Sebastian Sallow Fucking Sucks

Chapter Two

"Would you mind having this fight elsewhere?" Ominis slammed his textbooks down on the desk in the Undercroft. "I'm tired of the apprehension of coming down here to find the two of you are strangling each other."

"How can we be fighting if we aren't talking?" I set my quill down. I wasn't paying attention to my Divination notes anyway. "If we find the other is down here, we simply turn around leave."

"That's my point." Ominis set out parchment, quills, textbooks, and ink in meticulous order. I wrinkled my nose at it all. "This is a place of refuge, yet the two of you have made it into a drama with your secret bickering and reckless spellcasting and that hideous triptych as your backdrop."

"How do you know if it's hideous?"

"Don't let that concern you." He waved me off. "I warned you about encouraging his behavior, but you're as hotheaded as he is. I never thought I'd meet the Ravenclaw version of him. You're two bulls butting heads over a damned carcass. By the time you come up for air, all the meat will have rotted away from the bones."

My stomach twisted. We weren't similar. At all. I at least thought through charging into a goblin camp. Sebastian was a narcistic manipulative, pigheaded...daft creep.

"A stunning analogy. You've outdone yourself there, Omi."

"Thank you."

Silence fell between us, and I dipped my quill once more, watching the steady dark drip back into the inkpot. "I mean, you know Sebastian."

"Yes, I do." He quirked a brow.

"And you know how absolutely ridiculous he is."

"Indeed."

I chewed my bottom lip, the tip of my quill blurring the longer I stared. "Does he ever apologize?"

Ominis sighed, his chair creaking, and I finally snapped my attention back to him. Both of his hands gripped the table's edge. "What did he do to you?"

"Nothing," I said quickly.

He hummed in response. "I warned you not to get carried away with him."

"Oh shush. I know." The next time he fell asleep in the DADA tower I would jinx Hobhouse to trip over him.

"I was only asking." I continued the next line of my notes when the ink splattered across the parchment. "Forget this." I stood, slamming my quill down. "I'll leave you to your refuge."

Ominis tutted. "I'm not rising to your bait. I have to deal with it enough from Sebastian. Try sharing quarters with him."

"Must be lovely," I grumbled and thanked Merlin Ominis couldn't see my red cheeks. Nothing about that statement warranted a blush. If anything, it should have summoned indigestion. Yet here I was thinking of Sebastian wetting his lips in the Great Hall and catching me watching. Thinking of his soft voice in the Restricted Section on the night of the Yule Ball. Stupid stupid stupid.

"I'll see you in Herbology." I packed my things.

"Sebastian apologizes," Ominis called, "when it matters to him. And when he has a moment to breathe around that massive block of pride he always seems to be choking on."

I paused at the gate, and I nearly lost a tooth with how hard I grinded my teeth. My fingers dug into the supple leather of my textbook, but it wasn't enough to soothe the writhing nerves like Cornish pixies thrashing in my chest. Sebastian apologized when it mattered to him—that made me feel so much fucking worse.

"So I suppose it depends how important I am on that massive list of priorities he has," I said.

Ominis chuckled, softly enough that I wouldn't have heard it if it weren't for the echo of the Undercroft. "I thought Ravenclaws were clever."

The gate screeched, and my hairs stood on the back of my neck. No, no, why now?

"Saw you coming down, Omin—" Sebastian halted as he met my panicked gaze.

"Oh, wonderful." Ominis sighed. "Now that you're both here, would either of you care to tell me what has you acting like first years?"

"Don't worry about it," Sebastian responded just as I said, "We can't tell you."

Ominis clutched his wand, that familiar red beacon scanning over us. "I swear to Merlin, is this disagreement you're having due to the Dark Arts?"

"Shockingly no," Sebastian huffed.

Ominis's gaze shifted to my general direction, waiting for my agreement.

"It's due to Sebastian's ignorance in other matters."

He scoffed. "My ignorance?"

"If you two don't resolve your issues, I will lock you both down here until you do. Without refreshments!"

"Did you just call us fat?" I asked.

"I'm being dragged into your rumors, and it's no longer entertaining listening to people theorize if I am hiding snake scales under my robes and if our dear Troll Slayer has seen them."

"What—" Sebastian snorted, and Ominis hurled a book at his head with surprising accuracy.

I bit back my laughter. Poor Ominis. "What would you like me to tell them if they ask?"

Ominis scoffed. "Whatever you damn bloody please. I am finished with you two. Exclude me from your escapades until you've sorted out your personal issues. The room is yours." He packed up his items with a spell and pushed past us.

We stood in silence, and my eyes fell to the triptych, our personal altar we'd opted to destroy our relationship at as offering. Stupid Isadora and her tasteless mysteries. I had curled up on the floor and cried through dinner. No one had come to check on me. And why would they? "Heroes" didn't need checking up on.

I sighed, glancing up to find Sebastian studying me. Something solemn hung in his expression, the edge of a sentence he didn't want to begin. In the Undercroft, his light eyes always gleamed a deep dark, almost black, even with the candle glow. This time was no exception.

"You've seen those eyes up close," a voice whispered in the back of my head, and my palms dampened. I dug my nails harder into my textbook.

"What?" I snapped. "Nothing clever to say? About Thestrals or something else stupid?"

He huffed. "I'm sorry for ever filling the silence. Thought I was being polite."

"Polite?" Merlin, it was stifling in here. My cloak suddenly felt too heavy on my shoulders. Being in proximity of Sebastian twice in a week was far beyond my limit. "Enjoy your silence then since you are so gentlemanly and polite."

"Do you really want to start this?" Sebastian asked. "This game? I don't back down from a fight."

"And you've seen me fight." I smirked. "No one wins against me."

We glared at each other as if the other could combust at will, but when flames didn't eat him up, I stormed out of the Undercroft.

I didn't stop until I hit the Boathouse. Some first years scampered out at the sight of my fuming face. I spent all of our Herbology hour hurling spells into the lake, cursing nonsense, until I finally plopped to the dock, feet dangling off the edge.

And I sat there. I sat there until the sun set, engulfing the sky in burning reds before it cooled to black. I sat in my own silence thinking how stars and freckles almost looked the same.