After All This Time// Sebastian Sallow x Reader Hogwarts Legacy Fanfiction

Chapter 5

The rest of the day came and went, and was mostly uneventful. I tried to keep myself up as long as possible before going to sleep, fearing that I'd have more nightmares. 

It didn't matter that I loved Hogwarts so much- being here definitely brought me more nightmares. 

The conversation between Ominis and Sebastian was playing through my head on repeat. Did Sebastian really want to be my friend again? 

Was Imelda right when she said Sebastian couldn't stop staring at me last night?

Wasn't he still upset with me, though? 

He never wrote me. He had to be upset. I understand where he's coming from, but it still hurt when I sent him letters multiple times a week with my responses on his part. After the start of our sixth year, I never wrote him again. I half expected him to write to me over the school year like he used to, just to at least invite me to go on a quest with him like old times. 

I couldn't stand having fought with him towards the end of everything. I felt like we left things on a sour note, so it was hard for us to just pick back up in a spot where we were friends again. I understand that much. 

I fell asleep after a while, too tired to fight it off anymore. I slipped into my dreams, where my PTSD waited for me with open arms.

The night air was cold as I ducked and dodged through the Forbidden Forest, eager to find my way out. Around every corner I turned, I'd find a different body of someone I knew, each massacred in a unique way. 

I jumped over a log and tripped, falling to the ground. I fell directly on top of the body that belonged to Natty, the Gryffindor girl who I'd helped take down Harlow. her eyes had been gouged out and her mouth hung open as if she were halfway done screaming when she died. I scrambled off of the girl and forced my back against something. I turned around only to find the body of Professor Fig, tied to a tree from a noose. I let out a scream and scrambled back once again, watching the body silently swing back and forth. 

I picked myself up and ran past the sight. Natty's image was burned into my brain. She didn't die. She's still alive. This is just a dream, I told myself, hoping it was. After passing Fig's body, I came upon the sight of  a matriarch spider, its limbs covered in blood and its fangs feeding on someone. I cast 'confringo' at the giant spider, and it scampered off back into the forest. The body of Ominis lay on the ground, almost completely drained of his blood. His pale eyes were wide open in shock, and his skin was a paler shade of white than I'd ever seen it. It wasn't until I'd been staring for too long with in shock that I noticed his wand in his hand- the signature red glow coming from the tip.

"Ominis?" I shouted, panicked. "Ominis!" 

He grunted and gargled, trying to breathe, but only blood poured from his lips. His chest heaved up and down in pain as he clinged on to life. Tears dotted my eyes at the sight of him dying. I pulled his fading body into my arms and put my forehead to his. 

"I'm so sorry I was too late," I whispered to him. "I'm so sorry."

A breathy sentence came from his lips, almost too quiet to hear. "You did this, y/n," he breathed. His chest heaved, and more blood dribbled from his open lips. His hands clutched onto my soiled robes as he spoke. "You did this. You did this. You did this..."

And that phrase repeated in my head over and over again, until I woke up.

I jumped upright in my bed startled. My breath was heavy and uncontrolled, and I tried to grasp my surroundings. It was just a dream. I was back in the dorm room, safe and sound. 

"Y/n, are you alright?" someone spoke breathily in the dark. It was Imelda.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I managed. "Just a dream."

"You're still having nightmares?" she whispered. "I can stay awake for a bit with you." 

Before I could protest, she'd left her bed and was sitting on the edge of mine. 

"You have to remember how much good you did," she told me, taking my hand. "Bad things happen, but you pretty much singlehandedly saved wizardkind. Only wish you would've asked for help. You never do, and this is what happens."

She was honest as always, and she was right. I'd done what Professor Fig wanted me to, and kept it a secret until the very end. But I always wished I could've had more help. 

"I know," I told her. "I just wanted all this glory to myself, ya know?" I joked, motioning to myself and the state I was in. She chuckled too, but it wasn't all that funny. She yawned and flopped her back down on my mattress.

"What are you two doing up?" Nerida yawned from across the room. "It is so late right now, you know."

"We're secret lovers, didn't you know?" Imelda giggled. 

"Whatever," Nerida groaned. She tossed a pillow at us from across the room and planted her face back down in her bed. "Just keep it quiet, you two."

Within seconds, Nerida was snoring again. 

Imelda stayed up for a while with me and we chatted about little things, but after a while, she left me to go back to sleep. Once she was out again, I stepped out of bed. I threw a robe on over my nightgown and headed out to the common room. The only light in the dark room came from the fireplace, and a soft glow that the moonlit water emitted through the big, floor to ceiling windows that faced out to the underside of the lake. 

I walked over to one of the windows and leaned against the frame. The words Ominis spoke to me in the dream were playing through my head. I couldn't help but hear the truth behind them; I had caused so many people to get hurt last year. I encouraged people to do things they shouldn't and go places they ought not to be, and there was so much death and pain because of it. 

Natty took the 'crucio' curse for me, Sebastian pretty much lost his sister for good this time, and Ominis hated me for a long time after fifth year, due to dabbling in the dark arts and encouraging Sebastian to as well. they all trusted me, and I let them all down. And Professor Fig... he died alongside me after fighting Ranrok because I wasn't fast enough in containing the magi

I fought back the tears that threatened to fall, even though there was no one here. I didn't like feeling weak. I was supposed to be strong, and crying isn't something that heroes do. 

I choked back the tears and put my hand over my mouth to stop the sobs. 

"Y/n?" spoke a male voice behind me. I kept my face to the window. I recognized that voice, and he's the last person I wanted to see that I was crying.