Risk // Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 16: I've Never*

Well, I wasn't lying...

"I understand, Olive. Take as much time as you need to sort it out, but if you ever need to talk to someone, I'm around. Just come and find me."

He reached forward and I was waiting for the feeling of his lips on mine, but he moved past my lips and kissed me delicately on the cheek before leaving me and my guilty conscience.

The common room felt cold compared to The Three Broomsticks I'd just come from, and I was suddenly feeling like perhaps I should have been more involved with Garreth and I may have gotten an invitation to the much warmer Gryffindor common room.

Sebastian saw me before I spotted him and he leaped up from his arm chair and approached me quickly with a grin on his face.

"So, how was your date?" He chirped.

"Shut it, Sebastian. It wasn't a date." I scoffed.

"Pfft. As if. You may have thought it wasn't, but he certainly does. Tell me you don't notice how he looks at you!"

"Yeah, it's the same way you look at me."

Sebastian opened then quickly shut his mouth before trying to divert my attention elsewhere by starting a new conversation.

"Thanks for coming with me to see Anne today. It's nice to have someone there especially when she has days like that." His tone shifted to convey his genuine gratitude for our rekindled friendship... if you could call it that. I could tell he still wasn't comfortable with Ominis and Anne even though things had repaired slightly between the two boys.

"Of course. I was actually going to ask if you wanted to talk more about your plans with the wand." I said.

"Shhh, not here," he said, his hand grabbing on to my upper arm and his head peering around the room slightly.

He pulled me along with him straight into his dormitory and shut the door. His room was empty.

"Where's Ominis?"

"Library, I suppose. He heads out there on Saturday nights for some reason. Don't get me wrong, I love that place but I can't really imagine spending every single Saturday night there."

"Did you ever stop to think maybe he's avoiding you?" I smirked.

"Why would he? I'm a bloody delight." He said proudly.

I had to scoff back a laugh and he stood at me with his hands on his hips.

"So... the wand?" I reminded him.

"Right," He said, fixing his composure and standing up straight, "I want to revisit what we'd seen in Isadora's memory... how she takes the pain. I want to know if there's a way to control it even more, make sure you aren't just taking away pain and emotions, but rather the curse itself. For Anne, it seems to be in her abdomen."

"How do you expect me to learn how to do that?" I almost laughed at his ridiculous idea.

"Well, I'm glad you asked. In all my years of research, I've looked up probably hundreds of curses. I think if I use them all on a host, we could practice getting you to extract it."

"What host are you suggesting?"

"I don't know. We could start with something small... like a plant. A mandrake or something."

"Isn't that cruel?" I questioned, remembering the screams of them that nearly killed me in my first Herbology class.

"Why? They cut them up for potions and antidotes. This would be no different."