🥀 Roses and Novels | Hogwarts Legacy Fanfic | Sebastian, Ominis and Evander

🥀 - chapter 49 -🌹

I walked through the hallways with Sebastian's gift clutched in my hands. I wanted to open it right away, but something about it felt... private. It felt like a secret not meant for curious eyes. So I took it with me to the Rosarium in the garden.

I placed it gently on the bench beside me and looked out at the wild roses blooming in the sun.

My thoughts wandered to earlier that day.

🙟•◦ 🎕 ◦•🙝

-Earlier that day-

After Ominis gave me his... physical birthday present, we stayed in my room. I was sitting on the bed, knees pulled up to my chest, my back resting against him. His legs stretched around me as he sat behind, brushing and braiding my hair with slow, gentle hands. His fingers moved tenderly over my scalp, my neck, near my ear. I watched the soft light from the window, listening to the calm in his voice as he told me about a surprise he had planned for me tonight.

But my mind wasn't really there. It drifted, somewhere else.
Someone else.

I tried to recall the night before. Why I'd ended up in Sebastian's shirt.
The flashes in my mind made no sense, just scattered fragments.
A kiss. A shirt. Booze. Music. Vomit.

"So, what do you think?" Ominis asked suddenly.

"Huh?" I blinked, pulled back to reality.

"Helena... were you even listening?"

"Not really..." I admitted with a shy smile. I turned to face him. "Tell me again."

He smiled at me, patient as always. "You'll see tonight." Then he paused. "Where were you just now?"

"I'm here," I said quietly.

"No. I mean in your head. Where were you?"

I didn't answer.

I couldn't say his name, not without risking another fight.

Ominis took my hands in his and looked at me with quiet understanding.
"You were thinking about him, weren't you?"

"Yes," I whispered. "Are you mad at me?"

He sighed, rubbing gentle circles over my fingers.
"Of course not."

I waited for him to say more. Something reassuring. But instead, he just looked at me. His breathing was slow, steady, but louder now in the silence between us.

"Do you miss him?" he finally asked.

I looked down at my lap. "Sometimes..."

"And now?"

"I do," I whispered. A tear slipped from the corner of my eye.

He took a breath and smiled faintly. "Go talk to him, honey. I need to go anyway, I have some things to prepare for your surprise tonight."

He leaned in and kissed me.

"I love you, darling," he whispered.

"I love you," I replied softly and kissed him back.

As he walked to the door, he turned and grinned.
"You better bring your wand if you're going to see him. He saw us... before we went into the bedroom. Maybe he's angry. I smiled at him as I took you." Then he left.

My heart twisted.
Merlin, Ominis... why would you do that?

I felt guilty. Sebastian didn't deserve to see that, didn't deserve to feel that.

I rushed to Sebastian's room, but the door never opened.

Still, I kept trying.

Not because I wanted to. Everything inside me wanted to run away.
But I needed to know what it felt like to keep going, when giving up would've been easier.