Aftermath ✧ Sebastian Sallow

chapter sixty

Damaged Goods by La Dispute

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Trigger Warning: This chapter includes sensitive conduct - please see the comment for a full description of conduct. 

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Sebastian's Perceptive

Nothing was real anymore. It had to all be a nightmare. There was no air in the room. 

All I wanted was to wake up from this bloody nightmare, but no matter what I did I just couldn't wake myself.

"Minister Sallow," Hecat had said more softly, "Let me take the cat? Perhaps another Professor can help us. But I just need you to hand it over."

The soft ball of black fur that had once been Ophelia still lay on my lap. It had been a little farther outside the town when we had found her washed up on the shore. 

That was when the nightmare began.

Once we landed and realized that Ophelia had been dead, I tried everything that I could think of to try and bring her back. Every bloody spell that I've ever read, the ones that I had read from every textbook, and even ones that I had barely remembered from the damned cursed notebook. When none of those worked to bring the cat back to life, I tried the spells I had been attempting to create myself. 

After the first spell backfired and almost burned my hand, Poppy began screaming.

Actually, she may have been yelling at me the whole time. It was all blurry, I had been so focused on saving Ophelia that I had forgotten she was with me until she started yelling. 

Hecat had been leaving Hogsmeade when she overheard Poppy's scream. She brought us back and even as the hours passed, I couldn't get myself to let go of the dead cat.

The old professor quietly reached out and wrapped her hands around the black cat, slowly pulling it away from me. I didn't want to let her go. I still needed to save her. Anne needs her.

"He's lost it, Professor Hecat," Headmaster Black attempted to whisper, "The Ministry isn't going to like any of this. I have a dead student and no explanation for them. Their only family member is completely unaware and won't stop talking about a dead cat. They are going to come for my throat!"

Hecat didn't waste her energy to even look at him. She was tired of it all. The two had been going back and forth all day. 

The nightmare wouldn't end and I was still struggling to wake up back to reality. I needed to find Anne.

"It's rather late Headmaster Black, perhaps we should allow Minister Sallow to get some rest," Hecat said dryly.

"Rest?" He scowled, "What am I going to tell the Ministry when they arrive in the morning?"

"We will deal with them when the time comes," She hissed back, "Let me deal with Minster Sallow tonight. Tomorrow we figure out the Ministry."

Black may have been the Headmaster of the school, but Hecat had always been more experienced. But nothing they were saying made any sense. Ophelia was dead, not a student. Why would the Ministry be concerned over the pet cat?

Hecat handled the body of the dead feline in her arms as if it were a baby. She took great care in making sure it was okay before she touched my shoulder and apparated us away.