A Legacy of Pain: Rising from the Ashes

Chapter 14: The Need for Confrontation

Last Time: Sebastian attempted to comfort Liz by offering her an excursion hunting poachers. While the two went to leave; Poppy showed up and took Liz into the bathroom where they had a heated discussion. Afterwards Liz and Sebastian headed to Feldcroft; though Elizabeth had allowed the other her to take control for a short while as she retreated into her own mind. Regaining control the two went to assault the poacher camp only for delusions of Callista to send Elizabeth into a crazed rage as their fight fell apart. Afterwards Elizabeth convinced Sebastian to cast the Imperius Curse on her so that se could learn to resist it if Callista ever cast it on her again. After refusing Sebastian finally agreed and cast the curse. After doing so he began to realize how dark his desires were and how easy it would be to have his way with Liz and keep her as his own while she was under the curse. Repulsed by the depth of his desire; Sebastian stopped just short of kissing Liz only for Poppy to arrive and angrily cast a depulso on him after realizing what he had done and not knowing why.

***Trigger Warnings*** Unforgiveable Curses, Deteriorating Mental State.

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Poppy

"How dare you!?" Poppy screamed in rage as she watched Sebastian fly through the air to land within the charred remains of a tent from the force of her depulso. "Lizzy is not your plaything! She isn't some doll you get to attach strings to and puppet as you wish!" She had rarely been so angry in her life; never so filled with hatred for a singular person, save one. The things Lizzy had described Callista having done to her after class when they spoke earlier were abhorrent; but they both expected such vile actions from the older woman. Sebastian was someone who Lizzy trusted, even if the hufflepuff had always been wary of him around her love. Poppy had always dreaded that the boy would do something unforgivable; yet even she had hoped he would never actually do something this horrendous to the witch he claimed to care for.

"Sweeting, you don't understa-" Sebastian began while wincing with his hands up defensively as he laid in the remnants of the destroyed tent only to be cut off as Poppy kept her wand trained on him.

"Don't understand what? That you used the Imperius Curse on Lizzy? How could you!?" The hand holding her wand quivered in her rage as she continued to yell, feeling Lizzy begin to stir in her arm as she held it around the witch's waist. After everything her precious eagle had been through; she had failed the ravenclaw when she needed her most twice in one day. There were tears in Poppy's honey eyes as she screamed. "I should have insisted harder on coming with you both. You can't be trusted around her alone anymore. You belong in Azkaban!" She performed the wand motions as she called out. "Petrificus Totalus!" Once they brought the slytherin back to school they could turn him in and be done with him.

What happened next shocked and sent Poppy into a panic as she felt Lizzy's weight disappear from her embrace and watched as a silvery violet misty light cascaded from her side to stop in the path of her spell. She watched in horror as her girlfriend resolidified in the spell's path and went stiff as a board when she was hit straight in the chest. "Liz!" Sebastain shouted as the auburn haired witch began to fall backwards while Poppy just stared on in disbelief, unable to will her body to move as the horrible events unfolded. Luckily the other brunette had managed to push himself up off the ground and surge forward to catch Lizzy before she could finish falling and hit her head on the hard ground.

"Why?" Poppy asked in a small voice as she simply continued to stare at the two other students in front of her. It didn't make any sense. She was certain Sebastian had actually ended his curse; so why was Lizzy still protecting him after what he had done? "Lizzy, he did the same thing to you that Callista did. Why are you protecting him?!" She asked a bit too loudly, her grip on her wand so tight that her knuckles had lost all colour while Sebastian performed a counter curse on the ravenclaw.