Tempest // Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 23

"Well, I think it's great she's ignoring you right now." Ominis said, hunched over a desk in the library, using his wand to navigate his potions textbook.

"And why is that?" Sebastian huffed, tired of talking about Primrose and her lack of communication with Sebastian lately.

"Because now you can study and work on getting at least Exceeding Expectations. Though, if I were you, I'd be aiming for Outstandings in all your subjects. You know what your Uncle is like."

"Unfortunately..." Sebastian mumbled.

Though Sebastian tried his best, he was focusing less than when all of his time was spent with Rosie. He was beginning to grow frustrated with her too. He apologised for what he did, and he truly didn't believe that leaving while she was asleep was that bad. Now he wished he'd have left a note or something if he knew it was going to lead to this.

Sebastian sighed, pushing his dark hair away from his face as he continued to scribble useless notes on his parchment.

"Sebastian, can I talk to you?"

He snapped his head around quickly, realising that it was not who he wanted to speak to, but her best friend.

"Poppy? Ah, yeah."

He closed his textbooks, not having achieved any form of useful study and followed Poppy as he led her to a back corner of the library.

The short, brunette girl stopped and turned to face him, her arms folded across her chest with a stern look on her face that Sebastian found quite threatening.

"Erm—so,"

"What did you do to Rosie?" Poppy cut him off abruptly, her expression tensening.

Sebastian shifted uncomfortably. "I... I didn't mean to upset her, Poppy."

"Well, she's barely spoken to anyone and won't tell me what's wrong. The only change I've noticed is she's stopped hanging around you."

Sebastian stared at Poppy and blinked. He didn't know how much to tell Poppy or what he was even allowed to tell Poppy. All he knew was he probably shouldn't tell her they'd had sex and were in a modern version of what would typically be a marriage.

Poppy sighed. "She's in the Herbology classroom trying to work on keeping her Dittany alive. Fix it, please."

"But she doesn't want to talk to me, Poppy. She's made that very clear to me."

"Just do it, Sebastian."

Sebastian didn't know why, but seeing Poppy like that scared him a little.

So he nodded and left rather quickly before Poppy's eyes would burn physical holes into him, walking fast to the Herbology classroom.

As he entered cautiously, he found Rosie hunched over a potted plant, her brow furrowed in deep concentration. If Sebastian wasn't absolutely terrified, he'd have dared to think it was cute.

"Rosie," he began softly, "Poppy said you're working on keeping your Dittany alive. Can I help?"

Rosie glanced up. "I don't need your help," she replied curtly, turning her attention back to the plant.

Sebastian took a deep breath, choosing his next words very, very carefully. "I know you're upset with me, and I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you or make you angry. Can we talk about it, please?"

Rosie remained silent, keeping her focus on the withering plant. The rejection hurt Sebastian deeply. He desperately wanted to fix things, but he didn't know how to break through the barrier she had apparently put up.