"I'm telling you with the hope you'll keep an eye on her." Not only were the Professor's eyes serious and filled with caution, but his voice was too. "In the Restricted Section, there are books dealing with immortality and how to make someone live forever. Now, this can be accomplished by severing your soul and placing it into different objects."
Séraphine vaguely recalled her parents discussing it over dinner one night with the Gaunts. It was something she'd have to bring up to Ominis too. "Comme c'est terrible. You're talking about a Horcrux, aren't you Professor?"
"I wish you didn't realize what I was talking about." He frowned, crossing his arms. "I'm assuming your parents?"
"And the Gaunts. They were only discussing it though." Séraphine bit the inside of her cheek, mulling it over. "It was a mistake to let her into Hogwarts. She's not a good witch. She's going to hurt someone."
Professor Sharp nodded gravely, "Be careful, Séraphine. I used to get these bad feelings as an Auror, whenever someone would get hurt or when I thought people were going to die. With you here... I'm afraid that feeling is irrefutable. Something bad is bound to happen. Don't find yourself alone with her."
Séraphine nodded and after a few minutes the conversation changed back into him giving her advice about how to use the Phoenix Tears in the Restoration potion and the best way to prepare it. In the back of her mind, she felt increasingly uneasy.
Catherine was up to something. She wanted more power. She wanted more knowledge on Dark magic. What Séraphine needed to figure out was if she was able to retrieve the book or books she wanted.
To do that... Séraphine would have to get close to Catherine.
.
Building Tension
Professor Sharp left before the sun rose, but Séraphine was still hunched over a potions textbook when light filtered through the windows with the early morning promise of dawn. It must have been after six in the morning.
Her eyes were starting to get heavier as the words blurred. Her vision becoming unfocused as the previous night's events had finally settled in and caught up to her, causing a weariness to spread through her. Séraphine placed her head on the textbook, thinking to herself. She closed her eyes.
Horcruxes. She barely knew anything about them. There ought to be books in the Restricted Section she could find and try to get ahead of Catherine. Was this what she wanted to talk to Sebastian about last night? Tempt him with Dark magic knowing he'd do anything for his sister even if it meant losing his soul?
"She looks like an angel."
The quiet voice belonged to someone younger. A first year?
Someone hushed the boy nearby. This time it belonged to a girl. "She's always around Sallow or Gaunt, right? Go get one of them. Poor thing looks exhausted."
Séraphine must have fallen asleep because when she woke up again, she was being carried. Her head turned as the riddle filtered through the air, and she could hear someone quietly swear.
"What is always in front of you, but can't be seen?" The statue inquired.
Sebastian was silent, thinking. She looked up, startled as he'd taken that opportunity to look down at her and their faces were close.
His lips curved into a smirk. "Bonjour, mon chérie."
Waking up being carried by Sebastian? Check.
Waking up to Sebastian speaking French to her? Double check.
Today was going to be fantastique.
Séraphine shifted her attention to the Ravenclaw door, "The future." As it opened, she turned her attention back to the Scottish wizard who was still smirking at her rosy cheeks. "Care to explain why I'm being carried back to my Common Room?"
He casted the Disillusionment Charm for both of them, walking forward through the doorway. His voice was quiet, countering her question. "Care to explain to me why a first year had to tell me he found you asleep in the potion room? With the sunlight streaming on your fair hair, I think you have the poor kid thinking angels are real."
Rolling her eyes, she leaned the side of her head against Sebastian's chest as he headed towards her room. "He was exaggerating."
He dodged the incoming students as they all woke up for breakfast and were rushing out of the Common Room. Samantha Dale looked particularly upset and she wondered if her issue yesterday had ever been fixed.
As they approached her room, Séraphine felt Sebastian's grip on her tighten.
"I don't believe he was. It was the first thing I thought when Ominis introduced you to me when we were first years." He pointed out in a quieter voice, opening the door. "Or was it a Veela? You're quite scary when you're upset." He used the back of his heel to shut it without needing to drop her while also shedding the Disillusionment Charm.
In fact he didn't let her go until he went to put her to bed. His hands, slowly-almost reluctantly, slipped away from her, but she moved before she could tell her body to stop. Her fingers were wrapped around his Slytherin tie, keeping his much larger body looming over hers.
Sebastian didn't looked surprised, she did. The slight part to his lips, the way his eyes were fixated on her, and how his hands were on either side above her shoulders; he was seeing how far she would take this. Eager to see. Maybe the bludger wasn't completely in his court. Maybe Sebastian would have to play keeper once in a while.
"Séra." His voice held a warning, much like it did earlier when he was speaking to Ominis. The difference this time was that it also held a fierce longing. "Let go."
"Non." Her smile raised her tone of her voice and she watched him stare at her lips for a moment before meeting her gaze. He unabashedly wanted her. As much as she wanted him, "Stay."
His eyebrow raised skeptically, "And why,-" He paused with a smirk, maneuvering so that he was on all fours over her; the grip still on his tie. "-would you want me to stay?"
"I need someone to unbutton my dress." She lied easily.
His smirk grew as he mimicked her words from yesterday. "That's what magic's for. You don't need my help."
Regret must have surfaced on her face because his smirk formed a smug grin. She cleared her throat, looking away. "Then get off."
"You don't need my help," He continued on, undeterred by her words. "But you want it, don't you?"
"Want what, exactly?" She asked coyly, pulling his tie an inch closer to her.
Sebastian's eyes twinkled, amused and still ever so curious about how far she was going to let him take this game of theirs. Who would break first?
He shifted his weight to his left, the more dominant side of him, as he used his right hand to push the thin strap of her dress off her left shoulder. "I wonder. I think you want me to help take this dress off you for starters."
"You think you could help me with that?"
His smile was full of sinful assurance. "Darling, I'm willing to-"
DING DONG... DING DONG...
The bells chimed, signaling the start of breakfast in the Great Hall.
"-escort you to breakfast" Sebastian reflected, rolling off her. He placed his hands behind his head, nodding for her to sit up. "Go shower and I'll sneak some breakfast for you to eat before Potions."
That reminded her. She sat up, ignoring how his eyes traced her body, "Professor Sharp and I had an interesting conversation last night-er this morning."
His eyes narrowed. "Why were you with Professor Sharp?"
"Careful Sallow, you've no right to be possessive over me yet." She cautioned, now ignoring the smug up tilt to his lips when she said 'yet', "I was asking him for advice on how to infuse the Phoenix Tears with a restoration potion. Regardless, Catherine asked him for polyjuice and information regarding very Dark magic. She wants to split her soul to achieve immortality by placing a shred of it into an object called a Horcrux."
Sebastian's smile wiped off his face. "Is that possible?"
"For those desperate-perhaps."
"What could she want with polyjuice potion?"
"She's going to try to pretend to be someone." Séraphine hypothesized, sliding off the bed. She brandished her wand, facing away from Sebastian as she pointed the tip of her wand towards the vines and small buttons holding her dress together on the back of the corset. "The question is who."
There was shifting behind her before her wand was slipped out of her hand, and Sebastian stubbornly chose to undo the back of her dress himself.
He spoke as his hands carefully worked, "We didn't talk much. Had to stay quiet to get the key from Scribner's desk and avoid the Prefects, but from what she had started to say..."
Silence.
"Say what? Why did you stop?"
Séraphine could hear the chagrin in his voice. "Because it's going to make you angry. And probably not what you want to hear while I'm undressing you."
"You're undoing my buttons, not undressing me." Her voice tinged with impatience, "What did she say, Sebastian?"
"I could undress you." He countered, leaving the offer in the air.
Séraphine turned around as the last button was undone and held the front of her dress up with one hand. In the other she recalled her wand and pointed it under Sebastian's jaw. His eyes gleamed, the masochistic enculé.
"So help me Merlin, Sebastian. If you don't tell me what she said, I'm going to walk out of this dormitory and off to breakfast naked for all the wizards to see what you'll never have."
His eyes narrowed into slits. "At least wait thirty minutes. It's bad for their digestions if you give all the wizards boners before breakfast is finished." He paused, "Also 'never have' what exactly are you insinuating? You are mine."
"Sebastian. I won't ask again." The tip of her wand pushed against his jaw and she watched as he swallowed, irritated. "I belong to no one. Especially not someone who is hesitating from telling me the truth."
"She tried to kiss me." He answered her, pushing the wand away from his jawline, watching as the fury contorted on her face, "See? You look about as blood thirsty as I would if someone tried to kiss you. Catherine started to talk about how we could explore the Dark Arts together, that we worked well with each other, and she tried to seduce me. I shoved her away, she fell into some knight armor, and the loud clang from the metal hitting the ground is what alerted Peeves where we were."
Her lips pressed together angrily, "Go get me the toastiest-"
"-crumpet with a heaping scoop of orange marmalade. I know, I know." Sebastian grumbled, standing up. He tilted her chin up with his left hand, "Do you want me to figure out what she wants to do with the Horcruxes?"
Séraphine raised an eyebrow, asking him in an icy voice. "Do you want me to kill her before lunch?"
"You're cute when you're jealous." His thumb brushed her bottom lip as he gazed at her through hooded eyes, "I want to kiss you, Séra."
Her eyes held is. "And I want that witch six feet under if she's planning on causing harm to any of us. Go to Breakfast, tell Ominis what's going on, and I'll see you in Potions soon."
"Do I get a kiss before I leave?" He inquired, leaning down. Séraphine leaned up, close enough for their noses to touch, but their lips an inch apart. His hand fell down to the base of her throat, wrapping his fingers around her neck slightly, but possessively. "You are mine, Séraphine. You always have been. You always will be."
She looked up at him through her lashes, watching his eyes steadily darken with blatant lust. "If you want me, you'll have to earn me. Do what I said and then maybe you'll deserve a kiss."
His breathing went uneven as the tension was suffocating between them. His lip curled up, releasing her. "Yes, madame."
And he left her there, holding up her dress, and still feeling his hand against the base of her throat. Séraphine's heart was hammering. Was it always this way? Had he heard? Did he know how affected she was by him?
Did he know she's only liked orange marmalade for over half a decade simply because it reminded her of his cologne?
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(▰˘◡˘▰) Someone just make them kiss already. Next chapter will be Potions class featuring a veryyyy interesting love potion? What do you thinks going to happen?
Thank you for reading and please leave a comment!