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

[sixteen]

Sebastian had to admit to himself, as he sat on the sofa in the Undercroft, sweating, and in a mild state of undress, that perhaps he'd gone a little overboard in his pursuit to banish every chill draught from the underground chamber; the over-abundance of enchanted candles, torches and flaming braziers, which had all seemed a good idea at the time, now felt a bit excessive given his sweat-dampened shirt and sticky skin.

Still, despite his tendencies to overdo everything, there were two traits he possessed that he was quite proud of. The first was his determination to never back down from a challenge, no matter how difficult, puzzling or French it was, and the second was fire: Confringo, Bombarda, bluebells, and now, apparently, enchanted flames that were so magically potent he couldn't extinguish them no matter how hard he tried. Come summer, the Undercroft would be sweltering, but it'd be worth it if it meant finally having some company again in the lonely, underground room.

It'd be worth it for her.

He almost hadn't come to the Undercroft that evening; having stayed late volunteering in the hospital wing - as he did as often as his busy schedule allowed - it was so far past curfew by the time Nurse Blainey dismissed him that not even his special permission to be out late would've saved him from detention had he been caught.

Besides that, he was sure he'd only find the Undercroft empty again; as it had been since he'd gifted Aurélie the bluebells; as it had been since Anne had died and Ominis had distanced himself; devoid of life save for his collection of semi-sentient books that sometimes moaned and shrieked from their stack in the corner. Sebastian thought those books ought to be grateful that they were no longer locked away on some dusty shelf in the Restricted Section - but then, evil books probably weren't ever grateful about anything much at all.

Still, despite the late hour, the potential for another week of detention, and the fact he still had a veritable mountain of homework to complete, he'd found himself headed not to the Slytherin common room for sleep, but to the Undercroft's concealed entrance, hoping against hope that if the room below was empty, that at least he wouldn't find it on fire.

When nothing but disappointment and hot musty air greeted him, he settled himself on the lumpy sofa and sought distraction in his new favourite pastime: scouring his forbidden books for mentions of Ancient Magic.

So far, his search for literary evidence of Aurélie's gift had yielded little success, but there were hints here and there that stoked his obsessive need to know more: Hogwarts, a History gave a passing mention of the school being a "stronghold of Ancient Magic" (as if that in itself wasn't worthy of several chapters), while another briefly mentioned the process of imbuing "impervious dragon hides with ancient magic" but gave no further instruction as to how or why one might do such a thing. According to his academically-approved textbooks, the rare gift she possessed didn't exist at all, and so, as he had done years before, he'd turned his attention to the books he swore he'd never read again.

The books that got inside his head, whispering promises.

He was just skimming through a particularly grizzly paragraph about soul retrieval when the metallic clang of the lift broke his concentration. He leapt to his feet, heart pounding in his throat, but the name he so longed to speak aloud died on his lips when instead of the red hair and bright eyes he was hoping for, he was greeted by a blinking red light.

'Ominis!'

It had been so long since Ominis had been in the Undercroft that the sight of his sharp, pale features in the dank (though very, very warm) underground cavern was jarring. A stark contrast to Sebastian's crumpled shirt and loosened tie, Ominis was impeccable in both dress and disdain, not a hair out of place as he strode purposefully to where Sebastian stood dumbfounded by the sofa.