Tempest // Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 47

"Sebastian, can you focus please?" Ominis' voice called from across the table he sat at in the corner of the library, simply knowing Sebastian was absolutely not paying attention to the study they were supposed to be doing.

Rosie peered up from her book for a moment and nudged Sebastian, the arm supporting his chin getting knocked over and his face nearly slamming into the table.

"What?"

"You need to study! N.E.W.Ts are next week and I know you need to work hard to do well in Arithmancy if you still want to be a curse-breaker." Ominis chided.

"I don't care what I become anymore, Ominis." Sebastian groaned, reefing the new glasses Rosie had finally convinced him to get from his face and tossing them on the wooden table below, pushing his fingers to his temples.

"Nuh-uh!" Rosie scolded, picking up the glasses and forcing them back on his face, "Study. And these were expensive! Look after them!"

Sebastian shot her a glare, but obliged anyway, keeping the spectacles on his face and fluffing his dishevelled hair about even more as he flicked through his textbooks.

When he said he didn't care anymore, Sebastian truly didn't. He'd tried three times to go back to Feldcroft, find Anne and apologise and try to come to some sort of resolution and create an amicable relationship, but she was nowhere to be seen. He visited Vincent, he hadn't seen her. He knocked on the door of every villager in the small hamlet, but no one had any idea where she'd gone.

It was only on the 4th visit to Feldcroft in the month since the funeral that he found a letter on the kitchen table.

Sebastian,

I'm sorry to leave like this, but I can't stay here. I'm getting worse and lingering amongst all the memories you and I have shared in this cottage is becoming too much to bear, so I must leave.

Please don't come looking for me.

I love you, I always will. But I don't think we can fix this, ever.

Anne.

Sebastian stared at the letter, his heart sinking with each word. A variety of emotions washed over him at once. Anger, sadness, pain, frustration, everything like a tidal wave.

He scrunched up the note in his hand and shoved it deep into his pocket, stomping back to the castle as fast as he could.

But, despite how angry he was, he obeyed Anne's wishes and didn't look for her. And he stopped looking for a cure.

What was the point anyway?

The words of his Arithmancy textbook seemed to dance across the paper as he tried desperately to absorb some information, but none of it stuck.

Just as Sebastian thought of leaving and going to bed to pretend to sleep like he always did lately when he wanted to avoid a situation, Tadgh approached the group with his happy, bouncy little steps, sitting down with a soft thump and a grin.

Sebastian did like Tadgh, but his generally cheery personality was becoming too much.

"How are ya, Seb, Rosie?" He asked with a swish of his shaggy, shoulder length dark blonde hair.

"Absolutely grand," Sebastian mumbled, earning him a frown from Tadgh, who let out a small chuckle at Sebastian's blatant sarcasm, "Bet you're a lot worse though. Only been here a few months and already having to take N.E.W.Ts."

"Eh, I had homeschooling for years. It's Rosie I'd be concerned about."

Sebastian nodded his head and kept his poker face, remembering the majority of the student body figured she was brand new to the magic world and only he and Ominis knew she'd actually been attending Hogwarts for years.