The Devil Doesn't Bargain (MatD part 2)

Chapter ONE - Three Days

Sunlight bent around the edges of the walls and twisted between our shattered hearts, clawing at the frayed ends. Bits of smoke and soot that still clung to our skin and clothes hung heavy in the air and swayed every breath.

The Sallow home now felt an entirely new sort of broken, blanketed by a thin hint of hope no one dared mention.

Three days.

Three days had apparently been deemed a "sufficient amount to wallow within the grief of a close death" according to Headmaster Black, though I suspected he would have much preferred one if it weren't for Professor Weasley who had pressed for more.

We were offered three days time to stay within the ghostly walls of the Sallow home to collect our hearts and shattered souls before we were set to return to the school.

In the hours following a lifetime of changes, the ministry had sent an official to notate the head of household shift and document Solomon's body, confirming him deceased for their records.

Professor Weasley and professor Fig had also stopped round the house that morning to offer their deepest condolences from the school.

Professor Weasley had been innately kind and motherly, toting along a handful of cooked meals, a new knit blanket, a bouquet of wildflowers and a handful of letters from a number of students who had insisted on sending good thoughts and well wishes to the Sallow family.

What was left of it.

Fig had eyed me with a heavy heart from the doorway as Professor Weasley had distributed the gifts. Anne had been locked in a dull, shocked state all morning and Sebastian had had to do most of the talking and acceptance. Ominis had been close by to help when needed. Professor Weasley had even offered to rent a room at a small inn in the hamlet and stay nearby but the boys had politely declined.

She had nodded solemnly but didn't push the subject. Only after having made sure the pantry was properly stocked, had she left us alone once more. As she had stepped outside, Fig had taken her place, stepping directly up to Sebastian with tired eyes and placing a large brown bag into the boy's hands.

It was tied with the unmistakable familiarity of a little black bow and a backwards "S" scribbled on the outside.

Sebastian's throat had bobbed.

Little more had needed to be said and before we knew it we were once again alone and swallowed whole by a silence coated in conflicting thoughts.

Now, we had curled back into our spots around the room nearest the fireplace while Ominis worked on dinner in the kitchen, one he had insisted on making alone.

The brown bag had been opened and all our favorite goodies were strewn about the table. Honey, pears, homemade licorice snaps, and more made entirely within the walls of the Hogwarts kitchens.

Sebastian's fingers trailed up and down across my side as another shot of pain wracked every inch of my muscles.

The curse had waisted no time settling in to its new host and wrapping barbed wire around my bones. My third attack of the day no less painful than the two prior.

Anne had been quick to whisper small praises and tips to my left on what positions or thoughts had eased her through the worst of it. She kept her eyes on me, seemingly hesitant to allow them to stray up to her brother.

Through the haze of my muscles constricting, I marveled at how well she had been able to handle this pain time and time again.

It wasn't much, but Sebastian's touch was help to distract me from it all. The fire within, simmered with the heat of his fingertips.

Just as the last of my pain had drifted to the sunlit ceiling, a loud thump pounded against the window pane in the kitchen and Ominis yelped, a stray noodle flung into the air and stuck near the top of the wall.

"Another owl." Anne's soft voice eased even my startled mind.

Padding quietly across the room to Ominis' side, she gently touched her fingertips to his before pressing open the window and collecting a thick deep green envelope from the ledge. A rather sleek black owl watched us with narrowed eyes until she handed it a cooked noodle and closed the window. The bird had pecked suspiciously at the limp thing, looking rather unimpressed before ruffling it's feathers and flying off north.

Leaning against the countertop, Ominis hooked his hand hesitantly around her waist as she turned over the envelope and began tearing it open.

I could just make out an ornate gold scripted "G" across the front.

"Seems your family has sent us their condolences Ominis."

The boy stiffened at her words.

Anne upturned the envelope onto the counter. Heavy round gold galleons tumbled out, rolling across the space, a few tumbling loudly to the floor.

"Money." Ominis sniffed. "Mother would think to send a mourning family money for their troubles."

My eyes swept the now heaped pile and noted the lack of any other note or personal message.

She let the envelope topple over the mess as her eyes rimmed red for the umpteenth time.

Her hand squeezed his and Ominis pulled her promptly to his chest, all thoughts of stray noodles and coins forgotten as she tucked her forehead to his shoulder.

Though her words were whispered, the house was entirely too small to mistake them through the silence.

"I- I just can't believe he's gone..."

Sebastian's fingers tightened in the folds of my shirt.

Ominis coed, stroking her hair and nuzzling his cheek against her head. "I know darling. I know."

"Life.. this house... it's all going to be so different now. So- empty. I'll be alone Ominis."

Guilt snapped against my gut.

Ominis pressed a kiss to her temple and I instinctually looked away to give them some privacy in such an intimate moment.

Sebastian's fingers found my own and wound themselves between, holding tight as I lifted my eyes to his.

A night full of stars danced across his eyes and I found myself wanting to fall into the depths of the brown there.

Ominis' words pulled me back to the ground.

"You should not be alone sweetheart." He took a deep breath. "Perhaps you could return to school with us."