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

Chapter 26

I stood in the center of the Undercroft and let out a loud cry as hot tears streamed down my face. I could tell Sebastian wasn't sure what to do, as he just stood at the edge of the room with an indecipherable expression on his face.

I was feeling so many emotions all at once, I wasn't sure what to do with them. My limbs felt heavy and tired, but my mind was running at about a million miles per hour. 

"Y/n," Sebastian said softly, coming towards me. I was still mad at him for stopping me. "Maybe you should sit down, try to calm down a bit."

"I'm tired, Sebastian," I croaked. "I am so tired of pretending all the time that I'm fine, that I'm calm, and that there aren't about a million things bothering me all at once."

"I know, y/n," he said. "But you can't let it drive you to do things like what you almost did today." 

I turned to face him. He was now standing right in front of me. "I wanted to hurt them, Sebastian," I said at almost a whisper. He didn't say anything, but he came closer and wrapped me in a tight hug. I let out a deep breath and buried my face in his chest. Before I could stop it, I started to sob. 

Sebastian lowered us to the floor and held me in his lap as I cried. It felt nice to be in his presence like this again, yet it held a bittersweet flavor in my mouth as I thought about all that had happened. I sobbed uncontrollably for minutes before I finally started to calm down. 

He placed a hand under my chin and raised my head, making me face him. "I want to know exactly what they said to you that night," he whispered. he had a fire of determination behind his eyes as he spoke to me. 

I don't know that I could tell him the things that happened. I didn't want to tell him all over again what I'd said that night- my chest was tight and my head was swimming with anxieties about what he might say if I admitted to him now what I'd admitted to them the night of my birthday. 

"I don't want to say, if that's okay," I told him. He didn't reply, but rather, he took my face in his hands, cupping them across my cheeks. 

His touch was warm and comfortable and familiar, like we'd been holding each other in the same ways for years. I felt his warm breath fall across my lips as he looked at me, making me all too aware of how close we were in that moment. His gaze moved down to my lips, filling my stomach with what felt like snakes. "I want to know," Sebastian said to me. "I want to know exactly what they did to you, y/n. I want to know what they said to break you like they did." 

My face contorted in pain at his words, thinking about that night. I wasn't sure if I could tell him. 

Part of me was even more afraid to tell him how I really felt, even more so now than ever before. I realized what a fragile thing our friendship was, and I didn't want to do anything to jeopardize it ever again.  

"I can't tell you yet," I whispered. 

"Okay," he said, pulling me in closer for a hug. I breathed in his scent, closing my eyes, letting it engulf me. In this moment, Sebastian was everything to me. In Sebastian's arms felt like the only place I was ever meant to be. 

After a few minutes like that, he pulled away again, looking into my eyes. "Do you think we're bad for each other?" he asked me. 

"No," I said without hesitation. "We each made lots of mistakes, but it was always my choice of how far I was willing to go for you."

"I still wish I'd never driven us to that point at all," he sighed, his gaze darkening. He was still haunted with it all, just like I was. He cupped my face in his hands again, pressing his forehead against mine. Every time he touched me it filled me with nervous excitement. 

I think I'm finally able to at least admit to myself how hard I'd fallen for him. 

Not being able to talk to him the last few days was some of the worst torture I'd even been put through- even compared to the way too many times I'd almost died in my lifetime. I was more afraid of losing him again than I was of death itself. 

I felt his nose brush mine and I immediately tensed up, once again realizing how close we were right now. If I were brave, I'd kiss him right now, but I guess that's just another reason I wasn't sorted into Gryffindor. 

I wondered if he was thinking the same thing.

His breathing seemed to quicken, as he buried his hand in my hair. 

Suddenly, we tore ourselves from each other and scooted back- we heard someone coming into the Undercroft. As expected, it was Ominis. 

I let out a deep, shaky breath as I moved my gaze down towards the floor.

Had we almost kissed? Or was that just my imagination?

"Good, there you are, Sebastian," Ominis said upon entering. "And y/n, good to see you two are talking again. "

Yeah. Talking. That's all we were doing. So why am I so nervous right now?

"Hello, Ominis," said Sebastian. He stood up off the floor, and I followed suit, getting up to greet Ominis. 

Sebastian and I shared a look with each other before I quickly fixed my eyes on the floor again. 

Merlin's Beard, why am I so nervous right now?

"Poppy told me what happened," he said. "She's wanting to know how you're both doing." 

"I'm fine I guess, just incredibly angry with them," I said. "I wouldn't be surprised if I'd have killed the stupid bitch if Sebastian and Poppy hadn't come after me."

"You always have been impressively dangerous when you're enraged," laughed Sebastian.

It was kind of funny. but it also wasn't. I think I've killed enough people already; even if I thought they deserved to be hurt, Sebastian had been right- it wasn't the right thing to do to get my revenge. 

"I still want to know how we plan on getting them back for this," I said. "Since Sebastian wouldn't let me do it my way." 

"We'll figure that out," Sebastian said. "For now, we should probably get out of here and tell our friends about it. I know Imelda will want to hear, she already hates them so much, she just might get ahead of us and exact revenge on them herself." 

We laughed about it (even though I still didn't find it funny), and exited the Undercroft. 

It felt so good to be at Sebastian's side again.