Under Your Scars || Sebastian Sallow x MC

Chapter 7 - Mudblood

Juliette POV

My trip to the Hogs Head had not been fruitful, but I did not know what I was expecting. I thought that going in disguise would help me blend in, maybe get some information about anyone that may have their eyes set on Hogwarts. I did not recognize any dark wizards or hear any chatter that was particularly alarming.

It was just another dead end.  I was becoming increasingly anxious about having no leads, and I only had one month to find something before the Ministry would want me back on my usual assignments. 

But maybe there was nothing to find. Maybe my dreams of Hogwarts' destruction were nothing more than dreams. And wouldn't that be a good thing? I could just spend the rest of the month using my experience to teach some lessons in Defense Against the Dark Arts, as Weasley had suggested. 

Professor Sallow and I fell into something of a routine over the next two weeks.  Each morning I would sit in on his classes, and each afternoon I would spend in his office. He'd prepare tea and we would spend the afternoons pouring over lesson plans. 

I inquired about some of the dark wizards he had encountered in his time as an Auror. I asked whether any other dark wizards had been made aware of my abilities or the repository, as Rookwood was very aware and may have shared this information before his unseemly demise. He thought long and hard about this but insisted it never came up in any of his assignments.

It was during one of these afternoons that I confided in him about my magic becoming somewhat unpredictable. I told him about the sparks in my fingertips, which I had always blamed on static electricity. 

"So that's why you shock me every time I hand you your tea?"

"Yeah, sorry about that."

 "Is that why you've come back? To get better control of your magic?"

It was almost every day that he would find some sneaky way to ask about my return. With no real leads or information for him, I had opted to keep things to myself, for now. It was bad enough that I was afraid and confused, adding another confused wizard would not help matters. The nightmares had also persisted, and I was not ready to share those with him.

"Why yes, Professor Sallow, I came to learn from the best. You taught me everything I know, after all" I joked, winking at him. 

A half-smile tugged at his lips and he returned to his tea. 

Students sometimes came to his office hours with questions or for help with assignments. 

A sixth-year prefect named Rosalie was a frequent visitor of Professor Sallow's. She came with with questions about non-verbal spell-casting, counter-curses, wandless magic, things beyond the curriculum. She asked about various forms of dark magic and whether she could get his permission to check out some material from the Restricted Section, which Sebastian handled gracefully. 

"How about I check out the books you need and we go over them during office hours? Some of these books have some pretty evil and vile material, and I would rather they not be read unsupervised," he told her.

It was refreshing to see him cautioning someone against dark magic. I had been using these afternoons as the beginnings of his "trial", trying to get a better sense of the man he had become. He gave no indication that he still fancied the dark arts, but I wondered if I could ever know for sure.

What I did know is that I would miss these afternoons with Sebastian, once my month was up. It comforted me to know that my month here could never be a waste, as I would be able to spend it reconciling with my dearest friend.