Anne's eyes grew huge as the door appeared on the wall. "What in Merlin's name is that?" she asked in surprise. "This, Anne, is the Room of Requirement." Sebastian put an arm around her shoulders. "It adapts to the seeker's needs," I explained, linked arms with Ominis and led the way with him. "Now it's adapted to Y/N's need for an undisturbed place to study," Sebastian added. "Really?" Ominis raised an eyebrow and grinned mischievously. "No place for you two to retreat so you can sha..." I elbowed the blonde Slytherin in the ribs, causing him to let out a sharp breath. "Be careful what you say, or I'll throw you off the Astronomy Tower," I warned him. Sebastian, behind me, laughed. "You better listen to her. She's serious." "And let me guess: you'd be the first to stand downstairs with a box of Bertie Bott's in your hand and cheer her on," Ominis threw over his shoulder to Sebastian. "You guessed right," he replied with an audible grin. Anne audibly sucked in a breath. "It's huge here," she marvelled. I laughed briefly and stopped so that Anne could look around a bit. "That's just a fraction," I explained, grinning. The Slytherin turned to me, her mouth hanging open. "You're kidding." Sebastian stood next to me and put an arm around my waist. "No," he confirmed. "We have our own little world here." "You can visit at any time," I added. Sebastian stiffened next to me. "Well... Let's say almost any time, okay?" He gave me a meaningful look, and my face became very hot. "No worries. I wasn't going to listen to you guys having sex," Ominis countered, rolling his glassy eyes. "Can we please not talk about our sex life?" Shaking my head, I slapped Sebastian on the shoulder and received a mischievous laugh from him. I rolled my eyes playfully and took his hand. "Come on, there's something I really need to show you."
I led the small group to my meadow vivarium. As we walked through the gate, two puffskeins curled up and rolled away across the meadow. "You took in beasts here?" Anne asked in surprise. I nodded. "I saved her from poachers. I have four vivariums in total. Each adapted to the needs of the creatures." "That's incredible." Anne watched the puffskeins rolling around in the grass a few metres away. Ominis came next to me and looked questioningly in my direction. "Does Poppy know about this?" "Not yet. But I'll initiate her soon. She should finally see Cloudwing again." I took a few steps forward so that I had enough space and whistled. In response, there was a shrill scream, and a gigantic bird could be seen soaring into the sky from a distance. The phoenix glided gracefully toward us, and I held out my arm for it to sit down. "Is that a phoenix?" Anne's voice trembled with excitement. "May I introduce Cinders?" With the red bird on my arm, I turned to the three Slytherins and stroked the soft feathers of Cinders' chest. "He was supposed to be sold on the black market, but I had a say in that too." Cinders fluffed up his fiery red feathers and squeaked happily. I carefully took a few steps towards Anne so that the phoenix could take a look at her. Cinders tilted his head and extended his beak towards the brunette. Anne's hand trembled as she reached out to him. Suddenly, she jumped and screamed. "Anne!" Ominis and Sebastian shouted in unison and rushed to her side. Anne held her stomach and sank into the grass, her face contorted in pain. Ominis and Sebastian each knelt next to her. Both boys' faces were filled with concern, and Sebastian placed a hand on his sister's back to calm her. "It's okay," she said in a rough voice. "Are you sure? You still seem to be in pain. Do you need anything?" Sebastian stroked Anne's back. He was obviously apprehensive about her. "I'm fine!" she snapped, giving him a venomous look. Her brother lowered his hand and looked at her like a kicked dog. "Sorry," she sighed. "You don't always have to worry about me like that, Sebastian. Maybe you should think about yourself, too." Sebastian shook his head. "You come first, then everything else." "Nice that Y/N and I seem to count as everything else," Ominis joked. "You know what I mean," Sebastian replied, after which Ominis just rolled his pale eyes. "And you know what I mean." "Whatever," I interrupted, crouching down in front of Anne. Cinders was still sitting on my arm.
The phoenix hopped down onto Anne's lap and examined her again. Tears glistened in its eyes, and Sebastian quickly dug a small bottle out of his pocket. He held it to Cinders' face with a shaky hand and caught the phoenix tears. Anne stared at him in surprise as he handed her the bottle. "What am I supposed to do with that?" "Drink," her twin answered, nodding encouragingly. "We hope this could be the key to your healing," I explained. Anne raised the bottle to eye level with a sceptical look and waved it. The thick, pearlescent tears sloshed back and forth. Then Anne shrugged and downed the liquid. The Slytherin grimaced in disgust. Disgust quickly turned to pain, and Anne screamed again. Breathing heavily, she fell back onto the meadow. Sebastian reached out to his sister but pulled his arms right back. "Shit, that burns!" she cursed after she had calmed down. "It feels like my whole body is on fire." "Hopefully, the pain is worth it," Sebastian sighed. "I could never forgive myself if you had to go through this for nothing." Cinders chirped again and then flew away. "How are you feeling?" I asked Anne. Maybe the phoenix tears had already had an effect. She furrowed her eyebrows and sat up. "Different," she replied hesitantly. "As if I had lost part of a burden." Sebastian and I gave each other an astonished look. "It works." An overjoyed smile spread across Sebastian's face. "Y/N! It works!" Laughing with joy, Sebastian wrapped his arms around his sister. "Anne! We can finally get rid of this curse! You can live a normal life again!" The brunette returned the hug, and a moment later, the twins were in each other's arms, crying with happiness. Ominis looked sceptically in my direction. "How many times does Anne have to do this so that she is completely healed?" he asked quietly in a worried tone. "We don't know," I admitted. "We can only hope it's done quickly." Ominis nodded. "Yeah, I hope so."
"Thank you for letting us in," Anne said later. We made ourselves comfortable on the sofas in the main room, and Sebastian conjured us tea and biscuits. "Of course," I replied. "It was about you, after all." Ominis raised his eyebrows. "I find it amazing that Sebastian could keep his mouth shut for so long when I think about how quickly he told you about the undercroft." "That's something completely different!" Sebastian blurted out and helped himself to one biscuit. "I showed Y/N the undercroft back then to teach her a few spells at my leisure. You, on the other hand..." He pointed the biscuit at Ominis. "...you hardly needed the Room of Requirement. Otherwise, it would have appeared to you long ago." "You wouldn't believe how often I wished I could hide from you," Ominis teased his best friend. "Especially since last year," he mumbled into his cup, and Anne choked on her tea, laughing. Sebastian rolled his eyes and leaned back, an arm around my shoulder. "I wasn't that bad." "Nooo," Ominis and Anne replied at the same time. I giggled softly and leaned against Sebastian. "You just purred my ears every night," Ominis grumbled. "And I have enough letters to prove," Anne added. "Besides, you talk in your sleep." Ominis shook his head. "I heard things I never wanted to hear in my life." Sebastian's face turned bright red. "I didn't really do that, did I?" "Well, I can confirm that you talk in your sleep," I intervened. "You still benefit from him dreaming about you," Ominis admitted. "But I could have killed him regularly. Especially when he has a sex dream about you..." "HEY!" Sebastian threw a pillow in Ominis' face. "What happens in the dormitory stays in the dormitory!" Now I blushed, too. On some nights, I had heard Sebastian talking or moaning in his sleep. The fact that he had sex dreams was nothing new to me. But hearing that he had had these dreams last year, too, brought blood to my cheeks and made my heart beat faster.
Sebastian sighed and placed a kiss on my forehead. "Now I can tell you how I feel," he whispered. I rested my head on his shoulder and looked into his hazel eyes. "As gloating as I am, I like this better." "Me too. Because it means I can do something like that." Sebastian kissed me on the cheek. "And stuff like that." He kissed the tip of my nose. "And especially something like that." This kiss landed on my lips and was over far too quickly. He pulled away from me with a wry grin. "You two are really tiring," Ominis whined. "Thanks, same," Sebastian threw back, earning a stifled laugh from me. "I think it's cute," Anne defended us, whereupon I gave her a gentle smile. "Ominis just has no idea what he's missing," Sebastian claimed, playing with a strand of my hair that had come loose from my braid. "Besides, I bet you're ten times worse when you have someone." "Unlike you, I'm familiar with the word discretion, Sebastian," Ominis countered in his usual mocking tone. "Discretion my ass. I want everyone to know that we're a couple. And you can't expect me to keep my hands to myself all day." Sebastian placed his free hand on my leg as if to emphasise his words. "Hands, lips, tongue," Ominis murmured and poured himself more tea. "You sound jealous, my friend," Sebastian remarked, his grin growing wider. "You're imagining it," Ominis grumbled, stuffing a biscuit into his mouth. Sebastian shrugged. "Well, then, that shouldn't bother you." With that, he put two fingers on my chin and turned my face towards him to kiss me deeply and loudly. At first, I wanted to protest, but as soon as his lips touched mine, I tuned out everything around us in a split second. I forgot that Anne and Ominis were sitting across from us and were watching everything. It was just the two of us. I sank entirely into the kiss and buried my hand in Sebastian's hair. I reached out to him, hungry for more.
I jumped as Anne cleared her throat next to us. "I think this is our signal that we should go," she giggled, linking her arms with Ominis. "Behave." "They won't do that anyway," Ominis murmured, just loud enough for us to hear him. "Astronomy Tower, Ominis," I reminded him of my previous threat. "It's screaming louder and louder for you." "Yeah, yeah, sure," the blonde Slytherin called back over his shoulder and made a dismissive hand gesture. The two of them wished us goodnight before disappearing through the door. "Do you feel like misbehaving a bit?" I asked Sebastian and sat on his lap with my arms over his shoulders. "Always." Grinning flirtatiously, he played with my braid. "I misbehave as much as you want. What do you have in mind?" I kissed him and snuggled up to him. "Hm... Something along those lines." Sebastian took a sharp breath. "I might like something along those lines." "Good." I kissed him again. "Let's see how far we can go in that direction." Sebastian beneath me swallowed hard and nodded. "Only as far as you are currently ready. Please promise me you won't push yourself." "I Promise," I whispered against his lips.
~~~~~~~~~
Better late than never. I struggled a bit with a block but hope I've overcome it.