Yearning | Hogwarts Legacy

Chapter Six : Missing

"What are you thinking so intently about?"

Ominis felt Sabrina shift next to him in the grass, probably to turn her head away from basking in the warm spring sun to look at him. It was early spring, as a matter of fact, and Anne and Sebastian had dragged the pair with them back to Feldcroft to take advantage of the beautiful weather. The twins had since taken off to look at some nearby creek filled with purple toad tadpoles, leaving Sabrina and Ominis behind with the blanket picnic that had been set up.

The picnic had been forgotten, however, and now Ominis found himself lying on the grass with Sabrina, taking in the warm sun in the sky and the slight cool breeze that sometimes came by.

"How did you know I was thinking so intently?" she asked him.

"I know you," Ominis answered truthfully. "When you're deep in thought, you're a lot quieter than normal, and you sigh more. Now, please tell me what's on your mind."

Sabrina sighed again, and he could hear her head moving again. "I was thinking about my father."

Ominis also shifted his head so he was facing where she was. "Your father?"

"He's been missing since I was three years old. Minerva and everyone thinks he's dead but...." There was dejection and thought in her voice as she struggled to put the words together.

"But?"

It took a moment for Sabrina to respond, her voice low as if she wasn't sure she should be speaking this out loud. "What if he's not? What if Theodore Lewis is alive? What if he survived Victor Rookwood and his search for the ancient magic and the repository?" She paused, and Ominis could barely hear her. "What if he doesn't want to come back?"

"What do you mean?" Ominis asked, gently coaxing. This had startled him slightly, like he knew where Sabrina was going with this.

"If he is alive, why hasn't he come back to Hogsmeade? Why hasn't he come to find me or Fig or Minerva? What if... what if he doesn't want to come home?"

Carefully, Ominis shifted so he lay on his side closer to her. It felt as if they were talking in their own private space, like they were in a dream sharing secrets that only them would ever hear or dare to think of. "You think he doesn't want to come home to you?"

"If he did, why hasn't he found me?" The pain was very clear in the girls' voice now.

Ominis thought for a moment. "You said that when you talked to Professor Weasley, a lot of people thought that you had died with your mother. Maybe.... Maybe he did come looking for you? Maybe he thought the same thing everyone else did?"

"But 'The Daily Prophet' even did an article on Rookwood and Ranrok. They didn't have my name, but they said they were defeated by a student."

"That could be anyone–"

"But not anyone has the ability to do what I can do. To do what I did." He felt her shift, and by the sound of her voice it sounded like she had shifted to her side as well to face him. "Ominis... I'm scared. I'm scared that even after all of this, after learning the truth and spending so much time to find him and my mother, I'm scared that he doesn't want me anymore."

The thoughts broke Ominis' heart. He could imagine the pain she was going through, and he wanted more than anything to take that pain away from her. No one deserved to think these things about themselves. Especially someone as kind and gorgeous as Sabrina.

"If Theodore Lewis is alive," Ominis began. "And if he finds out you are alive and still he chooses not to return, then that will be a judgment on him and not on you. Sabrina, you have done nothing wrong. And we will find the truth about him, even if it takes a lifetime."