How to Make a Villain - [Sebastian Sallow x F!OC]

[nine]

Though Hogsmeade was only a tiny little village, Aurélie had once again severely underestimated her ability to walk a straight line without veering off into the unknown. She was lost, pure and simple - and this time she doubted very much that Ominis was going to pop up with his blinking wand and perpetually fed-up expression to rescue her.

'What is wrong with you,' she grumbled to herself in French, grateful that she'd at least had the foresight not to wear her new shoes as she trekked aimlessly through the muddy backstreets.

Aside from having been almost flattened by Thestral's, there were several additional things about her trip to Hogsmeade that surprised Aurélie. The first was that the quaint village boasted a fully stocked clothing boutique, which offered more than the tartan kilts and leather sporrans she'd been envisioning, and the second was that Sebastian Sallow's patience lasted as long as it had as she set about choosing a new pair of shoes.

Gladrags Wizardwear: London, Paris and (for some unfathomable reason) Hogsmeade was operated by a rather enthusiastic man by the name of Augustus Hill, whose love of fashion rivalled that of Aurélie's own. Upon learning that she'd transferred from France, Mr Hill had taken it as a matter of utmost importance to find her a perfect pair of shoes and impress her with his French. Unfortunately, the flamboyant shopkeeper was decidedly not fluent in French, but what he lacked in language skills he made up for with his enthusiasm for footwear.

'Sebastian, you really don't have to stay,' Aurélie had said as Mr Hill thrust yet another shoebox into her hands with some incomprehensible phrase he thought was French. 'I think I'll be a while yet.'

Sebastian abruptly put down the service bell he'd been fiddling with and gave her a sheepish smile.

'Oh! No, I don't mind,' he replied, eyeing the ever-growing pile of discarded shoeboxes with an expression only a boy could manage. 'What sort of guide would I be if I abandoned my new charge in the middle of such an important quest?'

Aurélie laughed, which made Sebastian smile.

'It's fine, I promise,' she said earnestly, glancing at the shiny leather shoe Mr Hill was waving in her face. 'Besides, I'm only buying shoes, not fighting off dark wizards.'

Sebastian quirked a brow. 'Do that a lot, do you?'

'What, buy shoes?' she grinned. 'In fact, yes, I do.'

Sebastian shook his head with a chuckle, and after a short, half-hearted disagreement - during which Aurélie threatened to throw a shoe at his head if he didn't please go and entertain himself for a while - he conceded to let her finish her shopping in peace.

'We'll meet at the Three Broomsticks in an hour. It's impossible to miss, I'll be genuinely surprised if you get lost,' he teased, to which giggled and threateningly held up a shoe.

Except that it had now been closer to two hours and Aurélie was no nearer to finding the bloody stupid tavern than she had been thirty minutes ago when she'd left Gladrags.

She'd had an inkling she was in trouble when the cobblestone road gave way to mud and muck, but it was when the pungent stench of trash and goat manure made her gag that she knew she was way off course. This was the Hogsmeade the locals didn't want visitors to see; hidden behind its charming facade were piles of rubbish and broken cauldrons, run-down houses with peeling paint and crooked doors, and, for some reason, an absurd amount of free-roaming chickens.

Aurélie hesitated on a corner, groaning with frustration as she scanned the empty street for a sign - any sign - that might point her in the right direction.