After The Storm

A Fresh Start

Authors Note: I didn't intend to take *looks at watch* three months to finish this chapter. Oopsie.

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The agreement, as brief as the conversation had been, was that whoever woke first would wait for the other in the common room before breakfast. That morning, it was Cordelia who was the lucky one, sitting on the steps while her housemates passed by, eager to start the true first day of term.

Imelda had traveled to Spain that summer, and Grace had spent time in both Italy and France. Nerida, much like Cordelia, didn't do anything worthwhile; and the only reason she knew was because as she lay in her bed with the curtains drawn and her itchy blankets pulled up and over her head, her trio of roommates talked and talked about their summertime adventures until the wee hours of the morning.

Perhaps if it wasn't for Imelda's snoring, or the incessant giggles from the other two every time Imelda so much as made a nasally whistle or a snort, Cordelia would have been able to get another much-needed hour of sleep and wouldn't have been awake long before the sun peeked over the horizon or a roosters first crow.

She hummed to herself as she glanced over at one of the many clocks in the common room - it was almost eight o'clock. She'd counted at least nineteen people passing her by, none of which happened to be the boy with bushy eyebrows and side-swept chestnut hair that had seemed to grow another inch or two in the months she hadn't seen him.

As it usually did, and at the worst of times, her curiosity began to bubble up until it got the best of her. Getting up to take a peek around the corner to see if Sebastian was coming wouldn't hurt, and sitting on the steps and twiddling her thumbs was no help as her concern began to fester. But just as she turned and began to stand, she was greeted with the sight of well-pressed trousers, boots that had never seen even the smallest speck of dirt, and a particular wand's glow shining clearly in their patent leather reflection.

The loud, consistent ticks on the clock became muffled, and the rippling of the water in the nearby pond seemed to fade when the sound of her own heart began to thump loudly in her ears. Out of the nineteen people that had passed her on the stairs that morning, not one of them had been Sebastian.

Or Ominis.

"Pardon me." he scowled, keeping his head forward. "Most people prefer to sit in chairs."

He could have gone on his way without a snide remark, but he didn't.

She could have let him pass by without acknowledging him - but she didn't.

"I wasn't in your way." she straightened out the back of her skirt as she stood, all while silently cursing Sebastian for choosing this morning to get ready at a snail's pace.

She could tell by the raise in his eyebrows that Ominis was surprised to hear her, of all people. "I was expecting a careless first year." Annoyance seeped from his lips. "Not..."

"Not?" she questioned sharply.

There was a moment of hesitation before he spoke, and the way he turned his head ever so slightly, but not to fully face her was enough to make her go stiff.

"Not," he repeated in that same stabbing tone "Someone so grossly and blindly forgiving."

Cordelia opened her mouth to speak, but was unable to even conjure something, anything in rebuttal.

"I beg your pardon?" she snapped, taking a step closer as he began his descent. "What on earth is that supposed to mean?"

That was when he stopped - one hand on the banister, the other lowering the wand used to guide him. "You know exactly what it means Cordelia - you aren't daft. You're sitting on the stairs, presumably waiting for Sebastian, of all people, even after everything he's done - not only to his own family, but to you and I as well. To forgive him for-"