Run Away ✧ Hogwarts Legacy

chapter four

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The weather had stayed in good spirits for the following day's events. That made Antheia a little more hopeful as the couple left their flat and headed towards the other side of London late that afternoon. It was like walking into old memories since she had been tragically avoiding that particular neighborhood since moving into the city. It wasn't likely that they would find Desmond Esper wandering the streets as a wanted man, but there was still a chance of running into his family which she had been avoiding until that point.

"Are you nervous?" Antheia turned to ask Sebastian as they walked.

He smiled, "Not at all."

If her partner Sylvie couldn't join her on this assignment, then she was glad to have Sebastian by her side. It didn't surprise her when he had offered to fill the role in her partner's absence, but it did shock her that Marvolo approved it.

Sebastian Sallow was an Auror, but rarely was he approved to leave the Ministry to go on assignments. When he turned himself into the Ministry with the remains of the relic in hand, he became the only other person known to have come in connect with Ancient Magic. It became his role to study traces of this magic in text and artifacts across the Ministry's expansive inventory for any signs of its existence. Considering that he had already been doing much of that for Antheia prior to being appointed to the position, it was a natural fit.

He only left the Ministry when he was granted permission. Ominis was his official partner, but as he loved to remind them, his actual job was not to embarrass the family name. Marvolo only sent him on a mission that he deemed to be worthy and therefore Sebastian rarely accompanied.

Antheia was a bit worried about how the day's task would go. Without her partner's skills, she'd have to rely on her own talents which worried her.

"Elm is another block away," Sebastian pointed out when she had trailed behind him.

Antheia knew exactly where they were. The idea of seeing the entire family was a bit overwhelming to her still. It was a large family and she had only met them in person a few times years prior. Embarrassingly, she never fully mastered which sister went by what name. She couldn't simply walk up to their front door and in good faith begin questioning the family about their missing son, not when they all knew her relationship with him, it was nothing more than rude at best.

In the years since they had been together, she had failed to ever reach out to them or offer the muggle family any explanation as to why their son didn't come home after graduation. There had been enough going on in her personal life that she never stopped to consider that the Ministry didn't care about informing them, she had assumed until that day before that someone else must have. Her heart had hurt for them when she was handing a blank file and realized that in the passing months, no one had informed the family of anything that happened.

It might have been her job duty to go check in and verify the reports, but Marvolo didn't specifically ask her to speak to every family member. There was one person that she was hoping may save her the shame of knocking on the front door.

"Just trust me," Antheia asked of Sebastian. He nodded and followed her in the opposite direction of the home where they were supposed to be heading.

It was another two blocks away, she was surprised that he hadn't bothered to ask her where she was heading. But he had fully put his trust in her as he always did.

There was a park just around the corner from the house that she had remembered from one of her visits to the city over the summer. It had taken finding an old map the night before to learn the name of it because years ago they had only sneaked out of the house late at night on a rebellious trip. Mostly the young couple had only wanted to be able to have time alone together outside of the crowded family home.