Invisible String - Sebastian Sallow

Chapter Fifty: Deal With the Devil

"Get out of my head if you know what's good for you!" I snarled, just as Marvolo smirked.

Unlike Sebastian's smirk, Marvolo's had crawled under my skin in uncomfortable ways, signaling to me that I was not in control of this situation in the slightest and that I needed to start adjusting my plans if I was to get myself and Anne out of this mess.

"I see that you and Sebastian are quite... Close." He said, stepping closer to me yet again. I backed up into Anne, acting as her shield, though really, I thought wryly, what point was there for doing so if she was already being controlled by him? My stomach churned at the thought, ready to empty itself on the cottage floor. "It would be a shame if he weren't to make it out of Azkaban. I imagine that would destroy you."

I flinched, my heart twisting at the thought of him there, trapped by hundreds, if not thousands or Dementors. I could feel him growing weaker all the time, my mind racing with the uncomfortable and all too likely possibility of him being trapped there until he lost his mind and his powers. The Gaunt's influence could get him out, probably faster than I could.

"What... What if I make your father a deal?" I asked, my wand dropping slightly as the words tumbled from my lips.

Thorfinn Gaunt wanted to see me, he needed me for something, and I needed him to get and keep Sebastian from returning to Azkaban. Something inside me screamed not to go, not to allow Marvolo to take me from the relative safety of the hamlet. I ignored it, knowing that whatever dangers lie ahead of me, it was much less a threat than Sebastian being where he was.

He needed me.

And I would always do whatever I could to help him. Even if that meant going to see the man I'd been hiding from. That he'd been protecting me from.

"If you would be so inclined to meet with him, I'm sure the two of you could work something out, save your little boyfriend and his sister, hm?"

"Nothing happens to either of them," I demanded, my voice firm. "Nothing hurts either of them while I speak to Thorfinn. You swear it."

"Cross my heart," he said in his silkiest voice that reminded me way too much of Ominis.

"Okay," I said, forcing myself to release Anne's shoulder. I took one last look at her, and then back to Marvolo. "She stays here. She doesn't need to come too."

Marvolo grinned widely, his eyes flashing dangerously as he reached forward and grabbed my arm in his claw like grip before twisting on the spot and whipping me away from the cottage, away from Anne, still bound and cursed, and away from the backup I had no idea was just outside the door, listening to every word we'd said.

~

The Gaunt manor home was spacious and grand. Far more luxurious than I had ever thought an estate could be, marble and statues adorning every inch of the walls and floor. Vast and empty rooms lay on either side of the long hallways, though I could see faintly where portraits had been removed from the walls. Perhaps the manor house was not as grand as it once was.

Marvolo had his hand gripped tightly on my arm, forcing me roughly forward and deeper into the home.

I understood instantly why Ominis hated the manor as violently as he had.

It wasn't a home at all. It was a fortress, a place of blood status and formality and twisted ideals and Dark Magic. It was everything Ominis hated, everything he worked to stay away from, and of which, Sebastian and I had been guilty of dabbling in. I couldn't help but wonder which room Ominis had been subjected to the Cruciatus Curse in when he was just a boy.