Invisible String - Sebastian Sallow

Chapter Four: Unexpected Lessons

Fear.

I shook my head at him, almost pleading him, begging him to tell me I had heard wrong. But all he gave me was a small shake of his head, disbelief flooding his features just as they were surely flooding mine. We were actually going to have to do this. We were going down this path again- albeit not the same way we had before, but down it again none the less.

Was he ready for this?

Was I?

"Now, now!" Professor Hecat called over everyone, and the class fell silent immediately. "We won't be using these spells, that goes without saying. We will, however, be learning about them nearly to full. We will go over what each curse is capable of, how to spot the signs you may be in danger of falling prey to one, and how to fight them where applicable."

I sucked in a deep breath, closing my eyes at the implication there. When I closed my eyes, I saw the flash of green light again. I heard Sebastian's voice in my head call out the incantation, heard the thud of Solomon Sallow's lifeless body hitting the catacomb floor.

I only opened my eyes when I felt Sebastians hand on my thigh.

I looked over at him and saw he was actually speaking to me, softly.

"What?" I whispered, willing the thudding noise to vacate my mind.

"Are you going to be okay?"

I smiled weakly at him. "I'm going to be fine. We- we aren't repeating anything. Just..." I trailed off. I couldn't even convince myself I was going to be okay with this terms assignments. "Good lord, Sebastian, what are we going to do?"

We looked up as Hecat spoke yet again, Sebastian's hand ripping away from my thigh as suddenly as it had appeared there. "I want you all to partner up. These lessons are not for the faint of heart, nor are the essays and hours of reading that they require. The person you partner with will be your partner for the duration of this term, and you will be completing all your assignments together."

I looked away from Sebastian. I only saw two choices here, and I wasn't sure which one was going to be worse.

Option 1: Partner with Sebastian Sallow and relive all our combined trauma of the unforgivable curses together, hopefully coming out stronger on the other side.

Option 2: Partner with someone else, risk my traumatic experiences exposing that not only had I cast an Unforgivable curse on a fellow classmate, taking away his free will and self control, but that I had been the willing subject to the Cruciatus curse and felt its pain first hand and witnessed the effectiveness of the killing curse.

The second option left far too much risk, of not only Sebastian, but myself ending up in Azkaban prison.

I felt his eyes on me and I knew he was running through the same conclusions I was. My shoulders sagged with the weight of this new development.

"Partners?" I asked, looking at him through the lock of hair that had fallen into my face.

"Partners," Sebastian said softly.

The bell rang, and we both stood up, knowing full well we were not going to our next class. Sebastian dashed to the front of the room and whispered something to Ominis, who nodded rather briskly. I caught Poppy's eye and she came over to me.

"This is going to be a rather interesting class, isn't it?" She asked me, looping her arm more securely through her backpack.

"Yeah, interesting for sure," I mumbled. "Who did you partner with?"

She cast a glance over her shoulder. "That boy in your house that you used to be friends with. Ominis Gaunt."

I nodded at her. "He's really nice," I said. "You'll get along with him well."

She gave me a quizzical look. "If he's nice, why did you guys stop hanging out?"

We were at the top of the stairs now, and I caught sight of Sebastian's robe flashing out of sight around the corner. He and Ominis must already be on their way. I hauled and made show of clutching my stomach like I was going to throw up.

"Poppy, I, uh," I paused again, thinking of the one thing I knew would make my feigned illness believable. Thud.

"I'm sorry, I - Hospital wing. Cover for me with Garlik?"

She looked so concerned I nearly felt bad about my lie.

"Do you want me to walk you?" Her eyes were so concerned I had to look away.

Shaking my head, I took off for the other staircase leading away from where I was intending to go. I dashed around a corner into a deserted hallway that was still close enough to hear her from and stopped just around the bend. Poppy yelled after me that she would get the notes I needed before hurrying down the staircase, her expression staying nothing but concerned. I waited until her footsteps stopped echoing and a large door slammed shut before coming out from my hiding space and walking quickly down the correct staircase.

I rounded two corners and saw the familiar clock covered cabinet, brass gears spinning slowly, midnight blue paint still gleaming. Taking a deep breath, I flicked my wand at the cabinet the way Sebastian had shown me so long ago and stepped in, the heavy door locking shut behind me as the room on the other side filled my vision, two boys standing just inside, waiting for me.