Like Moths to a Flame // Sebastian Sallow [Book One]

Chapter Twenty-Four: Quips & Tussles

"I just realized something. I don't even know your middle name," Damien said with a chuckle as they strolled down the path out of Hogsmeade. It was a dreary Saturday with the occasional scattered rain shower. Damien had asked Sebastian along for an afternoon stroll - weather be damned.

"Guess," Sebastian teased. He shook his head, water droplets flying from his hair and splattering Damien.

"Hey!" Damien protested, playfully jumping away from him.

Damien scrutinized Sebastian's face carefully from afar. "Hmmmm. You strike me as either a James or a Balthazar."

Sebastian let out a hearty laugh. "A James or a Balthazar? Those are such wildly different middle names. Although I quite like James."

"I had to make certain I covered both fronts: traditional and absolutely bonkers."

"Right," Sebastian said, straightening his tie. "Well, you're wrong. It's Cornelius."

Damien snorted. "It is not!"

Sebastian tossed him a sly grin. "You got me. It's Nicolas, after Nicolas Flamel, the famous alchemist. My mother was completely obsessed."

"Sebastian Nicolas Sallow. That's got a nice ring to it," Damien said, returning his grin.

"Your turn to share." Sebastian cast a quick glance at the sky as more raindrops splattered on his face. Damien had wandered off to his left to inspect an elaborate stone circle on the ground. Instead of responding to Sebastian, he cast Revelio.

"Well, that's one way to avoid sharing," Sebastian muttered, effectively breaking Damien's concentration.

"Oh sorry - no. I somehow missed this Merlin trial the last time I came through."

"Ah yes - a Merlin trial," Sebastian said sarcastically. "I definitely know what that is."

"You don't know what it is?" Damien seemed genuinely surprised.

"No, but I'm going to guess it involves summoning a sword with a wave of your wand or something equally ridiculous. Am I close?"

Damien laughed. "You know, that would make a lot more sense, but no, they're a series of puzzles scattered all over Scotland that you can solve. You've really never heard of them?"

"I swear on my word as a gentleman," Sebastian said with a smirk, bowing ever so slightly. "What do you get out of solving them?"

"The satisfaction of solving it?" he replied, his cheeks flushing slightly. 

"That's it?" Sebastian guffawed. "You really are a true Ravenclaw. Have at it then." He nodded toward a cluster of trees further down the path. "I'll be over there if you need me."

Damien grinned in reply, re-focusing his attention on the trial. Sebastian would have to ask him later how he discovered these so-called Merlin trials, but for now, he was content in the knowledge that they made Damien happy. 

He was learning that lots of things made Damien happy: a warm cup of tea with two cubes of sugar (no milk); holding hands in stolen moments between classes; petting cats - in fact, he would pet every cat that crossed their path, and there were a lot of stray cats at Hogwarts. Sebastian couldn't help but smile, finding joy in the myriad of unexplored moments he was sharing with Damien.

Sebastian found a relatively dry spot under a tree and sat down, taking his bag off his shoulder and pulling out a book. For once, he wasn't reading a textbook. He needed a break from that. As much as he enjoyed studying Salazar Slytherin's spellbook, it was a challenging read and one could only spend so much time researching. In fact, he was enjoying a book recommended by Damien: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. He was about halfway through it, and he had to admit that Damien had great taste. The last Muggle book Sebastian read was Robinson Crusoe, which he had found in a box of his father's old things - one of the few books that had survived the fire. Unfortunately, even though it sounded like a rollicking time, it was quite the slog.