The Conquest of the Ember Heart | F! OC x S.S. x O.G. x G.W.

The melting of the saint

"I will never forgive you for carrying me." I informed Garreth, eyes closed. My head hung on my neck and swayed with every step he took as he ferried me on both of his arms.

"Well, you're just bad at playing catch." he chuckled to himself. "Occasionally, you exhibit such audacity that I'm perplexed about its origin." I said sarcastically and let my body hang and rock along.

"Twice, you ran into knight's armor." He tried to defend his point "I'm doing you and the entire castle a favor by carrying you home. Firstly, you won't harm yourself and secondly you won't wake up the paintings. Who by the way, wouldn't hesitate to report two drunks playing tag in the middle of the night. And then we'd have to be put in detention." He made it clear to me.

"snitches" I sighed dissatisfied. I opened my eyes and watched our dark surroundings pass us upside down.

"How can you see anything? It's pitch black" I questioned, drawing my wand to brighten up our surroundings with lumos.

"I know the way by heart" he acknowledged. I noticed that the hallway he was carrying me through wasn't near Ravenclaw house and I sat up to look at our route properly. "Garreth...where are we?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you that we have to take a quick trip to the Room of Requirement. Gotta get something done. It won't take long, I promise." He said shortly and I returned his smile with narrowed eyes.

"Don't give me that look, I'm serious." He explained himself and I waved my wand forward again so we could see where he was going. Garreth stopped in front of the seemingly empty wall until the metal frame of the room appeared from the stone and he elegantly opened the door with his foot.

When we got inside he put me on my unsteady, wobbly legs.

But he didn't completely leave me yet, still holding me in his arms he looked up at the large roof of windows and drew my attention to the orange light that was shining down on us. Instead of the dark, starry sky that normally lit up the Room of Requirements there was now a warm sunset.

I couldn't help but smile "You were able to persuade him" I remembered that he wanted to convince Deek to change it.

"Wasn't easy." Garreth confessed curtly. "I never thought that house elves are so stubborn in nature"

"It's beautiful, thank you" I whispered in a daze. Our eyes met and an incredible amount of goosebumps came over me. "Don't thank me too soon you still have a present to open." He reminded me, pulling me along by my hand. I followed him as I looked around and enjoyed the new ambiance.

On the large table decorated with candles and skulls I spotted a large glass vase with red rain lilies. I wanted to say something but because of my alcohol consumption I forgot it the next second when I had to concentrate on not falling down the stairs. When he got downstairs he didn't waste a second and pulled me to sit on a plant table.

"I have to do something, will you open your present during this time?" he looked at me with big eyes. Uncertain, I reached for my bag and placed it on my lap. "As you wish" I got a hold of his present. It was a red box with a golden ribbon on it. While he went away and did something at the back plant table, I pulled on the band.

The golden ribbon fell to the floor when I loosened the button. I looked at the red box briefly before slowly pulling the lid off.

My breath hitched.

There was a silver hair slide comb lying on the dark velvet. Above the comb, the piece was decorated with beautiful patterns and blood-red stones. Were... were those rubies? I didn't even dare touch it at first but subsequently carefully reached in and stroked the comb needles and then the patterns.