The Prophesy of S

Chapter 8

"Is he still mad at you?" I asked Sebastian. We were in Potions class, brewing the Focus potion at our station. We made sure to stay away from Garreth so we don't have another incident like the first day of Potions class two weeks ago. However, I did feel sorry for the students who were stuck sharing a station with him. I'm surprised he isn't on par with Sebastian when it comes to detentions when those incidents apparently happen on the regular; all he ever gets is house-point deductions.

He took a quick glance at me as he added the right amount of lacewing flies into the cauldron. "I'm sure you're able to tell when he's sitting across the room again." I glanced at the station Ominis was sitting at and sighed. It felt rather awkward after what happened at the Undercroft. Their friendship was still strained that everyone was gossiping about it. With Nerida telling me that both were "thick as thieves", everybody would take notice when they had a fallout. I heard people would even take bets on when they would make up again. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought Sebastian and Ominis were together in that sense with how people spoke. Again, Sebastian told me not to fret about it, that it was normal for Ominis to be upset with him often. But I did detect a hint of worry when he said that. He mentioned that this was the longest he'd ever been upset, and he had every right to. The Undercroft was a very special place to him, despite the fact that it was his family who told him about it. Ominis feels betrayed that he went and told the new girl of all people about it when he swore he'd never tell anyone. Honestly, I felt bad for knowing about it.

We finished our potion and began cleaning up our station. When everyone finished up with their potions and handed them in, Professor Sharp dismissed us, but not before he told us to study up on what we learned so far as he was holding an end-of-the-month test next class, which also included a practical. Sebastian turned to me as we walked out. "Well, after experiencing plenty of end-of-the-month potions tests, I know that trying to get some studying and practice done in there will be hectic. You have to sign up to reserve a station really early, before all spots are taken for the whole week."

I flinched at the imagery. The classroom wasn't that big, with only five tables that held four stations each. But luckily for me, I had my own place to study. "Seems I won't have that problem, then. I do have the secret place I told you about—the Room of Requirement."

A light went off in his head. "Ah, of course. You never did show it to me, and I'm quite eager to check it out."

"We could go now. And to be honest, while I do like the Undercroft, I feel weird being there now with Ominis being so upset. So, if we want to do any studying or have a spell lesson, we could use the room. It can adjust to anything we need."

He nodded, looking pensieve. "I guess that be best. Besides, I haven't been to the Undercroft so much because of Anne, and returning to that room recently still doesn't feel right without her. It'll just make me miss her more. But with the Room of Requirement, it can be our new hangout place." He smiled at the idea of having something new—something that wouldn't remind him of his absent sister. I figured it would be hard to search for something like that when I bet he had a lot of memories with both Anne and Ominis at every part of the castle.

We walked for a change all the way to the Astronomy wing on the seventh floor. Sebastian looked confused when we stopped in the middle of the hall that had a tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy teaching trolls ballet, and right in front of that tapestry was an empty wall. Unlike the entrance to the Undercroft, this was less obvious, as there was no sign of a possible entry. I paced back and forth three times in front of the blank wall while thinking about my room. The wall then morphed to show a rectangular door-sized stone frame, and then within that frame, the stone changed to brown wood with a metal door handle. I looked back at Sebastian, and he had his mouth ajar. I let out an airy laugh at his expression and led him into the room.