Invisible String - Sebastian Sallow

Chapter Ten: Toast and Tears

It was late as I left the Slytherin common room, almost midnight. My boots echoed loudly across the stone floor and empty halls and I swore gently, trying to keep as silent as possible under my disillusionment charm. I had to get from the dungeons to the hidden chamber just along the shore of the black lake without being seen, and if the sound of my boots gave me away I would be landed in detention.

Readjusting the delicate glass vase I'd found at the Quidditch pitch earlier today in my hands, I pressed forward, up from the dungeons to the grand staircase and it's surrounding hundreds of portraits. I triple checked my pockets for the toast needed to get into our cave, and once satisfied it was there, I shuffled quietly out of my crouched position behind a suit of armor in the hallway, lost in memories.

I'd shown Sebastian the place not long after Scrope, Professor Black's house-elf, had sent me in after a lost Black family heirloom. I smiled to myself as I remembered his face when I'd pulled him along the shoreline, his freckled face smiling bemusedly at me. He'd nearly died from laughter when I pulled the toast from my robe pocket and I'd placed it on the pedestal just outside the mural of the giant squid.

We'd spent countless hours there, maybe even more than in the Undercroft. That had always felt like his, Ominis and Anne's place, with me added in later and missing so much important bonding to be there. But there, in that secret cove hidden away from the rest of the crowds and expectations and troubles we'd faced fifth year, there is where we actually seemed the most comfortable.

The most ourselves.

I slinked through corridor after corridor, making sure to keep an eye out for Peeves. That damned Poltergeist had ruined one too many of my late night rendezvous with Sebastian in fifth year to ever make it off of my shit list. The main entrance to the castle was in sight and I dashed across the marble floors quickly to it, wrenched the door open, and sprinted across the grass to the hedges outside of the Herbology corridor.

It was only as the last visible light of Gryffindor tower had been swallowed up that I removed my charm and released a breath. The water lapped lazily along the pebbly shore to my left, and I pressed forward quickly, the breeze feeling nice against my skin. I wondered exactly where the windows of the Slytherin common room would be found below the surface of the black water.

Finally, I saw the cove. My heart raced as I walked faster towards it. I wondered if I had beat him here, or if he'd arrived long ago and hidden away. I approached the small stone pedestal and pulled a piece of toast from my pocket, setting it down and waiting. The tile mosaic of the giant squid began to wriggle, one of its red tentacles slithering off the wall and snatching the toast.

I watched, holding my breath, as the squid left the tiles and the whole wall fell away, exposing the tucked in cove full of ancient treasures. A large brown ornate desk, piled high with parchments and broken quills, old tattered and weathered arm chairs scattered around, book shelves were over filled, their pages covered in a layer of dust and grime, though some had noticeably less dust than the first time I entered this place.

And there, in front of the furthest book case in the cave, stood Sebastian Sallow.

His back was to me, a yellowing book in his hands. He wore a pair of dark pants and a black top, the collar of which I could see was loose, sleeves rolled to just above his elbows. His hair was still neat from the day, but I could tell he'd run his hands through it more than once. My breath caught in my throat for a moment before I took a step further into the cave. The water kissed the edge of the stone we stood on, small puddles forming from where overly excited waves had splashed up.

My boots echoing around the room was what seemed to finally pull him from the book he held. He closed it quickly and smiled at me.

"You came," he said softly. I could hear the surprise in his voice, as though he had expected me to just ignore his note.