Legacy Disowned - Book 1

Chapter 10 - Rackham's Trial

Ominis was greeted with the scent of fresh bacon as he pushed open the door to the Great Hall. Between the usual breakfast time chatter and the mental map his wand laid out for him, he was able to locate Sebastian's familiar foot tapping and page turning. Across from he could make out the petite figure of Darling, the identifying scent of lilac mingling with her coffee.

"Morning," he said as he slid onto the bench next to Sebastian. He took a deep breath, preparing himself for the inevitable conversation. "I may have... 'slightly' overreacted yesterday evening."

"Whatever do you mean?" Darling replied with an air of feigned innocence as she  took a pointed sip of her coffee.

"Don't tease him," Sebastian chuckled, an audible smirk in his voice. "Dear Ominis here is not much of a morning person, believe it or not."

"What? I find that very hard to believe." Darling replied, her words dripping with playful sarcasm. Ominis rolled his eyes.

"I know! He is usually so equable," Sebastian added, matching her tone.

"Well this is lovely," Ominis drawled sardonically. "Being told I'm not equable by the likes of you two."

"I think I said you 'were' equable," Sebastian teased.

"That's what I heard," Darling agreed.

Their laughter echoed around him and Ominis couldn't help but smile. "How long is this going to go on for exactly? I was attempting to apologise."

"Apology accepted." Darling's voice softened, and she continued, "It's quite alright, Ominis. You did catch me in your private space and admittedly...I may have responded a little aggressively. I will say I did not technically lie, though. I would have gotten in there myself with or without Sebastian." Sebastian snorted with laughter at this.

"Anyway," Ominis said earnestly, "I shouldn't have threatened to go to the headmaster, in any case."

"Look at us," said Sebastian cheerily, "all getting along."

Ominis couldn't disagree. Smoothing things over hadn't been nearly as unpleasant as he'd expected. Although...he still felt his admonishment of Sebastian had been justified. He held firm to his suspicions about his old friend's motives and felt this was as good a time as any to confirm them. "I'm actually not quite over the 'equable' comment yet."

"No?" Sebastian asked innocently.

"Considering this morning I overheard Eddy saying you smashed him into the wall the other day."

"You smashed someone into a wall?" Darling giggled curiously.

Sebastian shifted uncomfortably. "He had it coming." he said, a little too offhandedly.

Ominis felt the knowing smirk curl his lips as he shifted his attention to her. "And speaking of rumours, Darling, I heard an interesting one about you and Amit Thakkar. Apparently, you two were seen flying off the astronomy tower together after class last week. And get this– people are saying that you dropped him off at Ravenclaw tower on your broom after your little moonlit rendezvous."

Sebastian, who had been biting into a piece of toast, froze mid-chew.

Darling however, just laughed. "Ha! People around here really like to spin tales." she said still chortling. "It was nothing like that. He'd heard about these ancient astronomy tables hidden around the school and thought there might be one on the ramparts. So, we went to have a little look-see."

She let out an amused sigh and continued, "Honestly, it was kind of funny how excited he got. Kept going on about what a daring adventure we were having and how he'd write a book about it someday. Bless his heart! All we did was walk around the ramparts. Amit's a good bloke, but he's not exactly the adventurous type. It's sweet he tried, though."