Invisible String - Sebastian Sallow

Chapter Fourty: The Killing Curse

The ceiling in the Slytherin dormitories was always something I enjoyed looking at.

The intricate carvings of serpents swirling their way around the domed glass windows were some of the most beautifully carved works of art in this castle. If I stared at them long enough when the early morning light shone in through the deep lake water, I could swear I saw them moving. Today, they seemed to be dancing their way around the dome, gracefully slithering around as the water glimmered overhead.

In particular I seemed to be staring intensely at a set of two snakes, who had joined at their tails and twisted around each-other, forever wrapped in an eternal dance. Bound together while the other snakes were free.

Alone.

"Abbi, come on, you need to get dressed," Imelda said as she chucked one of the gloves Sebastian had gifted me at my head. "We have Defense Against the Dark Arts in half an hour."

I caught it just as the fingers hit my nose and forced a laugh out.

Normal. We'd agreed I needed to act normal.

With Imelda, laughter was normal.

"Alright, alright, I'm going," I said, reminded forcefully of the first day of term when she'd dumped my robes on my bed and named me Co-Captain.

Tearing my eyes from the dancing snakes at the ceiling, I glanced sideways at the marble bedside table. My new wand lay gingerly on the brass stand Sebastian had purchased for me, a collection of unused hilts I'd purchased recently laying underneath.

The pink crystal I loved so much was still attached to my original wand, stored safely away in a drawer in the Room of Requirement.

Ollivander hadn't been able to mend it.

Throwing on a set of freshly laundered robes and tying my hair back into a loose braid, I stared at the wand for a moment longer, trying to decide which hilt would be best suited for it.

The new wand was beautiful in its own right.

Long at thirteen inches and carved of yew, it housed a dragon heart string core. Sebastian had fidgeted nervously next to me as I had matched with this wand best. After we'd left the shop, he'd told me that wands made of yew were often associated with dark witches or wizards, and that dragon heart string cores favored the dark arts more than any other core.

Most interestingly to me was not this bit of wand lore. If my wand favored the Dark Arts, then it had found its home with the right witch, considering I was neck deep in them and willing to drown more every day. No, what had interested me was that it had been determined to be flexible. This was unusual when paired with other traits of powerful wands, and it implied that I could be bent easily to others will.

I opted to think it meant I would be better at bending others to mine.

In the end, I opted for the bottle green gem hilt that mirrored my own eyes and the glass vases I'd been gotten by Sebastian earlier this year.

"Let's go, Abbi!" Imelda said, finishing lacing her boots.

I followed Imelda from the room, tucking the wand into my thigh holster and glanced around the common room for a familiar set of brown eyes and dark curly hair. Other students and friends waived gingerly, others glared. But there was no sign of the one I wanted to actually see. Nor was there the pulse of red light on a wand tip.

They'd left without me.

Frowning, I hiked my bag up my shoulder and followed Imelda from the dungeon room, up the winding central staircase and out into the chilly morning air of the Transfiguration court yard as we dived between students to make it to Defense Against the Dark Arts. Imelda was chattering away by my side, occasionally mentioning Quidditch, but I hardly paid attention. She would make sure I was at the next practice, but we still had ages before our next match and she still seemed to be letting us have a break.