Seductive Bonds: The Lustful Legacy of Sebastian & Josephine Sallow

Story 1

Josphine Sallow had taken one too many hits from a troll club this week. She was utterly, entirely exhausted.

Waving her wand and muttering "incendio," she slumped her sore and creaking form into her favorite, overstuffed chair – the very first piece of furniture she and Sebastian purchased together after they hastily married at the eager age of nineteen. The classic, greenish plaid upholstery was beginning to wear thin on the arms but she didn't mind. The deep, wide seat was their cozy repose that first Winter after their tiny Christmastime wedding, and the runs that were forming on the armrests were a testament to the handful of happy years she and Sebastian had spent together since graduating Hogwarts.

As she swallowed her glass of Scottish whiskey in just a couple gulps, she smiled to think of her love. She rarely drank hard liquor but always found herself drawn to it whenever her Sebastian was away. It tasted like him.

She used her heels and toes to wriggle her sore feet out of her steel-toed leather boots, and found herself wishing with every fibre of her being that he was here to dote on her. She adored the way he loved her and took care of her, especially during bouts when her work as a Hit Witch for the Ministry of Magic was so intensive.

As a student, she would often daydream about her future life with Sebastian Sallow. She always imagined a dreamy kind of domesticity that was slow and full of an unrealistic number of picnics. But she should have known, given his propensity for getting lost in libraries and ancient documents, and her propensity for getting lost in ancient ruins and bandit camps, that their lives wouldn't be so simple. The running joke between the Sallows had long been that they were each sorted into the other's house: perhaps he should have been the Ravenclaw, and she the Slytherin.

Sebastian's work as a curator for the Department of Magical Artifacts was slow, quiet and fulfilling for him. It was reliable and made it easy for him to plan regular visits to their dearest, life-long friends: Ominis (a fellow Slytherin), his wife Anna (a fellow Ravenclaw), and their children. And it was at that family home in Dover where Sebastian had been all week.

Jo had planned to be with him. She loved spending time away from London and losing herself in Sebastian amidst the cliffs and crags of the coast.

But 'crime waits for no man, Jo!' The words of her partner rang in her ear. Emily Zelly always was a bit punny for Jo's taste, but not entirely incorrect in this case.

And as luck would have it, just hours before Jo and Sebastian were meant to depart, she was called up to action. The aurors were quite outnumbered and physically overwhelmed by the extensive troll-fighting rings they had stupidly rushed in to break up. So, amidst a staggering array of hidden caves within the Isle of Wight, the cavalry were called in and half of the Ministry's Hit Witches and Wizards were dispatched for assistance. And they always tasked Jo with the big cases like this, given the ace of Ancient Magic she always held up her sleeve that she tried to only use in emergencies.

Regardless, it had resulted in leaving Sebastian alone for the journey they had planned to take together, and leaving Jo exhausted from the rigamarole, the constant apparating, and the complete lack of interdepartmental coordination (but that was another story, entirely).

Sebastian was a tender and devoted husband, and Jo was his ardent, perfect match. As enamored with one another as they had ever been, they would write diligently and daily to keep in close touch whenever they were apart.

Tonight, Jo wriggled out of her jacket and threw it across the back of the chair as she pulled Sebastian's letter from the small pile of 'owls' that she had tossed onto the side table earlier. She was feeling more relaxed, given the warmth of the whiskey and firelight, and tugged at her blouse to loosen the buttons that felt like they choked the blood from her wrists as much as the air from her throat. She yanked it from where it was tucked into her waistband, and unbuckled her armor-like leather trousers so she could reach beneath her layers to loosen the ties of her corset.