Invisible String - Sebastian Sallow

Chapter Fourty-Five: Ask and Answer

Curled up on the sofa of the Slytherin common room, I twirled my wand around in my fingers, still attempting to get used to the yew wand. Weeks had gone by, Sebastian had insisted upon the need to plan before acting on his statement of needing Arcturus Black, the grounds were now covered in frost, my veins bursting with stores of magic.

I just needed to trust Sebastian. He reminded me that I did not want Poppy to know we'd been studying more dark magic than necessary, and with Hecat's current essays, there was not an opportunity to slip away and get what we needed from our fellow Slytherin.

The wand continued to twirl in my hand. Silver sparks trailed from the tip of the wand as I played with it. It had certainly felt more comfortable in my hand after the events in the Repository with Sebastian, but it didn't have the same history. This wand hadn't been taught the spells by Sebastian, it hadn't killed Victor Rookwood, it hadn't dueled Solomon Sallow and it didn't bring an end to Ranrok.

It was empty and new.

It felt oddly fragile.

Sebastian was sitting beside me, his nose buried in a book, quill in his other hand taking notes as we waited for Ominis to return from dinner. Neither of us had wanted to go. The Christmas holidays were a week away, and with it the deadline for Professor Hecat's essay on the killing curse.

Today had been a rough day in the Restricted Section.

The subject of Solomon was an uncomfortable and unavoidable conversation, as was Rookwood. Though neither man was innocent, it didn't always sit well in polite conversation. While Poppy has said she understood, she didn't seem to like when the subject was brought up and tried to ease her way back into far more polite topics, such as Aurora and Highwing.

Usually this worked rather well.

Today, Ominis hadn't been polite, regardless of Poppy's attempts.

"There were plenty of other spells you two could have used," Ominis had burst out in a harsh whisper, tucked into a back corner of the library. His wand tip was illuminated, held to the page of Secrets of the Darkest Art, his face twisted in disgust.

"Ominis," Poppy hissed at him, glancing around us anxiously. "Not here."

"We were being attacked!" Sebastian groaned, running his hands over his face for the umpteenth time. This conversation had happened one too many times for much of Sebastian's patience to be left. "Solomon destroyed the only thing controlling those Inferi and then attacked us. What else were we to do?"

"You could have Obliviated him," Ominis hissed, his sharp tongue dripping in venom.

"And Rookwood?" I snapped, my hand squeezing Sebastian's thigh in a effort to keep him calm. "He kidnapped and attempted to kill me for escaping."

"I understand." He said it through clenched teeth, his very rare temper flaring. "That doesn't make what either of you did right and I won't excuse it!"

"Ominis," I said, a little stung. "We'd be dead if we hadn't- We didn't have a choice."

He'd turned his cold glare toward me, and hissed lowly as he abruptly stood from the table.

"I always knew you'd encouraged him. Perhaps you're more to blame for his use of them than I suspected."

The sound of Sebastian's quill making further notations in the copy of Slytherin's spellbook pulled me from my revery of reliving the events in the library.

"What have you learned today?" I asked, still twirling my wand around between my fingers, the flash of bottle green at the hilt of the wand making my heart skip a beat.