The Hope beneath the Dark - Sebastian Sallow

1. Following his shadow

It's been a month now since Ominis and I decided not to turn Sebastian in. To be honest, I still had mixed feelings, and I could not possibly be the only one. Anne was still refusing to speak to Sebastian, or me, which was not much of a surprise.

She kept Ominis informed of her whereabouts the first week, letting him know that she held a funeral for Solomon, alone. A few days later, she sent him her last owl, explaining that she'd keep the secret about what really happened to her uncle, for the sake of the only family she has left, but wished not to hear from Sebastian, nor us, for the time being.

Although he respected and understood her choice, it has been particularly upsetting him, as he tried his best to prevent this catastrophe, only to fail, but mostly because Anne also meant so much to him.

He wouldn't say it, but I could feel how scary it was to him that with how this situation unfolded, we unintentionally sent Anne to live her last days on her own, away from us. Away from the very few people she had left, the people that had miserably deceived her. I thought of nothing more that he could've done to prevent what happened. Our only choice was to accept the fact that despite the warnings, Sebastian decided to keep sliding down that path. It was just terribly unfortunate how devastating it was in Sebastian's case.

Telling myself that things happen for a reason seemed foolish for this situation, but I was just trying to make it make sense, which sounded impossible.

While Ominis and I had been speaking almost daily, trying to cheer each other up, Sebastian was avoiding us as best as he could. It was rather a difficult task, since the three of us were quite often running into each other in the Slytherin common room. No words were ever shared between him and us. I knew he was somewhat grateful not to be spending the rest of his life in Azkaban, but living with what he did was surely a consequence almost as equally awful, especially since it costed him his twin sister, for whom he went to such lengths, as he said.

Something in his eyes changed though. I used to see anger, a lot of it, and some twisted thirst for the Dark Arts, like he was seeking it and loving it. It started with good intentions, but he clearly lost himself in the game.

Each book he read about it, each new spells, or secrets he would uncover, he craved more, and it showed in his recent choices. In the end, I would even say it wasn't just for Anne anymore. He had a taste of a power he wasn't supposed to access, and it consumed him. Anne knew him better than anyone, she's saw it coming before any of us could. Now I realised that it must've been the reason she was always so insistent on him giving up the search, to just accept her fate. She knew we could lose him to the Dark Arts. She was right, and that hurt to admit.

"Maude, did you hear what I just said?" Ominis asked promptly, sitting across the Slytherin table in the Great Hall.

"Yes, ye.. no, I'm sorry, I was thinking about our last potions class, and I got lost in thoughts." I lied, aware that it wasn't convincing at all. "What was it again?"

"It's about our assignment for later today with Professor Ronen... ringing a bell?" He scoffed. "Look, I know you had a lot on your mind lately, but please, don't throw all your efforts away. There's only two weeks left, then we can stop with all that studying. Now's just not the time to slack!".

"You're right, it just seems like so much since I left most of it aside while dealing with things I shouldn't have been preoccupied with in the first place." I confessed, then resumed to my breakfast. "It all seems so boring now, not boring but... I don't know how to say it..."

"...Like it feels odd now that your biggest problem today is just an assignment." Ominis let out, knowing exactly where I was heading with that thought. "Well, I'm sorry to disappoint, miss, but the time when you were risking your life on a daily basis is over."