention.::
"Argh! My fault, sorry!" I say as our hands fly to one another's shoulders to brace ourselves.
Thiago exclaims with a grin, "we are usually much more deftly coordinated around one another!" and he laughs heartily. It makes me smile despite the fact that I feel like absolute shite today. "That's true," I offer. My hands instinctively pull down my face with a sigh. "Well–always a pleasure, Thiago," I say as I begin to continue my walk but he turns, tapping my shoulder and saying in a genial tone–
"Do you mind if I walk with you, my friend?"
::Mind if I throw myself off the side of these moving stairs to get some rest?::
"Erm–no, not at all. Just going to meet April in the potions classroom if it's not the wrong direction for you..."
"Walking any direction with you, my friend, is the correct direction to go!" He exclaims with a husky laugh before asking, quite astutely, "are you alright, Sebastian?"
::You're not one of the ones that gets to be 'alright,' boy-o. Don't forget that.::
Hush, I'm only tired.
"Oh! Yeah, it's – I'm tired. Exhausted, really." My feet begin to carry me once more, and Thiago falls in next to me.
"You and April had quite an unusual day yesterday...the ministry...the prophecy," he says in an assuring way.
"Right, exactly. And we had a great time with you and Ominis but...I guess it was only a distraction. It all came crashing back when we got home. So much stress. It's hard to not feel like it's between April and I, somehow, and only around us," the weight of it makes me sigh and my hands rub at my face again, as if doing it one more time is going to wake me up any more. "Couldn't really sleep. I kept waking up...and when I did, April wasn't in bed. Just a bad night I suppose..."
::Bet she was out in the forest. Better company out there, yeah?.::
Thiago smiles kindly. "Do you know where she went?" he asks without guile. I'm sure he knows a thing or two about what I'm going through.
::Yeah, see if he knows how to deal with her.::
"I was afraid to ask her, Thiago. I understand the irony of what I'm about to say – pot calling the kettle black and what not but – lately it feels like she's been running away...ever since that night in Feldcroft."
"Ahh, yes. Our little friend the fox!" Thiago affirms with articulated consonants. "If I had to guess, knowing our April, she is afraid. That is all. If you ask her where she goes, she will tell you, my friend. She is a terrible liar and an even worse keeper of trivial secrets such as this. I am sure, in your presence, it is especially true. You see, anyone she has ever loved to the fullest has been ripped from her," he explains, adding with a spirited wink, "except for me, of course!"
