The Raven and the Snake (Sebastian Sallow x Ravenclaw MC)

Traitor

As one might expect, Clora was rather stressed about the fact that she had just been blackmailed by another student, let alone a student like Leighton Lawley.

Nobody had said anything—yet—though as her and her trio of Slytherins settled down in the Great Hall for dinner, Clora felt as though the anxiety she felt was visible, either in her face, or in her demeanor.

"The upcoming game is Slytherin versus Ravenclaw," Sebastian told them in amusement, resting his chin on his hand as he turned to look at Clora, the corner of his lip twitching upward. "Romantic, isn't it? We're practically Romeo and Juliet."

Anne snorted into her cup as she drank, and Ominis smirked.

"Yes, Sebastian. Because being from rival families and dying for each other is comparable to cheering for separate sports teams," Ominis mused sarcastically with a shake of his head, and Sebastian nodded earnestly in contrast, taking it in stride.

"See? Glad you understand. Though unlike our dear Romeo, I don't intend on sacrificing myself," he turned to Clora once again, tilting his head as he rested his temple on his knuckles. "And if they think I'll go easy on them because my girlfriend is a Ravenclaw, they're in for a nasty surprise."

Apparently Clora had been silent for a little too long, because when she didn't interject during any of that, Sebastian leaned closer, nudging her knee with his own. "Clora?" he asked. "You aren't really conflicted on who to cheer for, are you? Here I thought our love might be able to trump any of your house pride."

Clora straightened, using his words as a cover for her turmoil as she turned to him and smiled. "Not to worry. I'll be sporting green in that sea of blue, I promise."

Sebastian smiled, satisfied, and as he turned back to Anne and Ominis to continue their conversation, Clora once again zoned out, her anxiety back from its brief break as she only thought back to Lawley, and the relic, and everything.

She continued to remain quiet for the most part as Sebastian walked her back to her common room, but before they could reach the doors in earnest, Clora quickly grabbed onto his arm, the churning of her stomach at its limit as she dragged him away.

Sebastian, however, clearly thought she was pulling him aside for another reason as he allowed himself to be led away easily, though his pleased smile quickly faltered as he fully took in her expression.

Like a switch, he sobered immediately, stepping towards her and frowning slightly in concern. "Clora? What's wrong?"

She swallowed, taking a look around to make absolutely certain not a soul was around before she continued. Her lesson had been swiftly learned in that regard, after all.

"About the relic," Clora began quietly, and the unexpected topic clearly took Sebastian by surprise as he stared at her. "Seeing as we no longer need it...what do you think of putting it back?"

Sebastian continued to stare at her, his concern quickly shifting to confusion. "What? I thought we agreed we'd hold on to it, in case of emergency," he rebutted firmly. "An emergency that is very much still likely to happen, seeing as how Ranrok and his lot are still after you—and even made posters of you, in case you've forgotten."

Clora fiddled with her tie as she nodded reluctantly. "I know. But maybe...couldn't we just keep it in whichever catacomb you found it at? We could go retrieve it whenever we'd need it."

Sebastian's frown only deepened as he narrowed his eyes in confusion, trying to read her face. "And why would we do that, when it's safer in our care? You're not opposed to saving it for an emergency, so why are you suddenly opposed to holding onto it?" he asked, sounding genuinely confused rather than accusatory.

Though in the next moment Sebastian's face softened, confusion and disbelief giving way to concern once more. "If having it in your possession makes you nervous, let me hold onto it again."

Clora started at that, the suggestion alone sending her into a panic. Not because of Sebastian, or the fact that he might use it without her permission if he were to take it back, but because of how easy it would be for Lawley to get his hands on it if Sebastian were to keep it with him. The two of them shared a dorm, after all, and Lawley even knew that Sebastian had kept it in his trunk.

"N-no! You're right. And I'm fine with it in my room," Clora concluded hastily, and Sebastian crossed his arms, nodding.

"Good. Because returning it to the catacomb where I found it isn't an option. Not now that we know there are Dark Wizards defiling said catacombs for things that might be able to curry Ranrok's favour," Sebastian reminded her, his voice low. "If we have it, that means they don't."

Clora nodded, albeit somewhat reluctantly. "That's true..."

It still satisfied Sebastian regardless, however, and he crossed his arms and also nodded. "What brought this on, anyway?"

"Oh," Clora looked up in a panic. "I just—it's as you said. I don't feel fully comfortable having it, but...it's for the best. Just until this is all over."

Sebastian nodded once more, his expression gentler in the face of her worry as he stepped towards her and took her shoulders, pulling her towards him to kiss her forehead.

"It is," he leaned back to smirk at her. "And it will be over. And when it is, you'll be able to go back to merely worrying about homework, or astronomy, or whatever else."

Clora laughed, and Sebastian's smile grew in turn, bending to give her a proper kiss on the lips rather than one on the forehead. And despite herself and her situation, Clora was both surprised and relieved that she did feel a touch lighter as she walked into her common room after saying goodnight to him.

That feeling very quickly turned back to anxiety, however, once Clora actually opened the door to her room.

There, rooting through her things, was Nisha Adwell. The Ravenclaw that had been with Lawley that day in Beasts class, harassing both her and Poppy.

"Can I help you?" Clora demanded as she marched in quickly, her voice shaking in both fear and rage as the other girl jolted and swiftly spun to meet her eyes. "What are you doing in our room?"

"Samantha asked me to come get something for her," Nisha replied, unbothered, looking much too relaxed for someone who had just been caught trespassing.

"She did?" Clora challenged, breathless in the face of her sudden adrenaline. "Well then, seeing as I'm her roommate, I would know where it is. What is it that you're looking for, exactly?"

Nisha stayed quiet for a long moment, before her flattened mouth cracked into a slight smile, and she shook her head as she made to walk past Clora.

"Nevermind," was all she offered as she left the room, and Clora was left alone to stare ahead, still rattled and riled up as she took a moment to calm down.

But she quickly recovered, spinning to close and lock the door before pulling out her spare wand, hastily heading to her vanity and pulling open the drawer that she knew hid the relic.

And after a quick Revelio, Clora sagged in relief to see that the drawer still indeed housed the relic within it, and she quickly shut it once more, reapplying her illusion once she did so.

Though now she wondered if that was really enough. There was always the Room of Requirement, she supposed—either one—but the constant changing of those rooms, and how they shifted and took things away made Clora nervous. What if the room decided that the relic was too dangerous for them to hold onto, and one day they discovered it gone? Swallowed up entirely?

No. As much as it may help in hiding the relic from others, Clora couldn't risk either Room of Requirement hiding it from her as well.

Clora was too shaken to leave her room unsupervised after that, and after making sure the door was locked once more, she very quickly remembered—and cursed—the fact that Alohomora existed.

Sometimes she really, really missed the simplicity of being a Muggle.

*******

Between being blackmailed, being unable to tell anyone of said blackmail, and spending every waking moment thinking of how to get out of that blackmail, Clora's mind was working overtime.

She wasn't lacking in ideas, of course, as she had plenty of time to worry about her situation and conjure new ones—mainly at night, when she would lie awake, unable to sleep, staring up at the bottom of Samantha Dale's bunk.

No, it wasn't that she was lacking in ideas. It was just that most of those ideas were doomed to fail.

She'd considered the idea of her and Sebastian playing dumb, for instance. After all, if they were to hide the relic, or even return it to the catacomb it came from, Lawley wouldn't be able to prove that they'd ever used it.

But that plan fell apart as soon as Clora accounted for Sebastian. Because she knew him, and she knew that if he were to be confronted about the relic by both his uncle and Lawley, he wouldn't lie— nor would he let go of it. He would admit they'd used it, and that they might need to use it again, the same way he'd so freely admitted to the Keepers that he'd used the Killing Curse to save herself.

He knew himself to be justified in both situations, after all, and that made him steadfast in his views. Even if Clora did tell Sebastian about the situation, and that they should dispose of the relic for their own good—for his own good—Sebastian wouldn't agree to it. He wouldn't agree to throwing it out or getting rid of it, even if it was damning to himself.

She knew that Sebastian would fight to hold onto that relic, so long as Ranrok and the threat he posed to Clora was out there. He would hold onto it in the face of everything happening—in the face of the threat of expulsion, or disownment by his uncle, or any other horrible thing Clora could conjure up in her most paranoid hypotheticals.

He'd already used it to save her once, after all, and Clora knew that he wouldn't let any threat from either Lawley or his uncle dissuade him from potentially doing so again.