Shadow of a Grave ✧ Sebastian Sallow

chapter five ✧ namesakes

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Trigger Warning: This chapter includes sensitive conduct - please see the comment for a full description of conduct.

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Sebastian Sallow wasn't sure if Annabel had understood that he was her father. After he had told her that she was his family now, she seemed to just accept that fact, but whether or not she really understood was still unclear. All that the little girl seemed to take away from the conversation was that she seemed happier with her necklace back. He figured that maybe she had been too young to process everything.

That night he had been surprised when Bella had asked to sleep on the couch again with him, but he had happily obligated. The couch was far too small for two people, but she was still little and seemed perfectly content sleeping under his arm. Besides he was worried about what may happen in the next few days and being as close to his Bella as possible reminded him of his purpose.

The day before, Sebastian, Ominis, and Poppy discussed a way of freeing all of them. Ominis had been trapped by the name Gaunt since he was born and escaped by living in hiding. Amelia had been a bird locked in a cage when she took the name. Sebastian refused to let his daughter Bella become a slave to the family either. If Marvolo Gaunt was dead then they could all live freely. He was the heir to the Gaunt name and the head of the house since their father passed. To free the ones that he loved, Sebastian would have to kill once more.

There were some compliances to this plan, mainly being that Sebastian had still been wandless. And he preferred to not handle this task like a muggle. 

Professor Hecat had broken his wand to protect him from the Ministry back when he was still at Hogwarts, he could have fixed the wand if he had any clue of where it was. Finding a new one wasn't a simple task although as luck would have it, he knew one that always obeyed him, Amelia's wand.

The black walnut wand had never fought back against him. He borrowed it once or twice when they were dating, mainly because Amelia would mindlessly leave it around. That had always bothered him. She would cast Lumos and leave it sitting around like it was a basic candle. So once in a while, he would take it and tease her about the bad habit. The wand always worked for him. Perhaps it obeyed him simply because of the part of her soul that lived inside him. Even on the night that he killed her, he took straight from her to mutter the curse in defense and it obeyed him.

When the sun rose the next morning, it would be the day of Amelia's funeral. They would attend the service to enter the Gaunt manor and find the wand. It was tradition to bury a witch with her wand in hand. The idea of having to see her lying in a coffin and needing to take the wand from her hands made Sebastian sick. As if he hadn't wronged her enough during her life, now he had to wrong her in death too.

All of it kept Sebastian up that night.

He tried to focus on the sweet sleeping girl curled up under his arm. Their daughter had looked so much like her mother when she slept. Black curls spread messily around, kissing the pillow, while she tucked the blanket all the way up against the tip of her nose.

All of it made him think about how much he missed his Amelia.

The only thing that he desired that night in her home was to spend the rest of his life with her. He wanted to run away and free her of that cage. That was what he had begged for, to leave the house together and begin a new life. They could have been a real family all together. But that night all she did was reject every word he said and he couldn't understand why. The only reason she had given was that it was too late.