In the Shadow of the Summer

The Grotto

You awoke to the unpleasant smell of salt water and burning candle wax, and your back ached as you tried to sit up from the rocky floor beneath you. Your eyelids were still heavy and it took a while for your eyes to adjust to the dim candlelight around you. Candlelight? Your eyes shot open then, and you peered around the room in a panic, until your eyes landed on Sebastian. He was sitting on a worn wooden chair by an old wooden desk, watching you intently, eyes full of worry.
"Oh, thank Merlin!" he said breathlessly, and rushed to crouch down in front of you.
"Where are we?" you asked, staring around the room.

You could barely consider it a room, it was more like a cave. The walls and the ceiling were made from stone that arched overhead unevenly with little stone spires hanging down. The place was cluttered with old furniture; a dusty bookshelf covered in books that seemed to have shrivelled up from the damp, a wooden divider, a book stand and a bunch of other things that looked as though they'd been tossed in there to be forgotten about. Everything was adorned with a thick layer of cobwebs and you felt your skin crawl at the thought of all the spiders that must have been hiding in there.

"It's a grotto, beneath the castle," Sebastian answered. "Anne and I stumbled across it a few years ago. We brought our breakfast here one day - we were hiding from Imelda after a pretty heated discussion about Quidditch - and the squid on the mural kept eyeing up Anne's toast. She offered it a slice, and what do you know? It opened the entrance to this place."
"I wonder who built it."
"Enough about that, how are you feeling?"
"Huh?"
"You passed out, and I couldn't wake you up. You have no idea how worried I've been!"

The memory came flooding back to you all of a sudden, the numbness and the inability to breathe. You remembered it so clearly as if it was happening to you all over again. Your eyes widened as your stomach started to churn, and you rose to your feet as quickly as you could manage, before darting to the grotto's exit. You barely had a second to get out before the contents of your stomach splattered across the stone floor.
"Are you okay?" asked Sebastian. You heard his footsteps behind you and you quickly held up your hand to stop him from approaching.
"I'm... okay," you said, trying not to gag. Your throat burned as you tried to cough up the rest of it, but you felt much better once you got it out of your system.

You took a deep breath and stood up straight, and then you realised where you were. Water ebbed gently against the rocks before you, and beyond the tunnel in which you stood, you could see the twinkling stars reflected in the surface of what you now realised was the Black Lake.
"How did we get down here?" you asked, moving closer to the water's edge for a better look outside.
"Deek apparated us out." Sebastian moved to stand beside you. "I didn't think it would have been wise to drag you through a floo flame while you were unconscious, so I summoned him."
"What about the poachers? And Mr Moon! Is he alright?"
"Mr Moon got knocked out, and the poacher he was fighting got away, but he's fine. He didn't even remember..." His face fell. "Anyway, last I heard, the poachers were still waiting outside. I told Deek to warn the staff, so I wouldn't be surprised if they've cast some more protective enchantments for the time being."

"How long was I out?"
"Most of the day." Sebastian let out a sigh, and you glanced up at him. "I really thought I'd have to start considering the possibility that..." His face contorted with sadness and his eyes welled up with tears. "Merlin, you were barely breathing, I thought-"
"Hey," you whispered, grabbing his hand, "look at me. I'm fine." You flashed him a reassuring smile, but he glanced down at your hands, gently laced together between you. He looked back up at you and returned a faint smile.
"I'm sorry, I just can't handle the thought of losing you too."

Your stomach fluttered, and you wondered if you were about to throw up again, but this was different. Your heart beat quickly in your chest and you felt the blood rush to your cheeks as you burned under his intense gaze. Despite all your efforts to ignore the urge, your eyes flashed down to his lips again, before returning to his eyes. Your knees almost gave way beneath you as his lips curled up into a half smile and the realisation of what you wanted to do in that moment made you take a step back. Your breath most likely stank of vomit and you dreaded to think what you looked like after spending the entire day asleep in a damp grotto.