Hogwarts Legacy: The Price of Power

D. Fotheringham

Dracaena woke to a gentle kiss, the dorm still dark. She stirred, murmuring, Imelda's snores still rumbling through the gloom.

"Shh," Ominis' voice breathed beside her ear. "It's still early. I should go, Dracaena, it'll be just my luck for Sebastian to wake up on time, for once."

"Do you have to?" she whispered back, curling around him, the soft warmth of his skin delicious against hers.

"I do," he murmured, and leaned down again, kissing her tenderly, tracing her jaw with his fingers. She felt him smile, and for a moment, it seemed as though he was going to say something else, but he just kissed her again, slid out from under the quilt, found his clothes and slipped into them almost silently.

Then he was gone.

Dracaena sighed, curling up, hugging her pillow. It still smelled like him, and she smiled, remembering their whispered words, the way he moved and moaned against her. She shivered pleasantly, then stilled.

She knew as well as she knew her own hands that she'd only made things worse. Her feelings for Sebastian hadn't diminished in the slightest. If anything, it had only made her want to repeat the experience with him. But she couldn't, not now that she and Ominis had made some kind of unspoken pact.

Or could she?

She shook her head. She was too tired to think of it now. She couldn't taint the wonderful memories with worry. Best she savour what she could, and save her fretting for when the sun rose.

Dracaena woke up with an undignified snort, wincing at the ache in her neck. She sat up, rubbing her eyes, and checked her watch. She blinked, checking again. It was almost midday.

She leapt out of bed, scrambling into her clothes and pelting into the common room. She pulled up short, spying Sebastian and Ominis lounging on one of the low emerald sofas by the fire. They looked up, and smiled.

"There you are," Sebastian said. "It's not like you to sleep in."

"Um..." she mouthed a moment as Ominis hid a smirk behind his hand, and Sebastian rose. "I suppose I was more tired than I thought."

"Yeah, I bet, running around in the Forest last night took it out of me too, I can't remember falling asleep so fast," Sebastian wandered over as she descended the stairs, giving her puppy eyes. "Look, Drac, if I upset you yesterday, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

"Huh?" she blinked, before her snappy mood with them both in the Room came back to her. "Oh. It's fine, Bassy, don't worry."

"Glad to hear that," he said, grinning at her as she headed to the sofa, positioning herself between him and Ominis. The latter smirked again, pretending to read, his wand tracing over the pages of Advanced Transfiguration, his hair neatly brushed, his clothes pressed and giving no indication whatsoever of what they'd done.

"Good afternoon, dove," he said. "Sleep well?"

"Yep," Dracaena replied, reaching for a cup of tea, trying and failing to ignore the searing heat that swept through her with the memories of the night before. "You?"

"Oh, the usual," he said, his tone neutral as he closed his book and settled it on his lap. "I shan't ask what your plans are today, it's going to be homework, isn't it?"

Damn, he's good, she thought. His tone was so casual it was as if they were nothing more than friends, his body language as elegant and graceful as ever, and nothing like the spiky tenseness she felt, the fear that somehow, someway, Sebastian would be able to read her mind and know what they'd done. An image of Sebastian's body tangled with hers flashed into her mind, and her cheeks burned. She shouldn't think like that, not any more.