How Could I Ever Forget You? // Sebastian Sallow / Professor Sallow x reader/mc

"I suggest you quit while you're ahead"

The days leading up to Christmas couldn't have gone any faster. Before you knew it you were waving the students goodbye on the Hogsmeade station platform, sending them off to the warmth of their families.

You however, were welcoming your family home.

"There it is!" Professor Onai grinned from beside you, pointing ahead at the face of a train pushing through thick white smoke. With a loud toot, the chugging machine came to a halt, the carriage doors springing open.

Out onto the platform stepped your best friend, the person you were missing most in the world, Natty. Wrapped up in a red woollen jumper and her braided hair floating in the wind, she was glowing. Her mother stepped past you, pulling her into a hug, causing you to beam at their joy. However it wasn't long before you were pulled into that hug too, giggling in the cold with your favourite person. Well, second favourite person.

It meant everything to see Natty again, to know she was safe. The admiration you felt for her went beyond words. She was the one person you could really use some advice from right now, but you dare not ask. To run the risk of Sebastian's life was too much. In fact, you hadn't told Natty a thing about his condition, nor the details of your new found closeness. The last Natty heard you were dating Garreth, Merlin you'd better update her on that too..

You hadn't managed to get a word in the whole walk back to the castle, she had plenty to tell her Mother which you of course understood. Besides, something else had your attention as the three of you stumbled through the snow. The lake. Every time you passed it you found yourself hypnotised, it was all but impossible to focus knowing that what you needed could lie beneath the thick ice that still remained in place of rolling waves.

A tight clasp suddenly grabbed your wrist.

"Don't."

Professor Onai's word rang deep, echoing in your skull. She knew something.

Natty turned to her mother, completely baffled at what she was doing.

"What's going on?" She said cautiously, aware that clearly her mothers gift had come to use.

"I don't know what you're thinking of doing down there, but don't." The Professor paused for a moment, slowly closing her eyes. "I sense only danger, the darkest and coldest kind. Happiness being snapped away in an instant. You.... And someone else."

There was a silence between the three of you. A real dampener on the joy that was ringing just moments ago.

"Mother, please not now-" Natty broke the silence.

"No-" you interrupted. "I understand, I- I won't," you lied.

The Professor nodded to you, snapping out of it in a instant.

"Don't look at me like that!" She said to Natty with a chuckle, as the two of them made their way towards the castle walls. You lingered behind them a couple of paces, your mind spinning about what this could all mean, attempting to process.

"I uh, have somewhere I need to be. I'll see you at dinner?" You called out with a smile as they approached the door.

Natty nodded and waved, mouthing the words 'I'm sorry!" as she closed the door behind her.

You went to the only place you knew could provide any solace right now, the undercroft.

~~~

As you sat in the corner of the candlelit chamber, your thoughts scoured for any kind of answer.

Did you even believe in divination anyway? Sebastian always insisted it was a load of rubbish.

But what Professor Onai said, it was so.. specific. 'You and.. someone else' that someone else obviously being Sebastian. Danger in the lake, it was all.. worrisome.