Legacy Rewritten

Forgiveness and a Demiguise

"Well boys, what's the plan? Bondage and questioning? Tea and biscuits? A duel followed by Butterbeers all around, bought by the loser?" I taunted, patiently waiting for them to answer, me twirling the tiny blades of grass between my fingertips glancing around at the trio of Slytherins, meeting opal clouded eyes, a set of bronze ones, and a set of greyish-green ones. "How about none of the above," Zander said, him gently nudging my good knee with his foot before he sat down, peering at the other two, intently waiting for them to speak. I smirked at the two who remained standing, curious to see which one of the two of them would be the one to break the silence and say whatever they had obviously come to say. Ominis was the one to speak up first. "Ren, first, I want to say that I'm so sorry for getting upset with you after seeing you exit the Undercroft. And I never meant to threaten Professor Fig or Zander, nor would I have ever completed the threat. Even if you didn't care for them as strongly as you obviously do, I would never hurt either of them. 

Most importantly though," he said, his voice seeming to break for a single moment as he knelt down in front of me, "I would never hurt you, and I'm so sorry that my words did just that. I can only hope that you'll forgive me, my dear Ren, because I made a mistake in thinking that you would ever think to tell a soul about such a special place. Of course you wouldn't, and you're more than welcome to use the Undercroft to practice spells. I only ask that you continue to speak the truth and allow us to help you. We care about you. I care about you, Ren." He looked at me with complete sincerity, at least to the best of his ability once again causing me to doubt his blindness considering he was basically staring straight into my soul, into my eyes. He gently took my hands into his, and I felt my breath catch in my throat at seeing such a raw vulnerability from such an imposing wizard as most other people assumed he was, a wizard of pure status and high access to Dark magic. Yes, while he was a pure-blood, a family history drenched in Dark magic, he was the opposite of everything they stood for, adamant on doing his absolute best to do what he needed to do in order to be better and make up for the "red in his ledger".  

"Of course I forgive you Omi. I was just shocked at seeing your reaction, and that you didn't seem willing to let me explain. You just...reacted, and it really threw me off. Thank you for apologizing, and for giving me the reason to your reaction," I said, giving Ominis' hands a gentle squeeze as he smiled gently, moving to sit beside me as we looked up at Sebastian, patiently awaiting his words we could see steeping deep in his mind. I noticed that Ominis still had a hold of my hands, him tracing tiny circles on the back of my hands with his thumbs. I don't even think he realized what he was doing, or how it was affecting my clarity of mind, but I didn't care either way. As Sebastian took a deep breath, I internally shook my head to ease the fuzziness in my mind, focusing in on the words that were going to be leaving him soon. "And I wanted to apologize as well, simply for the fact that I should've told you sooner. In fact, I should've told you the same day Ominis and I had agreed to show Zander the Undercroft and we would've avoided this whole situation altogether. It was because I wasn't sure about you yet; Zander assured the two of us that you could be trusted, Ominis had even come around and was willingly saying yes, but at my simple hesitation, Ominis took my side and we agreed that you wouldn't see it quite yet.

And for that sole reason, I also apologize, dear Ren," he said, kneeling down as Ominis had done previously, but instead of taking my hands from Ominis' grip, he placed both of his hands on my shoulders, meeting my gaze as well. He further surprised me when he took one of his hands off of my shoulders and cupped my cheek softly, guiding me to face him again when I looked down briefly. Smiling, and trying my best not to immediately lean into his touch, I replied, "Of course I forgive you Seb. While it would've been nice to have seen the Undercroft at the same time as Zander did, I am glad that I have been able to see it and that we're here, now." Sebastian sat down in front of me, pulling me into a slight hug for a moment before settling back down onto the grass in front of me. "As sweet as this moment is, Ren, where have you been? Where did you and Fig disappear to? We went to his classroom and you just...disappeared through the Floo system. We tried to follow you through the Floo, even went to the extent of looking at the Map and you had just disappeared. We couldn't find you anywhere, Ren; we were terrified...I was terrified," Zander said, grasping my shoulder firmly, drawing my attention towards him.