timeless // Sebastian Sallow

CHAPTER 36: Tree of Serpents - Part 2

🎧 Recommended song for this chapter: Andante in C Minor ("Succession" Soundtrack)

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"You are a Gaunt." Ominis' voice echoed in my head like an eternal cursed looping.

"OMINIS, WHAT THE FUCK??" Sebastian snarled and broke the silence first.

My vision was blurry and I felt dizzy, as if my soul had separated from my body at that moment.

It was too much. Too much for one day.

I couldn't - no, it couldn't be.

How?

No.

Just... No.

Ominis ignored Sebastian's question, tapping the gigantic family tree scroll twice, bringing it to fold back on itself.

"Since when, Ominis? OMINIS, for how long have you known about all of this????" Sebastian stood up, his voice growing louder and livid, sending shivers down my spine.

He threw himself over Ominis, grabbing him from his cloak. "I asked you a question, Ominis!!!" his lips trembled with shock and rage.

"I can explain!" Ominis yelled in despair, grasping at Sebastian's wrists. "I swear, Sebastian, I can explain! PLEASE!"

Sebastian let go of his garment, purposely pushing him down.

I was in absolute shock, processing the gigantic mixture of conflicting feelings. I simply observed Ominis on the ground, defeated, so miserable and wretched. I could physically feel his sorrow eating him up from the inside.

"Last year. That's when they told me." Ominis spoke as he was catching his breath. "My grandmother and my brothers... They told me that a new student would join 5th year, and that she was a distant relative of ours, but would not be aware of it."

"You knew... All this time..." Sebastian mumbled, flabbergasted.

Ominis stood up and sighed deeply, pacing around the room. "I did. But, worse than that... I learned that my family had been tracking yours for centuries. My grandparents had monitored your father his entire life, and so did my great-grandparents watching your grandfather from a distance. Centuries of no luck, since none of them had magic being manifestated. But I swear that I had never heard of you before. I believe that, after your 11th birthday, they assumed you were one more squib in the lineage. Until everything changed."

"So they told you to become my friend...?" My heart sank in my chest. Was anything in the past 2 years real?

"No, not exactly... They said I should keep an eye on the new girl, and that it should be an easy task - she was likely to be sorted into Slytherin, as a fellow heir, of course. But we know that didn't happen."

Sebastian cackled in indignation. "Oh, my- A fellow heir... Carolyn, the heir of Slytherin... This is ridiculous. Outrageous. She doesn't even speak parseltongue! How do you explain that???"

Ominis grunted. "No... I mean, yes, she could if she wanted to... One is not born speaking it, we actually inherit the ability to learn... Anyway, this is not even the point..."

I remembered the time when I first heard Ominis speaking the snake language when we found the Scriptorium. Ironically, I did tell him that I would love to talk to snakes. I wondered how he felt listening to my innocent comment, knowing I shared his heritage.

Ominis took his hand to his forehead, frowning as he squeezed out his memories. "I swear, that is all I knew back then - a distant relative coming to Hogwarts. I never forced a friendship. I tried to stay away." His lips trembled. "Can you imagine my surprise when I saw Carolyn, the new Gryffindor girl, leaving the Undercroft one day?? Sebastian, you were the one who befriended her first."