Up and Down

Behind and Ahead

She had the nightmare again.

Waking up in cold sweat, screaming, multiple times a night, has become something all too familiar to her. Each time, freezing tendrils of dread crawl up her skin, making her shiver and shake, the cursed wounds on her body aching and burning with ice.

Each time, Sebastian wraps her in his warm embrace, sharing the heat of his body with her, soothing away the remnants of fear.

Usually, she can't stand him sticking to her at night, his body too heavy and too hot, making sweat pool where their skin would touch.

But now, it's all she can do but burrow deeper into his embrace as he presses her to his broad chest, holding her tight and just about whole, preventing her from breaking apart under the intense strain and kissing away her tears.

Ominis doesn't fare much better. Pressed tightly on the other side of Sebastian, he sometimes can't hold back his tears either. In moments like those, Sebastian cradles him too, letting him cry.

In the stormy sea, he is their safe harbour, and she couldn't be more grateful for his boundless love and warmth.

He brings them out to bask in the sun when they are too tired and filled with sorrow to move, talking for all three of them when they are too overwhelmed for words. The entire Easter holiday, they spend in quiet and tranquillity, taking the first hesitant steps to overcome what happened.

Like learning to walk, all over again. Stumbling and falling, bruising their knees in the process. Sometimes badly enough to want to give up entirely. To stay on the ground, never to get up again.

But each time, Sebastian would pull them back up on their feet. His smile never faltered, he would pick them up and carry on, letting them rest their burden on his shoulders instead. Share the pain with him.

As the spring blossoms and blooms all around them, they watch the flocks of migratory birds return and fill the air with song. Sebastian's nightingale Patronus joined the chorus for them, and she smiled for the first time in days as it landed on her palm, spreading warmth through her just like Sebastian's embrace would.

At the end of the break, she feels almost ready to face other people again.

Still too tender and fragile, but stronger than she was the day before, and the day before that.

The day before they have to go back to class, they travel to Edinburgh to actually unwind and get away. Anna is happy enough to get lost in a department store, trying on the latest Muggle fashion. She walks away with a new day dress and a beautiful hat adorned with gorgeous feathers.

But there was something that brought her out of her happy forgetfulness, unbalancing her with a single casual word.

"Wrap that one too, please."

"Of course, madam. Would your husband be paying for the lot?" The clerk nods in the direction of Ominis who is sitting in a nearby wicker chair, patiently waiting for her to finish her shopping, hands resting on the ebony cane that conceals his wand.

Her ears ring and she has to take a few deep breaths before forcing a smile.

"No need, I'll take care of it."

Sebastian emerges from a neighbouring shop with some daffodils and a wide smile and they go on their merry way as if nothing happened, but something had happened.

Something that she has questioned for a long time, but never brought up. Something they hadn't spoken about... but they will soon have to face.

Mere months remain of their schooling at Hogwarts. She cannot imagine her life without them, but how are they going to proceed with it? Where would they live, where would they go? And...