"You would feel a lot warmer if you sat closer to the bonfire." The teen remarked with relative calm. "Nights are much too long around here. Do not exhaust yourself needlessly."
Sebastian peered attentively at the quivering form of his companion, hunched just within the corner of the pitch-black cave. A thick layer of wool was wrapped over her body, along with a pair of black gloves that covered her flushed and unfeeling fingers. He even made sure you wore a scarf before she left the laboratory, knowing the frigid climate of the Scottish Highlands. Although she is still trembling, perhaps her attempt to flee would have been to blame.
The reason he brought Rosalie outside to begin with place was so he could search for a flower of some sort to incorporate in his experiment, and he decided that now would be a good time to let her go outside and explore for a little. It would do no good for her to stay locked up at the small cave laboratory he kept, and it is not as if he finds himself with too much entertainment up there at hand.
They were there for business, after all. Not for a social call.
It is a grace freely given. While he had a strong intuition that his hostage would try to escape as soon as he turned his back for long enough, he did not think there was a worthy cause to detain her until the very last second, given that the weather made it improbable that she would get that far. It is so cold that even those with wands should reserve their efforts.
The blond girl, after all, had already tried once that day, with a result so pathetic she certainly would feel compelled to try again for her pride alone. The only thing she managed to do was lose her boots by tumbling into a ditch and into a snowbank, which luckily managed to break her fall so she did not sustain any major injuries.
Sebastian was quick to levitate her out of the ditch. He would not use a warming charm, an Apparition or some other, more direct, form of comforting, since he was slightly concerned at a possible avalanche. Given her current condition, he declined to take the chance of forcing her return to the lab by force, considering the night was beginning to set in.
However, he did not think that Rosalie Beausoleil of all people would be dumb enough to slip into a ditch.
As a result, he selected a hidden cave within the mountain, on the side where the wind blew the least. The sole source of heat and light in there was a small bonfire that he had managed to build upon their arrival, and they would sleep on Transfigured rocks and their coats that night.
She should have applauded him for not penalizing her despite her rebellious behaviour, as he certainly should. He would not even ask for much, a hug to stave off the cold would already be nice. However, she remained defiant and choose to sit in the room's darkest corner, quietly grumbling over the matter.
Well, there still is time. Perhaps his mood will sour before they reach home.
"I'm fine right where I am." She spat.
As a result of her refusal to drink anything Sebastian provided, her voice sounded hoarse when she answered, barely above a whisper.
While he does respect her tenacity and resistance, qualities that certainly attracted him to her in the first place, he secretly wishes that Rosalie was more aware of her own circumstances and that she would finally realize that she would be helpless without his help.
They are half a day's walk up the mountain from Feldcroft, and almost a week's off Hogwarts. This is such a miserable place that even the Vikings had no interest in the land. There is not a single person within this part of the Scottish Highlands besides she and him. She would not survive in the wilderness without a wand, and even if she stole his, it is unlikely that she would find her way before frostbite kicked in.
"Are you certain that you are not thirsty?" He insists, out of a kindness that he was not certain he truly had. "It would be better, in my opinion, if you could at least have some water."
Rosalie prepares to chastise him as she opens her mouth to speak. Yet, she stops in her tracks as a result of his gaze, groan, and eventually manages to drag herself over to the campfire.
The warmth pouring from the bonfire made her feel somewhat soothed as she sat down directly next to Sebastian, but she nevertheless made the effort to maintain her composure. Since he is so intuitive, he certainly already realized that she was comforted with his assistance although she did not want him to feel glad about it. He was never a violent person by any means, not against her, but he also will not take rejection kindly when it affects her health.
She caught a glimpse of her former schoolmate slipping out a small pouch of water, sipping it, and then passing it to her. However, just as she reaches out to grab it, the pouch escapes from his grasp and falls into the fire pit, the fire devouring the flimsy pouch.
She could only maintain her focus on the searing flame for a fraction of a second before turning to scowl at him, who had a rather innocent expression across his face.
"Why did you do that?!" She snarled.
Sebastian does nothing except stare at his hostage, his face maintaining still as if he had not just demolished the remaining water supply despite the fact that he was aware that she needed it more than he did.
It might be foolish, Rosalie can concede to that point under the current circumstances, but she has always refused any food and drink from him, even when they were back in the laboratory that he called home for most of his time, eating just enough to keep her strength. Not one to be discouraged, he would always find a pretence to cook her a feast, offer it to her insistently, and then proceed to eat most of it by himself. Even living in a bare mountain, he managed to gain a couple of pounds over the autumn.
"My hands slipped." He gave an immediate response, before throwing another piece of wood to the fire.
His jacket collar was snagged in her hands as she sprang to seize it, drawing him close to her face and glaring grumpily at him. Even if his eyes do not appear to be absolutely lifeless, the typical person might certainly detect that the boy is off-balance by the way they appear to be.
He laughs, nastily. "I was merely joking."
His hands reached into his bag and pulled out another pouch of water, offering it to her before she let go of his collar, a sigh of relief escaping her lips.
"Sebastian, you have a truly awful sense of humour…" She commiserates before throwing herself at the task at hand.
As she feebly uncapped the water pouch and took a sizable swallow of the cool liquid, she could hear him muttering a low huff. The frigid water rushed down her tongue, reaching the back of her throat with its coldness, eradicating the painful soreness that she had been experiencing earlier, much to her relief.
A moment of silence washes over both of them as Rosalie sits in front of the scorching fire, the only evidence of sound was the quiet crackling of the flames.
"Sebastian." She abruptly spoke.
The sudden, and rare, sound of her voice calling his name so softly causes Sebastian to raise his gaze from the raging pit of fire. He must admit that she misses it, even if her tone never conveyed the sort of love that he held for her, he does miss a time when she did not hold any hostility towards him.
His gaze fixes on her once again. "Yes, Rosalie?"
She sighed heavily. "Why did you choose me?"
For a brief moment, he seems to chew over her question in his head, as though it was some kind of experimental inquiry. However, it is conceivable that this how he has always regarded her. As if she was a curious knick-knack, something to stave off boredom at worse and a lead into his sister's curse at best. As if she was an experiment that he was trying to piece together over time by removing tiny fragments of her body and soul.
"Mainly because you are so remarkable." He gave she a brief, direct response that provided no clarification to her question and simply served to further perplex her.
Remarkable? What does that even mean?
Sebastian seemingly took a notice of the confused expression on her face as he motioned towards her, trying to further explain his perspective.
"I would be more than happy to offer a thorough explanation, but this is not the appropriate time to do so." He complemented, giving a pointed look towards the fire.
He is self-aware enough to recognize that he wanted to keep Rosalie close even if he was incapable of providing a thorough and reasonable justification for his attraction to her. After all, he is a Slytherin, and people like him only related to each other if they had something to gain from doing so, or the usual philosophy would go.
However, as things stand, she is absolutely useless to his cause. She has provided him with a cure for his sister once before, but the sacrifice was much too great for him to bear. Reason would dictate that, if there is one way, there could be another, but he refuses to let her have access to her wand, and so she cannot use her strange type of magic to help him.
As a student and a researcher, she is certainly not the worse, but again, he keeps her away from his work stations, in fear of retaliation, and so he cannot use her in that manner, either. Her family connections, certainly extensive, could also be of worth, but her parents are hardly content with the state of their relationship, they would be so even if he presented himself in a more traditional manner.
On the other hand, the harsh life in the mountains taught him that everything that was not absolutely necessary, was necessarily a hindrance. The resources that he invested into keeping her safe, fed and under surveillance could certainly be put to better use, but he refuses to even consider the possibility. He may have violated many social conventions by how he defined "keeping her close", but he never saw himself as an upstanding member of society, therefore this sort of law did not have to apply to him.
Alas, he finds himself in a precarious rhetoric position, where he understands that everyone has much to gain from just releasing her, but he still grasps at straws not to do such a thing.
In the end, Sebastian supposes, it is quite simple. He thought of Rosalie as the sun's warmth, exuding such a wonderful vitality that she reminded him of a glorious nova. She felt perpetually warm in comparison to him, not frigid and cold, not consumed by grief and horror, not marred by the Unforgivables.
Maybe he is reliving his dwindling humanity through her, and that overrides any other consideration.
As he has to fiddle with her boots' fasteners to warm her feet once again, the teen boy feels mildly guilty. However, she cannot really blame him for taking precautions after her odd behaviour that morning. Despite the fact that he appreciates it when she treats him like a regular schoolmate, like the old times, he can always tell when her statements begin to appear sinister.
He acts as if he is oh-so-intelligent for realising her intents before she acts on them, but he never tries to stop her from actually going through with ultimately doomed plans, even at the risk of her physical integrity. Perhaps he was so self-centred that he could not bring himself to put a stop to her actions, just adding oil to the fire and letting her dream of that fleeting moment of freedom.
Perhaps he liked it when Rosalie was nice to him.
As morning finally breaks over Scotland, Sebastian watches as the cool morning sun trickles down her face, casting a source of illumination against her resting, peaceful figure, further enhancing her beauty, captivating her flaws and imperfections.
Her physical aspects were never important to him, since physical beauty is never permanent and, therefore, it does not matter if an individual is pretty or not. Even still, he would be lying if he said that he did not find her to be the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life.
For all his inexperience, and knowing that there must be someone out there prettier than her, based on her tender age alone if nothing else, he knows that he would never change his mind. If someone were ever to ask of her physical aspects, today, tomorrow or in a hundred years he would describe her only as utterly beautiful.
Rosalie is the only thing that is keeping him sane, enough to avoid his corruption and his march towards darkness, even more than the ever-dwindling hope of curing Anne. Perhaps, and he feels some sort of certainty over this statement, she is even in the answer to his pursuit.
Even on the coldest, stormiest day at the Scottish Highlands, Sebastian would still feel needlessly warm while she exists.
His warmth of the sun in the endless winter.