Invisible String - Sebastian Sallow

Chapter Twelve: The Restricted Section

"Sebastian, there's nothing to talk about. I just remembered-"

"What it felt like. It felt good didn't it?"

My mouth clenched shut. How could he risk talking about it here? Where anyone could open the door on either side of us and hear us? Find out what we'd done?

"Not here," I hissed at him.

I tried to pull myself from Sebastian's grip, but he stepped forward. He was absolutely towering over me now, his right hand still clenched tightly to my wrist, his body stepping closer, pushing me back into the wall of the narrow staircase.

"Seb-"

"I saw the look on your face today," he whispered. He lifted his left hand to push a piece of hair away from my face, head tilted down towards mine. "I need to know if it felt good for you, too."

I closed my eyes, willing myself not to think about how close his lips were to mine. His body was so close, I could feel his chest rise and fall with the obvious attempt to control his breathing. Just answer the question.

"Yes. It felt good."

He released me at this, and my body was suddenly cold, every cell in me angry at the lack of heat Sebastian brought with him. He was leaning against the other wall in our narrow staircase, a hand running through his hair. He took a deep, gulping breath before speaking.

"Another thing we share," he said, his voice a strained, eyes flashing darkly, before he pushed open the final door to the library and left me scrambling after him to get to our destination, confusion written all over my face.

We walked briskly into the Restricted Section, ancient books lining all of the vast shelves around us. I followed after Sebastian, going down to the lower level and off to the right. Here, I could see that the librarian, Mrs. Scribner, had set us up a table and poufs. Ominis was sitting in one, propped up against the wall, twirling his wand in his hand. Poppy was next to him, a pile of books open in front of her, her eagle feather quill tucked into her hair.

"Ah, I see you finally found her, Sebastian," Ominis said, nudging Poppy. She caught my eye and gave me a knowing look as Sebastian sat down. I shot her a glare back and she giggled. I rolled my eyes.

"Sorry," I said to Ominis, tossing my bag behind me. "I got a tad caught up with something."

Poppy waved me off. "We've pulled some books to reference. Though I don't really understand what it is we are supposed to be finding. How much can there be written about a pretty self-explanatory curse?"

"A lot," Sebastian said, holding his hand out for the book Poppy was holding. She gave it to him with a very suspicious expression on her face. He began to flick through the pages, eyes scanning quickly as he did so. "I read a lot of these books when I was searching for a cure for my sister. I don't know if you remember her, but she left Hogwarts after falling ill. We couldn't find a cure and I thought there might be something in one of these books."

I was digging the heel of my boot into his foot under the table, begging him to stop talking. Although for all the good it seemed to do, you never would have known I was attempting to torture the poor man.

"I remember your sister," Poppy said, voice soft. "How is Anne?"

I saw his jaw flex briefly but he didn't let the tension linger on his features.

"She's doing better. Anyways, I was searching and searching but all I seemed to find was a lot of information about casting curses, no healing antidotes or anything. And when I was reading, I found quite a lot about the Unforgivable's."

This made sense. He'd known how to cast the spells, of course he'd read the theory on them. How stupid I had been not to realize that Ominis wouldn't have taught him. Of course he'd learned from books.

"What did you learn that would be helpful?" Ominis asked my question for me, his own pale face even more drained of color. As though he was dreading what Sebastian would say.

He set the book back on the table, pointing to a section in the middle of the yellowing pages. "Take this for example. 'The Imperius curse is one that does require a strong will to perform. Though no known counter curse exists, and protection shields have no effect, if the curse is placed on one with a stronger will, they can fight it off.'"

I blinked and looked over to Ominis. His expression was surprised. Had he not attempted to fight my curse because he'd agreed to it? Or had he simply been unable to fight it? Poppy kept her eyes on Sebastian.

"It can be fought off?"

"From what I understand from the book, if you can drown out the commanding magic flooding your brain and listen to your own magic, you can lift it yourself. How long it takes, I don't know."

Ominis spoke next, and all three of us looked at him intensely. "My family, as two of you know, are rather fond of the Dark Arts. In all the time I saw these curses used, I've never seen someone fight it off."

"Yeah, well, your family would be masters at the spells, wouldn't they?" Sebastian was flicking through the book again, and I was watching with rapt curiosity.

"That they would. But that is rather interesting it's possible if you're more in touch with your magic."

More in touch with your magic than the other. Perhaps my ability to tap into ancient magic made me more adept with all forms of magic. I thought of the Repository under the school, filled to the brim with dark magic. My whole body tingled with anticipation at the thought. Poppy was the one who brought me back from miles below the school.

"Your family used these spells? On who?"

I supposed I should have told her about Ominis's history with some dark magic. But I hadn't felt it was my story to tell.

"Muggles mostly. But my siblings and I were subjected to it if we refused to use any of them. Out of the three of us, I was the only one subjected more than once."

Poppy placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, a comforting gesture of hers I had received more than once.

"Families can be cruel," she said.

He smiled.

Sebastian cleared his throat softly, nodding to the second book on the table. "Shall we keep looking for more?"