Oh, Merlin. It's you. (Ominis x Reader)

Resolution before Conflict

"And what is that ?" Sebastian locked eyes with the stuffed Kneazle as it sat delicately placed on the center of Ominis' bed.

Ominis provided no evidence he even heard Sebastian but instead, continued to read his new book on his chair. "Y/n got it for me."

"Right." Sebastian raised an eyebrow to Ominis who could not see it. He was going on nearly five days of missed classes and he was showing no effort to even "feel better". Sebastian still did not buy for even a second that he was actually sick. He frowned as he continued to comb out his hair in the mirror on the wall, speaking again, "So, Ominis. I've been thinking,"

"I highly doubt that." Ominis retorted almost immediately. He was seeming particularly sour today.

"Hah. Very funny." He shot back a look at Ominis who did not match his gaze, eyes still transfixed on the pages his wand was reading him. The two of them had gotten more time to chat in the past few days with Ominis' unwavering presence from the room. Though neither would admit it, it was a nice chance to catch up with each other. Ominis enjoyed helping Sebastian whenever he could about the Anne's situation as he, much like Sebastian, missed her dearly. Unpurposefully, the two of them had created a surrogate trio with you instead of her this year. You could only imagine it was, in part, because it was so familiar to them, but also because they mourned for her so much.

In their conversations, Ominis had even told Sebastian about his family's attempt at contacting him again. He explained that he and them had had a rather monstrous fight in September before he left the manor for school but he knew their grasp on him would return with time. Sebastian, unlike you, was familiar with the family crest on the bottom of the letters and knew Ominis had been receiving them for weeks. Family discourse was a touchy subject for Ominis and although Sebastian tried to be a good listener for his best friend, there were only so many things you could say before Ominis either imploded with anger or completely shut himself out.

The letters never said kind things. Instead, rather the opposite. The network of gossiping, backstabbing, and vile snakes often informed his family back home of his whereabouts. He hated it. Anything to do with his connection to snakes or parseltongue or even Slytherin made his blood boil. The snakes were always there to spy on him, rat him out. Yet they also always found him in the utmost peak of his emotions. Crawling out of the woodwork and smothering him if he did not do what his family asked of him.

In one of their many conversations throughout those few days, Ominis mentioned the only saving grace of his family, his dear aunt Noctua. Unfortunately, she had passed when Ominis was quite young, but his memories of her were nothing but found. Standing up to his demented brothers and uncles when they picked on Ominis at family gatherings and telling him stories about all the incredible things she was doing while attending Hogwarts. She was the only person in his life besides the Sallows who ever sent him mail that asked him questions. Checking up on him and not complaining about something he had done. Unfortunately, his aunt disappeared when she was around Ominis's age attending Hogwarts. He was unaware of her whereabouts, but she had written to him about a scriptorium in her last letter. Ominis could feel his heavy heart at the sudden excitement when he told the story to Sebastian. He had not intended to open that can of worms, but now Sebastian would not stop pestering him about the scriptorium.

"I know you're not sick, Ominis." Sebastian said. "I don't know what's going on with you this year, you've been keeping so much from me."

"Are you trying to manipulate me?" Ominis said with a scowl.

"Is it working?"

"No." Piss off. He wanted to say.

"Please just take me to that scriptorium. This could be the answer to saving Anne that we've been looking for! You don't even have to join, just show me how to get in."