The Devil Doesn't Bargain (MatD part 2)

Chapter TWENTY TWO - The TTCWUM list

The Room blanketed us in warmth as we entered hand in hand, a comforting sort of mellow it hadn't entirely felt before and I wondered if perhaps it had to do with my own relief or if it truly was warmer. A few candles flickered on a corner table, their flames displaced for a moment at our presence. The stones at our backs slid and scratched back into place and after taking in the space, I caught Sebastian smirking at me, our state of seclusion locked within the final brick.

The look tugged at my heart and burned my cheeks but I held his gaze, waiting for an answer he seemed all too excited not to reveal. He rubbed his thumb over my wrist, his smile only growing at my silence in a - I know something you don't - sort of way.

It was charmingly infuriating.

I quirked an eyebrow. "Spill Sallow."

His tired eyes flicked to my lips, irritatingly perfect teeth peeking out from his smile as he leaned in closer. The heat of his breath brushed over my cheeks to the shell of my ear and I reveled in the warmth of it all along with the quick patter of my heart.

"I'm honored honestly. The Room of Requirement only reveals itself to those in desperate need of something and only appears as what they need most." He placed a kiss to my temple though I could still feel the grin on his lips.

The heat of the kiss whispered away as Sebastian backed up and dropped my hand before walking briskly to one of the high back chairs I'd been falling asleep in lately. Feeling especially cold, I crossed my arms over my chest and watched him settle into the fabric. He kicked his feet up over one of the arms and brushed a finger against a stack of books aside it.

His wild eyes eventually landed back on mine, his sideways smirk taunting me quietly.

"Seems Hogwarts decided you needed me too."

It took a moment for that to wrap around my brain, but all at once it snapped tight and I smiled.

"This is your Room."

Sebastian held a finger up. "Was."

I cocked my head and Sebastian leaned up and over his knees to pat the small space beside him on the chair. I wasn't entirely sure the two of us would fit, but obliged anyway, wiggling my way below his legs until I could curl myself against his chest. With our legs wrapped together, we somehow just fit and I let the heat of his body relax the muscles in my neck.

His heartbeat against my ear a steady reassurance.

Almost as if instinctually drawn to it, Sebastian's fingers threaded through my hair. My cheek pressed over his sternum, the hum of his voice vibrating through to my heart and I took a deep breath in as though I could inhale the moment completely.

"I first stumbled upon this place completely by accident...I think it was a month or two after Anne left school. I must have passed the wall at least a dozen times before I noticed the door. Took me into the smallest little room with a single tub right in the center." He sniffed a laugh. "Bit offended the room thought I needed a bath. Cheeky thing."

I smiled against his shirt.

"Came round the next day though and it was an entirely different room." One of his hands abandoned my hair a moment to sweep a gesture around us. "This room."

One of the candles popped in the corner, another sizzled at the bottom of its wick and the floorboards seemed to creek from the right. I wondered if the Room could be listening.

"Before, I was spending most of my time researching a cure for Anne in the library at nights until Madame Scribner would kick me out or hidden under my sheets in bed with only the light of my wand. It... wasn't ideal."

"What about the Undercroft?"

"Oh of course I often holed up there too... but Ominis didn't always approve of- he didn't always like the material I would read. Not to mention one of the bloody books liked to jump around and hide where I couldn't find it only to spring out and nip at Ominis' ankles later."

I snorted at the thought and began to run my finger over one of Sebastian's shirt buttons thoughtlessly. His breath stuttered a moment before he continued.

"The Room was exactly what I needed to freely research a cure. I was here nearly every night after Ominis fell asleep..."

He shifted so that he could look down at me and I tilted my face up to him.

"...except, shortly after I met you. The room wouldn't open to me anymore after that. Couldn't even get at the books or notes I'd left inside." He nodded to the stack by our feet. "I didn't put it together until much later, but I think Hogwarts decided I had no use for the space anymore once I had you."

His deep brown eyes glistened with the pain I knew still seated in his ribs, though now a small spark of something else traced around the edges as he watched me. Mischievous grin now replaced with something heavier.

Twisted fates wrapped pointed daggers around the silence.

"I missed you so much my cabbage." He pulled a thumb over my chin and my breath once again stuttered.

Wrapped in the arms of my heart, I wondered how a world as cruel as this one could also harbor a soul as beautiful as his.

His fingers brushed over my cheek, lips parting a moment before closing again as if deciding what to say next. Something shifted in the air once more, wrapping thicker against my throat as realities clawed at my ribs.

 "I've... been reading-"

The impulse to shatter the seriousness in his tone tugged at my skin, urging me to tease him and I feigned surprise the best I could.

"I didn't know you could read?"

His laugh, crisp and pure, eased my anxious heart.

"Would you shut up Barlowe. I'm trying to tell you something important."

"And what if I don't want to hear anything important right now?"

His giggles gently tapered off and he leaned down as best he could, capturing my lips against his and kissing away the disquietude in my lungs.

"Then we shall add it to the TTCWUM list."

"The.. huh?"

"Things That Can Wait Until Morning."

I smirked. "There's a list worth of things?"

"Yes. Three things actually." He nodded matter-of-factly. "This thing, introducing you to Brahms, and breakfast."

"Whose Brahms?"

Sebastian placed a gentle kiss to my forehead. "Suppose you'll find out in the morning won't you my cabbage?"