Tempest // Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 24

Sebastian barely slept.

He laid on his back in the Room of Requirement and stared at the ceiling, digging his pocket watch out of his pants every few hours and putting it back with a heavy sigh.

The gentle noises of the birds beginning to chirp outside the castle let Sebastian know he'd spent the whole night lying awake, not a single wink of sleep bestowed upon his body.

Sebastian groaned and ran his hands down his face, trying to shake some energy into himself before he got up, knowing he had to try and face the day.

He tried hard to push the thoughts out of his mind of the last week. He'd gone from deliriously in love with his girlfriend to still deliriously in love but with no girlfriend and a damaged relationship with his best friend.

Was he this oblivious the whole time? Did Ominis really love him? Or was it just the alcohol? Surely he was just drunk and still stressed about the arranged marriage, so he panic kissed Sebastian. Yes, that was all it was.

Sebastian snuck back to the dormitory and replaced his uniform with a clean one after a cold shower to try and shock some energy back into his body.

He dressed sluggishly and made his way to the Great Hall. The aroma of breakfast that normally excited him hit him, a mix of toast, eggs, and sweets today making him feel ill.

He sat right down the end of the Slytherin table, towards the front of the Great Hall, hoping to keep himself hidden and placed some food on his plate, hoping it would force his appetite back, but it didn't. Instead, he absent mindedly scraped the eggs around his plate, resting his cheek in his hand, elbow propped on the edge of the table.

"Hey mate."

Sebastian lifted his head and the very sorry looking face of Garreth Weasley sat in front of him, wincing as his backside hid the wooden seat across from Sebastian.

"Garreth. Sore head?"

Garreth chuckled, "Yeah. Just a bit. Listen, I wanted to apologise for being a bad influence on your bestie yesterday, I understand he wasn't in the best way when he got back."

"No, he wasn't." Sebastian sighed. "Why were you two together anyway? Seems like an unlikely drinking pair."

"I caught him in the library having a bit of a breakdown. I invited him to the Gryffindor common room just out of obligation, but to my surprise, he agreed. Anyway, he accepted one drink and we just ended up sharing an entire bottle of Firewhisky between us. He said some... strange things."

"Strange?" Sebastian said, his curiosity piqued.

"Something about an arranged marriage blah blah blah but he loves someone else. I don't know. He was pretty bummed."

Sebastian nodded. He knew all of this already, of course. The arranged marriage was to a Malfoy girl and the one he loved was, well... Sebastian.

"Thanks for hearing him out, I suppose." Sebastian said.

Garreth seemed to get the memo that Sebastian wasn't in the mood for general chit chat, at least not with someone as generally chirpy and positive as Garreth and took his leave.

"Well, I suppose I'll see you in class. Sorry again." Garreth said, a little softer as he groaned and slowly limped his way over to the Gryffindor table.

Sebastian sighed and played with his scrambled eggs a little more, his heavy eyelids beginning to betray him and he cursed his body for finally wanting to succumb to sleep now.

And just as he hopped up to leave, Ominis entered and sat down in their regular spot, possibly hoping Sebastian would sit with him.

Sebastian did debate whether he should or not. He didn't even know if Ominis was too drunk to remember what had happened, but he tried to sneak past him anyway, not particularly keen to ask if he did indeed remember kissing him last night.