How to Make a Villain - [Sebastian Sallow x F!OC]

[fourteen]

For warmth.

But that home was gone.

Now, home was imposing stone walls and grey skies and horizons drenched in rain; an indifferent aunt and uncle in London who hadn't once written to check in on her; a room she shared with three strangers, where she'd had to cast an Imperturbable Charm around her bed so none of them could hear her crying.

Home was cold.

Adrift through the bustling castle, her feet had swept her away from Ominis Gaunt, whose scathing voice rang as clear and resonant in her mind as had his piano in the music chamber; but his words were discordant notes, an echo of fumbling fingers over piano keys: Sebastian is better off without you.

But wasn't everybody? Weren't they all in danger simply for being in her presence? Samantha's Dittany had been the latest victim of her accursed magic - blasted into the ether never to return - but who would be next? Ominis had warned her away from Sebastian, but in the end, would it be Sebastian who'd come to regret ever knowing her?

Uneasy in spirit, Aurélie found herself back in the Great Hall before she was aware of the path her feet were travelling. She supposed it was the smell of lunch that had drawn her there. Though she had no appetite after her encounter with Ominis, she'd followed the familiar aroma of onions and garlic, butter and bread as if some lonely part of her hoped she might find home at the source of it. But it was a false trail; there was no comfort to be found within this cold castle.

It was late in the afternoon now, and only the last stragglers remained at the long House tables, their voices far away and their faces blurred by the force of her distraction. The enchanted ceiling hadn't changed since she'd last gazed upon it, but, of course, she'd been expecting that; the oppressive reflection of the storm outside had become synonymous with her sojourn at Hogwarts, but something about seeing it now made her want to cry.

She wanted to go home.

Heartsick, she cast a wide sweep across the near-empty hall, searching.

She wanted... She wanted...

'... to make amends,' said a voice beside her. 'I think we got off on the wrong foot.'

Dragging her tired eyes from the ceiling, Aurélie turned to find Garreth Weasley grinning at her, red-haired and bright-eyed and entirely unaware of her internal turmoil. She smiled back, though the action felt stiff and wooden on her face.

'This is for you,' he said, holding up a glass vial with a small incline of his head. 'A peace offering. I fear I might've left you with the wrong impression of me, given that our first and only conversation was about, well, you know...'

'Murderous Slytherins?' she offered wearily.

'Yes, that. Not that I didn't mean what I told you about Sallow,' he added hurriedly, scratching at the back of his neck, 'because I did, only I think I perhaps could have gone about saying it with a little more... tact. Anyway.' He chuckled sheepishly. 'I thought you might get some good use out of this.'

He gestured again with the small vial, but before either of them could blink, the innocuous-looking potion was snatched out of his grasp and Sebastian Sallow was insisting himself between them.

Again.

'What is this?' demanded Sebastian, brandishing the potion in Garreth's face. 'What are you giving her? What do you think you're playing at, experimenting on her?'

The sound of his voice shouldn't have had such a profound effect on her, but beneath the fear, the dizzying anxiety, the tension headache, and how angry she was supposed to be at him, was a profound and very worrying sense of relief.