Silver and Green with Envy: A Sebastian Sallow Story

Chapter Nine

~~~Sebastian

I woke up in a cold sweat, gasping for air and reaching up to my ears, rubbing at them like they'll get rid of the sounds I'd just heard in my dreams. Shaking my head to get the ghosts left behind gone, I squinted and looked around the room.

Two beds were empty, and Ominis was standing near his trunk, pulling a shirt on. 

"Which one was it this time?"

His voice carried to me and I took a while to answer him. "It doesn't really matter, does it? They all end up at the same place."

To my uncle dying. To my sister disowning me. To Ominis almost turning me in. To Elena crying as we fought, leading me to walk away from her and stay away for an entire year. 

I know Ominis wanted to report me. I know Elena didn't. I know she'd probably regret that if she knew what I'd been doing. But I have to keep doing it.

In my want to save them, I've damned myself. It was only getting worse.

I turned, slinging my legs over the side of my bed. Ominis's wand lit up red as he started to make his way to the door. "Where are you going so early?"

"I'm meeting Elena in the library to get some homework done, then she's going to accompany me to Hogsmeade. She's been mentioning having ordered a new book, figured I'd take her to see if it's come in."

He left after that, leaving me to clench my teeth in frustration. Intrusive thoughts of him kissing her, of wandering hands, of...

I wanted to scream.

I wanted to talk to her. 

I wanted her.

I needed to fix this.

~~~Elena

The weeks following the party thankfully didn't see a lot of fallout. It did get out that Amit organized it, so he got into a little trouble, but that was the extent, really. That is, unless you count how absolutely furious Sean and the other Hufflepuff, whose name I learned was Owen, were about having lost out on all that money for mead that got wasted.

They'd apparently made it their new mission to find out who snitched and had gone into full blown detective mode to try and get that done. 

Meanwhile, I'd been given a little reprieve of sorts. Sebastian had made himself scarce. This both worried me as well as gave me a little relief, as I went through my days not being haunted by his presence. I had to see him in class, but he'd gone back to not looking at me, undoing anything he'd done leading up to that.

That's at least what I forced myself to believe. In truth, it was eating me alive. I so desperately wanted to know what he'd been about to tell me. I wanted to ask what he'd been searching my eyes for.

I think my being out of sorts was part of the reason Ominis had asked me to go with Hogsmeade with him this afternoon, after we finished up a project for Defense Against the Dark Arts. It wasn't due for another week or so, but we wanted to get it out of the way. He wouldn't admit it, but he had a fondness for Quidditch and there was a game next weekend. Slytherin versus Ravenclaw. 

Professor Howin somehow strong armed someone in the ministry into getting Professor Black to allow it again, just in time for our seventh year. So everyone was overly excited for it.

By mid morning, full of coffee and excited about the day, I was standing in the nearly empty library, leaned against a bookshelf and scanning through a book about dark wizards through the past hundred years or so when my pages were obscured by a shadow.

I looked up, seeing someone's chest and neck in my way. I opened my mouth to protest when I noticed the scar. It was much more pronounced up close. A deep, singular jagged line, like part of a claw mark.

I sighed. "Sebastian, what are you doing?"

"It's a library, what do you think I'm doing?" He'd reached up to grab something, coming down off the balls of his feet with a book in his hand. Hippogriffs in Flight: A Comprehensive Training Manual. 

I raised an eyebrow, and he noticed. "Project for Howin. Extra credit to earn back those points I lost last week."

He didn't move, drawing the moment into one that was verging on awkward. Reaching down, he took my book, keeping his thumb against the open spine so I didn't lose my place. I looked up, watching him read the cover before handing it back. "Expecting to see me in there?"

"I don't know, should I expect to?"

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and cleared his throat. "No. Learned my lesson. I don't regret Solomon dying. Only the consequences afterward. " He sighed, and I knew he was thinking about Anne. I felt bad for feeding into the conversation. 

"I'm going with you, today."

"Excuse me?"

"To Hogsmeade. Thought I'd tag along."

My mouth tried to work out a protest, or come up with an excuse as to why that would have been a bad idea, but Sebastian reached down and hooked a finger under my chin and lifted my face. He leaned into me, and his thumb dragged slowly over my jaw. "You don't mind, do you?"

Caught between his body and his eyes again, I could only stammer. "N-No." 

Immediately he stepped back. "Brilliant. I'll find you out front in a couple hours?"

Then he vanished into the stacks. 

I took a long moment before I went back to the table Ominis were sitting at, with him quietly dictating to his quill. He stopped mid sentence. "What's wrong? You're breathing funny."

"Sebastian's being...odd."

"Elena dear, you need to be more specific. He's been acting odd for a solid eighteen months now, at a minimum."

I told him what happened. Ominis leaned back in his chair, scratching his chin. "He's changing tactics."

"What?"

"Changing tactics. He can't get you away from me, and it's bothering him. So he's trying to win you over. Can't push you away so he's drawing you closer. Trying to, at least."

"I'm done talking to you about this, you're just as mad as he is."

"And you're in denial."

I truly didn't think I was. If what he was getting at held any truth, that meant an entire year wasted, and for what, I'd probably never find out. 

"He said he's coming with us this afternoon."

"That's fine. Maybe I'll pick up some tips on effective ways to woo someone."

"Ominis!"

Madam Scribner rounded the corner as Ominis burst out laughing and scolded us. But the sight of seeing him smile about something related to Sebastian after everything that had been happening was a welcome sight.