Hereafter // Sebastian Sallow x Original Female Character (Post Game)

Chapter 7- Tryouts

Lara's feet carried her all the way back up the Ravenclaw tower in search of Ominis. On the way there, she cried.

Sebastian truly didn't want anything to do with her. Though deep in her bones she knew that to be a lie. His actions deceived him. His hot breath close to her skin and the way his presence encompassed her nearly pleaded for her to give him a sign that said 'Tell me you want this to'. Lara could not shake the way his eyes raked over her. Had it been the fire whiskey still flooding his veins or something more Lara was not sure.

She reset her focus as she made her way back through the common room door, after providing the odd yet temporary password.

Ominis wasn't difficult to find. In fact, Lara nearly ran over him as she trekked up the stairs to the center room.

"Ominis! I've been looking for you."

"I wasn't looking for you. Turns out I'm not looking for a lot of things." He was drunk. "You know Lara, I'm so happy to call you my friend. You and that gorgeous Hufflepuff Poppy." He attempted to sling his arm over Lara's shoulder. He missed the first and second time. "She invited me you know, and I wasn't going to show but I said whelp!"

If the situation didn't call for a straight face Lara would have been heaving from laughing so hard. "Ominis, I know you're having a good time—"

"Great time!"

"But I..." she paused, studying Ominis's spinning complexion.

"Do you need my help, sweet Lara?"

She did. She really did, but Lara feared he was too far gone. The escapades of tonight had teetered off into drunken chaos and the discovery of the girl's bathroom in the dungeon had become almost a distant concern.

Lara reminded herself, firmly, "I want a normal year."

"What was that love?"

"Never mind Ominis. I'm okay."

"Are you sure?"

Lara didn't answer. She only stood awkwardly in the mass of drunken students, fully aware she was the only one stone-cold sober. Her mind became clouded with questions that needed answering and the possibility of a mystery needing excavating. But, she promised herself a year of normalcy. A year to get drunk, go to parties, kiss a boy or three, go to quidditch games, study and ace all her classes. A year without worry beyond normal school activities.

But there grew an itch.

"I'm sure Ominis. I'm sorry to make you worry."

"Lara please tell me, maybe when I'm not so, so... like this?" He stumbled, catching himself on Lara's arm.

An itch that needed to be scratched.

"How about I tell you tomorrow! I mean, you tell me tomorrow."

Whether she liked it or not.

"Okay, Ominis." Lara's smile was weak.

"I'll be there! Listening, not seeing."

Lara chose not to stay for the rest of the party, even though Ominis drunkenly begged her to. She was tired from running around, and it gave her PTSD from last year.

She went back to the common room deciding that tomorrow's quidditch tryouts were more important than that stupid party.

In passing, her curiosity peaked for the last time that night. The girl's bathroom door was right there, just across the way from the common room. Almost absentmindedly, she opened the door to find a completely normal bathroom; no gaping hole, no absence of sinks, and no Augustus running away from the scene of mystery.