Silver and Green with Envy: A Sebastian Sallow Story

Chapter Fourteen

I burst into the hospital wing full of panic. Madam Blainey started and dropped everything she'd been holding. A bottle bounced across the floor and rolled under a cabinet, thankfully not breaking. Some bandages unraveled as they rolled away. She yelled. "Miss Varris!"

"Where's Sebastian?"

"You'll not be visiting anyone at all if you don't calm yourself this instant!"

My fingers tingled with magic and I forced it down with all my might, taking a deep breath.

Eyeing me harshly for a moment, Madam Blainey eventually pointed to the private bed in the back corner. It had been blocked behind a bunch of partitions and as I walked over I feared the worse.

Professor Sharp and Hecat were there, standing with worried expressions around Sebastian, who looked absolutely awful. Despite that, when he saw me, his bruised face lit up just the tiniest bit. "She found you. Good."

I looked at Professor Sharp. "What happened?"

"Crucio. That's what happened, apart from a beating. And unfortunately, Sebastian here got caught unaware, so we won't have much luck in finding whoever did it. We were just finishing asking him some questions, so we'll leave you two."

Professor Sharp patted my shoulder as he left, like he just knew why I'd been the one Sebastian asked for.

As they left, I sat down in the chair next to him and sniffled.

He reached over with a pained groan to wipe away the tears that collected on my cheeks. "Those break my heart, darling. Don't do that."

One of his fingers trailed down the small scar on my face from the fight I'd gotten into with the poachers. The one he'd hoped I wouldn't get. "That breaks my heart too."

I reached up and grabbed his hand, giving it a squeeze. "Sebastian, you really don't know who did this to you?"

"...No."

I wasn't convinced. "You better tell Professor Sharp if you know who did this to you! I'm serious, you-"

"Elena. It doesn't matter."

"How can you say that!!?" I shouted, and Madam Blainey appeared behind the partition. "One more outburst and you're out. I'll not have you disturbing my other patients."

I went red in the face as she left, and Sebastian laughed at me a little bit. 

I grumped. "It's not funny. I know you know who did this."

"So what if I do? What would it matter? As you see, they clearly don't care about slinging Unforgivable curses around, what would I gain by ratting them out? They'd just kill me next time."

"So you're acquainted, then?...Sebastian, what have you done?"

"What I needed to. What I still need to."

I wanted to smack him. I just started crying again instead. 

"Hey, what did I just say?"

"You're being stupid and it's making me mad, I can't help it."

"How do you think I felt, watching you run off the other night?" He tried shifting a little to get closer to me, but groaned in pain and stopped. "I'm sorry, Elena."

"For what?" It could have been for a million different things by this point.

"Plenty. How far back do you want me to go?"

I looked down at his face, his eyes suddenly serious. Knowing I might get in trouble for this but not caring, I scooted my chair forward and leaned over, carefully resting my head on his chest. I felt him run his fingers through my hair before his hand came to eventually rest on my back.