Silver and Green with Envy: A Sebastian Sallow Story

Chapter One

Elena, I hope this letter finds you well. I apologize for how abrupt this may seem, but I know Professor Sharp is planning on his annual London trip a week before term. I assume you will be joining him as you did last year. If that is indeed the case, I need you to meet me outside Flourish and Blotts. I'll be staying at the Leaky Cauldron as well as you, but we can't speak there. Please.

I stared at the letter, reading it over and over again until the owl that delivered it nipped at my finger, wanting a treat. I absentmindedly handed him one of my biscuits and it took off to rest next to my own owl, a beautiful long eared one I'd saved up for the entire previous summer. A present to myself for my seventeenth birthday.

Apparently, my eighteenth birthday present was this cryptic letter from Ominis. Had something dire happened? Surely it couldn't have been that big of an emergency if he had time to write me a letter over it. Plus, that trip was in two weeks. Another strike against the thought that it was something world ending.

Everything had to be alright. Right? Ominis would have found a more immediate way to contact me if something was that wrong.

I leaned back against the uncomfortable rest of the chair I kept at my desk, rubbing my forehead, like that was going to somehow stop the headache already creeping its way in between my temples. I wondered if I should write him back, but what would I say? It didn't appear if he was expecting a response, and for all I knew, it wouldn't even get to him. Especially if he intercepted the owl.

It seemed worlds away, now. The death of an uncle, a sister swearing off her twin, and a best friend who fought with himself for weeks about whether or not to turn the other half of him in. Ultimately, though I admit I pushed the issue for leniency, he decided not to.

Instead, he invited said friend to come live with him. Granted, that wasn't until partway through our sixth year.

It had been like that ever since.

I don't fault Ominis for said invitation. What else was to be done? He had no family, much like myself. Ominis was the closest thing to it, so it made the most sense at the time.

Of course, I only heard bits and pieces. It was hard to get Ominis alone to speak to him about how things were going because he had a shadow in the shape of Sebastian Sallow following him around everywhere he went. It was tiring, to be sure.

Ominis, Natty, and Poppy stuck with me after all was said and done. But as Anne cut all contact off with her brother, Sebastian had decided to cut all contact off with me. No explanation, no warning. We had a nasty fight and then just nothing, not even a glance in my direction. Any time Ominis tried to bring it up Sebastian cut him off.

It made evenings in the common room so awkward that most nights of my sixth year were spent in my room, or hiding around the Underground Harbor. Thankfully, Peeves didn't frequent that area much, damned poltergeist.

Sighing, I eventually stood up from my desk and went to put on something to sleep in, as if I was actually going to achieve such a thing. I laid down and stared at the ceiling of my bedroom, hoping the breeze coming in from my open window would calm me some.

It didn't.

~~~

I faced the morning of my London trip with nothing but sheer anxiety. Truly, it had been that way ever since I'd received the letter. I'd been enough of a mess about it that Professor Sharp actually considered cancelling the trip altogether, stating that I could get my things at Hogsmeade instead. 

I put a stop to that idea a little too quickly.

Dressing myself, I took a brief look in the mirror before heading off downstairs. Same red hair, same steel grey eyes as always. My bun sat messy at the nape of my neck but I didn't care much, especially right now. I wasn't trying to impress anyone, and if I fixed it, it would take time I felt like I didn't have. 

"Professor, I'm ready to go."

"Elena, I told you you can call me Aesop when we're at home. Wouldn't it feel strange to you if I called you Miss Varris all day? Also, the entire back of your topcoat is tucked into your skirt. "

I felt my face flush before I went about fixing myself. "Honestly, it feels strange living with one of my teachers at all. You were too kind putting me up like this in the first place." 

"It was the least I could do. We all still feel Fig's passing, and he wouldn't have wanted you to wind up in an orphanage during your holidays. And you know-"  He stopped preparing the floo powder to look me in the eye for a moment. "You are more than welcome to come back here after you graduate. I'm not going to kick you out without you getting on your feet by yourself." 

I merely smiled and nodded. I truly was grateful for all of the support I'd gotten, especially from Professor Sharp and Weasley.  If it hadn't been for them I don't think I'd be as accomplished or as caught up to everyone else, regardless of my ability to wield a magic that had been hidden for so long. Professor Fig deserved a lot of credit as well, and thinking of him reminded me that I needed to visit his grave soon. It had been too long.

"Alright. Shall we be off? Diagon Alley awaits." A smile played across Sharp's face for a moment as he held out the bag of floo powder for me to take a pinch of.

The world flashed and swirled green for a moment before I found myself standing outside the Leaky Cauldron. No one was around, and while I waited those few moments, I found myself picking and pulling at my outfit again. 

With a soft pop, professor Sharp appeared beside me and opened the door, motioning for me to go in first. 

The Leaky Cauldron never changed, and it was an odd source of comfort, despite only having been there a few times. The long tables, mismatched chairs, several wizened wizards looking a little worse for the ware, drowning themselves in beer and mead. 

"Have a seat while I fetch us rooms, Elena." 

I found a seat in a sunny little alcove and got comfortable, pulling a book out of my bag and opening it to the chapter I'd been reading before Ominis's owl interrupted me. I hadn't picked it back up since then and nearly forgot where I was in the story.

I'd started to get lost in the scene, a knight professing his love to one of the queen's handmaidens when something snapped me to attention elsewhere. A voice I hadn't heard in months.

"Do you smell that? Tea."

"Ominis. We're in England. Of course you smell tea."

"No. It's...There's something else. Sage? Perfume. Elena's here."

"That little-"

Whatever insult he had for me never landed, but gazes did. I had looked up in time for my eyes to lock with Sebastian's for just a moment. But it was long enough.

There was no more air in my lungs. How long had it been since I could get him to look at me? How long had it been since I got a good look at him at all?

His hair was a little longer, still a mess of waves in his face. It looked like he had a new scar, a small thin line on the left side of his neck. Everything about him seemed to have filled out in a way most men hoped they would. Perfection. 

But his eyes broke my heart. 

Maybe it was the way he was looking at me. Maybe it was the dark circles under them. Maybe it was because I wasn't close enough to see the ring of green that hugged the edge of his normally deep brown irises.

Part of me wanted to stand and announce myself so Ominis would know I was there. But Sebastian's eyes also held a fury in them that clearly told me not to breathe, let alone speak aloud. I swallowed my words, preferring the silence to the alternative. 

"Elena? Here's your key."

I turned to see a room key in Professor Sharp's outstretched hand. I took it with shaking fingers.

"Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost. And not the good kind."

I turned my face back toward where I had just seen Sebastian. They were gone, and I felt the breath I had been holding in come out of me in a rush.

"...I think I did."