In the daylight the walls were a dark oak panelling with an elaborate Persian rug in the middle of the room. It was lined with bookshelves and there was a large bureau, Letty saw, by the window which were once familiar to her only in lamplight.
Underneath the bed was the loose floorboard, very long and narrow, perfect to accommodate an average cylinder, where Letty fell to her knees. She gave it a good yank, anticipating the time before one of the three would come flying upstairs to stop them, and when it slid open she could hardly breathe.
It was gone.
"That rat!" said Sebastian with a mad look in his eye. "Well, it's confirmed which side he's on. Did Garreth say anything else of its place?"
"No. Might you have a guess where it could be?" she asked.
Then they heard a clatter of metal at the door, which meant their time was up. Sebastian came forward, bending on a knee, and lifted Letty to her feet as they watched the doorknob shake.
"Bookcase," he said, looking towards the tall one by the fireplace.
They rushed to the other side of the great room, where the shelves went from floor to ceiling, and sure enough the first unit rotated, allowing them to step into another part of the manor. It was cooler than the bedroom by ten or fifteen degrees, and before them was total darkness.
Sebastian casted Lumos, which was only bright enough to light the walls, cramped and gray, that forced them closer together. They shuffled down a hallway much like a tunnel, and he focused on his pace, but not so much that he couldn't feel her taking hold of his elbow.
"And you're sure it's in here?" she asked, also getting out her wand to create more light.
"I didn't say that. I'm just trying not to get us caught. We have to hide and the only way to do that is to keep moving forward."
Letty sighed, and, kicking balls of dust and loose stones as they went, she caught sight of sunlight streaming in from the far end of the tunnel, which looked to be leading them out of doors.
They made for the opening, now rushing the gray floors, into what they recognized to be a vast bit of forest on the north side of Gaunt Manor.
By the time they reached the end it was doom and gloom. Sebastian and Letty kept their lights on and walked the perimeter, filling their lungs with air, before coming across a lonely shack covered in a mass of vines and blooms that twisted sinisterly with the rain.
"How long had we been walking?" said Letty.
The pair looked at each other for one to set something in motion, but Letty shook her head, which made him think she had changed her mind.
"But it could be in there," he said. Letty looked upset and he took to teasing her. "Don't tell me you're afraid of devil's snare. Come on, you know the spell."
Letty casted Lumos Solem, permanently getting rid of the thick tendrils wrapped around the hut, and saw the door secured by a lock. The lock was stiff and turned twice as she incanted another charm, which gave and swung open, into the otherwise docile shack shrouded with loose pages and crumbled parchment and ink. It was just as dull inside as it was outside, and the most prominent element was a high-backed chair where Ominis would go to write.
In fact, the budding novel was out on the desk and left open to an entire roll written about his experience at last night's ball. The look on Letty's face as she read it under wand-light confirmed Sebastian's fear of her backing out.
"I'm not sure we've got time for that," he said.
"Hold on, these are written in Ominis's point of view."
"What?" He moved behind her to see what she was reading.
"This one's about last night and is wildly detailed... apparently Garreth and Poppy—oh—and you had been drunk when we snuck upstairs..."
"Not at all! He knows we're underage."
"Then he's made up stories about us," Letty said. Then an after thought: "How did he know we were upstairs?"
"Are they not love letters?"
"No, I don't think these are love letters," she said distractedly. "But I've got a weird feeling about this, Sebastian. Let's keep looking for the silver and be on our way."
They each covered twelve drawers, leaving not a single nook behind. Sebastian even dared to search inside the wood burner, resulting in sooty fingerprints on the pages and drawer handles. Letty was staring at the family tree on the far wall and been about to give up when she heard Sebastian's knees connecting with the floor. He was lifting up a corner of the rug and getting his fingers in between the panels when she looked to him, pulling out from the floor a shiny jet-black box with a silver lock.
It was strange, Letty thought, that out of all the places Ominis could have put it, he chose the floorboards yet again.
"What if it's something else entirely?" she said to Sebastian.
"Well, there's no use risking it and leaving it behind," he said.
And sure enough, by the time they made for the door, there came a rhythmic slush of grass with the pitter of rain as someone approached them from outside.
"Shit."
At once, the shack's beat-up door flew open, rattling the pots by the window and making the pair jump. Garreth spoke from a bad place when he saw them, the goblin-silver in Sebastian's hands, saying how lucky they were not to have known its consequences. Letty believed him.
"Personally, I'd like to know why you've kept it from us this whole time," said Sebastian.
Letty backed away from them, feeling like the two men were better off without her, not sure if she even wanted to be there.
Garreth threatened Sebastian, and the latter landed a sentient punch to his jaw. Now Garreth faced the world with a painful jolt, which was starting to turn into a red spot on his face.
"Ominis was right. He told me you were after it—warned me, even—and I didn't think to believe him," he started. "'Course, my bets had always been on Sallow, but Letty... you're not who I expected you to be after all."
Sebastian got out his wand, adrenaline kicking into his joints, but the redhead only laughed.
"I wouldn't do that, Sallow."
"Maybe we can do without the wand. It's only Garreth," said Letty, sensing a dark turn in the air and trying to keep Sebastian at bay.
However, there came more threats from Garreth, a tactic to scare them into giving it back, and it was the Gryffindor's smirk of self-satisfaction that made it easier for Sebastian to build aggression towards him.
What happened next was on instinct. He still held his wand in one hand and the box in the other. All the while Garreth dropped to the floor just as the flash of green winked out. The incantation, the terrible "fwoosh" like bones crushing—then nothing. What made it most distressing of all was that there was no blood, no visible cue that told them he was dead.
The raindrops continued to dance on the glass panes.
"Sebastian..." said Letty at last.
He shoved the box into her hands, and, on hearing the others rush out into the yard, turned to the window on the far wall, which was hardly an escape, but they would have to count on it to save them.
"Letty, listen to me carefully." He turned away from the window to lock eyes with her. "You are going to climb out that window and into the forest, run as far as you can, okay?"
"I can't."
"You can, and you must. Then once you're far enough from the manor you're going to hide out in the Undercroft and wait for me. Letty, do you understand?"
She felt her throat tighten to a pinhole. "Sebastian, I can't leave you."
"You must." His eyes turned again, burning with a purpose and bordering on anger. "NOW. Move it, Letty!"
She could not have him mad at her, for he was all she had left. So she clambered out into the rain towards the forest's edge, just far enough to hide and be able to see everything play out.
Fear launched her into a nearby bush, scraping her knees and causing grass stains on her pjs just as she heard voices of commotion. As she hid between the bush, the twigs poked into her hips, making her tear up, all the while a crowd of people spilled into the area.
She saw Ominis now, leading four Aurors and their circle of friends to the shack where Sebastian had committed his crime not too long ago.
It wasn't clear to Letty, with leaves in the way, so imagine her surprise when she saw two Aurors come around with Sebastian between them—handcuffed. She saw how his arms were forced in front of him and the glint of steel on his wrist. The reality of it horrified her and whatever came next.
Once the Aurors apparated out with Sebastian and Garreth's body, she emerged from her hiding place. Before she could take off and make a stupid mistake by running after them Ominis stopped her. She shrugged his hand off and pushed it away whenever he tried to take her arm and make amends.
"Letty, you know I mean well," he said.
"Go fuck yourself!" She caught the big swear and apologized with her eyes, but was still full of hate.
"Alright." Stung, he remained where he stood while the others filed back into the manor from the rain. "You can't stay out here. You'll catch cold."
"I don't care."
"I know you don't trust me," he said after a while, "but you have to trust me."
Letty was quiet and had that far-off look, Ominis assumed, towards the south side of the estate where she watched the ghost of Sebastian and believed he might return.
Ominis took it the event really did her a number. And considering she had only been with Sebastian for two months prior, it was only fair she act this way. Still, Ominis wouldn't let these hurt feelings distract him, so he waited beside the girl for the sake of friendship.
Although he could only imagine her in full, he had never seen anyone who looked like Letty. All he knew was she had dark hair, and, when he got real close, a set of chubby cheeks which he thought had more to do with her Chinese genes. There was also the way her eyes and dimples smiled that were inviting in a way.
Letty turned around and Ominis was met with her strong feelings and an otherwise harmful expression to go with it, her face blotched red with angry tears; for she rarely got upset, so the outburst was messier somehow and therefore more dangerous.
"Well done. I hope you got what you wanted."
"Letty, that's not why I had Aurors on site."
"But it makes things easier, doesn't it, for you to have them here? To send your best friends to Azkaban with one word, right, Gaunt?"
"You've got it all wrong. They were here to guard the silver. We couldn't risk anyone stumbling upon it on your birthday. How was I to know that, out of all the days, Sebastian would use the killing curse today?"
It was getting more difficult to trust Ominis and she wasn't buying the secret security excuse.
"Letty, do you really think I would send him to jail?"
Missing the innocence of an hour ago when her only concern was getting through breakfast, she set a bush on fire, watched it burst into flames, sizzle, and be put out by the rain.
"He'll wind up dead," she said about Sebastian. "He'll off himself before the place does, and we'll never see him again because of you."
There was a few inches between them now, after Ominis had calmed her a little; a moment where their breathing matched, an even greater intimacy than touch.
Her words fell between the sheets of rain like downed planes, defeated and useless, when her fury returned, saying, "I shall never forgive you, Gaunt."
Ominis knew it was bad because she never called him Gaunt, no one but Sebastian did, and only when he was in trouble. He had been "Ominis" ever since they met on the carriages, "Ominis" when she came to tattle on Sebastian, which was painful to think about now seeing where time had put them.
That evening she skipped dinner to rescue the black box from the thicket and safely into her bedroom. In the library she sat alone, so when the flames of the fireplace tried to settle she prodded them to dance again while she cozied up on the sofa, swallowed up by the shelves.
There came a shuffling from behind and she turned around to find Ominis, who looked about to throw up, making his way into the light. He stopped suddenly, the fire bouncing over the planes of his face, something so sad it hurt Letty to look in his eyes.
"Have you any regrets yet?" she said.
"I would never send a friend to Azkaban. He did it to himself."
Letty got up to leave, but was coaxed by his gentle tone which caused her to stay and give him a chance.
And rather than fear her, Ominis came to sit beside her on the couch, and said, "Do you know why I've turned lately?"
"No."
"Is it not obvious?"
"No, it isn't."
"Because I love you."
Letty blinked rapidly and barely recognized her own voice when, again, she said, "No."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I could ask you the same thing."
"I mean what everybody else means when they say it. I love you, Letty."
"No, Ominis. That doesn't make things better for you." This time her words had a pathetic rising note, almost with a strain to it, when she said, "How am I suppose to believe anything you say?"
He drew himself up to her till they were face to face, and said, "I just hope you know I'd risk my own life for yours. Even in Sebastian's absence."
She looked at Ominis with curiosity and knew something had changed. Whether it was due to Sebastian's crime or the former's brazen yet ill-timed confession, she wasn't sure what else to do with herself.
Ominis, however, had always dreamed of Letty, and now that his only two obstacles were cleared of his way the possibilities were endless. Except he knew better than to force it on her and decided to wait till she came around to prove himself.
Instead, he said, "Right. Dinnertime. We'll eat together seeing as you haven't gone down yourself."
"No."
"What was that?"
"I said no. This is no longer my place."
For Letty, there was no more Ominis, no more Poppy, and no more Amit in her heart. They each betrayed her; and she wasn't sure what she had meant to do till she said it out loud.
"And quite frankly, I wouldn't be here if it weren't for him. I'm going after Sebastian."
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A/N
Thank you all for getting this far (:
Xx