The Mystery of You

chapter 21: persuasion

**NSFW WARNING – not suitable for anyone under the age of 18. You heard me!**

"Willow?" Professor Weasley said as she stared at me in the middle of class. I quickly shot up and sat straight, staring right at her as if nothing happened.

"Sorry Professor, I didn't mean to doze off," I said as I shrunk into myself. Professor Weasley looked at me with a concerned look in her eye. She knew I had been burning the candle at both ends, running with Sebastian to Feldcroft whenever I could to spend time with Anne. The past few weeks, I had collectively gotten a handful of sleep. My nerves increased when it came to an impending attack on myself which caused me to train harder than before with Sebastian and Ominis when I could, and, unfortunately, caused sleeping alone to be incredibly difficult. I rubbed my eyes as Professor Weasley continued on with her lesson.

I felt a pair of eyes on me and turned my head to see Sebastian eyeing me from across the classroom. His face was covered with concern that matched Professor Weasley's. I gazed at him and shrugged as if to say that I was okay. The rest of class went by slowly, made even slower by the heaviness in my eyelids. As I stood up at the end of class, thankful to be able to move as that made it much easier to stay awake, I felt an arm take my books from my hands.

"Let me," Sebastian said before offering his free arm to me.

"Thank you, Seb," I said as we walked. The school day was finally over, and I felt like I severely needed rest, but homework was calling my name. Before I could really realize it, Sebastian had led us to the entrance of the Room of Requirement. I looked around confused.

"Before you say you have homework, I don't think you will be able to do it if you're dead." Sebastian looked at me, seeing the obvious exhaustion in my face. The door revealed itself to us and I walked in. Deek immediately approached us warmly.

"Miss looks tired," Deek observed. Sebastian looked at me smugly as I scoffed.

"I'm fine," I whispered before Sebastian asked Deek to make me some tea as he led me over to the small, cozy bedroom that the room had created for me. I stopped complaining and fighting and instead plopped my bag down on the ground and collapsed on the bed. I kicked my shoes off and got cozy before I felt Sebastian lay down next to me. His hand ran down my back and moved back up in a nice and soothing rhythm. I hummed happily as his gentle touch lulled me to sleep before I could even drink the tea that Deek was bringing me.

I awoke a few hours later to feel Sebastian still there, his hand was now running through my hair, but at some point, he had gotten a book to read. My eyes flickered up to his as I moved to face him.

"Hi there, sleepyhead," Sebastian said as his eyes met mine.

"Hi," I answered shortly but sweetly with a smile on my face before I continued. "What are you reading?"

"Oh, nothing," he answered, covering the book title. Something about the book looked familiar to me. That's when it hit me, it was the book he had taken from me in the summer. He had been reading it, and from the looks of it, he also had been making notes.

"Hey! That's my book." I said as I sat up on the bed.

"Oh, I guess it is," he said with a sly look on his face.

"Why do you still have it? I thought you would have certainly finished it by now."

"I had finished it, but I wanted to go back and make some more notes... for you," he softened at the end of his sentence.

"Why?"

"Well, because there were some things that made me think of you, even the first time I read it," Sebastian admitted. "I wanted to share those things with you. I was going to give it back to you when I finished."