Unforgivable - Sebastian Sallow x Fem!Reader x Ominis Gaunt

𝕋𝕨𝕠

𝕐/ℕ

What a picture-perfect day for a funeral.

Nothing quite sets the scene of a solemn, macabre gathering like a torrential downpour from dark, billowing clouds that swallow the sun whole. It's fitting...too fitting. It appears even the heavens are weeping as they, too, mourn the loss of such an innocent, unfortunate soul.

Nothing about this is fair...not a single speck of it.

Anne was struck with a devastating curse before her fifth year at Hogwarts was meant to begin...a curse that would cause her unimaginable pain that slowly ate away at her from the inside out, until she eventually succumbed to it.

I eventually found and exterminated the culprit behind it...but even his death wasn't enough to reverse the effects of the curse. It seems nothing was enough...given Sebastian and I had exhausted every option...every possibility of a cure.

It was just as much Anne's choice to send Sebastian to Azkaban as it was Ominis's... so she willingly had him imprisoned before he was able to find anything that could help save her life. Though...she made her peace with that. She knew what was coming for her...and she faced it head on...strong, and tall...just as her brother would have, were he in her shoes.

However, even after Sebastian was sentenced, I spent a majority of my time in the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library...combing through every book, just to see if there was anything at all I had missed. I let my own studies fall through the cracks; it was almost as if Sebastian were still there, begging me...pleading for my help...and I just couldn't let it rest.

It wasn't until I'd received an owl from Anne, essentially begging me to give it a rest and accept her fate before I drove myself mad like her brother did...that I decided to cease my obsessing.

And now....here I am...standing in a small, deteriorating cemetery just outside of Feldcroft...sitting front row at a display of my failures.

It's not right....It's just not bloody right.

I see so many familiar faces gathered here...the faces of our friends, their cheeks all stained with a mix of tears and rain droplets. Poppy Sweeting sat a row behind me, her slender arms wrapped around herself as she sobbed loudly. Natty Onai was next to her, her arms wrapped around Poppy in comfort. Garreth Weasley was here too...and his usual goofy, carefree grin was nowhere to be seen...only a tight line, tugging down at the corners as he tried to fight off his own tears. Amit Thakkar was next to him, rubbing a comforting hand on his shoulder. Samantha Dale...Everett Clopton...even Imelda Reyes was shedding a few tears. It appeared everyone in our year at Hogwarts had attended today.

They all knew Anne before I did, given I started my time at Hogwarts much later. They'd all seen her at her prime...at her happiest...they all knew of the light she beamed when she had her entire life ahead of her...and they'd all shared in Sebastian's sorrow in some way when Anne was cursed. A sea of bright, colorful people...all shrouded in black now as they, too...beared witness to my failures.

I don't believe any of them truly know what became of Sebastian...nor do they have any idea what lengths we'd gone to in order to try and save her. Perhaps it's better if they didn't know. Even if there was nothing else I could do for Sebastian now...I could at least do him the courtesy of keeping his reputation in tact.

The longer I allowed my eyes to scan the crowd of mourners...the more a large stone began to settle in the depth of my gut, and my chest began to cave in on itself. All our peers...mourning Anne's death. And in two weeks time...I'll see all these faces again.