In The Shadow Of His Love (Reader vs Sebastian Sallow)

Chapter 7 - Enchanted parchment

The next two weeks seem to fly by, and Riley is trying her best to act normal and not listen to Erin, who keeps teasing her all the time. Every time Ravenclaws have any class with Slytherins, Riley is on the lookout. 

There is a battle going on in her head. As much as she wants to ignore Sebastian to shut Erin up, she also wants to see if she's right. She is very aware she's been staring his way a lot, but never realized anyone noticed until Erin said so. But she is not aware of Sebastian doing the same. 

"Looks like Ominis Gaunt gave up quite early this time," Riley hears Erin whispering to her ear during one particularly boring History of Magic class. The class has barely started, and Riley feels like she wants to hit herself on the head with a troll's club to end this misery. When she was reading in her spare time about the Goblin rebellions, they sounded very interesting.  Not during this class though. 

Using this moment as the perfect opportunity, Riley looks across where Ominis and Sebastian are. Sebastian seems to be zoning out, like everyone else, but Ominis seems to be fast asleep, with one of his hands supporting his head.  

"Maybe he's listening with his eyes closed" Riley whispers and keeps looking in that direction.

"Let's find out" Erin takes a bit of parchment and moulds it into a ball and places it at the end of the desk. Then she mutters something and points her wand at the ball when professor Binns is facing the other way and the ball flies to Ominis and ricochets off his hand. There is a small thud as his head hits the desk. Everyone around starts giggling, but professor Binns continues with his lecture, not noticing anything.

It does not take him even 5 minutes of lecture, and the class is lethargic again, barely staying awake. 

Riley risks it again and looks Sebastian's way and notices Ominis is probably fast asleep again. Sebastian, on the other hand, is staring at the piece of parchment with his wand out, like he's trying to enchant it. Curious, Riley keeps staring at him, completely forgetting her own plan of not doing exactly what she's doing right now. Why is that parchment a bit green, though? What is he trying to do?

The moment Sebastian looks back at her, she feels mortified and quickly stares at professor Binns, hoping he's got no idea how long she's been staring at him. She can feel her face going very red again and tries to focus on what professor Binns is saying. She read the exact same chapter yesterday before bed. Yet somehow an interesting story about wizards versus goblins seems beyond boring right now. 

Suddenly, something hits her and Riley quickly looks in front of her and she can see a bit of parchment rolled into a ball, similar to the one Erin aimed at Ominis earlier on. As she unwraps it and stares at it, it is completely blank, but it looks the same green as the one Sebastian was trying to enchant. Confused, she looks at him and she can feel the butterflies again, as he is looking at her with a small smile. He points at the parchment and she looks at it, again. Empty.

When she looks back at Sebastian, he is writing something, and to Riley's surprise, she can see the words appearing on the parchment in front of her.

"Can you see what I'm writing?" The parchment says and Riley stares at it, completely baffled.

"Yes. Can you?" She writes as the words disappear.

"Yes. I have enchanted both parchments. Glad to see it worked."

"That is impressive," Riley says, forgetting she's in the middle of a class, and her voice seems to be louder than expected. Maybe it is the silence of the classroom when professor Binns speaks.

"Not sure I would call slaughtering dozens of goblins impressive," Professor Binns says in a monotone voice, and Riley notices he is looking at her, and so is everyone else.