Hiraeth | Sebastian Sallow Love Story

Chapter Thirty Nine: Legilimency

"Then correct the injustice and change it to 'very important stuff Sebastian says.'" He retorted indignantly, pointing at the door with the conviction of a man who has been slighted.

Grace thought about it. The sign became 'very useless shite, Sebastian says.' "Back to the mirror of Erised. What did you see?"

Sebastian kept on walking and spoke as she struggled to keep up with his long legs. While he was emotional moments ago, the way he spoke now was almost in third person. Like someone else was describing his life, "The first time, it was me catching the golden snitch in a series of dramatic events, and Slytherin winning the House Quidditch cup. I wasn't even old enough to join try-outs at the time I saw it and for weeks, I didn't shut up about how I'd make Captain when I was old enough. Ominis kept badgering me saying the day I made captain was the day he regained his eyesight and Imelda no longer knew how to fly."

It was so normal compared to a time of chaos, that Gracie felt a sense of nostalgia for a time she took for granted. She missed how Hogwarts used to be. How the Wizarding world used to be. Maybe she'd fit in more than she thought at the time, but she'd been so narrow minded. Gave up before trying to make connections. She didn't fight then, not like she does now.

"And the second time?"

"The second time was fifth year. A few days before Charlotte died, she was too distracted to see I'd been caught up with Salazar Slytherin's personal spell-book. I know her and Ominis were plotting to destroy it when my guard was down so I went off to find a place they wouldn't look for me."

"The clock tower." Gracie remarked quietly.

He nodded, turning his head away from where she walked next to him. "I remember taking the sheet off, thinking back to those times where everything was just..." His jaw clenched and she could see his shoulders rising a bit to fight against an invisible burden, "I can't even say it was easier. My parents died because of me."

Gracie stopped, reaching out to grab his arm. She didn't know why, but she just felt she had to. Sebastian stopped, more surprised by the gentle, but firm hand holding the crook of his elbow. "Why do you think that?"

"Everyone thought it was due to a defect with the lamp in the cellar that caused the room to fill with an undetectable toxin and then an explosion." Visibly she could see him wanting to turn or look away, but she held his gaze, "It wasn't a defect with the lamp. I'd been down there the previous morning before the sun was up, searching through their journals. It was so interesting to read about their adventures-mostly because they left the near death experiences out or whatever they thought wasn't age appropriate for a seven year old. Mum and dad knew that I had a habit of creeping out of bed, so when I thought I heard them, I rushed to turn off the lamp. But at seven, as you know, magic is unpredictable. I wasn't focusing and instead of turning it off completely, I had left it on and only extinguished the flame. It'd been my imagination, but I left because I became paranoid they would catch me. If it hadn't been my parents dying later that day, it would have been me." He smiled, but it wasn't kind. "I wish it was me.When I looked into the mirror, it was my parents staring back at me with the same loving expression they'd given me at breakfast that morning. Not knowing their son was going to kill them. Anne was there too, looking full of life and not like the skeleton she'd become due to the curse."

"Curse?"

"Not drunk enough. My parents are one thing, Anne is another." Sebastian said derisively, continuing on then as if she hadn't spoken up in the first place, "I think Solomon knew I had something to do with the lamp when the Aurors told him what exactly happened. I wasn't good at hiding my emotions then and he used to be an Auror. Was always good at reading people. Ever since then, he treated Anne and I differently growing up even before she was cursed. Afterwards, he didn't even let me stay in the house, had a shack built nearby."