A Match Into Water || Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 24 - Duo Duels

Sebastian and I pulled ourselves away before taking things a bit of a step further. We turned our heads away as the moment fell into awkwardness and silence. "Read the spellbook yet?" I questioned.

"Only read the first page last night, but I'll read further in a moment." Sebastian beamed it off from the moment we just shared.

I didn't have anything else to talk about, and neither did Sebastian. I've decided to take my part to exit the undercroft. Sebastian insisted on escorting me out. The door closed behind us when we left. An owl approaches with a rolled up paper, dropping it onto my hand. I unrolled the paper to see a note from Professor Fig;

"MAKE SURE YOU'RE PREPARED. FIRST TRIAL IS ON FRIDAY. DO NOT FORGET."

"Oh yeah. Your first trial is coming up isn't it?" Sebastian took a peak over the note.

"Wait, what day is it today?" My mind was mixing up between Monday and Tuesday. I sure do struggle keeping track of dates.

"Thursday."

Shit.

Shit.

Shit!

My heart dropped. "I don't think I'm prepared yet-"

Sebastian nudged my shoulder. "Don't worry Lestrange, I'll help you prepare." He then gestured me to the clocktower where Crossed Wands are. He had suggested I should practise in Crossed wands, even though I've already completed the tournament a week ago.

At the clock tower, Lucan was standing by the gates taking a bite of his green apple. His face dropped like he'd seen a ghost as we slowly approached him. "Merlin- Angela! And Sebastian, hello!" Lucan screeched, nearly dropping his apple to the ground.

"Hi Lucan, I was wondering if we could use this area for practice." I asked him.

He nodded. "Have fun! But not too much fun killing each other!" Lucan called out on his way out the gate. Then it was just us two.

"Ready, my favourite duelist?" Sebastian playfully bowed down as he was getting his wand out.

"Always been." My face turned a cocky grin, also getting my wand out.

"I'll go easy on you this time, I promise." He carefully flourishes his wand and yells out an incantation. "Levioso!"

"Protego!" I've read his move. "Confringo!"

Sebastian then dodges the blasting curse with a smirk upon his face. "Nice try on that one." He snorted like he was reading my moves as well.

Damn.

"Stupify!"

That caught me off guard as I was distracted by his taunts. Hell, I sure do get distracted easily. I flew back almost hitting the gates, but I managed to stand on my feet once again and flicked my wand repeatedly with the basic cast then Depulso which caused Sebastian to fly back against the wall.

"Hm, nice one Lestrange." He winked and got up from the ground. "Levioso!"

My feet lifted up from the ground and my heart skipped a beat.

"Having fun up there?" A laugh came out of his mouth.

I rolled my eyes in a joking manner. "Nice one, Sallow. Now put me down will you?"

"Nah, it's fun seeing you hanging up there."

Maybe I should've been the one casting crucio on him. Not really though. I gave Sebastian a fierce glare as a sign for him to let go, and so he did. I could finally have my feet against the ground with a little bit of motion sickness in my head. But I knew how to handle it. Sebastian's eyes were too busy fixated on me and I thought it was the right time to get him back with stupify.

He went back on his feet. "You sure do have a habit of throwing people back."

"It's just what I like to do." I let off with a shrug.

"That sure seems like it." Sebastian said out of his breath.

It almost felt like an eternity since we had started duelling even though it was at least twenty minutes of duelling. "Not bad for a beginner am I?" I smug.

"I might've doubted you the day we first duelled in defence against the dark arts." He kept flicking his wand out of the basic casts.

"Honestly, I thought you'd turn out to be an amateur." A few strands of hair blew onto my face.

"Looks like we've doubted each other, eh?"

I stifled a laugh.

Our wands had been flicking off for another ten minutes before we were out of breath and slumping on the ground. I was leaning my back against the stone wall, squeezed my eyes shut and let the cold breeze tickle past me. Sebastian headed over and sat down next to me, and was also out of breath.

"That was certainly a good practise, wasn't it?"

"You really are a top duelist." I let out a chuckle under my breath.

We let our bodies cool off a bit for a few minutes before getting up. I haven't said a word to him the whole time and neither did he. My eyes were fixated on the details of him. The way his hazel eyes reflected the sunlight, his sun kisses on his pale skin, and his smile shining like the stars at night. His eyes caught mine like he knew I was gazing at him, so I looked away. "So what do you say? You, me, and Ominis tonight at the astronomy tower with a cup of tea?"

Sebastian's idea of teas at the astronomy tower had caught my mind. "Sounds intriguing."

There goes the boy smiling again.

"Looks like we've had enough duelling for now."

I nodded.

For a few minutes, I stood up on my feet and headed out of the clock tower, almost leaving Sebastian behind after I told him I've got something important I needed to do. I was actually gonna take a visit to Professor Fig's office and maybe ask a little bit of questions about the trial. I made a few knocks on the door to make sure Professor Fig wasn't too busy to let me in. "Come on in."

I stepped into his office. "Sir, about the trial–"

"Oh, did you make sure you've gotten enough to prepare?" He cut off my words.

"Yes, I had Sebastian help me practise with my duels." I said tapping my fingertips on his desk.

Professor Fig held in his laughter. "Ooh, you and Mr. Sallow huh?"

"It wasn't anything like that–"

"I'm just teasing you." He shook his head and put his quill down. "Now what were you about to say? I apologise for not letting you finish."

"What if I don't make it pass the trials...?"

Professor Fig ducked his head down for a moment and sighed. "Well as long as you prepared enough, I trust you should be fine."

I took a few deep breaths.

In and out.

In and out.

He looked at me with comforting eyes and told me everything was going to be alright, and he was determined that I was going to pass.

I can do this.