Shadow of the Key | Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 21: Amortentia - Final Mix

Amelia's POV

Sebastian was avoiding her.

The night prior, she stood there absolutely dumbfounded in the middle of the dancing students by the events that had occurred between them.

How his hands were roaming down her curves. How he slid his hand under her dress and up her thigh. How his lips grazed the skin on her neck. How his fingers played with the fabric of the green bow in her hair that he had given her.

After he left, her brain couldn't even focus on any of her surroundings. It was as though she was in some sort of convoluted trance, lost in a whirlwind of emotions.

But she knew it wasn't intentional. The main goal was for him to get her wand without making it obvious he was taking it.

If he didn't, she would've been expelled or sent off to receive a Dementor's kiss.

Because as soon as she was making her way back towards her dorm room, she had been stopped by a prefect. And when she told them she didn't bring her wand with her, they cast a Revealing charm to make sure she wasn't lying to their face.

She looked all around the chaos of the rowdy drunkards that filled the common room with cheers, shouts, and spilt goblets for that tall, tousled-haired Slytherin.

But he was gone.

She was initially worried he just took her wand with him back to his dorm room, and after he rather abruptly left her alone on the dance floor, she didn't believe he'd want to see her.

But when she made it back to her dorm, a sleeping Anne curled up in the warm comfort of her bed already in there, she glanced over at her nightstand and saw it.

Her wand.

When the next day finally rolled around and she roamed the halls of the school that were filled with stumbling, hungover students, she didn't see him once.

Not even at breakfast.

Amelia and Anne had asked Ominis why Sebastian wasn't there, with the only answer they received being "He wasn't hungry."

Knowing that something shifted in him last night, to the extent that he couldn't show up for breakfast, caused her to lose her appetite as well.

All she wanted to do was cry. There was never a point in their friendship when he deliberately avoided her. This was a first and she didn't know what she should do about it.

As she made her way over to Potions class, she had hope she'd be seeing him there. Unless he decided to skip that as well, and if he was skipping classes to avoid her that much, she was definitely going to cry then.

When she crossed the threshold into the classroom with the same excited clamor she heard on her first day, she quickly noticed him.

Who was already at his station with Adelaide Oakes.

Sebastian appeared disheveled with his button-up shirt untucked and his tie loosened. His tired eyes remained fixed on his station, the bags underneath them darker than usual.

He looked like he rolled out of bed in that uniform and left without even sparing a glance in a mirror.

The pang in her heart cut through her like a dagger at the sight.

Adelaide seemed to be attempting to make conversation with him, but he was only giving her some side glances and short responses, as if he was completely disconnected.

Did he sleep at all?

He wasn't casting a single glance towards Amelia, making her wonder if he either didn't notice her step into the classroom or was purposefully avoiding looking at her.