Echoes of Emotion (Sebastian Sallow x OC)

Chapter 33 - Helen Thistlewood

The next day was the weekend, which meant that we headed straight for Hogsmeade first thing in the morning.
Blaine told us to meet him there, saying his aunt lived in a Hamlet nearby.
Once we were all there, we began to make our way towards our destination, mentally preparing for what was to come.
It was mostly silent as we all thought about what could be waiting for us in this trial, or even how we'd get the portkey in the first place, but there were two at the back that decided blickering was the better option.

"Remind me why you invited yourself along?" Sebastian huffed, glaring down at Skye as she tried to walk ahead of him, offended by his question.
"Well, you said that this was for the Ravenclaw trial, right? Last time I checked, I'm the only Ravenclaw that knows about all of this. Just seems like you need me." she shrugged, giving him a mischievous grin, causing him to roll his eyes.
"Or you just don't want to be left out, as usual." he grumbled, loud enough for the rest of us to hear though.

His comment was soon followed by a loud smack, causing me to turn slightly.
It seemed Skye had smacked Sebastian's arm, and they were now glaring at each other, with Skye looking annoyed, and Sebastian seeming genuinely hurt.
"Ow!" he cried, grabbing the spot she had smacked as she finally stormed ahead, giving him no sort of apology.
The whole thing seemed to amuse Ominis though, as he let out a small laugh, taking his place by Sebastian's side.
"Serves you right." he commented, causing Sebastian to roll his eyes again, before looking ahead, straight at me.

I gave him a smile as Skye began to match my pace, her eyes glued ahead.
I gave her a quick glace, before looking back at Sebastian.
"She's right, Sebastian. If the other trials have taught us anything, its that having someone from the specific house is good. I don't suppose you have any traits Rowena Ravenclaw valued hidden away?"
"Maybe I do. But what would be the fun in telling you all now?" he winked.

"We're here." Blaine called back to us, causing us all to stop and look ahead, not even noticing we were at the Hamlet.
Blaine quickly made his way up some steps, before knocking on the door to a small home located on the outskirts.
There was a pause as we waited for someone to answer the door, but before long, it was opened by a woman, presumably Blaine's aunt.
She seemed confused at first, as though it were unusual for someone to knock at her door, but as soon as she saw Blaine, her face lit up and she swung the door open, opening her arms as she pulled him in for a hug.

"I swear you get taller each time you leave." she noted, causing Blaine to laugh nervously at the odd greeting.
But before he had a chance to respond, his aunt had already let go of him, spotting another familiar face.
She walked forward before pulling Poppy into a hug, to which she happily returned.
Poppy hadn't mentioned meeting his family before...
Something to note for later.

"It's wonderful to see you again, dear." she beamed, causing Poppy to smile brightly as she pulled away.
However, the mood suddenly shifted as her gaze lifted, looking at the rest of us with a colder demeanor, like she just registered what was going on.
"I'm guessing you're the friends Blaine mentioned..." she trailed off, looking at us all individually, as though making a mental note.

After she seemed satisfied with her findings, she finally stepped aside, gesturing inside the home.
"Please, come in."
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As soon as we entered, she had sat us all down at her kitchen table, almost immediately questioning whether we had done what she asked.
Once we had demonstrated our ability to wield the patronus charm, we had expected her to warm up to the idea, even if only a little, but that didn't seem to be the case.
The creases in her face only seemed to deepen as she registered the fulfilment of her request, as though she hadn't expected us to do it.
She still seemed reluctant to take us as she stared into her teacup, watching as the freshly brewed herbs swirled in the water, waiting for it to answer her problems.

"The thing is..." she started, worry thick in her voice, "you're all just children. Azkaban isn't a place I want to visit on the best of days. It changes a person..."
"We understand that. And we wouldn't ask this if we had another choice." I leaned forward, trying to get her to see how important this really was. I prayed that she wouldn't ask for more details, but then again, how else were we to convince her at this point?
Convincing someone to take children to Azkaban as though it were a school trip just seemed plain mad.

We were all silent as we waited for her response, hoping for a miracle.
But with the way her face kept twisting, it didn't look like it was going in our favour.
However, Blaine still seemed to have hope.
"Aunt Helen," he began, earning her attention as she looked up at him, "please. They really need to do this, and if you don't help, who knows how else they can get there safely. Wouldn't you rather supervise the visit than some unknown merchant taking advantage of young wizards?"

This viewpoint seemed to change something on her face, and before I knew it, she was smiling softly at him.
Leave it to Blaine to melt someone's heart with only a few words.
"This is really important to you, isnt it?" she asked him, to which he nodded eagerly.
She glanced up at the rest of us, watching as we waited on the edge of our seats for her answer.

She looked back at Blaine, still seeming skeptical.
"Do you really trust them all with something like this?" she nodded towards us.
"Completely." he answered without hesitation.
With that answer, she stood from her chair, brushing herself down as she moved towards the rest of us.
"Very well. We should get this over and done with then. But, Blaine, I want you to stay here." she shot a look back at Blaine, one that seemed more serious than before, like it wasn't up for discussion.
Blaine seemed hurt by the condition, but still nodded in agreement, as though he understood why.
If this was the way to get her to agree, it was worth it.
Besides, I didn't want someone like Blaine to help with something like this.
He was too innocent.
And that was something that needed protecting.
Maybe his aunt was thinking the same thing.

His aunt reached out her hand, gesturing for us all to hold on, getting ready to disapparent us all there.
We all got up from out seats, grabbing onto her arm one by one, until we were all grasping her for dear life.
She nodded at us all quickly, signalling she was about to do it, making sure we braced ourselves.
"Good luck!" Blaine called to us all.
And then...
We were gone.