Chapter 2

A million questions came into my mind, a million and more scenarios of how this could go down.
Was it really Sebastian in front of my door? Or was someone misusing Polyjuice Potion? It wouldn't be the first time an enemy wearing a friend's face stood in front of my door.
I was tempted, so very tempted, to let whoever was standing on my porch stand out there. It was a freezing autumn night outside, and they'd soon be gone if I didn't open up.
On the other hand, however, I was far more tempted to let that person in; whoever it was.
If it weren't who they pretended to be, I would blast the living soul out of them, and if it genuinely was Sebastian, then… the same thing.
My curiosity won, as always, and I unlocked the door.

Dark brown locks, face covered in stubble, and dark, yet somehow still warm eyes.
He wore a long teal-green cape, the hood covering part of his face. While he looked at me, I noticed a smirk curling at the corner of his lips. It took me by surprise, and I didn't even notice him entering my house, closing the door behind him while I backed away a few steps.
My surprise only lasted so long.

Whipping out my wand, I charged at him, pushing him against the wall, hissing, "Which spell was the first one you taught me while we were at school?"

"W-What―?" he stammered, eyes widened in bewilderment.

"Tell me, lest you want to leave here with your limbs still attached to your body," I snarled back.

"The Disillusionment Charm. Right before we snuck into the library at midnight."

I gritted my teeth. It really was him. Sebastian, bloody, Sallow was standing in my hallway. After three years of silence.
I was seething.

"Would you be so kind as to lower your wand now, Ryna?" He asked, looking down at me. Did he get taller, by any chance?

I shook my head. "You haven't earned that right. Not after disappearing for three years and turning up at my home in the middle of the night."

"I'm sorry, I―"

"Well, that won't do it this time, Sebastian," I spat back. "Tell me why I shouldn't just throw you out right now. Better yet, why I shouldn't blast your sorry arse out of that very door?"

"For instance, that would surely go against the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy because your Muggle neighbours would surely notice something unusual like that. We wouldn't want that, would we?" he explained, a spark of mischief in his eyes.

"Since when do you care about breaking the rules, Sallow?" I scoffed, almost tempted to let my guard down, almost.

"I don't, but you do, somehow, at least."

I let out a sigh of defeat. "What is it you want, Sebastian?" I finally asked, lowering my wand and walking into the kitchen.
I couldn't stand being so close to him. It brought up old memories, the good and the bad.

Sebastian sat down at the kitchen table. "Quite a cosy home you're having here," he remarked, letting his gaze wander. "Being an Auror seems to pay well?" he added, unable to hide his voice's subtle but somehow bitter tone.

"I'm asking again, for old times' sake: what do you want?" I asked, unnerved, but once I turned around to face him, my breath got stuck in my throat.

Sebastian had lowered his hood, only to reveal a scar running down the whole part of his right cheek. With his hood up and in the dark hallway, I hadn't noticed it so far.
"W-What―who did this?" I exclaimed, unable to hide my worry.

"My own stupidity is to blame, as always," he replied, trying to wave it off.

I shouldn't be concerned. I shouldn't even care about what happened to him, yet somehow I did, and I couldn't help it. After all, he had been the first friend I made at Hogwarts, and as the years passed, my first love as well.
We stared at each other for a few moments in silence.

"You look good," he finally managed, a weak smile on his lips.

"Why are you here?" I sighed.

"I found a way to repair it."

"Repair what?" I asked, despite knowing full well what he meant, despite fearing what he was about to say.

"The Relic."

Silence enveloped us in my kitchen.

"You have got to be kidding me!" I blurted out after a few moments.

"No, I―"

"Bloody Hell, Sebastian! You, of all people, should know how much damage that forsaken thing can cause. Your own uncle―"

"There might be a way to reverse that too."

"What?!" I gasped, unable and unwilling to believe my ears.

"I know I have done plenty not to deserve your trust any longer, but you have to trust me on this one." He pleaded, running his fingers through his messy locks.

"No, no, no, no, I'm not falling for this again."

"Please, it's for―"

"If you say 'For Anne' one more time, I swear I'm going to smack you, Seb!" I yelled while pacing up and down the kitchen. He couldn't be serious.

"But it's―"

"No, at first that might have been true, but you're doing this for no one other than yourself. I saw the look in your eyes almost six years ago in those catacombs with you Inferi―pets... you're enjoying the power the Dark Arts have to offer, don't deny it!" I spat out, glaring at him. What had I been thinking about letting him into my home? Nothing good ever came out of listening to his requests, well, nearly nothing.

"What about you?" He inquired.

"What about me?" I asked, knowing full well where this was going. After all, I was talking to a fellow Slytherin, and Sebastian Sallow was the epitome of cunning.

"Don't play coy. Ominis told me what happened with Ranrok and the Ancient Magic. You could have contained it all, but you didn't, did you?

The silence between us was almost palpable.

"Do you want to know what went through my head when we met for the first time in Hecat's classroom? 'Damn, that witch just tore me apart on the duelling table. If that isn't a kindred spirit, I don't know what is.'"

"Seb―"

He was doing it again. Six years later and he was still the charmer he had always been. Bending words so that people would bend to his will, willingly so. Even without casting Imperio on them.

"Ryna, please. You're my only hope."

The endearment made my heart jolt and ache at the same time.
"No, don't 'Ryna' me! You disappeared shortly after graduation. Three years without a word. Three years I wondered whether you were dead or worse."

"I'm sorry..." he pleaded, getting up from the kitchen table and walking towards me.

I backed away into the living room. "No, I already told you. Sorry isn't enough this time. It should never have been enough with you. You're a menace, Sebastian Sallow!" I cursed, feeling my eyes well up with tears and averting them.

"Please, tell me what I must do to make you trust me again. To make you forgive me."

I let out a ragged breath. Bloody― where was Ominis when I needed him.
I felt Sebastian's hands resting on either side of my shoulders, softly, apologetically. "You are right. I am a menace. I'm a good-for-nothing, who misused my friends' trust far too often, but I've changed. Let me tell you why I needed to disappear, then maybe, maybe you'll understand," he whispered lowly.

My mind told me I was being a fool, like so many times before. Meanwhile, my heart was aching and yearning for an explanation. Finally, an explanation after three long years of silence.
Hell, I needed something stronger than tea right now.

"Sit down," I commanded, indicating to the two-seater in front of the fireplace while shaking his hands off my shoulders.

As Sebastian sat down, I went to the cupboard producing the half-empty bottle of Firewhisky and, after a split moment of consideration, two glasses.

"I was just about to suggest something like that. Great minds―" he began, stopping himself as he noticed the icy look in my eyes.
"Alright, this tale will take some time. I hope you don't have an early morning?" he asked, taking the glass I offered to him.

"I'm all ears," I replied sarcastically, downing my first burning shot in one go.
Tea might indeed be helping sometimes, but this was exactly what I needed right now.

Sorry, Ominis.

The three of us had gotten so far, only to reach a dead end, literally so.
So far, the puzzles leading into Salazar Slytherin's Scriptorium had been somewhat challenging, yes. Still, considering we had his direct (if somehow reluctant) descendant with us, there had never been a single doubt that we'd make it through.
However, the door in front of us seemed to be a whole different story.

"It's obvious what needs to be done," Sebastian murmured, his eyes switching from the wailing door to the curse carved into the ground.

CRUCIO…
Yes, it was obvious, but that didn't make it any easier.

Ominis paced up and down, placing as much distance as he could between him and the door in the narrow corridor we were currently trapped in.
Sebastian had told me to ask Ominis to cast the unforgivable curse on one of us. He somehow thought I could reach his best friend better than he could…

Merlin's flaming pants it was a mess.

I, however, couldn't bring myself to ask that of Ominis. Not after he had told me the story about his family casting the curse on him and pressuring him to cast it as well. Making him relent in the end.
He had been distressed since we stepped into Slytherin's maze, and coming face to face with his late aunt Noctua's bones had definitely been too much for him.
Somehow Sebastian was too focused on the task ahead to even notice his old friend falling apart. He was somewhat right, of course. One of us needed to stay focussed if we didn't want this corridor to become our tomb as well.
But still, a little empathy wouldn't hurt him.

I looked up at him.
"Ominis isn't the only one able to cast the curse, is he?" I asked.

He shook his head in response.
"I will teach you, and then you can cast it on me," he stated, whipping out his wand.

Now it was me who shook her head. "Teach me, but it will be you who'll cast it on me," I whispered almost inaudibly.

Sebastian grimaced. "With an unforgivable curse, one has to really mean it for it to work; I don't think I'll be able to―"

I rolled my eyes at him. If he needed to be mad to make it work, that could easily be arranged.
"Sebastian good-for-nothing Sallow. You're the only reason we're in this bloody mess, and you'll be the one getting us out of it. Are we clear?" I yelled at him, my voice resounding from the bare walls.

He stared at me in silence.
'Still, not enough, I take it?' I thought.

"Your obsession with finding a cure for your sister might be your death one day, but definitely not mine or Ominis'. So get out your wand, man up and cast that bloody curse. Hopefully, this time you won't miss," I taunted him.

When our eyes met, I prayed that I didn't go too far, for the look in his eyes was ― livid.
"Crucio!" He called, and my world became a red blur.

Nothing could have prepared me for the pain, the searing agony that went through my body. While in reality, it must have lasted only a few seconds, to me, it felt like an excruciating lifetime.
All my other senses felt numb, but I could have sworn I heard Ominis' voice cut through the air, "Sebastian, stop!"

I felt hands reach for my shoulders and listened to a voice talk softly yet imploringly to me.
"Irene― Ryna…" Sebastian breathed into my ear.

Somehow I had ended up on the cold ground, even though I couldn't remember how.
"I-I'm fine." I lied as I opened my eyes.

"I'm sorry. Are you sure you are alright?"

I nodded, lying again. The pain was gone, but something else was still lingering within my bones, my very being.

"Good. The good news is: we found Salazar Slytherin's Scriptorium. Just look at it all. All that knowledge, untouched for centuries!" Sebastian exclaimed, his eyes gleaming with curiosity. He let go of my shoulders, jumping up and almost running into the now open chamber.

Ominis' hands wrapped themselves around my shoulders, helping me up.
When I turned to face him, I could see the concern plainly on his face.

"You're not fine, are you? There is no need to lie to me," he whispered.

I shook my head.

"Did you just shake your head at a blind person?" He asked, making me blush instantly until I noticed the sly smile on his lips. "You're still shaken, but it'll pass in time. If you need to talk about it…."

"Thank you, Ominis," I said, hugging him. "And sorry we dragged you into this," I added in a low voice.

"You have nothing to be sorry about. Now let's ask what the 'god-for-nothing' Sallow has uncovered," he asserted, taking out his wand to navigate his way inside the Scriptorium.

The good-for-nothing Sallow was now downing his second shot of Firewhisky while staring into the flames flickering within the fireplace.
"Oliver Thompson, does that name ring a bell?" Sebastian finally broke the silence.

I nodded. He was the main head behind the illegal Dragon Fighting Pit I had discovered with Poppy during my first year at Hogwarts; a sleazebag by the book and a cruel one at that.

"When we were in our last year, I came to cross paths with Thompson, with him and his thugs, to be more precise," Sebastian continued.

That took me off-guard.

"What? Why didn't you tell me?" I exclaimed.

"At first, I wanted to; I did, but when I found out about his plans, I couldn't."

I continued to stare at him. This better be good…

"He knew what happened in the Feldcroft catacombs and what I had done. He threatened to give the Aurors some pointers, but it wasn't the worst part. " Thompson knew who had been with me that night and who covered the whole thing up," Sebastian went on, avoiding my look. I froze.

Ominis and I…

"I couldn't let him do that, not after everything the two of you have done for me. The three of us have had our differences, but you were the only people who always had my back. The both of you were to become Aurors. You went on about it for months in our final year. Ominis would have slept in the library had our dear old librarian not thrown him, and his reading device out came dusk. I couldn't let your dreams be crushed only because some bastard was about to expose you."

"What have you done, Sebastian?" I whispered, dreading the answer.

"I played along. Became part of Thompson's entourage to find out everything I could about his true plans and to keep him and his lackeys away from the two of you," he imparted, taking a deep breath.

I felt dizzy, and it wasn't because of the Firewhisky.
I shot up from my seat, only to regret it immediately, almost tripping over my own two feet had his strong hands not gotten a hold of me. His hands, which were scarred, calloused. I could only imagine what those hands had to do to gain Oliver Thompson's trust.

"Ryna, please listen to me. Let me explain what happened," he implored once again as I smacked his hands off me.

"No, I'll tell you what happened. You joined a bunch of poachers, a crowd of bloody bastards who torture magical beings. What did Thompson make you do to earn his trust? Tell me, how many dragon pups have you torn away from their mothers just that Thompson could make a profit?" I spat out in disgust, backing away from him.

"It's not like that. I never harmed any creature!"

"Just look at your hands, Sebastian. Don't tell me those scars haven't been caused by dragon fire!" I accused.

"They have, but let me finish―"

Oh no, I wasn't about to let him try to work his way around this with his honeyed words. Oh no, not again.
Three. Bloody. Years.

"I've heard enough. You say you did it to protect Ominis and me? You should have asked us first if we even wanted that kind of protection. Together we could have handled things differently, but no! You wouldn't be Sebastian Sallow if you didn't try to pull a one-man show. No, you wouldn't be you if you didn't do something stupid and dangerous and utterly reckless while disregarding everybody else's feelings!"

I glared at him only to notice that his apologetic look had turned into an angry mask. I knew that look far too well.
Sebastian was kind and fiercely loyal to his close friends, but he had always had a temper, and if he was still the same person he had been three years ago, that temper was about to boil over.

"Be quiet and sit down," he commanded.

The Hell I'll do, I wanted to shout back, but not a word escaped my lips.
Instead, my feet seemed to be working on their own accord, carrying me back to the two-seater in front of the fireplace
What was happening?
I looked up at him towering over me and just now noticed the wand in his hand. A green flicker illuminated his brown eyes, and my heart skipped a beat.

How in Merlin's name had he managed to cast the Imperius Curse on me without me noticing it?