timeless // Sebastian Sallow

CHAPTER 47: Kaleidoscope

A group of dogs or wolves is called a "pack". A group of lions is called a "pride". A group of snakes is called a "pit" or "nest". And a group of butterflies is called a "kaleidoscope. ♥

*****

"Your eyes look like coming home
You'll be mine and I'll be yours
All I know since yesterday is everything has changed.
Come back and tell me why, I'm feeling like I've missed you all this time
Meet me there tonight and let me know that it's not all in my mind.
I just wanna know you better."
🎧 Everything Has Changed - Taylor Swift ft. Ed Sheeran

*****

So that is how a first kiss is supposed to feel like, I thought to myself once I arrived at the dormitory, closing the door behind me and leaning against it. My lips still stung and my skin still prickled from being in the electrifying warmth of his arms.

Luckily, all the girls were asleep. It allowed me to just stand there in the dark, breathing heavily. Breathing and soaring.

A memory popped into my mind: the first time I saw Sebastian, in my first Defence Against the Dark Arts class. It was ironic how the first thing I noticed about him was that cocky smile - the way his lips curled, rather brashly, promising to give me a hard time before I beat him in the duel. And there I was, 2 years later, savouring those lips.

Kissing Sebastian was magic. Magic, unlike anything I had ever felt, seen or done in the wizarding world. It was fearless, beyond any bravery I had during any battle I fought. It was passionate, hungry, urgent. But above all, it was real. Real infatuation, one a potion could never create. It was perfect.

It felt like I was a wanderer who had been stranded away for too long, lost in a labyrinth, finally walking through the doors of a familiar, longed place. Then, waiting by the doorstep every single day, there was Sebastian. That was our - and only our - reunion of souls. Souls who had been apart for too long, finding the place where they belonged. Home.

From that day on, everything had changed.

*****

It was Monday once again, and sleep hadn't graced me those couple of nights before - the butterflies in my stomach kept me awake since that Saturday evening. Then, on Sunday, I spent the whole day outside helping Poppy with her beast catalogue project, thus meaning I hadn't seen Sebastian since.

"Morning, Ominis..." I greeted him while fighting a stubborn yawn once I arrived at the greenhouse for the Herbology class.

"Carolyn," Ominis nodded with a smirk.

With the couple of weeks that had passed, his alabaster face had completely recovered from the bruises and cuts, except for a faint scar left on his left eyebrow. It suited him well, though.

Professor Garlick talked about the handling of carnivorous plants, but her voice failed to find its way into my brain.

Are Sebastian and I together now? How is it going to be moving forward? Where was he yesterday, and why didn't he reach out to me? Is that part of us keeping it a secret? When we meet later in Potions, what should I do?

"You are exceptionally quiet today, dear," Ominis whispered next to me, the smirk not leaving his lips.

I cleared my throat, fidgeting with the class gloves as I put them on. "Yes... But I'm fine, I promise..."

"Oh, you are more than fine, that I know for certain..." He crossed his arms, but his expression was not familiar - amusement painting Ominis' face had to be one of the rarest sights.