While we enjoyed our time with Anne for Christmas, we had sadly end our time together early. We had planned to stay in Feldcroft for the whole two weeks, but Anne took a slight turn and insisted we take her back to St Mungo's.
The three of us travelled together with her and I could see the pain in both boys eyes as they had to say their goodbyes with promises to visit as often as they could.
"So, to Hogwarts or Feldcroft?" Ominis asked Sebastian as we left the hospital.
"I'm going back to Hogwarts. I can't bring myself to stay in Feldcroft without her but you can stay there if you like, Ominis."
"No, I'll go back with you."
Sebastian apparated us both back to the castle and we went back to the common room feeling sad. Ominis went straight to their dormitory, but Sebastian chose to sit with me on one of the lounges in the common room.
"I'm sorry we had to take Anne back." I said, lowering his head into my chest and running my fingers through the soft brown locks.
"It's no one's fault, Olive. This happens. It's just a part of her condition."
"But I am sorry. I'm sorry it happened at all."
"You don't need to apologise. Ominis has said it before, we can't change the past as much as we'd like to. I think if I've come to accept my sisters fate after everything... then so should everyone else."
I felt a sharp twang of pain in my heart listening to Sebastian speak. The determined boy who had vowed to never give up on his sister had exhausted all his options and obeyed his sisters wishes. He'd stopped. There was no more research, no more reading...
"Sebastian... please don't get mad with me when I tell you this..."
He lifted his head from my chest with a slightly confused look on his face.
"I want to try the wand again."
"Are you mad, Olive? Look what happened last time! I simply cannot allow you to put yourself at risk! I broke my promise to myself when I let myself be in a relationship with you... I told myself it would be alright and I could do it because I would protect you and keep you safe."
"Sebastian, you saw how close we were... if I could only get goblin metal, I could contain the curse, and-"
"NO! I... I can't risk losing you. Do I hope and pray every single night that a cure will come up for Anne? Of course I do. But I won't risk you on the off chance that it may happen. I might have let you do that last year but this... this is different. We are different. You are my future. With Rookwood dead, we will never, ever know what sort of curse Anne is riddled with. Anne's condition is a given whether I like it or not, I've had to accept that she will be gone. But you... you won't be. And I simply will not let you do this! I can't lose Anne and you too!"
The dim light of the fireplace highlighted the tears that had begun to well in Sebastian's eyes. And I am certain he probably saw the ones in mine too.
Was he really that protective of me that he was going to let Anne die? We were so close that day... I had almost extracted the curse from that mandrake, had I not been distracted.
"Please," Sebastian's voice quivered, "promise me you won't use that wand again. Maybe I need to take it back to the tomb."
"Sebastian, you don't need to do that. Hold onto it. I won't."
"Promise me!" He desperately begged, his voice still shaking.
"I promise."
Sebastian pulled my head towards him and pressed his lips to my forehead, his hands wrapping around my neck tightly. I could feel the wetness from the tears he had now let go rolling down his chin and streaming down my face.
"You're too important to me, Olive... if something happened to you because of me again, I would never forgive myself. I need you. Now more than ever."
"You do have me, Sebastian. You always will." I said, letting my arms wrap around his body.
"Will you sleep with me tonight?" He asked, his lips still pressed against my head.
"Of course."
Sebastian pulled us apart and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand before standing up and offering his hand to me. I took a hold of it and he led me up to his room. This time, Ominis was still awake. He was sitting on his bed, staring into space, lost in his thoughts. He turned his head in our direction as Sebastian and I entered the room, his eyes red and swollen from crying.
"You alright, Omi?" Sebastian said, approaching his bed and sitting on the edge of it.
"Oh. Sebastian, I am sorry... I didn't think anyone would be here for a while..." Ominis said, wiping his eyes with his sleeve.
The two boys sat in silence for a while, Sebastian's own eyes beginning to well with tears again.
"... you really love her, don't you?" Sebastian said.
"With all of my being, Sebastian." Ominis said softly.
Sebastian let a small smile creep across his face. I was proud of him. He'd gone from once wanting to punch Ominis for it to being genuinely happy for them.
"I can tell. I will admit it's been hard to get my head around but... I'm glad that she has someone like you." Sebastian said.
Ominis sniffled and placed a hand on Sebastian's shoulder. Sebastian hesitated for a moment, letting Ominis' hand linger before launching himself into his best friends arms.
I couldn't see Sebastian's face, but the shuddering of his body told me he was crying - no, he was sobbing into Ominis' shoulder.
As long as I'd known him, Ominis was never one for physical touch. I had tried to hug him once, but he simply stood there like a stone statue, unsure how to respond. But with his best friend in his arms, he wrapped his arms around his back tightly and joined him in his tears.
The scene unfolding in front of me showed just how far their friendship had come. I stood by the doorway, a mixture of emotions welling up inside me as I watched the beautiful moment in their friendship.
"Ugh. Sorry...I didn't mean for all that to happen." Sebastian said, his voice croaky and hoarse from his outburst as he let Ominis go. "Olive, come here."
Sebastian shifted over and made room for me on Ominis' bed. I reluctantly climbed onto Ominis' bed and Sebastian tucked me under his arm. His chest was still occasionally doing a small hiccup.
Sebastian then pulled Ominis into his other arm and he held the two of us tightly. Almost too hard.
"I have an idea." I said, finally getting Sebastian to release me.
"What's that?" He said.
"Follow me. Bring your pillows and blankets."
I opened Sebastian's trunk and pulled out the invisibility cloak. Sebastian jumped up frantic, not wanting Ominis to know but just as he reached out to stop me, I grabbed his arm and made him look at me, raising an eyebrow to encourage him to think about it... reeeeeally hard."
"Oh. Right." He murmured.
Ominis didn't know about the things we'd been doing to get these artefacts, but to Ominis, this would be nothing more than a regular old invisibility cloak.
"Ready?" I asked the two boys.
Sebastian answered for them both and dragged Ominis under the cloak.
"What? What is this? What are we doing? Where are we going?" Ominis exclaimed, clearly not happy with being manhandled.
"Trust me." I said with a smirk.
The three of us snuck out of the common room and I led them up the stairs, straight into the Defence Against the Dark Arts tower. Curfew had just started, but we were lucky enough to not run into any prefects. Though I was glad they couldn't see us. Sebastian had Ominis in front of him, holding onto his hips and Ominis was holding onto my shoulders. We would have looked absolutely fucking bizarre.
"Is this the Undercroft?" Ominis whispered.
The rusty gate slammed shut behind us and I tossed the cloak off us, dragging both boys to the corner Sebastian and I had once slept in. I collected their pillows and blankets and created a cozy spot on the floor.
Ominis kept asking question after question, but I ignored him... as did Sebastian, who just looked at me in awe as I dragged barrels and tables around before draping extra sheets across the top.
"Do you need a hand?" Sebastian offered, taking a step forward.
"Nope. Stay there, Sallow." I demanded.
When I was satisfied with my efforts, I placed my hands on my hips.
"Alright. In."
"What is it?" Ominis asked.
"A fort. We're sleeping over." I said.
"Sounds childish..." Ominis muttered.
"Hey! That's my girlfriend you're insulting," Sebastian said, smacking Ominis playfully across the arm, "Now get on your hands and knees and crawl inside, Gaunt."
Ominis rolled his eyes, but he couldn't help but smile at Sebastian's insistence. He got down on his hands and knees and crawled into the makeshift fort, followed closely by Sebastian. I followed suit, crawling in after them, and we settled ourselves comfortably on the cushioned floor.
"Alright, I'll admit, it's not as bad as I thought," Ominis said.
"That's the spirit!" Sebastian said with a grin.
I didn't really have a plan for the rest of the evening, but I just knew we all needed to be together. I think the reality of Anne's condition was finally hitting home, driven by Sebastian's insistence that there was nothing more to be done.
Sebastian and Ominis spent the evening telling me many stories of the things they got up to in the school before my arrival, most notably Sebastian taking off on a detour during flying class in their first year and being knocked off his broom straight into the Black Lake. Solomon sent him his first howler because of it.
"You said you were sworn to secrecy!" Sebastian argued.
In return, he told me the story of how Ominis once stumbled into a large cauldron on the floor of the potions classroom left by a mindless student and fell head first into it, almost drowning and needing Professor Sharp to pull him out of it.
"Now we're even." He chuckled as Ominis' face turned bright red.
Our mindless chatter drifted into dull snores and deep breathing as they drifted off to sleep, Sebastian laying on his back with one hand on Ominis' head, the other wrapped around me as I laid on his chest.
Once I was sure the boys were deep asleep, I stepped out of the fort and cast a noise muffling charm over them so they wouldn't hear me.
I took the elder wand out of my pocket. Sebastian hadn't noticed me take it out of his trunk when I collected the cloak. In the corner, the sickly looking mandrake Sebastian had previously cursed was still sitting there, looking worse than I remembered. This time, I placed it on the floor and pulled a table from the corner, turning it so it was on its side and I could use it for cover. I took the wand out of my pocket and held it to the mandrake.
Focus... you can just put it straight back in when it's out...
I pointed the wand to the point Sebastian told me to before and I shut my eyes.
Be brave, Olive. This is for the man you love.
Just as I had done before, the eerie purple curse began to extract from the mandrake. This time, I didn't let my concentration be broken. There was resistance, but with a loud snap, the curse was free of the mandrake. And it's leaves immediately returned to a healthy green colour, the leaves unfurling and perking up as the angry curse stood at the tip of the wand.
"Fuck... I did it..." I smiled to myself and let out a laugh in disbelief.
I could extract a curse. But before I could try it on Anne, I needed to know if I was indeed just extracting the curse, or everything else it was attached to, like Isadora's father.
Without anything to encase the curse in, I placed it back inside the mandrake.
"Sorry, buddy..." I whispered to the plant, watching it sag and return to it's horrible yellow, wilted state.
I tucked the wand away and slid the mandrake back into it's corner, unable to wipe the smile off my face at my success.
As I entered the tent again, I lifted the muffling charm and was greeted with the sight of Sebastian rolled on his side, Ominis tucked in against his body, snug in Sebastian's arms.
If only I had a camera.
I crawled in behind Sebastian and wrapped my arms around him, squeezing him between Ominis and me. I couldn't wait until he realised it wasn't me he was spooning.
The warmth of our bodies tucked up under the blankets, paired with the warm feeling inside that I may have had a breakthrough in Anne's last hope for a cure lulled me into one of the best nights sleep I've had in a long time.
I couldn't wait to tell Sebastian.