"There you are Seraphina, wait where's Sebastian?" Lucius asked Seraphina who was hiding behind a book case.
"Shh. Sebastian got caught." Seraphina whispered quietly, as she said his name, the librarian started to speak.
"Sneaking into the restricted section- again!" The librarian yelled angrily towards the panicked Slytherin.
"I had thought we were through with this mischief, clearly detentions are insufficient." Seraphina peeks her head slightly as she watches with immense guilt and fear for Sebastian, the fact he was taking the fall for both Lucius and her antics. Despite he was there on his on quest, realistically Seraphina and Lucius deserved to be there as well with him.
"I'm afraid I must take this to the headmaster." The librarian adviced.
"But-" Sebastian started to speak, in attempt to defend himself. However the librarian cut him off,
"That being said, Peeves informed me that you weren't alone tonight."
Seraphina slightly gasped, 'Peeves must have seen me.' She thought. 'I must have been closer enough to see the living of my robes.'
As Seraphina continues to justify how she couldn't have been seen, Scribner starts talking again. "If someone has coerced you, I would have you tell me. You're a bright boy, don't waste this."
Sebastian looks away in shame, he knew she was right. Although he wasn't coerced. This was all on him, he convinced Lucius to go through with the mission. Although he didn't convince Santos, she deserved to find answers for her twin- and that's when he realised. He was still in the restricted section for his twin Anne, they only came along for their own part. Regardless, it was still on him.
Sebastian looked up at the librarian before speaking, "there was nobody else, I came alone." He stated strongly.
Seraphina looked at him with disbelief, Sallows and her only knew eachother for a short period of time. The constant teasing on his behalf and their passive aggressive banter that continued still to this day, she did not expect him to still take the blame.
Lucius was also in disbelief as he still continued to stare at Sebastian. He also felt guilty for him taking the blame, however it was all over. There was nothing they could have done now.
"Oh, Sebastian. What will your uncle say?" Scribner asked rhetorically as she faced the other way and walked towards back to her desk, Peeves followed her. Lucius tapped on Seraphina shoulder and lead her away from the scene. Seraphina still had her eyes on Sebastian, who looked very defeated and a little disappointed.
"We gotta go." Lucius whispered to Seraphina she kept her focus on him until she finally looked away and exited the library.
"Did you atleast found what you wanted?" Seraphina asked, hoping to hear somewhat of good news despite the fact she nor Sebastian were able to find what they were looking for.
"I did. I trust you now, I'll tell you everything as soon as I can." Lucius answered.
"But for now, I'll walk you to Ravenclaw tower and go back to Slytherin common room. I'll let you know how Sebastian is in the morning if you're still worried about him." Lucius suggested as they both made their way towards centre hall.
"No need, I'll find him tomorrow. I have a few amends to make with him. Goodnight lucius." She said warmly as she made her way up to Ravenclaw tower.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A day had passed since the library incident and Seraphina had not run into Sebastian. It would be foolish to believe yourself if you can find a singular person in this giant school full of students. She found Lucius lurking around, but Sebastian was much sneakier. Just as she turned towards the transfiguration courtyard, a familiar voice came from behind her.
"Ah just the Ravenclaw I was looking for." Sebastian comes up to Seraphina as she goes into the transfiguration courtyard. She felt almost enthusiastic when she finally found the Slytherin, or perhaps he found her actually.
"I actually wanted to talk to you aswell, look I know we sort of got off on the wrong foot when I first met you. But I uh- I appreciate what you did in the library." Seraphina stutters her words as she attempts to make an apology for Sebastian.
"I understand, in some ways I probably would have acted the same way you did if I was to ever meet myself as another person." Sebastian attempts to joke, to his surprise Seraphina actually giggled. For once Sebastian couldn't take his eyes off, the way her nose scrunched up and she giggled. Her cheeks expanded as she smiled, how she tucks her black curls in which loosely fell on her face. Seraphina eyes finally locked contact with his.
She stuck her hand out in front of her, "I'm Seraphina Santos, you have my respect." She greeted. Sebastian smirked and gladly shook her hand with a firm shake.
"Sebastian Sallows, hogwarts most charming and yet mischievous student." Sebastian greeted, a smile continued to play on Seraphina face. If she kept smiling like that then Sebastian would have to continue to keep making jokes until she stopped.
"Have you had much chance to explore the castle since being here? I can give you a tour?" Sebastian suggested.
"Natsai showed me a brief tour of the castle. I think it should be alright." Seraphina attempted to wave off.
"But she's only been here for a year, although I've only scratched the surface of this place, but I do know a few passageways here. There's even a place I have to show, of course I'll have to tell Lucius about it too. But I feel like you would also benefit from it." Sebastian said as he came up with an idea, they stopped in front of the statue as Seraphina set down a pile of books that she borrowed from the library earlier.
"I didn't realise Hogwarts could be so secretive."
"It is, just when you think you had this place all figured it, trust me, there's more to it. Meet me near the defence against the dark arts room, I'll owl Lucius to meet you there aswell." Sebastian instructed, within seconds he quickly left leaving Seraphina confused and curious.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Is Sebastian here yet?" Lucius asked Seraphina as she was sitting on the bottom of the staircase, reading a book.
"Not yet, he'll be here soon. Where did you run off to today? you look like you just ran a marathon." Seraphina asked as she noticed the sweat on Lucius face.
"Oh I encountered a Mongrel today, no biggy." Lucius waved it off, in which earned a shock to Seraphina face.
"A mongrel! Are you okay, you're not hurt. I don't need to heal you again do I?" Seraphina kept firing questions at Lucius, just as he was about to respond, Sebastian quickly became behind him.
"Who's hurt?" Sebastian asked confused and curiously.
"Oh it's nothing, just a little incident. Why are we here?" Seraphina asked confused, Sebastian shook off the conversation and answered.
"Like I said earlier, there's something that I want to show you." He answered.
"Hey, first let me thank you for what you did in the library." Lucius starts to apologise. Sebastian waved it off as if it was nothing.
"Of course, scribnar tried to give detention- but I have ways out of these things." Sebastian smirked, this earned a slight eye roll from Seraphina, 'of course' she thought.
"Well you took the fall for us, that counts for something." Lucius said warmly, to which Sebastian quickly asked, "did you find what you were looking for?"
"I did, but something was missing, I'm not sure here is the best place to discuss it." Lucius said as he looked to see if other students were around.
"Wait you didn't tell me that part." Seraphina said annoyed.
"I will soon." Lucius reassured her. "Of course we can talk more in the undercroft, not even professors know this place." Sebastian advised them, he turned around and went behind the stairs to which looked to be appeared as a secret passage.
"It's well disguised." Seraphina complimented, they stopped in front of the entrance, Sebastian and Lucius stepped back to let Seraphina enter.
"Ladies first." Sebastian stated. Seraphina quickly thanked him as she made her way down the passage, on the other side showed a room. A lot of items were storage, however it looked like it could be used for practice more spells Seraphina thought.
Lucius and Sebastian came in soon after, Lucius looked around the room very intrigued.
"How did you find this place?"
"My friend Ominis Gaunt, he named it the Undercroft. We used to play gobstones all the time, with my sister- Anne. She loved that infernal game, what I wouldn't give to lose her again." Sebastian answered sadly as he stood near an empty stone wall.
"It's a pretty big room." Seraphina said surprised as she kept looking around.
"I should tell you I swore to Ominis I would safeguard this place. So please keep this between us." Sebastian adviced as he watched both Lucius and Seraphina walk around the Undercroft.
"Wait, Ominis? I think I seen him in potions. We spoke only briefly." Seraphina spoke up as she joined Sebastian and Lucius.
"He's also in slytherin house, and you would have seen him in herbology too. However, I've noticed that he uses his wand to navigate around the castle." Lucius stated.
"He does, no idea though, Ominis was born blind. And no spell could reverse it. His wand seems almost sentient- not surpising I suppose, the wind chooses the wizard." Sebastian commented.
"So is that how he found this place?" Seraphina questioned with interest, her arms crossed in front of her.
"Someone in his family did- the Gaunts are full of secrets. I've never heard anyone speak of it, and I've certainly never seen anyone else here. Again, don't mention this to Ominis, he has no 'love lost' for his family, but this place is special to him."
"Why?" Seraphina questioned again, despite the fact that she has seen Ominis around the school many times and during class. However, she never felt the need to know him or converse with him.
"His fathers family are direct descendants of Salazar slytherin- one of the four founders at hogwarts. Obsessed with blood status- Ominis wont abide by them, he'll be the first to tell you." Sebastian explained.
Seraphina felt somewhat she understood Ominis, other than her family never cared about blood status. However, a lot of other wizarding families thought they were blood traitors as the Santos family often saved muggles from past dark wizards who tortured them purely for entertainment.
She remembered when she was eleven years old, a muggle stumbled upon an ancient rune in Rio that was protected by wizards. Seraphina watched her own mother heal the muggle after being tortured and cursed.
"Anyway, the Undercroft has been a perfect place to get away from prying eyes and to practice forbidden spells." Sebastian explained, Lucius was confused by the term however Seraphina immediately spoke up.
"What kind of forbidden spells?" Lucius asked intrigued.
"The blasting spell, but professors say it's not an appropriate spell to teach students." Sebastian answered.
"A proper magic education ought to include all magic." Lucius scowled, however Seraphina spoke up.
"Argumentative, the spells that we have learnt already do show purpose. In dueling situations, if proper practiced, can be more effective than you know." Seraphina advised Lucius, Sebastian sighed and rolled his eyes at her lecture.
"The blasting spell like Confringo is only dangerous in undertrained hands. Such spells should be properly taught, not banned." Sebastian stated, adding emphases to the last part. Seraphina only looked at him annoyed.
"We are only fifteen, we have two years left to learn as much as we can from teachers. With those kind of spells, they can teach us with proper care." Seraphina protested back.
"I'm interested to learn it." Lucius perked up, in attempt to stop any future arguments. He didn't bother to look at Seraphina as he knew she was giving him continuous death glares.
"Good choice, to be fair- I'm admittedly partial to more fiery forms of magic." Sebastian said truthfully.
Seraphina slightly scoffed, thankfully Sebastian didn't hear it.
"The incantation is Confringo, watch my wand movement. Now that you have done the movement, give it a go." Sebastian suggested.
Lucius walked towards the candelabras, preparing himself to perform the blasting spell. As he was doing this, Seraphina stood next to Sebastian with a scowl on her face, "You could get in trouble for this, what other spells are you practicing without supervision?"
"Knowing a curious Ravenclaw like yourself, I know for a fact that you definitely already know how to do the spell." Sebastian smirked at her, slightly amused that Seraphina annoyed expression hasn't changed.
"Not Confringo I don't." Seraphina admitted, looking away slightly.
"There's no time like the present." Sebastian suggested. Seraphina looked back at him, she hated to admit it. He was right. Although she wouldn't dare to say that to his face, he would tease her about it everyday if he could.
Seraphina stepped forward towards where Lucius stood, he turned around and nodded as he helped her perform the spell. Within a second, the second candelabra was lit successfully by Seraphina.
"Well done you lot. You guys are more natural when casting spells, when Ominis and I tried the first time- we signed our eyebrows off." Sebastian joked.
"I actually would pay to see that." Seraphina also joked, earning a chuckle from Sebastian.
"I swore we'd never live it down, till this day. There's something about that spell that's addictive." Sebastian admitted.
"The blast does heat things up, I can see why you nearly lost your eyebrows." Lucius laughed.
"You'll get used to it. Anne, Ominis and I used to practice down here for hours, the Undercroft was our retreat. Although I haven't been here for sometime, it just hasn't been the same without Anne-" Sebastian said sadly as he looked his polished shoes, lightly kicking the tiny rocks from the ground. Lucius and Seraphina looked at each other, hoping to find a way what they could do for him.
"We're sorry about your sister-" Seraphina started to say.
"If there's anything we could do-" Lucius started to speak however was caught off by Sebastian.
"Perhaps when I next head to feldcroft, you two could come along to meet Anne, she could use some cheering up." Sebastian suggested, a hint of excitement in his tone.
"Let us know when we'll meet you." Lucius said on behalf of Seraphina and him.
"She missed hogwarts, she's been stuck at home with our guardian- Solomon, unfortunately you'll have to meet him too. But meeting new students are precisely what she needs, she might be more fond with you Santos. Your personality and Anne's are very uncanny." Sebastian said.
"I hope that's a good thing." Seraphina questioned,
"Oh it is, I don't say that about anyone at all." Sebastian reassured her.
"Thank you." Seraphina said graciously with a smile, Sebastian gave her a smile back while turning towards Lucius.
"By the way, what is it you couldn't discuss in the hall earlier, something was missing from what you found in the library. Has that got to do with the port key, gringotts and Ranrok?" Sebastian asked eagerly.
"I'm sorry, who and what?" Seraphina asked very confused.
"Well it's a long and complicated story, nothing will get past Sebastian though if you tell him something." Lucius joked, Sebastian smirked as he urged him to explain.
"But you guys cannot breathe a word about this. I can see traces of ancient magic." Lucius admitted, preparing himself for the missiles of questions and comments.
"Out of everything you could have said and I didn't see that one coming." Seraphina said confused, "neither did I, I don't know what I was expecting you to say but it wasn't that. What does that mean?" Sebastian asked curiously.
"Honestly I don't understand any of it myself, all I know I can see whispers of magic that no one else can." Lucius said with a shrug of the shoulders, Sebastian and Seraphina shared the same look before turning their heads back to him.
"Professor Fig and I think that Ranrok has somehow found a way to harness that magics power." Lucius explained.
"Ranrok? The leader of the goblin rebellion?" Seraphina asked, her emotion displayed worried.
"So, goblins can wield some sort of wizard magic? Can you also harness this magic?" Sebastian fired questions at him, Seraphina stayed quiet as she allowed Sebastian to interrogate him with questions.
Seraphina had heard of the goblin rebellion through the daily prophet. Whatever situation Lucius had got himself a hold of, he dug himself pretty deep to now be under the bad books of a goblin.
"I suppose and I'm not sure." Lucius answered Sebastian's question, "well when you do know, tell me. I've been studying archaic forms of magic for ages. Perhaps we can help eachother. In the meantime, Rookwood and and Ranrok after you, I suggest practicing more of Confringo." Sebastian adviced.
"I'm confused, who's Rookwood?" Seraphina questioned.
"A dark wizard that works with Ranrok." Lucius answered.
"So not only you pissed off a goblin but also a dark wizard, and now all their little followers are after you?" Seraphina asked rhetorically.
"And Natty and I rescued a hippogroff from Theophilus Harlow. So I pissed off some poachers aswell." Lucius also added.
"Oh Rowena." Seraphina sighed.
"Well I think that concludes the night. Obviously a lot has been shared and I think we should call it a night now." Sebastian adviced, wanting to diffuse the tension.
"Agreed, alot of information has been shared tonight. lets regroup another time." Lucius agreed.
"I will send an owl when I leave for my trip to Fieldcroft." Sebastian noted to them.